Judith Ranaletta
Greece Athena High School

show@nyacda.org

Tips for Tunes

As singes and Choral Directors, our first responsibility is to expose our students to quality repertoire.

1. Listen religiously to the new offerings from music publishing companies. If your taste is Standard, Pop or typical Show Choir tunes, you’ll have plenty from which to choose.
2. Look to old standards: Broadway Musicals and Swing Charts. It’s great material, you can easily find a variety of arrangements. Look to familiar musicals with far-reaching appeal and conducive to movement and/or dramatic interpretation: Les Miserables, A Chorus Line, 42nd Street, (Ed Lojeski arrangements are particularly good); Gershwin, Porter, Berlin for the more traditional swing; Kirby Shaw arrangements, OR - try something new to add a bit of variety to your program.
3. Look to the “Classics” and new ways to presenting them: “Carmin Burana,” other 20th century highly rhythmic pieces. (If you’re really interested in current, have your students choreograph a hip-hop routine to “Daemon.”)
4. Take an old pop tune, i.e., Michael Jackson, Billy Joel and set an African beat behind it for a real novelty piece.
5. Experiment with combining selections from a standard choral piece.
6. Encourage your students to write their own arrangements.
7. Attend local Dance Recitals to get new performance ideas.
8. Take advantage of every opportunity to see Broadway Shows or Touring Companie

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