SINGING

A MOMENT TO THINK ABOUT SOMETHING (SOME OF US) DO EVERY DAY: SINGING!  
AND SOME INFORMATION ON OPERA.
DON’T BE SHY TO SING IN CLASS! 

Singing: maybe you don’t want to admit it: but everyone does it from time to time. It’s not a matter of ‘knowing how to sing’, but about ‘daring to sing’. And it’s not only singing: it can also be shouting, humming, in the shower, by yourself, in a group, by accident... 

GROUPTALK

• When do you sing?
• Do you only sing when you're alone? Or also together with others? 
• Does it bother you when someone hears you singing?

GROUP EXERCISE

Walk around in an open space / classroom. Think of a song that everyone know (can be anything: Christmas songs, hit music, ...) Tap someone on the shoulder: this person has to start singing. After a few words / sentences, he / she stops singing and taps someone else’s shoulder. If this person knows the next lines and starts singing, you can finish the song together. 

Can your group manage this? Then you are ready to go to the next level!

Same exercise as before, but if you’re singing two by two, look for another duo to join you. This way, the group gets bigger and bigger, until everyone in the group is singing. (You can repeat the same song if not everyone is singing yet!) 

There are a lot of different genres of music, and these different genres often have their own tradition. For example rock music on musical festivals, hit music at singing contests, opera music in the opera, ...  

GROUP TALK

• Who is your favourite singer? Can you explain why?
• Try to describe the kind of music / genre you prefer best. 

GROUP EXERCISE

• Look up a song that’s popular now with your group. A song that surely everyone has heard and knows. Look up the lyrics and the videoclip and let everybody sing along with the original.
• Now, in groups from 4 to 6 people, you’re going to transform that same song you picked in a different genre. Choose from heavy metal, opera or folk music.
• You can stick to the original as well, but try to perform the song at double speed or half the speed.

VOCAL RANGE IN OPERA 

There is a lot of singing in Be My Superstar. It’s not without reason an opera! Even though you don’t get a big orchestra here, or lots of singing characters. There are a lot of sung dialogs and arias (an aria is a ‘song’ in an opera. One singer sings his or her song as a kind of solo moment.)

In this opera, there are only two singing characters.

Vocal range can vary from very high to very low. The best-known voices are (from low to high): bass – tenor – alto – soprano. Bass and tenor are male voices, alto and soprano are female voices. 
However, there are other singing voices as well. Some female voices can go even higher than the soprano. This is called, the coloratura soprano. She can sing extremely high and virtuoso, like in this example. There is also a voice in between the soprano and the alto: the mezzo-soprano. This voice doesn’t go as high ashigh as the soprano, but still higher than the alto. 

The male voices have sub categories as well. In between the tenor and bass, is the baritone voice. The baritone is less high than the tenor, but not as low as the bass!

A very extraordinary male voice is the countertenor. This male voice has the same pitch as the female alto voice when sung in head voice or falsetto. Sometimes this is applied in rock music (think of Freddie Mercury from Queen). In classical music this exists already for a long time. 

The singers in Be My Superstarare a soprano and a countertenor. These voices were very deliberately chosen. Because the countertenor sings so high (as a man), both characters are singing in the same ‘register’. So, it’s not always clear who is singing.

Evidently this fits perfectly within the theme. The voice of the countertenor is not very common or manly and different from the average singer. An easy target for bullies. 

WHICH NEW WORDS DID YOU LEARN?

Opera, aria, soprano, countertenor, bas, tenor, alto, bariton, register

TEST: How good is your knowledge of opera? 

The answer is: better than you would think! Listen here to some of the most famous operas in history. For groups: can you find one that everyone knows? Then sing the aria with the whole group and let the opera diva in you! (Also let the boys try singing along to a soprano aria, like a counter tenor!)