What's the Song Really About? Part I
- Ellen Allen, Music Director
- May 15, 2015
- 5 min read
You've found a song you really want to sing. After discussing it with your teacher or coach, getting your hands on the sheet music, and listening to some recordings, you set out to learn the piece.
For most young students, the approach to learning a new song usually goes something like this: they learn the notes and the words, they work their vocal technique into the piece, they think a little bit about what the song is about and/or who the character is, and then they memorize it.
But you, you're thinking, "I don't want to be 'most students.' I want my performance to stand out. In addition to singing it well, I want to tell the story." But you're unsure of what dramatic choices to make, or how to make them. You know you can't just imitate your favorite recording (right? RIGHT?), but you're not sure how to make the performance yours.
Interpretive skills take time and lots of practice to develop, but the good news is that you can start just by looking at some very basic elements. And start you must, if you want to develop these skills, for they are only acquired by doing.
Here are some basic things to look at as you begin the process:
1. Research the character and the show that the song is from. In order to tap into a character's thought process or emotional journey and share it with your audience, you've got to know as much as you can about the character and where he/she has come from. Why is he/she singing this song? Is this song something you'd expect from this character at this point in the show, or is it something completely unexpected? If it's the latter, why? At what point in the show does it occur? What happens right before it, and what happens right after?
2. Consider the dramatic purpose of the song. In theater, a character is usually not given a song simply so the actor can show off his or her voice. The song serves a dramatic purpose. It typically does at least one of three things: a) establishes who a character is; b) lets us in on a character's thought process; or c) moves the plot along. A song often serves more than one of these functions at a time. Knowing the purpose of your song will help you decide how you want to present it.
3. Look at the text of the song on its own terms. In theater songs, text and music are always very closely wedded, but there can also be great value in studying the text separately from the music. If it's appropriate to do so, you can practice the text of the song as if it were a monologue, speaking it dramatically so that you can really internalize what the words are saying. You may be pleasantly surprised how well the dramatic inflection carries into your singing.
4. Look at the music. Like, really look at it. What is the overall structure of the song? Are there many verses set to the same tune? If not, are there any sections that repeat (either music or text)? Does the piano accompaniment change drastically at any point in the piece (go from simple to complicated, for example)? Consider the reasons that the composer or the lyricist might write the song the way he/she did. What are they trying to show about the character at this moment? Good theater composers are very intentional - their choices are never random and never made in a vacuum. Sometimes their intent is obvious; other times, less so. But there is always a purpose. (I will be doing a more in-depth post on this aspect of interpretation soon, so stay tuned for some tips!)
Keep in mind that all of this background work is ultimately for the audience's benefit as much as yours. Remember, your job is to present a convincing character to your audience. Character choices solidly based in the story and the music will be more convincing and more consistent than choices made without full knowledge of the character's background. The audience needs to be able to empathize with your character, and they cannot do that if the emotional interpretation of the song is not clear.
To that end, there are a couple important guidelines to keep in mind as you are making your dramatic/emotional choices:
1) You must choose A SINGLE EMOTION for a specific moment. This might seem counter-intuitive, since we as humans are often experiencing more than one emotion at a time, and we want our characters to seem as human as possible, right? BUT, the reality is that trying to portray two or three or more emotions at once confuses your audience. Rather than creating a believable character, it muddies your message, sort of like when you mix too many colors of paint together and you just end up with an ugly shade of brownish. Yuck, right? Commit to ONE emotion, and sell the you-know-what out of it.
2) Changes in emotion need to be clear, and need to have a reason. You never change emotions "just because." If you can't explain - concretely and specifically - WHY your character is changing emotions, then you probably shouldn't be doing it.
3) When it comes to emotion changes, less is often more. Overly-frequent emotional changes in your song will make it hard for the audience to follow what you are doing. (Unless your character is some kind of maniac. Then frequent changes might be ok.)
4) The emotion HAS to be specific. A generic "happy" or "sad" or "angry" will not suffice. You will need a much more colorful vocabulary to make your performance unique. A wider range of emotion words will not only give you a larger dramatic spectrum to play with, but it will also keep you from defaulting to the same four or five words for every single performance. We've all seen those people who sing everything the same way. It gets boring to listen to them after a while, no matter how good their voice is. You don't want to be those people. You don't want to be boring.
Finally, remember that this is always a process. We are not perfect, and our work as performing artists is never really complete. You may perform a song and be very happy with your work, only to return to it five or ten or fifteen years later and discover that your take on it has completely changed. This doesn't mean you were wrong before; it just means that you are constantly growing and changing as both a person and a performer. Just remember to be honest with yourself, wherever you are, and intentional about your dramatic choices, whatever they are.
Stay tuned for more interpretation discussion in the posts ahead!
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