Singing: Music Theatre Vocal Skills

Do you want to be able to sing to the standard of a West End or Broadway star?

This is a course for you if you love musical theatre and also want a robust singing course that will stretch you beyond your current vocal capabilities. As well as being focused on music theatre, this course is a bootcamp for all vocalists.

We will look at the singing techniques needed to hit the high notes from the major epochs of musical theatre, including music hall and operetta, Tin Pan Alley and early jazz show tunes (Gershwin, Cole Porter, Irving Berlin etc), classic Broadway music theatre (Rogers and Hammerstein, Kern, Rogers and Hart etc), 70s & 80s music theatre (Andrew Lloyd Webber, Boublil and Schönberg etc) and contemporary music theatre (Schwartz, Menken etc).

In each section, there is a brief introduction to the era and its composers plus an explanation of how the singing techniques of each era developed. We then dive into practical, technical  exercises to help you master those techniques. We will look at vocal skills such as:

• Expanding range

• Mastering voice qualities to make the right sound for each show and character discussed

• Dealing with the break in the passagio

• Intercostal lateral breathing (required in music theatre exams)

• Anchoring

• Projection

• Belting

• Diction

The course will help you to ace musical theatre auditions and exams, help improve your vocal skills in a demanding and competitive field of singing and enhance your overall knowledge of music theatre in a way that will impress an examiner/audition panel. We will also have fun!

You can also send mp3s of your singing for feedback.

Please feel free to contact me with any questions. I look forward to working with you!

• Introduction
• Music Hall and Operetta
• Example Song: Why Am I Always the Bridesmaid?
• Example Song: Daisy Bell
• Technique and Exercises: Breathing
• Technique and Exercises: Speech
• Technique and Exercises Twang
• Technique and Exercises 'Opera' or Tilt
• Now Let's Sing Music Hall
• Background: Tin Pan Alley
• Example Song: Someone to Watch Over Me
• Example Song: But Not for Me
• Technique and Exercises: Sliding 5ths
• Technique and Exercises: Sob
• Technique and Exercises Anchoring
• Now Let's Sing Gershwin!
• Background: Kern, Rogers, Hammerstein and Co
• Example Song: Something Wonderful
• Example Song: Some Enchanted Evening
• Technique and Exercises: Range
• Technique and Exercises: The Break in the Passagio
• Technique and Exercises: Falsetto
• Technique and Exercises: Lightening and Darkening Sound
• Now Let's Sing Something Difficult
• Background: Andrew Lloyd Webber and Boublil Schonberg
• Example Song: On My Own
• Example Song: Music of the Night
• Technique and Exercises :Avoiding Constriction
• Technique and Exercises: Dynamics
• Technique and Exercises: Belting
• Identifying Voice Qualities
• Now Let's Sing 80s Music Theatre
• Background: Music Theatre Gets Wicked
• Example Song: How Far I'll Go
• Technique and Exercises: Diction
• Auditions
• Music Theatre Exams
• Conclusion and Useful Links