RHS – Vocal Parts and Orchestration Tips

For RHS music directors, vocal coaches, conductors and band leaders.

First off, let’s be politically correct: The movie is the Rocky Horror Picture Show – the stage version is simply called the “Rocky Horror Show”, or RHS.

So you’ve heard the rumor that the Rocky Horror Show scores from Samuel French do not include the original orchestrations from the movie (Rocky Horror Picture Show) and do not contain the choir background vocal parts.

Yes, this is mostly true. But before you freak out like I did – let me fill you in on how to navigate around this. It’s not that big of a deal as was presented to me. I had been told what a major orchestration job it was going to be. It’s not bad.

ROCKY HORROR SHOW MUSIC ORCHESTRATION

The scores are written by hand but very legible. They are basically chord charts with basic bass lines and chord patterns written out – with the vocal lines above the piano part. It’s about what you would expect from a jazz lead sheet. If you’ve played in cover bands and are even a little bit seasoned – you’ll be able to fill in the parts easy with a couple (or one) listens through the CD. There is nothing musically in the show that I wouldn’t have played during a typical gig at a country bar, if that helps you out a bit.

Don’t know how to play old skool rock ‘n roll piano? If you are comfortable playing “Old Time Rock ‘n Roll” then you’re fine.

If you want to really get into it, I suggest getting these three recordings for different approaches and flavors to the songs:

1. Original Motion Picture Sounddtrack (Tim Curry)
2. Original London Soundtrack
3. 2000 Broadway Revival (CD cover FF has shock white hair)

I also suggest getting the RHS Audience Participation CD – It’s a two CD set that has all the audience lines. Great practice for the cast, and for directors to make sure no audience lines are being missed. All CD’s are available on Amazon.com at the time of this posting.

There are elements I like from all three versions. From the Rocky Broadway Revival you will pick up a little more zing in the instrumental parts, grooves and tempos. The characters in the remake are a little more tongue ‘n cheek – for character development I personally prefer the original motion picture soundtrack for most characters (Dr. Scott is pretty cool on the remake).

STRING PARTS: The movie has string parts. I prefer to just cover them by ear on a synth. If you add real string players you’ll need a section and your budget just went way up. If you were to chart out Violin parts I would estimate for the whole show it might take 4-5 hours (that’s including 2 hours for whining and saying “Why do I have to do this?”).

TRANSPOSITION: Because of the lead sheet format of the scores, it’s VERY easy to transpose songs. Rocky is the tough one – his part goes up to a high A. The score key for Rocky’s song “Sword of Damocles” is D – one of my recordings has lowered to the key of B. That’s a good key for most Rocky’s.

ROCKY HORROR SHOW VOCAL PARTS

It’s true, very few of the chorus parts are written in the score. BUT, the good news is because the score is basically in lead sheet style, there’s plenty of room to write in the vocal parts. It was not that much work. It took me less than three hours to score all the vocal parts for the entire show. Vocal parts are 2 and 3 part harmonies. The background vocal parts are not difficult and borderline obvious. I’m pretty fast with a pencil but c’mon, it’s not that much work.

My approach is to take all three renditions and use my favorite interpretation from each CD recording. For myself, I do not add parts that are not part of authorized productions out of respect for the writers. It’s not my job to re-write things, I’m just the MD (musical director). I learned that from conducting – don’t rewrite the scores.

Less Is More – Chart out your two and three part vocal arrangements but give individual ensemble vocalists the flexibility to choose the harmonies they want. This worked well for our ensemble. If people are in the RHS cast, they are probably very creative people. Let them use that in their part singing as well. If you need to hear a certain harmony more, ask someone to jump over. It’s a much more fun and effective approach for this show.

(For our production I would not give ensemble music, had them learn it by ear. It works well for this style of music and keeps individual voices free with the music. Highly recommended approach for this particular musical.)

TOTAL PROJECT TIME:
Writing Choir Parts – 3 hours
Chorus Learning All Parts – 3 hours.