MELODIES: HEINRICH, RICHARD and ME

ANMT’s sixth annual MUSICAL THEATRE BOOT CAMP presents:

MELODIES: HEINRICH, RICHARD and ME

Instructor: Ross Kalling

Six Monday evenings, 7-10:30pm

July 18, 25, August 1, 8, 15, 22

Course Fee: $325 (Early Bird/ANMT Member Fee: $295)

A Series of (brief) lectures, (brief) assignments, and open masterclasses.

The lecture/assignment portion of this class will be a brief exploration of the ideas of Heinrich Schenker as applied to the music of Richard Rodgers. (Did I mention it will be brief?) If you are new to ‘Schenkerian Analysis’ it is a different way of looking at harmonic structure than the traditional functional harmony taught in most academic music theory courses. The thing I found most valuable as a student of Schenkerian technique however, was guidance for my melodic structures and that’s what I want to focus on here. If you have ever found yourself feeling that your melodies just don’t have enough ‘oomph’ or that they seem to wander around aimlessly, this course might be for you.

The first night will be all lecture. After that, each week will begin with about an hour of lecture/assignments, then the remainder of the class each night will be an open masterclass.

You’re free to bring in any score of your own that you’re troubled by and we can all talk about it and I’ll offer any help I can. Or if you just want to talk generally about a specific topic that could work also. We can talk about harmony, chord vocabulary, style, groove, arranging for the piano, writing for the voice, notation, formatting, how to get your lyricist to write something that’s actually setable, how to get your bookwriter to understand that the story needs to be heightened enough that the character actually has a reason to sing about something, dieting tips, postmodern architecture, whatever you’re interested in.

On the first night I’ll query the class to see if there are any ‘themes’ of concern in common so we can focus on a specific area each night. The only pre-requisite that I would recomend is that you must be able to analyze harmonies. I don’t mean for harmonic function, I just mean you must be able to say ‘Oh, I see these two bars here are built around an F major chord’. If this is a challenge for you, you’re still welcome to take the course but I won’t be able to address basic questions about harmony during the class.

See, and you were all worried for nothing.

To register (or for more info) - CLICK HERE

INSTRUCTOR INFO:
Ross Kalling is an award-winning musical director/pianist, having received Dramalogue awards for productions with Friends and Artists’ Theatre Ensemble and the Odyssey Theatre. His other hyphenations include Composer/Lyricist/Arranger/Copyist-Dramaturg-Voice Teacher/Coach-Actor-Author. As a teacher he established the music curriculum at ANMT and continues to be very active privately as a vocal coach and consultant. He was Musical Director at the prestigious Beverly Hills Playhouse for fifteen years where he worked with stars such as Jeffrey Tambor, Dorothy Lyman, Penny Fuller and Doris Roberts and directors Gene Reynolds and Milton Katselas. He is currently the musical director/pianist for Gary Imhoff’s ‘Musical Artists’ Workshop’. He worked on the feature film ‘Relative Strangers’, coaching respectable vocal performances out of Danny Devito and Cathy Bates. He can be seen performing around town at various cabaret venues or in concert halls (and elegantly appointed living rooms) with his classical trio ‘trioCAYENNE’.