[sam.henderson]

I am SMing a Musical comming up very shortly and as there is no DSM I am also calling the show! Anyway I was wondering if I should cue from the score or not??

I have never done this before but can just about read music, but am by no means any expert.

So what are peoples views- should I or should I not cue from the score??

Sam

[peter]

It really depends on a lot of factors - not least of which, how well you can read the score - its one thing to be able to read music to a certain grade, but you may find that the score is very difficult to follow.

If you do choose to follow the score, its best to follow a libretto rather than a full orchestral score, but make sure you're familiar with any discrepancies between the libretti and the orchestral version - sometimes the orchestral version will produce very different sounding music, which its important to know and possibly note in your libretto.

Which musical is it? Some are easier to follow in the score than others.

A side note - The SMA run a course on score reading - see here for more information.

Hope this helps.



Peter

[gareth]

sam.henderson, on 10 Jun 2004, 09:29 PM, said:

I am SMing a Musical comming up very shortly and as there is no DSM I am also calling the show! Anyway I was wondering if I should cue from the score or not??

I have never done this before but can just about read music, but am by no means any expert.

So what are peoples views- should I or should I not cue from the score??

Sam

Yes, probably.

It's probably a safe bet that, unless your musical is unusually light on LX cues, there will be quite a few that happen over fairly lengthy instrumental passages (e.g. dance numbers). If you're calling it from a script how are you going to notate cues like this in a sufficiently precise way if you don't have any music to refer to?

[Jivemaster]

Speak to the head muso see what scores they have some are easier to read than others, the conductors will have a lot to follow there may be a rehearsal piano score that says enough for you without turning 5 pages a minute

[paulears]

if you are not 100% on your reading, a full score is best, as long as you have time to mark it up properly - a good tip is to highlight easily heard melodic lines that you will be able to spot quickly if you get lost. a 'twiddly' bit on a horn, or a decending line in the bass part. Vertical reading is quite difficult until you get used to it. Also, don't forget that the full score has very frequent page turns - looking ahead for cues may not be that easy, if the tempo is a little swift - you can easily have 30 seconds on a page! Peters afvice on a reduction makes good sense - especially as you can follow the lyrics if you get lost.

I remember a show where the DSM turned the show over to me once, on LX, because of music related cues. I hate Sonheim, and into the woods is awful to read - getting lost is normal!

[gareth]

paulears, on 10 Jun 2004, 11:01 PM, said:

Also, don't forget that the full score has very frequent page turns - looking ahead for cues may not be that easy, if the tempo is a little swift - you can easily have 30 seconds on a page!

Even a piano/vocal 'reduction' can suffer from this. If you've got five or six voice parts running simultaneously with a piano part, you can only get two lines onto an A4 page ... if there's a lot of 'information' (I.e. notes!) in each bar you might only get two or three, bars per line, so you might be looking at having as few as eight bars visible at any one time in a worst-case situation. Therefore if the tempo's really motoring along, you might be looking at a page turn every 15 seconds or so.

Regarding following the lyrics - that always assumes you can make sense of them! I lit an opera last year which was sung in Hungarian ("Hunyadi Laszlo" by Ferenc Erkel, fact fans!) - now that's a bitch of a language to follow in a score!

[Bryson]

If there's any backing track, record timecode onto the multitrack and cue off a timecode clock. Easy! Better still, give the desks timecode, program the times and sit and watch them cue themselves...

[peter]

Bryson, on 11 Jun 2004, 02:35 AM, said:

If there's any backing track, record timecode onto the multitrack and cue off a timecode clock. Easy! Better still, give the desks timecode, program the times and sit and watch them cue themselves...

Allright Mr SmartyPants... we're not all in cruise ship zone

[WiLL]

If you get REALLY stuck, say a sondheim musical translated into ancient bavarian, you could always just whack on the old SM stopclock and note down timings of cues within a song. Although I would advise brushing up on your score reading and attempt it from that, far more reliable.

[andy_s]

yes - you need the score to call the show from. If your score reading is not your main skill - spend as much time as possible in rehearsals listening to the music. Get hold of a recording if possible, and learn the show. It won't necessarily be identical to your version, but it will get you familiar with all the important bits and help you find your place if (when?) you get lost... The good thing about musicals and opera that helps the DSM / showcaller is that they are unlikely to start improvising or missing chunks of text out, which can happen with even the best actors occasionally (the excitement of live theatre.)

Its perfectly possible to learn to call a show "by ear", in the same way as musicians cue themselves in. The reason the score is essential is for consistency, and to ensure that if for any reason you can't call the show (arguments with buses etc) someone else can step in.

[Bryson]

Quote

QUOTE (Bryson @ 11 Jun 2004, 02:35 AM)

If there's any backing track, record timecode onto the multitrack and cue off a timecode clock. Easy! Better still, give the desks timecode, program the times and sit and watch them cue themselves...

Allright Mr SmartyPants... we're not all in cruise ship zone

I'd contend that it's not actually that hard or expensive - you just need to be using click or backing track. Which many, many people do these days.

[Jemma]

Quote

especially as you can follow the lyrics if you get lost.

This is all well and good unless - as happened to me when I was DSM for Oliver - the actor (Fagin in this case) forgets the words to the song & just la's his way through!

Would recommend working on the score reading if you can.

Even though I can read music reasonably well (although haven't had to cue a ballet yet!), I often also find it helpful to tap along with a pencil, e.g. if the music is in 3/4 time, tap the pencil 3 times in each bar, literally moving your hand along the music. This is also useful if you have to look up from a score, e.g. for a visual cue.

[lucy_ironside]

paulears, on 10 Jun 2004, 11:01 PM, said:

if you are not 100% on your reading, a full score is best, as long as you have time to mark it up properly - a good tip is to highlight easily heard melodic lines that you will be able to spot quickly if you get lost. a 'twiddly' bit on a horn, or a decending line in the bass part. Vertical reading is quite difficult until you get used to it. Also, don't forget that the full score has very frequent page turns - looking ahead for cues may not be that easy, if the tempo is a little swift - you can easily have 30 seconds on a page! Peters afvice on a reduction makes good sense - especially as you can follow the lyrics if you get lost.

I remember a show where the DSM turned the show over to me once, on LX, because of music related cues. I hate Sonheim, and into the woods is awful to read - getting lost is normal!

I've been a DSM on musicals for some years and I have never ever come across any DSM using a full orchestral score. We all use reduced piano scores (apart from those who use librettos only - I.e. DSMs who don't read music, who rely on learning the music by ear). Most reduced piano scores have the relevent instrument indicated next to the melodic line anyway. If you used a full orchestral score you would be turning the page every few seconds and would not get sufficient time to read the cues. Aside from that you would spend all your time turning pages and not watching your monitors to see what is going on - which rather defeats the object of being the DSM. It should always be easy to get hold of the reduced piano score: simply ask the MD or rehearsal pianist if can copy theirs. I can assure you the rehearsal pianist will almost certainly be playing from reduced piano score.

[lucy_ironside]

peter, on 10 Jun 2004, 09:40 PM, said:

If you do choose to follow the score, its best to follow a libretto rather than a full orchestral score, but make sure you're familiar with any discrepancies between the libretti and the orchestral version - sometimes the orchestral version will produce very different sounding music, which its important to know and possibly note in your libretto.

Which musical is it? Some are easier to follow in the score than others.

A side note - The SMA run a course on score reading - see here for more information.

Hope this helps.



Peter

A libretto is just the words. It doesn't contain any score. A vocal score would be a better compromise.

Plenty of professional DSMs, however, only cue from the libretto - the ones who don't read music. If they have a good ear they get away with it. It's a real bitch, however, for us score readers when we take over books from them. If you're used to just reading the music you have to try and work out what their cue points are from their descriptions. Again, with a good ear you get it sorted out and can tranfer it to score.

[paulears]

lucy_ironside, on 18 Jun 2004, 09:33 PM, said:

peter, on 10 Jun 2004, 09:40 PM, said:

If you do choose to follow the score, its best to follow a libretto rather than a full orchestral score, but make sure you're familiar with any discrepancies between the libretti and the orchestral version - sometimes the orchestral version will produce very different sounding music, which its important to know and possibly note in your libretto.

Which musical is it?  Some are easier to follow in the score than others.

A side note - The SMA run a course on score reading - see here for more information.

Hope this helps.



Peter

A libretto is just the words. It doesn't contain any score. A vocal score would be a better compromise.

Plenty of professional DSMs, however, only cue from the libretto - the ones who don't read music. If they have a good ear they get away with it. It's a real bitch, however, for us score readers when we take over books from them. If you're used to just reading the music you have to try and work out what their cue points are from their descriptions. Again, with a good ear you get it sorted out and can tranfer it to score.

oops - I think it was me who said libretto - should have known better. meant to say a piano reduction, something like the rehearsal material - sorry lucy