Song Repertoire

No matter where you fall in the pantheon of musical styles, whether you’re a Rocker, a Folky, your heart belongs to Country, you’re a Broadway fanatic, Jazz is all there is, you live for Classical, or even Opera, or your whole world is a Pop sicle, you’ve got to choose the right songs for your voice. We’ve seen over and over on live television, music reality show contestants getting bumped off the show because they chose the wrong song, whether it was American Idol, the X-Factor, the Voice, or America’s Got Talent. The harder thing about that is that sometimes the contestants were guided by so-called industry professionals, and still they got it wrong.

Armed with that information, what’s a singer to do? Do you sing songs that you like? Do you sing the songs that you believe will show off your voice? How in the world do you pick the songs in your show, that you know, or more properly, make up your repertoire?

Well there are more factors to consider than you might easily grasp. How rangy is the song and what key is the original version in? Can it be transposed so that it fits within your “sweet spot” or is it just too big a song for you range-wise at your current level? Does the song have an emotional fit with you so that it feels authentic when you sing it? Are you comfortable with the nuances of the style of the song or would you be better of with a song in a different genre? Is it a song that can cross over musical boundaries and sit just as well in a genre other than the one it was originally written in? How complex is the meter in the melody and can you navigate it in a natural sounding way? Are there a lot of intervallic leaps in the song or does it sing stepwise to adjacent notes and is therefore easier to sing?

All of these questions just begin to scratch the surface of what makes a perfect song for a singer. For as long as there have been record labels, there have been people in the A & R department of those record labels whose sole job it is to pick the right songs for the artists they sign. And even with it being their sole job, they still mess it up. It’s harder to do than it sounds. Luckily for you, the Singing Lesson Expert is a singer, performer, songwriter, and actress, with loads of experience when it comes to matching singers with songs. With all her insights and with everything she’ll teach you about selecting songs, your repertoire will be ripe with songs that are perfect for your voice and style.

What Style Do You Fit In?

Most great music artists bridge over several styles or genres. They might not even sing all the music that they like, but it shows up as an influence and therefore, weaves its way into their style. If the singer is also a songwriter, they have a lot of control about what direction they go in. But for singers who stand alone as singers, it’s so important to listen to more types of music than just what you like to listen to driving in the car. Influences abound, and it’s important to mix and match; to blend styles and influences. After all, who’s the artist here?

To be a real artist, you have to know yourself. You are an amalgamation of all your life experiences, people you’ve met and know, and all the music you’ve listened to. Add that to your unique physiology, height, weight, vocal chords, voice box, nose size, resonant cavaties, soft tissues, lungs, diaphragm and intercostal musculature, and you start to see that you can be a one of a kind.

At the Singing Lesson Expert it is important to us to help bring out the artist in you. Call today for your free, 15 minute pre-lesson phone consultation at (760) 652-5823.