This month, songs by the teen Indie-pop sensation known as Billie Eilish have been making their way around my studio, and it's easy to understand why. Her dark, Lana Del Rey-inspired lyrics, coupled with her breathy, hypnotic vocals are beautiful and evocative. But singing quietly consistently, especially something as rangy as "When the Party's Over," can be extremely challenging, and in some ways harder than just being loud. That's why we decided to do something unusual and pick a song known for its quiet vocals instead of its powerful ones for our newest Hard Songs to Sing post.
If you’ve been around kids, teens, or even adults who grew up in the 90’s, there’s a 96.4% chance that you’ve run across the song “Speechless” from Aladdin, sung by the lovely Naomi Scott. As a voice teacher, I’ve gotten constant requests to teach the song, and since it requires a vocal technique tour de force to pull off, it’s a fun one for me. But this one is in no way easy–it may start off fairly mild, but it builds and builds until it hits a very high bridge and final chorus. It definitely deserves a place in our Hard Songs to Sing collection.
When I signed one of my students up to sing "Dead Mom" from Beetlejuice at our December Recital, our Program Manager replied, "Sorry, we already have 2 Dead Moms." Darkly comedic phrasing aside, the point is clear: Everyone loves singing the song--and it's not surprising. The song is catchy, fun to belt, and extremely vocally challenging, not to mention that Sophia Anne Caruso just kills it and is exciting to listen to.
It may not have reached "Let It Go" acclaim quite yet, but "Into the Unknown" is exploding in popularity, and nobody is that surprised. When Frozen 2 came on the scene, everyone was already waiting to hear what the next big Idina Menzel hit would sound like. "Into the Unknown" is catchy and fun to sing, but those choruses and that bridge are high and on fairly unfriendly vowels. If you're ready to stop ignoring the whispers and want to try journeying into the unknown vocally, start with this post to make your trip a little less perilous.
Figuring out how to shape the song in a way that can maximize a powerful performance takes a lot of thought and preparation--not to mention that the low notes are just so low for many female vocalists!
After the award-winning remake of A Star is Born was released, "Shallow," the movie's central musical theme, was catapulted to widespread popularity. I began getting a lot of requests to sing it, from female solos, to mixed gender duets. It quickly became clear that "Shallow" isn't quite as easy as Gaga makes it sound and that it deserves a place in our Hard Songs to Sing collection.
A couple of months ago, we put together a Hard Songs to Sing tutorial on A Million Dreams, from The Greatest Showman. Since then, other Greatest Showman songs have spiked in popularity as well–in particular, the very challenging “Never Enough.” Not only does “Never Enough” take a considerable range and incredible endurance to conquer, but […]
By far, my most requested song to learn in voice lessons from both boys and girls right now is “A Million Dreams,” from the film The Greatest Showman. It may not be as tough to sing as “This is Me,” from the same movie, but it poses a unique set of challenges that singers new […]
Close to a decade ago, when Kesha (then Ke$ha) was out there performing “Tik Tok,” it didn’t feel likely that one of her songs would eventually make it into our Hard Songs to Sing collection. But “Praying” is a whole different beast. If you’ve tried it, you may have found that it begins lower than […]
Shawn Mendes live in concert by Josiah VanDien under cc by-sa-4.0 I don’t often spend that much time talking or writing about where to breathe in a song, because frankly, in most cases I think it’s pretty obvious and just a place for voice teachers to hang their hat. Typically, if you breathe at the […]
On the surface, “Issues,” by Julia Michaels, may not seem like a tough a song. It doesn’t go that high, and when it does, Michaels transitions into a light head voice. But you’d be surprised at how many problems those little note jumps can cause you if you aren’t prepared for them. The result I […]
Typically, I use this blog as an outlet to write about hard-to-sing pop songs that I get a lot of requests for. But occasionally, I’ll venture into the musical theatre realm, which poses its own unique set of challenges. The score of Hamilton, and the song “Burn” in particular, is widely sung and full of […]