This article is from the May 2011 issue of KC Stage
Everyone brings a unique set of skills, experiences, and trainings to a musical theatre audition. Most people have one area in which they have the most skill – either acting, singing, or dancing – unless you are one of the rare “triple threats” and are strong in all three. If you have less experience as a singer, I want to encourage you to hone your musical skills with the tips that I am about to provide.
The first exercise will help strengthen your ability to match pitch. There are number of people that claim to have a “tin ear” or say that they “can’t carry a tune in a bucket”, but with diligent effort anyone can make improvements in the skill of pitch matching. If you are weak in this area, a very simple exercise is to play any key on the piano and attempt to sing it back. Listen closely to determine whether you are matching the pitch. If you aren’t, think carefully as to whether you are too high or too low. If you are unsure, try raising or lowering the pitch to hear if you are getting closer. If one way doesn’t work, try the other. Continue practicing this daily until you are able to automatically match the pitch after hearing it (preferably without scooping or sliding to the pitch). Some people require more practice at this than others, but it is certainly a prerequisite to the following exercises.
Learning to match a pitch and sing it back creates a mental connection between your ear and the mechanics you use to control your own voice. This next exercise will help you to train your ear to hear the notes of the harmony, which is essential since we aren’t always called upon to sing the melody (the main tune), but may be singing harmony notes below the melody (or less commonly, above). Play two notes on the piano at the same time (not too far apart – keep it in the reach of one hand). Without playing the notes separately, try to sing both notes one at a time. Keep playing the notes together and try to focus on hearing the top note and then the bottom note. This will help to sharpen your aural perception. After you have done this, you may play the notes separately to check your accuracy. Try to use a variety of intervals from small to large in order to practice the whole range of possible intervals.
An extension of this exercise involves playing three notes simultaneously on the piano. It would be a good idea to learn to play some major and minor triads (three note chords) to practice this exercise, but until you learn these, playing any three notes will suffice. Try to mentally focus on hearing each of the three notes individually and try to sing them one at a time. Work on this diligently and you will learn to hear the harmony as well as you can hear the melody. When you are listening to music (any music), practice focusing individually on different voices or musical instruments (for example, just listen to the drums or just listen to the bass guitar). You can practice this at anytime – listening to the radio on the drive to work, or listening to your iPod on the walk to school, etc. As your aural perception increases, you may extend the exercise to four or five note chords or more.
These ear training skills will serve as an excellent preparation for learning to sight sing music. In learning to sight sing, I strongly recommend learning to find written music notes on the piano. The more piano skill you have better, but at the very least it is essential to at least be able to work out a part one note at a time on the piano so that you can be self-sufficient in checking yourself without the constant need for an accompanist to assist you. There are a number of good books for learning to read music at the piano as well as a number of online resources. I would strongly recommend Ricci Adam’s musictheory.net, a free interactive online training method that starts with the very basics of note and rhythm reading and has a number of exercises including note reading practice. Of course, taking a few piano lessons will be very helpful in learning this skill as well. As you learn to pick out melodies at the piano, practice singing along with the melody to help solidify the connection between what you see on the music sheet and what it should sound like.
These exercises will serve as good preparation for any singer, whether you are aspiring for a lead part or would just like to be in the chorus. However, these are not intended to supplant the need for private vocal instruction. If you are serious about training your voice, you should seek a good instructor that is comfortable teaching your area of interest (musical theatre, opera, etc.). However, do not resort to simply listening to recordings and mimicking them. Work diligently on learning to read the sheet music. The ability to read music is something that will make a person stand out at an audition, where singers are often given the sheet music for various songs from the show to sing. It is very comforting for a musical director to know that you will not require extra time with the accompanist simply to learn the rhythms and pitches of the songs you are singing.
Regardless of your role in a musical, you should strive to hone your musical ear and your sight singing abilities. Musical illiteracy is no excuse when there are numerous free internet resources (see link above) to learn the basics of music reading. Having a “tin ear” is also not an excuse when practicing simple exercises like the ones in this article will greatly help one to develop a musical ear. Don’t hide your voice among the other voices of the chorus. Work diligently on your musical skills and you will make yourself a valuable addition to the musical cast, and you will have a much more rewarding artistic experience as a result.
Samuel Stokes is a PhD candidate in the music theory program at Louisiana State University and a freelance composer and playwright. Find out more at http://stokesmusic.tripod.com.
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