The Moment Before the Music Begins (A T.E.A.M. Approach to Song Study)

For over twenty five years Lisa Campbell Albert and Bill Lynch have been collaborating on and in Musical Theatre; working in professional productions, conducting workshops, teaching song study, and coaching both professional and aspiring Musical Theatre artists. Over the years (and the occasional beers), they maintained an ongoing dialogue. They noticed that they were both almost invariably drawn to the same artists. So they asked each other the simple question “why?” What was it that these artists had, or perhaps more importantly, what was it that these artists did that compelled Lisa and Bill to both become involved with the song? While the question seemed simple, the answer seemed elusive. After much debate and discussion, eventually the answer became clear: Lisa and Bill understood why the artist was singing. That’s because the artist knew why they were singing. The need to sing arose in the artist long before the first chord of the song was struck, and was sustained until the final chord resolved. Lisa and Bill cared about why they were singing, therefore cared more about what they were doing in the song than how they were singing the song. In short, the need to sing began for the artist in the moments before the music began. Lisa and Bill set out to develop a vocabulary and a process that guides singers to discover their personal reason for why they are singing a specific song. Through a series of specific questions, the singer then develops a series of actions to play using the lyric, the melody and the accompaniment as tools to achieve an objective. This empowers the singer to make a song their own while honoring the given circumstances provided by the composer, lyricist and librettist. After years of testing and refining this process with students of all ages and levels of experience, Lisa and Bill are excited to share their T.E.A.M tm approach to song study.