On Writing a Musical Part 3

As I mentioned in my last post, the plot to my musical was simple, but despite that (or perhaps because of that) characters and themes began to suggest themselves to me.


The main characters are as follows:

• Crabbottom - thirty something; misquotes Shakespeare; a somewhat lovable rum runner with gangster ties; his father, who also was a gangster, founded the home for wayward girls.
• Sister Salvation - thirty something; runs the home; has a belief that there is good in everyone.
• Willie - late teens; newspaper boy; a dreamer, likes Molly.
• Molly - late teens; one of the wayward girls; pragmatic; a 1930s style feminist.

The characters each had a slightly different look on life which fascinated me. Would the dreamer learn to deal with reality? Would a pragmatic girl dare to take a leap of faith? Would the the gangster learn to do good? Does God have a plan for all of us, or is the world an undetermined arena where we must find meaning and good?


The challenge, and the fun of it all, was to unobtrusively layer these ideas on to the scaffold of the simple plot. Cliches, throw away lines, misquoted Shakespeare, these might all be embedded with a deeper level of meaning without getting in the way of the entertainment.


Then, when I was nearly done with the book, I came across a quote from Anatole France, "To accomplish great things, we must not only act but also dream, not only plan but also believe." This fit the play perfectly and the quote would be a motto for the home for wayward girls.


I thanked my luck (or was it preordained fate?), but was also glad that I didn't come across the quote too early in the writing. I would have been tempted to make each of the characters "fit" - the dreamer, the planner, the doer, the believer. If I had done so, I think the characters would have been iconic and one dimensional. So, the characters don't match up perfectly (real people never do), but suggest and at times are in conflict with these themes.


I don't know how well I succeeded in any of this. For me, however, it was the fun and creative part of writing that kept me going.

On Writing a Musical Part 2

The first thing I had to consider, even before I began the actual writing, was what my requirements and restrictions were going to be. I knew we would have many girls trying out, and just a hand full of guys, so I needed to have lots of girl parts and just a few guy roles. The plot would have to be engaging enough for high school students, not too risque for parents, not too controversial for administrators, and hopefully have some educational value. Above all, it had to be entertaining.

I started with the gender issue: a girls camp - no, too much like a tacky teen flick (and like my last musical!), a women's prison - no, sounded like a bad X rated film, a nunnery - no, church and state problems not to mention that the students would never buy it.

The setting I came up with doesn't sound any better - a home for wayward girls set in New York at the time of the great depression. But, given the current state of the economy, I thought people could relate to the depression. With my wife recently laid off and looming salary cuts, I certainly could relate to it! The "wayward girls" aspect was mildly suggestive, but could be sufficiently sanitized as to not offend.

In addition, I've always liked the music of the early jazz age, doing a period piece would allow for some educational tie-ins, and the acting style from that time allows for a certain playfulness.

As to the plot, I learned from my other musical that it needed to be simple, at least in its initial conception. Musicals are not novels and need to be direct. Once the writing begins, twists, developments, and motivational considerations can easily lead the clearest plot into a convoluted and complex quagmire. The point is to start simple and try not to be led too far astray. I also wanted something in keeping with the spirit of the plots of the era - again, fairly simple.

So, the story has a couple of love interests that must overcome problems before their ultimate success. The home for wayward girls has to overcome a couple of obstacles in order to survive. Throw in a politician who must be outsmarted and you get the picture. OK, originality takes a back seat to pragmatic considerations, but it seems to work.

It also got me thinking about how much I could layer on to this simple scaffold. A theme began to develop. Characters began to take on flesh. Possibilities began to suggest themselves.

On Writing a Musical Part 1

During the 2009 Winter Break it became increasingly clear that my school, Taft High School, had precious few dollars to spend on getting the rights to do this year's musical. It was also obvious that it would be hard to find a published musical that would allow us to cast all the many girls (and the few guys) who wanted to be in it.

The solution seemed obvious, write an original musical. No problem! I can do that. Two months to do it in, plenty of time. Ah, hubris has its price.

With a little gentle nudging from our wonderful drama teacher, Julianna Olinka, I began writing on January 2nd during the last week of winter vacation. Seven weeks later it was done - printed script, piano and vocal lead sheets, and guide audio tracks for the singers. I was lucky to have a Julianna's friend, Laura Manning, cowrite the lyrics. In addition to saving me time, she did a wonderful job.

I am now almost done with the orchestration. After that, there is the overture and some incidental music to write, but most of that will be derived from already composed material so it should not take much time. It can't take much time because we open April 29th!

The next several posts will be somewhat random thoughts on the process - what I learned, and what I should do or not do next time (if there is to be a next time).

The Passing of Jimmy Wyble

I was saddened last week to read that the great guitarist Jimmy Wyble passed away (obit in the LA Times). I knew Jimmy from the 1970s when I worked at Larry Larsen's Music Studio in Glendale. Jimmy rented teaching space there and we would often talk and play guitars between lessons.

Jimmy was a wonderfully creative and talented musician. His style was a truly unique blend of country-western, jazz, and classical music. It was always a joy to hear him play. What was even more impressive about Jimmy, however, was the person that he was. I have never known a kinder or more supportive man.

I remember one day Jimmy and I were talking when a boy of about twelve walked into the studio. After a few minutes the boy pulled out a guitar and played a rather poor rendition of "Stairway to Heaven." Back in those days just about anyone who had ever touched a guitar knew the opening to that rock classic. Few could play it well, and even today it is probably the most butchered song in the history of the guitar.

But Jimmy listened attentively. When the boy was done, Jimmy complimented him. "That was beautiful. How exciting that you are learning guitar. I can really hear that you love the music. You keep practicing and you are going to be a wonderful guitarist." – or something along those lines.

Now from anyone else, I would have said that it was just a bunch of polite BS, but from Jimmy it was 100% sincere. He had the ability to see past the obvious and understand the essence of the moment. It was beautiful and exciting for him to see someone at the early stages of learning a musical instrument. Jimmy could hear the love that someone had for music even through the wrong notes, poor phrasing, and stuttered rhythms. He could see ten years down the road when, with practice, that beginning guitarist would be a good musician.

It was no surprise that Jimmy was a great teacher. Even though I never took formal lessons from him, I learned a great deal about music and teaching from Jimmy. He lives on not only in his music but also in all those whom he inspired with his love and kindness.

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Jimmy Wyble's website is still up. It is worth a visit if only to hear Jimmy play the number on the homepage.

Too Good To Be True

Last night I attend the inaugural concert of the Glendale Philharmonic Orchestra. The musicians, about 20 string players, gave a wonderful performance, especially considering that this was there first concert. The program had a bit of a rough beginning with a stylistically odd arrangement of Bach's Prelude from the Violin Partita No. 3. After that it continued well with Karl Jenkins' Concerto Grosso "Palladio," Andrey Rubtsov's Andande Dolente & Scherzo for Two Cellos (world premiere), Arno Babajanian's Aria, and Edward Mirzoyan's Symphony.

The group was highly disciplined and very responsive to their conductor, Mikael Avetisyan. And yet . . .

Leaving the concert I was reminded of something I heard the former conductor of the Los Angeles Master Chorale, Paul Salamunovich, say (and he may have been quoting someone else), "The audience should never see the dynamics on the page." I saw them last night.

Now, admittedly this is an unfair criticism. It was their first concert, it could have been my mood, I would be hard pressed to tell them specifically what to fix, and I didn't notice it all the time. But there were times when the dynamic changes seemed stiff and mechanical, almost geometric in their plot. Technically they were done well, yet they didn't have the feeling of growing organically out of the music. Things were a little too tightly controlled.

This contrasted with the times when the music did have a more natural quality. The few short solos by the concert mistress, Limor Toren, were a good example of this. There was subtlety in her phrasing. One got the sense that she felt and enjoyed the music. It seemed to emanate not from the notes on the page, but from within her.

As I implied, this is all very subjective. Still, it brings up the issue of how a conductor can find the balance between control and spontaneity, between precision and flexibility. What does one say, "Be more spontaneous, now!?"

Clearly these are excellent musicians under a very talented conductor. Perhaps it is just a question of time and trust before they relax into the music, have fun with it, and allow it to flow more naturally. I look forward to hearing them at their next concert.

Singing In Tune Part 4

The beginning and end of good intonation is careful listening. Getting student choral singers to always listen for pitch is not easy. They are thinking about the words, the notes, the rhythms, the person next to them, the good looking kid in the first row, what they are for breakfast, what they are going to do over the weekend ... Distractions are everywhere!

One exercise to get singers listening is to have everyone in the choir sing a random note and then, within five seconds, move to a common pitch. The common pitch should not be determined ahead of time and will be arrived at by each singer listening to other singers and adjusting. I am usually surprised at how easily singers can do this. If it were only that easy to reach consensus in society and politics!

Choral singers should work on listening and tuning chords. They should know what a root, third, and fifth are, and how they "feel" when one sings them in a chord. One technique is to play a chord on the piano and then have the choir sing the root, and later, the third or fifth of the chord. You can even assign different chord degrees to different sections (i.e. basses and sopranos sing the root, tenors the fifth, and altos the third). To expand on this, have them sing the seventh even though it is not in the triad you played.

Problematic chords within a work especially need to be tuned. Once the chord is identified, isolate it and try different combination of parts (for example, just altos, tenors and basses). Start with the more consonant intervals, and then add on the more dissonant pitches. Another trick is to temporarily rewrite the chord to make the chord more consonant by moving a part or two a half step up or down. Next slide the changed parts to their original, more dissonant pitches. All through this singers should be reminded to listen to how their part fits within the overall chord.

Choral singers need to develop the ability to sing "one on a part" with good intonation. In this way they learn to listen and tune to other parts - and not just to their own section. They become aurally aware of unisons, octaves, and fifths between parts and use those intervals to check intonation.

Digital recording is now quick and easy, and is a great way to help choirs become aware of their intonation, as well as a host of other issues. I have microphones semipermanently set up in my classroom and hooked up to my computer. Within a few seconds I can record a selection and play it back for the singers to hear. When they are able to listen to themselves in this way they quickly identify their own intonation problems and are much more receptive to suggestions on how to fix them.

We as teachers also have to remind ourselves to listen critically for intonation. Over the course of a semester it is incredibly easy for our brains to adjust to a certain level of out of tune singing. Making recordings of our choirs can help keep our ears honest. For some reason, things that sounded well in tune while being sung live, can sound horribly out of tune when heard the next day on a recording.

Over performed works, new acoustical settings, and different placement of singers can also create listening issues that can lead to bad intonation. Try having the choir practice in different venues such as the cafeteria, outside, or in the hall. Try arranging them differently, mix the parts together (an alto next to a tenor next to a bass...), or have them form two lines facing each other and sing to their partner. If a work is getting a little stale, try moving it up a half step, taking a different tempo, or arbitrarily change tempos (molto motlo rubato). Another trick is to have them imagine the music in their heads while you conduct it. Then, say at the last chord of a phrase, actually sing the chord. Pitch "visualization" (auralization?) is an important skill for good intonation.

Poor intonation can destroy all other musical successes. For the choral director it is important to understand why singers are singing out of tune. Next, isolate the issue (not simply the passage, but the root cause of the intonation problem). Finally, create exercises that address the problem and then reintegrate the passage into the piece.

Singing In Tune, Part 3

If intonation troubles persist despite good vocal technique, the difficulty may rest in the music itself. A close examination of the score can reveal potential sources of pitch problems. A good conductor can identify these ahead of time and address these tricky spots in warm up exercises or when the passages are first encountered. Attacking the problem before singers get used to singing a section out of tune can save a great deal of time in the long run.

Descending half steps are one of the most frequent causes for singing flat, especially with beginning singers. For example, on the downward scale, "do, ti, la, sol," the "ti" is usually a little flat.

The first step to addressing this issue is to explain what half steps are and to demonstrate them on the piano. It helps if students can both see and hear the half steps. Next have the students sing "do, ti" holding "ti." Play the note on the piano so that they can hear that they are not singing it in tune. Then have them sing, "do, ti, do." They will most likely sing the "ti" in tune due to the anticipation of returning to "do." Immediately after this have them sing "do, ti" holding the "ti." The "ti" usually remains in tune.

Of course, this only gets them to realize the nature of the descending half step problem; it does not actually fix it. Try adding the following exercises to your warm ups. Have the choir sing (quarter notes) "do, ti, do" followed by a descending major scale (eighth notes). Priming the pump with the "do, ti, do" can get them to hear the "ti" in tune and help them sing it correctly on the downward scale. Another good exercise is to sing ascending and descending chromatic scales. If you can harmonize these on the piano it helps them to hear the leading tone nature of the pitches which improves their intonation. Once they sound pretty good with the accompaniment, have them sing it a cappella.

Other intervals can be problematic as well. Perhaps because of bluesy roots of pop music, major thirds (both melodic and harmonic) are sometimes sung a little flat. A simple exercise to help with all intervals is to sing "1-2, 1-3, 1-4, 1-5, 1-6, 1-7, 1-8" on the corresponding intervals. After a few days of doing this, have them just sing a single interval out of sequence (i.e. "1-3").

Tritones are the traditional nemesis of singers. Playing the piano along with that interval in a way that can get singers to hear the leading tone nature of the augmented fourth can help them sing that interval in tune (I on "do", II7 on the tritone, and resolve it to V on "sol"). Once they get the hang of it, take away the piano.

Basses so often sing a descending fourth (do to sol) that when novice basses get a descending fifth, they often flub it. A little "La Bamba" harmony (I - IV - V - IV) helps them get the feel for that interval.

Pitch problems can also occur when there is a sudden large skip to a note (often lower) followed by a return to original pitch area. The note that is skipped to can often be out of tune. I call these notes "throw away notes" and even good singers can miss them. Singers need to be made aware that they are not nailing the note perfectly. Practicing the skip in isolation and then integrating it back into the music usually solves the problem.

When beginning singers first encounter dissonant harmonies they can be thrown for a loop. I usually make a game of dissonance during warm ups. I'll start by assigning pitches to each section to create some "nice" dissonances - minor 7th chords, chords built on fourths, and triads with an added ninth are usually easy for them to handle. I'll gradually up the anti by moving to chords built on whole tone scales, major 7th chords in closed voicing, and dominant flatted ninth chords. After they've gotten used to those harmonies, I'll move to half step clusters. For a real challenge, I'll assign each individual singer a different note a half step away from the pitch their neighbor is singing.

Once singers have developed an ear for dissonance they can deal with it in a piece. When you come across a challenging chord in a work, pull it out of the piece and work with it. Try changing a few notes to make it consonant, then alternate between the consonant version and the dissonant one. Again, make a game of it. Are there a group of singers that can nail it one on a part? Split the choir in half or in quarters and have a contest to see which group can sing it best.

Another musical issue that can cause intonation problems are passages that are repeated but with a note or two changed by a half step. This might occur where there is a shift from minor to major, in a variation, or where a note suddenly becomes the leading tone in a modulation. I find that alternately singing the contrasting sections back and forth will help students become aware of the differences.

In the end, good intonation requires good listening. In the next section I'll explore some techniques to help singers hone their listening skills.