Practice English Speaking&Listening with: Ep. 36 "Aspects of Musical Theatre" - Voice Lessons To The World
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Hi everybody!
My name is Justin Stoney and I'm the founder of
New York Vocal Coaching here in New York City.
Welcome to episode 36 of Voice Lessons To The World.
The show where we want to help you guys as singers
by answering your questions from all over the world.
And I'll give you a chance to ask questions later but our question
for this week comes from Thomas J. in Athens, Greece.
And Thomas writes, "Dear Justin, I love your episode on
pop versus classical singing.
I'm wondering, what are some characteristics of musical theatre singing?
Can you help?"
That's a great question, Thomas.
Because I know that a lot of our viewers are more pop rock
or maybe classical singers but there's also a lot of
Broadway singers out there as well.
So we want to talk today about aspects of musical theatre singing.
Now the first element that you're going to need to know
about musical theatre singing versus all other singing
is its conversational style.
So with Broadway musicals and with musical theatre songs
the songs are almost always trying to drive the story.
They're trying to tell what's happening in the story
what's happening with the characters,
maybe what the character wants,
maybe tell about the action of the story.
But to do that, to be both actors and singers,
the conversational quality of musical theatre singing is
far beyond any of the other styles.
Let me show you what I mean by that in a song called
"Purpose" from the musical Avenue Q.
If I just sing the first part of it and I'm not very conversational,
here's kind of what would happen...
♪
♪ Purpose ♪
♪ It's that little flame ♪
♪ That lights a fire under your ass ♪
♪ Purpose ♪
♪ It keeps you going strong ♪
♪ Like a car with a full tank of gas ♪
♪ Everything else has a purpose ♪
♪ So what's mine ♪
And that's not quite conversational.
It's fairly smooth and legato but it's not conversational.
If I add my musical theatre conversational style into it...
♪ Purpose ♪
♪ It's that little flame ♪
♪ That lights a fire under your ass ♪
♪ Purpose ♪
♪ It keeps you going strong ♪
♪ Like a car with a full tank of gas ♪
♪ Everything else has a purpose ♪
♪ So what's mine ♪
And you here that it becomes a little bit more talky
and a little bit more bringing out of the message
and the action of the story that's being told.
Now another thing about Broadway musicals,
especially these days, is the stylistic diversity.
Broadway is an amalgamation of so many different styles of music.
Some traditional and even classical, some pop, rock, R&B, country even.
Especially these days we're hearing a lot more of the
contemporary sounds in Broadway.
And then you have Broadway singing just straight up as it's always been.
Classic Broadway tunes, show tunes, and then also jazz music
is a very big part of musical theatre.
So you really have almost every style of music
in the musical theatre repertoire.
Because of this we need to have our neutral larynx coordinations,
as we've talked about in the past,
as one of our key elements.
In other words,
I need to be able to sound like myself, right?
If I am using my neutral larynx I sound the most like myself.
So if I take, "I've Never Been In Love Before"
from Guys and Dolls, and I use my neutral larynx
something like this would happen...
♪
♪ I've never been in love before ♪
♪ Now all at once it's you ♪
♪ It's you forevermore ♪
And I sound like myself.
So it really is accessible for my broadway-style communication.
Now since Broadway has a little bit more of those rock elements
I might have to do a little more high or rock larynx in certain situations.
What if I took "One Song Glory" from Rent.
Which is more of a rock musical.
♪
♪ Find one song ♪
♪ One last refrain ♪
♪ Before the sun sets ♪
♪ One song to redeem this empty life ♪
♪ Time dies ♪
♪ Time dies ♪
And I get a little bit more into my rock belt in that scenario.
Now of course, like I say, musical theatre also has some of
the more low larynx or traditional styles present.
Right after I might have gone to see Rent I might actually
go and see something like South Pacific, and I have "Some Enchanted Evening".
♪
And I get a more low larynx coordination.
♪ Some enchanted evening ♪
♪ You may see a stranger ♪
♪ You may see a stranger ♪
♪ Across a crowded room ♪
And you can hear that that's a little bit more deep,
and also has more vibrato.
Now on the topic of the different sounds that you hear,
it's not that we always need to sound good in musical theatre.
And that's something that gives musical theatre
often a very bad rap.
Is that people think that Broadway voices are sometimes really
nasal and twangy and you get that sort of Broadway kind of sound
that is very stereotypical.
Now of course that's not always true.
But part of the reason that it gets that bad rap is
there are moments where we do want to welcome into the equation
character sounds and character singing.
So these are sounds that are purposefully not beautiful sounds,
that are sometimes an element that's necessary in musical theatre.
If I have Ado Annie from Oklahoma and I'm singing it
without a character voice...
♪
♪ I'm just a girl who can't say no ♪
♪ I'm in a terrible fix ♪
That sounds actually a little strange when we're used to...
♪ I'm just a girl who can't say no ♪
♪ I'm in a terrible fix ♪
♪ I always say come on let's go ♪
♪ Just when I oughta say nix ♪
It sounds a lot better actually when I sound worse.
Because what I'm trying to do is create a comic character
that is very memorable.
So that's the reason why we'll sometimes hear this sort of
Broadway or twangy character voice.
There's not just the twangy character, there's many characters.
But that's the reason why, is sometimes in Broadway singing
we do need to add character to the voice.
Now finally vibrato is an element of a lot of Broadway singing.
Pop and rock do not use as much vibrato as say classical
but musical theatre will use more than pop rock
and a little bit less than classical.
So it's definitely very present in a lot of musical theatre songs.
Especially the more traditional, or as they call it, legit musicals.
Les Mis being a little bit more of a legit musical.
We have the song "Stars" and you can hear I'm gonna add
some vibrato to it and take it away too.
You can hear that Les Mis would be an example of a
Broadway show that uses a little bit more vibrato.
♪
♪ Stars in your multitudes ♪
♪ Scarce to be counted ♪
♪ Filling the darkness ♪
♪ With order and light ♪
♪ You are the sentinels ♪
♪ Silent and sure ♪
♪ Keeping watch in the night ♪
Doesn't sound quite right...
♪ Keeping watch in the night ♪
I have to add a little bit of vibrato to make it a legit
or more traditional musical theatre sound.
So that's another aspect of musical theatre singing.
Is it's just a little bit more vibrato than a lot of
the contemporary sounds would have.
Now finally, I just want to tell you guys with Broadway singing,
acting is number one.
Okay now obviously we want to have a great voice.
But here at New York Vocal Coaching we've had you know plenty of
Broadway singers before they made it to Broadway.
Plenty of Broadway singers that are currently on Broadway
that come to us to refine their vocal technique
or work on some audition that's coming up
or work on a role that they're doing.
And what I want to tell you guys,
of all the Broadway actors or up-and-coming Broadway actors
that I have worked with and that our staff has worked with,
is acting is the number one.
In New York and and in the Broadway world you have to
make sure that you're telling the story first.
I know tons and tons of good singers, great singers actually,
that just don't get cast as much as those that bring the acting
to the equation with their Broadway singing.
You could actually have a less than perfect voice and be a spectacular actor
and get cast far more than somebody with a pristine voice
that doesn't know how to act.
So with musical theatre you really want to make sure
that no matter what you do, with whatever you're focused on
with your musical theatre Broadway sound,
you're making acting- storytelling, having objectives,
knowing who you're talking to, knowing what you want,
knowing what the scene is about,
put that as your number one and your Broadway singing
is going to go to the next level.
Because it's always gonna be your number one.
So Thomas and all, I hope that's been helpful
for you guys today as singers.
If you have questions that you'd like to see us answer on the show [ ♪ ]
you can send an email to: Questions@VoiceLessonsToTheWorld.com [ ♪ ]
And we just encourage you not to lose that joy, don't lose that passion. [♪]
If you guys are doing Broadway singing we just encourage you [♪]
to get out there do some auditions, get in a lot of shows, [♪]
expand your repertoire, get with a great voice teacher in your area. [♪]
And if you guys are in New York City [♪]
you can check us out at www.NewYorkVocalCoaching.com [♪]
And if you like these videos you can visit [♪]
www.VoiceLessonsToTheWorld.com [♪]
I'm Justin Stoney. [♪]
We'll see you next time. [♪]
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