Student Session
Country Singing 101 for Music Theater
Friday, June 26
Presenter: Edrie Means Weekly
Broadway musicals encompass a plethora of styles including country as seen in Broadway productions like Bright Star, Big River and Best Little Whorehouse In Texas. Country styles of singing cannot be left out of vocal training of music theater singers. Because of these demands, singers need flexibility to switch between vocal registers making different interior shapes to allow changes in the resonance to serve the song style. This session uses a hands-on and skill-building delivery style presented by the biological daughter of the King of Bluegrass, Jimmy Martin. As a group, participants will experiment with exercises for laryngeal flexibility, country “vocal stylisms,” such as cry, yodel, etc., for singing in the country style. This workshop is designed to enhance skills of singers. Participants of Country Singing 101 for Music Theater will leave with tools to use in the classroom, studio setting, auditions and the professional stage to help bring a song to life vocally in the country style.
About Edrie Means Weekly
Edrie Means Weekly, Co-Founder of the CCM Vocal Pedagogy Institute at Shenandoah University, is recognized expert in training singers in all vocal styles and an active professional singer. She was a master teacher for the NATS Intern Program in 2013. Her students can be heard on Grammy recordings, in films, on Broadway, Off-Broadway, in national and international tours, television (including The Voice, American Idol, Kidz Star USA), cruise ships, concert halls and opera houses worldwide. She regularly presents at the Voice Foundation, NATS Chapters/National Conferences, Pan-American Vocology Association, Southeastern Theatre Conference, and universities throughout the United States and authored several research publications in Journal of Voice regarding the teaching of commercial styles and vocal health. She is a contributing author for four books; Teaching Singing in the 21st Century, The Vocal Athlete (second edition), The Voice Teacher’s Cookbook: Creative Recipes for Teachers of Singing and Training Contemporary Commercial Singers. Edrie’s many performances have been broadcast internationally on radio and television, recorded by Decca and Koch. She has been a standby for Broadway stars Patti LuPone, Elaine Paige, and Linda Lavin. Edrie serves on the Advisory Board for the NATS National Musical Theatre Competition and the Scientific Advisory Board of the Voice Foundation. Edrie is the biological daughter of The King of Bluegrass, Jimmy Martin. http://edriemeans.wix.com/edriemeans
