Broadening your repertoire

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As vocalists the further you get into your musical journey, the more pieces you will learn. They may be aimed to help you learn a vocal technique, give you a challenge or may be one you have written yourself.

This can be a good way of learning songs. Although some may be more challenging than others. And some may be so much of a challenge, that you would never want to practise them again. There may even be some that you can’t sing. There may be ways that you can sing the song such as: making the piece a different key

You must keep in mind that there are some pieces, that you won’t be able to sing. Every singer has some pieces that they will not be able to sing, it’s just a fact of life. There’s certain things that you aren’t able to do. It’s better to focus on the songs that you can sing, rather than the ones that you can’t.

With the pieces that you can sing there can be a tendency to fall into a specific way of singing or one genre. This can be a good thing, as you know what you are comfortable singing and can help with building a repertoire. Although it can be a bad thing too, as it can be intimidating to look into new genres and ways of singing. Avoiding new repertoire doesn’t lead to a well rounded repertoire and voice.

If you think about it metaphorically, if you were to eat the same meal everyday it might get boring. However on the other hand there are some people, that really like to have the same type of food. Its all up to personal taste, I always used to stick with the same types of food. Although one day, I added some spice and vegetable to my meal which made it a lot nicer. Since then I have been trying to try different types of meals, and add different spices and vegetables to make them taste new and exciting.

I first started to learn to sing different genres when studying for my vocal performance BTEC. For each semester we would sing pieces in a different genre. So the first semester would be pop, the second would be jazz and so on. It was a challenge learning different genres, though it taught me that I was capable of singing in a whole new way. It gave me a new prospective on the songs I could sing. And made me want to broaden my repertoire.

Note; it’s important to know where your comfortable singing and your vocal range.

To help you broaden your repetoire I have gathered these following tips and exercises.

These tips come from an article called “How to Build Up Your Repertoire of Songs” can be found here

Make a realistic list of songs to learn

Spend some time thinking about the songs you already know, are they challenging you?, do you enjoy singing them? And will your audience recognise the song?.

Questions like this can help you analyse the songs that are gonna help your performance and what will hinder your performance.

Try to keep this list updated as much as you can, as you evolve in your musical journey.

Try list

Note down a few songs that you want to try, even if they seem a little bit challenging. Then at least you know what songs you wanna try. Write underneath the songs that you’ve noted down, the reasons why you want to try the songs.

Is it because it is challenging? is it because they are technically interesting? what is it about that specific song that makes you want to try to sing it.

For example, my normal repertoire is songs such as

-Your song by Elton John

-Chasing Pavements by Adele

-Dancing Queen by ABBA

Where as some of the songs I want to try are:

-Misery Business by Paramore

I want to try this song, because it’s a little a rock/pop Fusion. And has a nice opportunity for vocals ad-libs and Improvisation.

-Little Miss Perfect written By Joriah Kwame & Sung By Taylor Louderman

I want to try this song, because it’s in a different genre (musical Theatre) then I would usually sing. Also is in a higher in range than I normally would try.

–Beautiful by Christina Aguilera

I want to try this song because, it gives me a chance to add more vocal ad-libs and harmonies.

Practise your list

This is a obvious tip , but practising songs in your repertoire list can help you analyse which songs you may be repeating too much. As repeating a song can make it boring for both yourself and the audience.

If you’re having trouble with deciding which songs may not fit your vocal style anymore. Try recording yourself back, recording a cover of the song or even try performing in front of someone that you trust and ask for their feedback.

For example a while ago, I found that one song in my repertoire list kept coming up over and over. This song was “Part of your world” from Disney’s little mermaid, written by Alan Menken and originally performed by Jodi Benson.

For example here’s a version of the song from 2015

And here’s another version of the song from 2019

As much as I love the song I had done it for so long, I managed to do two covers of it. It began to feel stale and was not helping me broaden my repertoire in anyway. It was clear this song wasn’t expanding my technical vocal skills or challenging me. So I decided to have it as a fun song that I could sing, but not part of my repertoire.

These tips are for a more general musician audience rather then specific to the vocal instrument.

Composers

This tip comes from an article called” Broadening Your Repertoire Horizons“and can be found here

If there are any composers that you like, if so then look up some music specific to your instrument. This can help you play some pieces from a person that has written music you liked in the past.

Rolemodels

Explore some famous artists or artists that you like, and see if they have done any songs in different genres. This may help spark some ideas or inspiration for you.

For example, one of the great inspiration for myself is Adele. I looked up similar artists eventually leading me to great vocalists such as Peggy lee, Nina Simone, Aretha Franklin and Etta James. By listening to these artists I had an inspiration to look at the genre of Jazz.

These tips comes from an article called” How to Broaden Your Active Repertoire”and can be found here

Goals and milestones

Set some milestones and goals for yourself. This can help with keeping on track with the songs that are challenging you. Also will give you an idea of the songs you can rid from your repertoire list.

Maintain your list

Try to keep a good handle on your repertoire list and keep it maintained. When you have got a little tired of the songs, research some of the older songs in your repertoire. These older songs can be brought back in to increase the number of songs that you can play.

Struggling with learning new repertoire?

Try this article by W. Stephen Smith, that can be found here

I hope this article has helped you with understanding why it’s important to broaden your repertoire, how it can help your performance and how to compose a repertoire list if you’re struggling.

Did this article help you? Let me know in the comments