Sometimes people mix up the terms “musicianship” and “artistry.” While artistry refers to the expressive interpretation of a song, musicianship refers to being accurate to the pitches, rhythms, dynamics, and tempo markings written by the composer.
If you’ve ever listened to a Broadway cast recording and followed along with the printed music, you may have noticed a tendency for singers to occasionally stray from the score. Even though I tend to be in the “sing what is written” camp, in my estimation, there actually are times when it is appropriate to deviate from the score. Here are some examples:
#1: It is a stylistically accepted part of the genre. This is not a blanket statement for all of music theatre, but in certain pop/rock-influenced or gospel-influenced musicals (Children of Eden, Memphis, Jesus Christ Superstar) it may be OK to deviate from the printed notes and rhythms. As a rule, however, riffing and “optioning up” are fairly rare in most music theatre.
#2: The piece has been around long enough that there are multiple examples of professionals singing notes that are not in the score. Some shows and songs have been done for so long by so many artists that there is a track record of ways to change the printed notes that still honor the composer’s intent but acknowledge how the piece has grown over time.
Conversely, if there is only one professional recording available and the singer does something that is not in the score, in my mind, that is not sufficient justification to sing it that way yourself. Maybe the notes were changed by the composer from the time the recording was made to the time the music was printed and published. Or maybe the composer asked the singer specifically to play around with the melody during rehearsals to see what would happen. Which leads me to…
#3: If you receive permission from the composer to deviate from the score, knock yourself out! We’re lucky in music theatre that so many of our composers are still living. When I get the chance, my favorite question to ask composers is what degree of latitude they would like performers to take with their music. Overwhelmingly, the composers I’ve talked to prefer greater accuracy to the score.
[I have a story here about a famous composer coaching one of our singers when he visited campus a few years ago. Ask me about it if you want to hear it!]
So, before you change the written notes or rhythms, try considering the following:
1. Do I know what the correct notes and rhythms actually are and have I made every effort to make the song work in my voice the way that it is written?
2. Does my choice to deviate from the score enhance the text and help tell the story more effectively or does it just show off something about my voice? In other words, is it about the music and the story or am I making it about me?
3. Is it my own interpretive choice, born out of the text, or am I just copying someone else?
I understand that sometimes our lack of accuracy comes from learning music via recordings instead of from a printed score. Naturally, we are often attracted to music because of a recording we have heard. But, as you know, that does not guarantee that the singer on the recording is being musically accurate.
We MUST take the time to read the score (keep working on those essential music theory skills!) to find out what the composer intends. Otherwise, we are not singing, for example, Lerner & Loewe’s My Fair Lady. We are singing our version of Lerner & Loewe’s My Fair Lady.
The place where you “make it your own” (though I sort of abhor that phrase) is in the way you express and tell the story from within the parameters the composer gave you. This is where musicianship becomes artistry. And that’s what composers and audiences both want to hear.
When we begin with musicianship, we uncover honest, original artistry.
Now go practice.
This is the perfect post for what I'm working on in my music for my upcoming lesson. Since I don't read music and I am a beginner in regards to music theory, I tend to look up different versions of the song and listen to them or watch them to see different interpretations, and to help me learn the music if I'm confused. This is probably a bad habit to get into because if I find someone I like, and listen to them a lot, I will most likely pick up all of their "bad habits". Thanks to my wonderful singing class that I'm taking, I have been able to work on being able to clap out rhythms and put them into practice. This being said, I am still not fully accurate. For sure something to keep working on! I have a question though... If someone were to work into an audition and sing a song with lots of "interpretation" added, would the director look down on them for doing so, even if it sounds great? I'm sure it has a lot to do with preference, but I'm still curious.
ReplyDeleteIn answer to your questions, it depends. If someone was auditioning for college with a lot of inappropriate "interpretation," we generally assume either ignorance on the part of the student or teacher and don't necessarily hold it against the student. For a competition, it would likely hurt their scores in the interpretation/artistry/musicianship categories. For a professional audition, knowing that some directors are really particular about this sort of thing, it would generally not be recommended. That being said, sometimes in an audition directors just want to see potential before making a decision about callbacks. If ridiculous riffing doesn't get in the way of displaying potential then it may not necessarily work against you (though I still wouldn't recommend it!).
DeleteI have realized how much I can practice without singing. Being sick on and off for what feels like the entire semester, I can still listen to the music and learn the words. I concentrate on how my interpretation of the song would differ or correlate with the recording Im listening to. i try to find several different recording so, Im not listening to only one person and don't get stuck in their habits. I didn't do this when I sang "Don't Rain on My Parade " and my director said after how he had wished I could have learned it without having the recording in the back of my mind. However, to book end this never feels as regardful as actually singing.
ReplyDeleteOne of my college audition songs was "Bewitched" from Pal Joey, and my vocal coach told me I was actually singing it too rigidly--giving all the quarter notes equal value (the piece is almost entirely quarter notes). He finally got me to break it up and give the more important words more weight and longer values. I really liked the result, it felt much more "musical." I feel like this is one of the examples you talked about where it is okay to "deviate from the printed rhythms." If I remember right, I think the piece might've actually had something written at the top about how individual interpretation of the rhythm was okay. I'll have to look back and see.
ReplyDeleteHI.
ReplyDeleteSo musicianship is one of the most difficult things to me. Normally the songs I choose to sing are chosen because I have heard a recording (usually of Kelli O'hara) singing the song. I have often ran into the issue of singing the song like she does instead of what is written on the page. To solve this issue, I have started spending more time going through the actual counts that are written on the page. I also started taking piano again and was introduced to a rhythm app that helps me practice rhythms at all sorts of tempos. You can speed up the metronome once you get the slower tempos. I think it's really important to have basic music theory knowledge as a singer as well as a dancer. Even if you end up adding some changes into the music, I think it shows that you are prepared and care about the material when you honor what is written. I have also thought about how one day I may have to sing a song writer's song FOR them. I would hate to mess up Jason Robert Brown's music. Important stuff.
Sarah Walker
I am very much guilty of learning music from recordings instead of learning from the music. There are some weeks when I don't have a lot of time to sit down and plunk out every note so I resort to listening to a recording over and over. To be honest, I didn't realize until about two years ago that someone on, say, an original cast recording could be deviating from the written music. Now that I am aware of the fact and I have learned the importance of every choice a composer makes, I make a greater attempt to learn from the music instead of recordings. This issue is definitely where the importance of music theory comes in. Being able to sight read and, at the very least, play the melody of a song on a piano, is vastly important in sticking to the composer's intent because it will allow a better foundation for the music and therefore greater flexibility and originality in interpreting the piece.
ReplyDeleteHello.
ReplyDeleteI find it harder sometimes to learn a song from the music instead of recordings. It always seems easier to go to youtube and hear the whole song and learn it. For me, this is a problem of mine. I do think learning music from the sheet music is absolutely better but when time is ticking, I use the internet. I also do not know how to play piano very well so this is also an obstacle for me. I also believe that artists do change up songs and make it harder to find the correct note. I think that it is important to not copy someone else's style and to learn music from the actual music.
My thoughts are as follows:
ReplyDeleteWhy would you ever stray from the music? The notes on the page are there for a specific reason and it our job to interpret that. I for one never make any changes or adjustments to rhythm or notes on a song. It just makes no sense why someone would do that. This week I tried working with an idea my HS voice teacher had about using your Vocal Folds to change pitch. I know that sounds weird but SO OFTEN I think people forget that the vocal folds are actually where pitch changes come from and nothing else. It reminded me that sometimes we can over complicate things as singers which leads to all the negatives such as tension and fatigue. I find that thinking all of the notes of a song are on the same plane it leads to a lot less tension and has worked very well for me.
-CLF
I would rather sit at a piano and learn the written notes and rhythms on the page and once I got the hang of the real song, see if there is room for experimenting. However, I haven't had much access to a piano since mine was sold during a move a while ago. So instead of learning the song in truth, I have to look up recordings of the song. I hope that I can find a karaoke version of it and learn it that way, but some of the songs don't have a version like that so I end up singing along with another artist who didn't song the written song, but their own interpretation of it. Once, I get a more regular access to a piano, I'll be able to get back to my original practice routine.
ReplyDeleteThere is magic in the notes and words we learn. In general, there is a reason that composers have written it as such, as well. One of the best ways to understand that is to compose music yourself, or work with someone who is composing music. When you work with someone who goes through the arduous task of crafting a piece, whether that means picking a very specific cutoff to a longer note or choosing just the right word that makes no meaningful syntactic difference, but changes the way we hear a note, only then can you really understand why we have to trust the notes and words before defaulting. That's a huge problem too: defaulting. If you are not consistent in the learning of the words and notes, then you become a performer of habit and not a performer of content. Habit can bring you a long ways, but you will never be a deep, meaningful, flexible artist that way.
ReplyDeleteOne of my goals this semester is to try to add more emotion to my singing. But, often times, I find that it’s difficult to be in character while following the score exactly as it’s written. I see a performance as being more interesting if I can see an actor put their own “flair” in their singing. They enhance the song through their personality. Sometimes the best performances of a song are sung by people who don’t have a good voice, but have an amazing emotional understanding of the language they are singing. A musical would be absolutely boring to see over and over again if every single actor is the exact same as the previous actor before them. While singing musical theatre, we need to consider both acting and singing. I’m sure that the music director would be willing to overlook the score that they wrote because an actor made a strong acting choice that is in character and is liked by the director.
ReplyDeleteOverall, it entirely depends on the situation. But, I feel that as both singers and actors, we should do what we think is strong and will help the production. What’s the worst thing that could happen? There’s no harm in trying things out with the approval of the director. The nice thing about Theatre is that it isn’t a movie. We watch movies because we know that they will be the exact same over and over again. We go to the theatre to see different interpretations and character choices to help convey a powerful story
I think the argument discussed here is very interesting and one I have not put much thought into prior. I find that sometimes, I can really appreciate a creative, innovative, unique rendition of a familiar song that seems to speak to me in a different way. Other times, when I hear a musician take "too much liberty" with a piece, I find it distracting and I lose the sense of the music in a way. I think what delineates the line between one and the other for me is the question you posed about, "Is it about the music and the story or am I making it about me?" I think in the former instance, the new take on the music is helping it penetrate, catch my attention, and apply focus in a new light. In the latter, wherein the changes are distracting, I think that may be a result of changing things for oneself and not for the sake of telling the story the music was intended to do.
ReplyDeleteI find that the "artistry" some singers give on their recorded tracks can really mess me up when listening to them during my practice, because I don't read music fluently and I get into patterns very easily when learning music that can be hard for me to break. I find that when I tend to deviate from the original score in my rehearsal, it is because I've heard someone else do the same deviation and copy that because it is more imprinted on me than the real notes, which I may not have heard as many times. I am usually made aware of my transgressions in my lesson, and 90% of the time I hadn't even realized I wasn't singing what was written!
ReplyDeleteTo remedy this, I've begun having Julie play the accompaniment for all of my songs right when I get them so I can go home and listen to and practice with the original notes before exposing myself to other versions. This way I can be conscious of the choices made by other artists, and question why they made the deviation and what I think it brought or took away from the song. This way I am making conscious decisions to alter the original score, rather than making, what I think would technically be referred to as, "mistakes".