Last week was a camp called "Broadway and Beyond". I had a boy who was six, and four girls, one seven year old, one nine year old, one thirteen year old, and a five year old. I had my assistant as well in this class, singing along with the others, and encouraging them daily with all the songs we practiced. I found it a challenge to teach kids of such different ages. However, we had a great time in the end. The first day we got to know each other, and practiced vocal technique, and listened to different Broadway songs and enjoyed trying different songs. At first, everyone was shy around each other, and didn't really want to sing solo songs. I have taught this Broadway camp before, however, and I was not discouraged one bit.
The second day, I found a special song for each one of them. The five year old girl got "The Perfect Nanny" from "Mary Poppins". The seven year old girl picked "A Spoonful of Sugar" which was perfect for her! She practiced it many times at home, and memorized it and sang it more confidently each day that we worked on it. The nine year old girl chose "Wouldn't It Be Loverly" from "My Fair Lady". The thirteen year old girl chose "For Good" from "Wicked". And I chose "Wells Fargo Wagon" from "The Music Man" for the six year old boy. I knew all these songs would be great in a recital, because they were very diverse, and I chose three other songs that we performed all together. The first song was "Give My Regards to Broadway" the second one was "Summertime" and the last song was "Defying Gravity". The children all enjoyed singing these songs, especially "Defying Gravity", from "Wicked" what a great song that is!
There was one problem, which was the five year old was struggling with stage fright and would forget words when she got up to the stage and began to sing. We worked on it so much, and finally, we realized that if her sister stood in the back and cued her with movements helping her with the words, then she was ok. She triumphed, it was a great moment when she got through the song for the audience without any difficulty.
One special thing I did with the kids was to make sure they knew the plot of the musical while they were learning the songs. So we read all the plots and discussed the history of them. One girl told the audience that "My Fair Lady" was over fifty years old! I think it was enjoyable for them to really understand the complicated plots to these shows, and it was also great for them to learn about the history of Broadway itself. Their singing was more informed, because they knew what the songs were all about. I also had them tell the audience a little bit about what was happening in the story, so they could center themselves in the plot before they sang. We had a small audience, because we had a small number of participants, but they all sang right on pitch, smiling, really thinking about the character while they sang, and I was thrilled with the performance! Onward and upward, next week is "Princess Academy" and "Piano lab" ..learning to curtsey and smile and wave like a princess in the morning, and play the piano in the afternoon. Very exciting! Hope you have a great weekend all!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvWpMN4XDbc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXzFOHrycHg
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