<p>To be honest, I have found it somewhat frustrating to get a straight answer to questions posted on this site...... </p>
<p>I have a 15-year-old daughter who is interested in pursuing musical theater.... This year, she will be looking for songs to sing for musical theater competition.... as well as a State Literary competition - totally different I know.... </p>
<p>Based on the new Broadway musicals out there, does anyone have any recommendations for us? She is a soprano, can belt, and has performed well using songs such as Astonishing and The Wizard and I. Is there anything from Legally Blonde, The Musical, that might be good? Anything else from any other new stuff? </p>
<p>Any recommendations for songs to use in Literary? Classical or musical theater type? I am just looking for new songs that have appeal..... would welcome your suggestions...... Thanks! We are wanting to get a leg up on the competition......</p>
<p>Not to be facetious, but maybe you are asking the wrong questions. No one on this Board really knows your daughter, her actual range, style of singing, acting ability, type of character in a song that is a good match etc. Any suggestions for songs would be a wild guess. I could give you a list of every song my daughter, who is also a soprano and can belt, has performed and there would be no assurance that any of them would be right for your daughter. Just like the songs my daughter's soprano belter friends used for their auditions were very much different from those which my daughter used. The more relevent question is how your daughter and you can find songs that fit her well. Listen to CD's of shows with your daughter, peruse the sheet music, get song anthology books, talk to voice teachers, coaches, directors, music teachers, choral directors that have worked with her and have a good sense of who she is as a performer. That way you can come up with some options that are really relevent to your daughter's circumstances.</p>
<p>I'm 15, and I choose my own music. I'd freak if my mom tried to tell me what music to perform. Let her look through what she already knows, and, like the previous poster suggested, have HER talk with her vocal coaches, . . . and, with them, find songs. At her age, she's the one who should be initiating the whole process.</p>
<p>Here's an idea. Let her browse the musical theater songs on I tunes or Amazon. Let her add some to her IPod so she can see what she likes. I listen to musical theater CDs on my IPod and know many sound tracks by heart.</p>
<p>I'm wondering if it is so hard for people just to tell me what THEY like..... All I'm asking for is for people to tell me what they've heard and like..... new songs from new musicals, etc...... THEN...we can determine (with our daughter, her vocal coach, her voice teacher, etc.) if it is the right fit..... We have been looking..... I just want to create a listing of new stuff..... </p>
<p>So simply...... have you been impressed with any new songs for sopranos? If so, what are they? Thanks for your help!!!</p>
<p>I do like your idea..... bottom line is this.... My daughter has to be sold on the idea.... If she doesn't like something.... she won't sing it.... We are just wanting to compile a list of any new songs for sopranos...... from new or old musicals..... we haven't been to New York lately.... we are just beginning to research new stuff.... we thought this website could help...... any suggestions? Any new stuff you have been impressed with? Thanks!!</p>
<p>I'm not sure why it must be a new song/musical so much. </p>
<p>I agree with MichaelNKat that it is very difficult to suggest songs to someone we do not know in terms of her type, strengths, etc. You say she is a soprano but one song you mention she is good at is Wizard and I, a belty song (I realize you say she can belt too). Are you only looking for soprano songs? Ballad? Upbeat? Belt too? The songs she has used so far that you mention are extemely overdone. I realize she is not auditioning for college and maybe that doesn't matter for whatever these competitions are. </p>
<p>Like Michael said above.....your D should familiarize herself with the body of musical theater shows and songs. I feel like my daughter is a walking encyclopedia of these and is always recommending song choices for others (whom she actually KNOWS) that would be good for them. Like Michael said, buy some musical theater song anthology books. Rather than buy a ton of CDs to start, your D can first listen to little song clips from musicals.....she could spend some time on Amazon.com or MTI and open up a MT cast recording and listen to clips of every song and see if any appeal or fit her type and then if they do, either buy that CD or that sheet music or both. Also, are there any MT Performers she likes who have a voice type similar to hers? For instance, say Kristin Chenowith, Audra MacDonald, etc.? If there is one, have your D listen to their solo album clips online and see if any songs are appealing and then again, get the entire CD and eventually the sheet music. Your D just has to look. This is going to help her in the long run. My D is now in a BFA program. While she already knows a ton of musicals and songs, she is constantly looking for new material (new for her, not necessarily new musicals like you are mentioning), and even has homework assignments in this vein over the summer for her program. She has told me that she has spent hours in the library listening to music to find new material of various types and genres and has discovered a great deal, on top of how well versed she already is with MT repertoire. This is an ongoing process that your D should be doing now and will have to do in college as well.</p>
<p>Lastly, I imagine your D has a voice teacher who helps her work on songs. That person should also be able to suggest songs that are fitting for your D. Have her listen to MANY show recordings...she'll discover a lot this way.</p>
<p>In reference to your question about Legally Blonde- the music has not been published yet, so it would be difficult for you to get a copy of the music if she did fall in love with something from it. It is a very pop/ rock score. The cast album was released last week, so she could listen to songs on Itunes and see if anything jumps out at her.</p>
<p>Many of the schools recommend that you do not do anything that has been on Broadway in the past five years. Most voice coaches keep a list and rarely recommend the same song twice. Here are a couple older songs that I like for a soprano, but my D did not always agree! She had two of these pieces in her audition book. </p>
<p>Mira
It Might As Well Be Spring
Long Before I knew You
Your Nearer
The Next Time It Happens
I'm Your Girl
Fireworks</p>
<p>Someone at FSU told me that it's not always important to have some obscure song and that someone gets in almost every year with "Gimme Gimme" If you own a song, truly and you feel like a million bucks singing it, do it. On the other hand, it would be really great to find a song that is not over done and then work on owning it!
Good luck to your daughter!</p>
<p>If the question is whether there are any songs in new shows that I think are great songs for a soprano to use in auditions or competitions, the answer is no. Here's why:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>First, as has been mentioned by Sarahsmom, conventional wisdom is that you don't use anything that has recently been on Broadway. Too great a risk that your daughter would end up being judged by a reference skewed by who did it on Broadway.</p></li>
<li><p>IMO, most of what's in the new shows are catchy pop tunes that musically have no relevence outside of the show they are in. They're fun, maybe even vocally impressive, move the story forward but musically may be of limited intrinsic merit. The test my daughter uses is whether the song could stand on it's own musically if performed as part of a concert. Is it a song that will be remembered 10 years after the show closes.</p></li>
<li><p>Everyone in day to day life runs around singing whatever is currently popular on Broadway. Sing a song from Rent, Wicked or whatever (insert a new show) at an audition or contest and chances are the adjudicators have heard it so much in one forum or another that their brains are about to leak out their ears.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>So as Not MomaRose suggested, look at the older shows that have stood the test of time. Look at songs from well regarded MT composers that even if not from a show are considered part of MT repetoire because of who they are by. Pick up some anthologies for soprano and mezzo to get a good mix of lyrical/ballad/upbeat and head voice/belt. Do a goole search, you'll find a ton of them.</p>
<p>We have literary in my state, and my son has won regional competition for two years and placed fifth at state. They require a classical and a more contemporary piece. For the classical, if you can do something in a foreign language, and do it well, it can be a plus. For the contemporary it's better to show range and voice quality than just belt. Older musical songs like "Till There Was You" from Music Man or "Summertime" by Gershwin are more appropriate. You will definitely need a belt song for auditions. One of my favorites is "Nobody Does It Like Me" from the musical "Seesaw" by Cy Coleman. If your daughter has a voice instructor or coach, they should be able to offer some suggestions.</p>
<p>Aside from what's already been mentioned, another reason that you may be finding seeking song suggestions a relatively fruitless endeavor is that young auditioners, especially women, tend to guard their favorite rep very carefully. I tell all my students that this will lessen as they become settled into their college programs and people develop their own performance personas and voices more and more - aka, "find their types" - but when thousands of young girls are seeking "new" rep, it does make sense for those who find gems to guard them. I agree with the suggestion that some of the best "new" choices are relatively undone songs from very well-known composers, especially for legit/soprano rep: Kern, Porter, and Arlen are among my faves. These same composers also have some great underdone belt songs. Every year, I have a student who takes a song such as this to college auditions and gets great responses when asked "What is that song?" - auditors seem to respect these "new" songs from the masters most of all. </p>
<p>And I TOTALLY agree with the idea to have your daughter become a "rep master" - there are SO many places to look for new rep (Amazon, iTunes, etc.), and that's how students find their very favorite songs - by engaging in the treasure hunt that is one thing leading to another! :)</p>
<p>Amen, Coach C! Young singers/actors spend quite a bit of time, energy and, sometimes, money (if they are working with coach or teacher) locating good material, all of which makes the singers/actors much less inclined to share their hard-earned material with others. That's completely understandable, in my opinion. It's just one of those facts of life. :)</p>
<p>Lest anyone think the last 3 posts are just theoretical musings or reflective of undue paranoia, my daughter auditioned in the p.m. at a school last January and discovered that someone with whom she had shared the names of her audition pieces had auditioned there the same day in the a.m. using one of the songs my daughter had told her about. The other girl even knew that my daughter was auditioning at the same school on the same day. When asked about this, the other girl merely shrugged and said that she had been having difficulty finding a song and had concluded that the song my daughter was using was good for her too. It's a small world in many respects for kids who are doing the audition circuit for college and, like it or not, intensely competitive. (There was justice, however, since my daughter was accepted at the school and the other girl was not. Yeah, I know, not nice for me to say but nonetheless deserved.)</p>
<p>I, for one, didn't think it was paranoia, but I would like to add that, while the choice of a number is critical, it is not the number, itself, that is most important. It's how one does the number.</p>
<p>I have sat through many auditions over the years, and I think I've probably got a pretty good handle on how the process works for those making decisions.</p>
<p>First, you can usually tell after about three bars, or even less, whether you want to see more of an auditioner at callbacks. This is more than vocal quality and accuracy. That should be a given. The real difference is usually in the energy and specificity of action, as well as professionalism the auditioner projects. </p>
<p>Second, it's true that there's some eye rolling and groaning when an auditioner does a song you've heard five times before in the past two hours, but that really doesn't have a great impact on the decision. </p>
<p>Third, a really good and really obscure song (rare as it is) will sometimes elicit a "where did you get that?" question from a director. This is good because it allows the actor to make some personal contact. But that's about all it's good for. It won't get a call back unless the actor is genuinely good.</p>
<p>As others have already said, the choice of an audition piece should match the strengths and looks of the auditioner, and there should be several pieces one can use depending on the style of the musical one is auditioning for and the type of role one is most likely to be cast in.</p>
<p>Tarhunt,
I agree with all of the points you made. Someone suggested earlier that the more experience you have over time the less this is an issue and I agree with that also. I think there is a real sensitivity about this with high school kids preparing for college auditions because they are young, usually relatively inexperienced, have a lack of confidence that can only come from years of auditions and performing and know they are facing intense competition for limited spots in BFA programs. From what I've observed, there's a real tendency to want to find something that is their "own" and a feeling that "poaching" has occurred where someone does a song knowing that someone else is planning on using it at an audition at the same school. Not saying that this is the correct response but I none-the-less think it is part of the landscape for these kids at this point in their lives which is perhaps why the OP got such a lukewarm response.</p>
<p>In my daughter's situation, the other girl was a friend of hers who had actually gone to 2 precollege programs with her and was her room mate at the second program. At the second program, each kid picked a couple of songs to work on as their audition songs for college apps and this other girl knew my daughter was using the particular song. So when she showed up at the same audition on the same day and used my daughter's song first, I suspect that my daughter felt a bit betrayed. But, it was an important life lesson about the nature of "the business" in some respects and about the importance of focusing on your own preparation without worrying about what someone else may be doing, which as you point out is really what's important.</p>
<p>Thanks to MichaelNKat for sharing his daughter's experience. I cannot say that I blame MichaelNKat's D for feeling betrayed: I am sure most kids would feel the same way, especially in view of the fact that this girl was friendly/a friend of your D's. (Cannot help but wonder if they are still friends.) I am a little surprised at the other auditioner's audacity; one would think that most kids would be inhibited from such behavior by the unwritten but understood (by most) moral code that tells one that it is not OK to do such a thing. But perhaps I live in an idealized world ... :)</p>