​Edrie Means Weekly Co-Founder Contemporary Commercial Music Vocal Pedagogy Institute

This workshop will interact with participants to examine specific ways to explore and connect to their song emotionally and stylistically to bring the song to life. The storyline is expressed vocally through the choice of style and various vocal qualities. Musical Theatre productions encompass rock, jazz, blues, country and even rap all in one show as seen in Broadway productions like Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. Frequently one character is required to sing equally well in two or three styles within the same show.  The singer needs to be able to switch back and forth between registers and make different interior shapes to allow changes in the resonance to serve the song style as well as the character while maintaining healthy vocal function.

Singing a song is more than singing the written notes and lyrics. The singer must include musical style, expression, emotion and storytelling so the audience is invited into the character’s world through song. One of the challenges voice teachers face is helping the student bring a song to life vocally in the correct style.

As a group, participants will experiment with functional exercises for laryngeal flexibility. Emotions and expressions can be created vocally by varying the dynamics, coloring the tone, varying the use of vowels and consonants, emphasizing alliterations, and by using “vocal stylisms” such as bending the pitch, crying, various slides, growling, shadow vowels, “creaky” sound, etc.

This workshop uses a hands-on and skill-building delivery style, interacting with participants. Through experimentation with “vocal stylisms” and functional vocal exercises, this workshop is designed to enhance pedagogical skills and teaching performance in guiding the musical theatre singer as they sing in many different styles. Participants of this workshop will leave with tools to use in the classroom, studio setting, auditions and professional stage. It is essential the storyline is expressed vocally through the choice of style and various vocal qualities. These tools will help the singer bring a song to life vocally in the correct style.