Stacie:  Ah yes, the famous illiteratre musical theater "singer"!!!  I've been there, as I'm sure have many of us.

 

Drill, drill, and more drill.  They have to learn by ear, so it's the only way.  And even so it may turn out that they are actually incapable of learning a harmony part, retaining it, and SINGING IT in context.

 

If it's a show that has the score pretty complete on a CD, have them get a copy of the CD and learn it by ear.  THEY WILL MAKE UP THEIR OWN HARMONY PART, because that's what that kind of "singer" does, and just let them do it.

 

And next time around don't accept the responsibility unless you have serous input, including veto power, on the casting.  And work out an audition test that actually checks for exactly that capability.  To some theater people a song IS the melody, and they can't conceive the idea that a harmony part is ANOTHER melody.  And there isn't much you can do for someone like that, except to cast them in a part where it doesn't hurt the production.

 

I did exactly that the year I ran the vocal auditions for Disney's "All American College Singers," and it worked so well that I continued to use it for my college show ensemble.  I didn't check their "reading," and I didn't give them a melody to learn.  I gave them harmony parts to learn (short and really quite easy, but with one little trap in each part) and didn't care whether they learned by reading, by ear, or by prayer and fasting as long as they could internalize their part and sing it in a group, because that's what you need for them to do!!

All the best,

John

In our choir we have part CDs which have each specific part overlaid on top of the original music. For example, on the alto CD, the alto part in played in piano on the left channel and the original music with voices is on the right channel. This allows me to listen in the car and start out with a lot of my part playing and then start turning it off as I get stronger by changing the left/right balance control. I am not sure which software our worship director uses but there are probably many available online with this capability! With my K-6th grade children's choir I have my daughter sing melody with one half of the children while I sing alto with the other half. We do a lot of acapella work to try to hear the harmonies and really focus on blending and then add the instrumental in later. Sometimes we start out with just two students who have it down and then add one at a time making sure that it is still blending. Good luck!