Singing as storytelling

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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‘Guess who I saw today’ (Singing as storytelling 4)

‘Guess who I saw today’, was written by Murray Grand (music) and Elisse Boyd (lyrics) for the musical revue ‘New Faces of 1952’. It is a wonderful combination of words and music to tell a story. As for my other blog posts in this ‘Singing as Storytelling’ series, I’ll share my favourite version first. This

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‘Mr Bojangles’ (Singing as storytelling 3)

This is the third in the blog series Singing as Storytelling. There are many big name singers doing cover versions of the classic hits. It’s easy money, because the songs are already well known favourites, and the singers already have a fan base who are prepared to buy whatever the singer records, and attend whatever

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‘Cry Me A River’ (Singing as storytelling 2)

This is the second in the blog series Singing as Storytelling. The majority of singers – famous ones as well as amateurs – work hard to produce a stylish and technically excellent performance in terms of musical delivery, whatever the genre. However, it is rare to find a singer who genuinely delivers the lyric in

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