Finding Songs in Popular Styles for Students

Many of my students do sing popular style songs, especially during 4th quarter where the focus is on musical theatre and popular styles and comparing them to what we have learned about classical production.  But sadly, I will admit that I often just let students bring in what they want to sing.  Most of the time I ask them to choose 3-4 songs they would be interested in working on.  At a lesson, I have them sing along with YouTube, and I evaluate using very similar guidelines to the ones I use when I am choosing their classical songs. Then I choose the song that I think would work best.  These are a few of the things that I'm listening for:  

• Does the song fall not just within the student’s range, but also within a comfortable tessitura?  Have you tried multiple keys to find the best option for that student?  
• At musicnotes.com you can get most of the current hits transposed into the best key for that student.  
• At karaoke-version.com you can find backing tracks and then transpose them up or down by a half step or a whole step.  
• Does the song offer opportunities for growth AND does it also show the voice at its best?  Are the technical demands appropriate to where the student is today?
• Does the student like the song?
• Are the student’s musical skills advanced enough for the difficulties of the melodic line and rhythms?
• Is the text appropriate for a student this age?  Do they understand what they are singing about and can they communicate the meaning to an audience?

I reserve the right to veto, and often I do if it just doesn't fit their range and the key they need is not available, or if the text is not one that I am comfortable with them singing at our family friendly recital.  

If a student asks me for recommendations, that is where I have more difficulty.  Often, I offer the titles that other students have brought in the last few years that I think might fit their voices.  I don't spend a lot of my own personal time and energy listening to a lot of music and learning it myself like I do with classical, and therefore, the list of possibilities I can give them is much smaller.  

In the perfect world, I would know all the newest songs in every genre.  The reality though is that the popular music world is so huge in terms of styles, that there just plain isn't the time in my life for that and for learning new classical music and repertoire, which is the main focus of my teaching.  

Please share your favorite ways to find popular style music for your students.