Musical Theatre Green Room Resource Shelf

Welcome to the Musical Theatre Green Room Resource Shelf.  Since the Musical Theatre Green Room is dedicated to helping young performers perfect their craft this is the place to find outside resources that may aid a young theatre hopeful in their quest.

Disclosure: Yes, we receive compensation from the companies whose products are available through our website. This enables us to provide the tips and advice at no cost to you.

How to Read Music - It's possible to perform in the musical theatre and not know how to read music, but to do so would place the performer at a distinct disadvantage in competing for future opportunities as well as in their quest to become that "triple threat".  That said, this eBook is not a magic pill. It spells out the basics. Just like learning to read English, learning to read music means learning all the building blocks (components) of music and then moving through the "sounding out process".  But unless you have all the notes, sharps, flats, etc. down so you know them on sight this book is a great resource to make certain you have and keep on hand as a resource until you attain the level of complete musical fluency.

PitchPerfector - (Sorry, no picture available) - Software designed to allow you see how accurate your pitch is.  Competing for roles in the musical theatre is about both your singing ability and your ability to portray character while you sing.  If you are pitchy, you weaken your chances for landing that role. The reality is that very few (if any) singers are always pitch perfect. The creator of the PitchPerfector says that he created this software so that you could see exactly how far off and for how long your pitch is off so that you can learn to perfect your pitch. You see this is software for your computer that, in the privacy of your own home or studio, gives immediate feedback on how accurate your pitch is. The more pitch perfect you are, the better chance you have of succeeding in your next audition.

 

I use Brett Manning's Singing Success system. More importantly, according to his website, Brett Manning has worked with the Broadway casts of Les Miserables and Jekyll & Hyde as well as the Broadway touring company for Aida! Fortunately, he has put together this program that allows you and I to study his techniques in the privacy of our own homes and at a fraction of the cost of a private vocal coach. In fact, my private vocal coach charges in the neighborhood of $70 per hour and some are much more expensive than that! Using this system the cost is greatly reduced while still getting the benefit of studying under a vocal coach of Brett Manning's caliber.

The Passaggio Vocal Feedback Software - Software designed to display pitch, vocal characterisitics, and volume in real time in visual form on your computer against a musical staff so you can see how closely your sining matches the music and make adjustments as you practice.  This system also comes with a pair of YouTube tutorial videos (see below) which I would recomend anyone watch before deciding whether the software will work for them - just remember - they are tutorials, not sales pitches.  They are a bit dry, but through them you should have a pretty clear idea of how the software works and therefore if it is likely to help your cause.  If you only have time for one, focus on tutorial #2 as much of #1 is given toward setting up the Passaggio software.

Passaggio Tutorial #1
 

Passaggio Tutorial #2