Columbia College

Voice Classes

John Carter, Instructor

 

Preparing a song for performance

 

  1. Determine what you need.  If you are popular enough, this is determined for you since you have been asked. 

q     Is it for a concert, church, friends party/wedding, club, family gathering?  What is the mood that you want/need to establish?

q     Also consider your accompanist:  are they limited in their ability?  Will there be a piano?  Is it usable?

q     Will you use a prerecorded sound track?  Will there be the equipment there to play the sound track? 

 

  1. Look for music that you are completely satisfied with (text, melody, accompaniment)

q     Done

 

  1. Get a recorded copy of the accompaniment NOW, if you need it for practice. If you are using a CD accompaniment or instrument parts,  order them NOW   Use a clean, good quality CD/tape so it will sound good.

q     Done

           

  1. Study the Text.  Learn what it means.  Define all the words you don’t know. If the song is in a foreign language, get or make a word by word translation.  Write the word-for –word translation under each note. (Check out these sites for help: http://www.recmusic.org/lieder/  http://www.foreignword.com/http http://world.altavista.com.  Also consider the books Word by Word Translations of Songs and Arias by Sergius Kagen.  There are many other books like these that will give you translations.

q     Done

 

  1. Analyze how the song is structured. This is called “Form Analysis”.  Divide the song into large sections.  This is how you will learn the piece.  Sometimes, songs that have a “Verse-Chorus” structure will do this for you.

q     Done

 

  1. Mark where you will breathe.  We call this phrasing.  Start with phrasing the text, then melody.  Compromise between phrasing where the text tells you and where the melody tells you. Mark dynamics.

q     Done

 

  1. Learn the diction of the song- even if it’s in English.  Know what sound you will be singing on each note.  This is especially important when singing diphthongs. If it is a foreign language, know what each vowel or consonant sounds like.  Write in the IPA symbols or some other symbols to help you become consistent. At the same time, think about that word as to its meaning. Have someone say the words on tape for you if necessary to get the right inflection/pronunciation

q     Done

 

  1. Study the song in terms of mood and expression.  You may need to do some “contextual research” to help you understand this.  That means, you may need to find out when it was written, who the writer of the text was, why they wrote it, how they felt, where they were, etc. Your goal is to understand the meaning behind the song so you can perform it with the composer’s/poet’s point of view.

q     Done

 

  1. Learn the melody.  Use a tape or keyboard or other instrument if you need that.  Learn the song in phrases.  Practice the breathing that you marked in #6.  Also, keep in mind memorization, if that is an issue.  Practice for correctness.  Test yourself to see that you can sing each phase and combinations of phrases 3 times (or some other number) without mistakes before you let yourself move on.  Practice combinations of phrase (i.e>  phrase 1 and 2, then 2 and 3, then 1, 2 and 3.)

q     Done

 

  1. Practice for consistency of performance.  Especially difficult spots in the song.  Practice it out of context (by itself) and in context (with the notes leading up to it and following it).  Be thinking about memorization.

q     Done

 

  1. Memorize it.  Ideally, you want to have this done a few weeks before you perform it in public.  Memorize the song by considering the meaning of the text and each phrase.  Foreign language songs can sometimes be learned by diagramming each sentence and then reconstructing it by putting it “back together’ mentally.  Practice texts by saying them out loud in rhythm.  Practice difficult word combinations by practicing small groups of words until they fall out of your mouth (i.e. word 1 and 2 (repeated 5 times), words 2 and 3 (repeated 5 times) then words 1,2, and 3 (five times)) Modify this procedure as necessary. This is especially good for foreign texts.  You will find after all these preliminary steps that memorization will be quite easy.

q     Done

 

  1. Practice performing it a  number of times for a selected audience to make “dumb” mistakes and get a feeling for the piece when you are under pressure.

q     Done 

 

  1. KNOW that you know the song/words/ feeling. The goal in learning a song is confidence and self-assurance.  You need to

q     DONE!!!!