Music Lessons: Voice
Eight week intensive:
Master primary fundamentals of
- Breathing and intercostal-diaphramatic control
- Relaxation of the vocal musculature.
- Introduction to components of good production: resonance, placement, diction, flexibility and range extension
- Choosing a target repertoire from the American Songbook*
Beyond eight weeks:
Begin extended and in-depth work on above vocal techniques:
- Implementation of target repertoire and repertoire expansion
- Arranging and recording accompaniments for repertoire.
- Introduction to perfroming in public.
*What is the American Songbook?
It is not the Reader’s Digest of Golden Oldie Favorites ;-) It is the standard repertoire of America’s outstanding composers from Broadway Theater, Tin Pan Alley, and beyond.
The music of George Gershwin, Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, Johnny Mercer, Duke Ellington, Stephen Sondhiem, Leonard Bernstein, Rogers and Hammerstein, Lerner and Lowe, Schmitt and Jones, Harold Arnold, and many others.
Most voice instructors use repertoire based on opera or classical art songs. Most of that literature is in French, German, or Italian. While Kit has had that classical training, he finds it infinitely more practical and interesting to use repertoire in English by mostly American and English composers. This includes the genres of jazz, rock and roll, folk artists, etc.