Just Sing!
Dylan sings like an angel and, as such, was given a role in the school musical. He is the “Featured Male Singer,” which means he sings several solo songs, including the opening number.
“I can’t hit these notes,” Dylan told me in January. “The opening song is too high for me.”
“Let me hear you try,” I told him, knowing that Dylan has a very impressive range.
He actually squealed when he got to those notes. He tried again, starting in a lower range. But the lower version sounded worse than the squealing.
So we went to his voice coach, who worked with Dylan for a few minutes.
“It’s not a problem,” said the voice coach. “We’ll just have the pit orchestra play it in the key of G.”
The voice coach knows the band director at Dylan’s school. They’re old pals.
So I stopped worrying.
And two months went by.
Two weeks ago, Dylan started rehearsing the opening number – and it was being played in the incorrect key. It wasn’t the band playing – just the original song, and Dylan was supposed to sing along.
“I can’t sing it in this key,” he told the technical advisor – a burly man who really doesn’t know anything about music.
“Sing!” screamed the technical advisor, who is not known for being warm and fuzzy.
“But I’m not comfortable singing it in this key,” Dylan stammered.
“JUST SING!” bellowed the technical advisor.
“I can’t hit the notes,” Dylan said calmly.
“JUST SING THE SONG!”
Dylan did not sing the song. Eventually, the burly man stopped fuming, but will likely never forgive Dylan for his insubordination.
Then Dylan went to the choral director to discuss changing the song key – which is a blog for another day.