English Language Article: Songbooks and tight little dresses

As a singer, we come into contact with basically three types of song:
1. songs that we can sing reasonably easily, without any technical problems holding us back.
2. super easy songs that we can sing at any time, any place and make a good job of.
3. songs that have one or more technical challenges that we're working on or songs that we can 'almost' sing.

The songs in the first category are the ones that we've been singing forever - those that we regularly sing for auditions or concerts. They can be original compositions or covers, it doesn't matter, but they don't present any technical difficulties for us (or at least, we have mastered the technical skills necessary to sing them convincingly). This doesn't mean we don't need to work on them - it's always a good idea to look over old rep just to keep your game up (especially if you're getting older like me - I wasn't great at remembering the words before, but now... let's call it artistic licence) and it's always a good idea to rethink interpretation to keep things fresh. Let's call these songs 'active repertoire'.

The second category may contain songs that also appear in the first (because these songs have to be easy for us), but there are a couple of extra requirements: they must be fairly well known (no original compositions), they have to sound good without accompaniment (avoid slam type songs or heavy operatic works, for example) and they have to be so easy that we can't NOT sing them well. These are the songs that we'll sing on those half-drunk and staggering evenings when someone enthusiastically says 'wow! You're a singer? That's so cool. Sing us something!' (wow! You're a doctor? Great. Just have a quick gander at these weeping pustules, would you?). In this case, it's important that the song you choose doesn't bore the ass off your listeners (so, something well known), sounds good unaccompanied (you won't necessarily have a piano) and is so easy you can't mess it up (please reference aforementioned 'half-drunk and staggering'). Let's call these the go-to songs.

The third category contains the problematic songs - both those that we can sing pretty well except for one or two notes and those that make german shepherds howl and car alarms go off when we try to sing them. Let's call these the 'tight little dresses' ('I swear, I'll fit into it one day').

We need all three categories as singers - the active repertoire because we need stuff to sing (thus avoiding situations like 'Good evening London!!!! Make some noise!!!! Er.... does anyone know any jokes?'), the go-to songs so that we can pull something out of the hat in pretty much any circumstances and the tight little dresses to help us push our technical limits.

So where's the problem? It's simple - I work with a lot of singers and I very rarely see a balanced distribution of the three categories. There's either not enough active rep (or songs masquerading as active rep that should really be in the tight little dresses drawer), no go-to songs or way too many tight little dresses.

Ideally, you want to aim for a maximum of one or two tight dresses at a time. They guide and inform our technical work and, since our technical work should be highly focussed, it simply doesn't make sense to work on too many projects at once. One or two tight dresses is enough - once you can 'fit in' to them vocally, you can move them to active rep and replace them with others to challenge you even further.

Too many tight dresses (especially if they are masquerading as rep) won't show off your abilities to their best (I'm being kind here - but you should translate 'won't show off your abilities' to 'may make you sound like a howling banshee' just so we're clear) and will likely have a negative impact on your confidence. We then try to fix all the things that are wrong, at the same time - and this creates a vicious circle that it's very hard to get out of - reduced confidence leads to fear which leads to more dispersion in technical objectives which gives fewer results which reduces confidence - and so it goes on and on.

My suggestion, then, is to have a good hard look at your vocal wardrobe (see all the mileage I'm getting out of the dress thing? Honestly, if you don't let something go, it gets old, then it starts being pretty cool again. Try it.). Buy a folder and some dividers. Make three sections, placing the tight little dresses at the start, the go-to songs in the middle and the active rep at the end. When you look at it, each section should be considerably thicker than the one before it. If that's not the case, I'll give you some suggestions in a minute but for now just consider that you need to work on the first section daily and the others at least weekly (not all of them - just pick a selection), just to keep your game up.

So what do you do in the (likely) event that the sections aren't balanced? Here are a few suggestions:

If you don't have any active rep, you're a beginner singer - all of the dresses are too tight and that's ok. It's normal when you're starting out. Still apply the one or two rule though - you don't want hundreds of them, pick songs that you can work on (and with quickly achievable technical goals - don't start out with 'the show must go on' or 'e lucevan le stelle') and as you master the techniques necessary to sing them, move them to active rep and revise them now and then, whilst putting another tight dress at the front.

If you don't have any go-to songs, fix that very quickly. Commit to finding at least two go-to songs this week and enjoy the pleasure of singing a simple song beautifully. Your confidence will thank you for it!

If you have too many tight dresses, get rid of them. Put them aside for the time being and choose one or two only. Work on the technical difficulties in them until you can sing them. Don't sing them publicly until they have made their way into the active rep section of your binder. Once you've moved one of them, you can - and even should - pick another tight dress to push your technique even further.

I hope that by rethinking your book, you make the first step to balancing your view of your own voice and performances and that we can, once again, kick last week's 'stranger' up the ass.

Try it out!

Allan Wright March 2014.