Appropriate choice of material

The appropriateness of material for younger singers is something that's bothered me for many years.

The first time I really encountered this was when I did the school edition of Les Miserables about 7 years ago.   The show has a few cuts in the running time, but very few other changes.   Both the director and I were surprised to find the Prostitutes' scene retained in full in a production aimed at Schools.  We both felt this was inappropriate for our younger performers, and chose to only use girls aged 16 and over in this scene.  

A side-line in the Les Mis Schools edition - why keep the Prostitutes' scene intact, but cut half of Castle on a cloud, the one song written for a young performer?   When I did the show I didn't tell our young Cosette the song had been trimmed; I just let her sing the full version she already knew!

Recently I've come across this again in 2 situations, less about the appropriateness of the material, but more to do with the vocal requirements of a song, and feeling sure that a young performer is able to match the composer’s intentions for a song. 

A few weeks ago I was MDing a concert for a local AmDram Group.   We have lots of youngsters in the group, several of whom were doing duets and solos in the concert, all chosen and accepted by myself and the producers.  At the eleventh hour someone had to drop out of the concert and we were left with a slot to fill in the running order.  I suggested we offer it to one of the teenagers who had been an ever present at rehearsals, had worked really hard for us, and was at the moment only singing 4 lines solo in the concert.    There wasn't time to teach her something new, so we asked her what she felt comfortable doing; the answer - Don't rain on my parade.   We wanted her to sing, and this is what she knew best, so we let her do it, but it was far from comfortable.  This singer has not yet developed a natural belt, and is too young, in my opinion, to be being taught it at 15. There was another singing teacher in the company and we both agreed we would never give a student of her age that song. 

Could she sing the notes of the song?  Yes, absolutely she could.  

Did she understand the story of the song?  Yes, just about, but with a complex song like this that is only going to get better with age and life experience.  

Was she able to match the audience's expectation of this song?  Not really.   This is a song that will forever be associated with one singer, and that casts a long shadow.   This song was written for a mature voice with the ability for a strong belt.  That was always the composer's intention.   This young singer did have difficulty blending the sound at the top of her range, and thus the song sounded weak in places.

She gave it a good committed performance.  But I feel we should always be preparing our students for performances and exams with material that matches their current ability.

The other situation I discovered was a 13 year old student doing LCM Grade 2, and including Gimme Gimme from Thoroughly Modern Millie in their programme.   I love this song; I've done the show twice and also used it in concert.   It's a great big belty torch song, a real traditional 11 O’clock number.   And it needs a big voice.  It requires massive reserves of breath, and a level of muscular support that I would not expect to find in such a young singer. 

(It must be pointed out at this stage that the student in question passed her LCM Grade 2 with Distinction, which is great news! But I will talk about the exam boards and their role in the choices of material at the bottom of this blog entry.)

Would I have a problem with a student singing these songs at home?  Of course not. How else are they going to uncover repertoire for themselves.

Would I have a problem doing these songs with a student in a lesson if I felt it was not appropriate?  No, but I would be very honest with them on my thoughts.  It would be something I would do for 2 or 3 sessions and show the student where the voice would need to develop too in order to be able to tackle the song with the voice quality the composer intended.  Then I'd tell the student that, in lessons, we would put the song away for 6 months, and come back to it and see how the voice had developed. 

There is a big problem, I feel, in asking young voices, and young bodies, to sing something that is too big at too young an age.  The physical muscular support needs to be allowed to develop over many years.

Yes, there is the argument to let them sing the song, and use the tilt voice with the start of the twang sound to get close to the sound.  But I would argue against that.  The song is written with a certain sound in mind; a certain intention for how to perform it.   Young singers are, quite rightly, going to listen to recordings and here this sound.  And they, quite rightly, doing to try and recreate the sounds they here.    

But they need to also have clear boundaries, at a young age.  

I have one young singer who has some professional experience.  I started teaching her last year, aged 11, and the first thing she sang for me was I dreamed a dream.  It was astonishing, for good and bad reasons.  She possesses the most amazing natural young belt I've ever come across, and the top end of the song was undoubtedly impressive.   What was also very clear, however, was that she knew nothing of breath control, nothing of abdominal wall and lower back support, and her singing at any dynamic lower than mf was uncontrolled.   She was aware of this - this is a totally natural, raw voice.   So this year we've not touched that big belty sound in lessons at all.   It has all been about building up the muscle support and breath control to create the control needed to build the voice up.  There have been theatre songs like In my own little corner and Maybe; English songs like Christopher Robin is saying his prayers; jazz songs like Summertime and Paper Moon.   A whole range of repertoire that this student has enjoyed, and worked very well at.  She has also sung  I dreamed a dream at a couple of charity events outside school.  I was not involved in those, but I am pleased she is performing and singing what she enjoys.   

However in my lessons the progress is very controlled and structured.  Until the last lesson of term when I think we belted out Good Morning Baltimore!

I am always encouraging my singers to listen to as many different performances of songs as possible, and take from each something they like and also something they don't like, and try and rationalize this.  We all have our own personal favourite performers and performances.  I try and encourage my student's to do "the YouTube trail" and just click on different songs and singers.   I hope they will like my favourites, especially Audra MacDonald, Sutton Foster and Ruthie Henshall (although I hope they don't mirror Ruthie's closed teeth style, but it works for her), but I also hope the learn from listening to Idina, Kristen, Summer, Scarlett, stars from Glee, and anyone that sings with a good level of technical control in their voice.

And I hope, when they sing whatever they chose to sing, they will know instantly which songs feel right for their voice at their stage of development. 

Sutton Foster singing Gimme Gimme 

on the Rosie O'Donnell show.

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LCM does not publish song lists for their MT exams.  I have done these exams many times myself and have used some songs at different grades, especially Over the rainbow.  I've used this successfully at both grades 2 and  5 as the notes are relatively easy for a young singer, but also with more control of the link into the upper register it is very good for showing that development.

LCM does offer some suggestions for repertoire and the grade they feel it would be suitable for. 
Neither Gimme Gimme or Don't rain on my parade are on their suggested list.  However You're daddy's son, a song with very similar vocal requirements, is. The suggested grade for this song is 6-8, which is where I would place the other two.

However as teachers we are free to choose whatever repertoire we wish for any grade.  

These lists are far from comprehensive, and also, when you look across the exam boards, contradictory.   As long as he needs me, another song with a very deep characterization, and need for very strong belt in the final bars, is suggested for 5-6 in the LCM list, and yet is on the Trinity Singing Syllabus for grade 3.   I now do mainly Trinity, but I would not choose to use that song for grade 3, unless with a much older student looking to gain performance and exam experience.

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