SESAME STREET TUESDAYToday and Thursday the students in my voice class will sing their final in-class performance. Just as I did last year, I have assigned each student a Rodgers and Hammerstein song. In my opinion, the songs R & H are perfect for this type of class for various reasons: they are perfectly within the reach of beginning singers (but are also sophisticated enough to appeal to advanced singers), they promote healthy vocal technique, and down the road they will serve my students well as audition pieces.
Last year I was stunned that most of the class had never even heard of R & H, but my kids this semester are a little more musically savvy and they were very excited about the project. It was a fun project for me too - I had a good time digging through the entire R & H canon looking for a perfect match for each student. I stuck to the major shows (Oklahoma!, Carousel, South Pacific, Cinderella, and Sound of Music) but I tried to find songs that aren't too cheesy and dated (as some of R & H has grown in the past 50-60 years) or overdone. (I think the performance I'm most looking forward to is the brooding baritone monologue "Lonely Room," which is cut from many a production of Oklahoma!)
Each student in the class has already given three in-class performances, and so far every performance has been well-prepared and professional. Hopefully no one this week has an embarrassing memory lapse like this:
1 comment:
I LOVE the Oklahoma rehearsal piece! Some of my favorite Sesame Street Tuesdays are the ones where I start laughing out loud at a clip that I haven't actually seen for 15-20 years before I even press the play button, because I already know what I'm going to see and that it's going to be even better now that I'm a grownup (sort of).
Post a Comment