Music Lesson: Learning a Song

In this lesson, we are going to look at how to learn a song.

Finding a Song

• If you need help finding a song, attached to this lesson is a list of recommended repertoire for all common voice types.
• Alternatively, you can use any song that you already have.

Practice Exercise

Now, what I want you to do is, in a moment, press pause and sing your song.

• You can sing it once or you can sing it 10 times, but the important thing is:
  • Write down some of the challenges that you find.
  • Additionally, write down some of the things that are working well, because that's just as important.

When you're done with your practice, come back with a list of the challenges you found. I'll share some common challenges that I hear about, and we'll see if they're the same.

Reflection

Well done! I hope you enjoyed practicing your song and that you have a list of some of the challenges you found. We will work on these together during this course.

Common Vocal Challenges

I took a guess at some of the things you might have come up with. If there's something that is not on the list, I would love to hear about it, so feel free to contact me on our social media.

Here's my list of common vocal challenges for musical theatre:

• Too long notes
• Big notes or belting
• High notes or low notes
• Tightness or tension
• Voice usage (What voice do I use?)
• Connecting with the character
• Fear, stage fright, performance anxiety
• Connecting your body to the song
• Inconsistency of voice type (head voice, chest voice, mixed voice)

Questions to Consider

• What voice am I using?
• Why does it work sometimes and not other times?

Looking Ahead

During the next few lessons in this course, we're going to work on all of these challenges one by one, digging deep to help you overcome them.