Joining the dots

Singing for Drama College Auditions (Part 6 of 6) – Delivering a song audition performance

Typically, auditionees focus almost entirely on how deliver the actual material, whether spoken monologue or song. However, there are other factors at play that can either enhance or undermine the experience of the audience (or audition panel) the performer. To create a professional piece of theatre for your song, take into account the following: The […]

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Singing for Drama College Auditions (Part 5 of 6) – Assessing your song performance

Here are the questions I ask myself when I am assessing a song performance, whether it’s by a professional singer, by an actor, or by an actor who doesn’t think they can sing, or may not be very musically reliable. We can use these questions to assess our own performance. We can also learn a

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Singing for Drama College Auditions (Part 4 of 6) – Acting a song

Purpose Expect to work hard Research the song’s context A song is a dramatic monologue Fit the time limit (possibly 1-2 mins) Musical considerations Work the words 1. Purpose To sing an unaccompanied song in character using physical and vocal expression: In other words, play a character who is singing their thoughts and feelings, instead

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Singing for Drama College Auditions (Part 3 of 6) – Song choices (more tips)

Make sure you have read Part 1 of this series first, to get an overview of how the singing element fits into the audition process for actors (not music theatre performers). Work out how much of the song you will sing for your audition version: work out cuts so you know what you would include

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Singing for Drama College Auditions (Part 2 of 6) – Singing as storytelling

On this website, you’ll find five blog entries that I’ve called ‘Singing as storytelling’. I wrote them originally for singers to read. But the lessons apply equally to actors who have to sing for the purposes of a dramatic role they are playing. This is because the job of the singer or the singing-actor is the

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Taking a step back after a performance

After a performance, we may go through a whole range of feelings. We need to allow those to subside before we do any serious evaluation of our performance. We should assume that we will experience one or all of … Elation Depression Apathy Disorientation Aggression or irritability (towards ourselves or others) … over the next

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Music and copyright (or “Stealing from musicians is ok, right?”)

Copyright law is internationally upheld as a fundamental right for composers, lyricists, librettists and writers (referred to collectively in this article as ‘creators’, and publishers for good reasons. However, these creators and copyright holders typically lose out financially to the practice of people copying or distributing (e.g. emailing) unpaid-for copies of the music instead of

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A to J model of singing

My singing students are well acquainted with my teaching model for singing lessons, and this summary is a reminder for them of the core concepts. It serves as a draft outline of a book I would like to write about what I have learned and teach about singing. I don’t know whether the book will ever

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