Musical Improv 1: Songs, Lyrics & Rhymes

Do you enjoy improv? Do you enjoy music? Congratulations, you have what it takes to be a musical improv rock star—which is exactly what the All Out Comedy Musical Improv program will help you to become.

In Musical Improv 1, we focus on what it takes to improvise complete songs based on nothing more than a suggestion. We start with building confidence in our own voices–redefining what it means to be a “good singer”–then focus on the fundamentals of improvised songs: Heightened emotions; big dumb choruses; structured verses; tight taglines; humorous lyrics, f*ck-around bridges; and setting up and paying off bad-ass rhymes.

Each week we’ll build on those specific skills in structured ways so that after 8 weeks, you’ll leave feeling confident to sing your own improvised songs. In Musical Improv 2, we’ll introduce genres, spectacle and game, all of it building to a graduation show in which we stage our own improvised music festival. Then in Musical Improv 3 we’ll add in scene work and focus on earning songs from within scenes. And finally, in Musical Improv 4A and 4B we’ll learn complete show forms that will allow you to improvise an entire rock opera or Broadway musical.

Students will leave this class with several new skills including:

How to take focus and use your physical presence to sing confidently;
How to set a repeatable—but beautiful—Big Dumb Chorus;
How to add polish through harmonies, counterpoint and space-filling;
How to generate verse lyrics that are detail-rich and satisfying;
How sing complete chorus-verse songs and tagline solos and duets;
How to set up and payoff rhymes like a pro.

Requirements:

Due to the more advanced nature of this class, all students enrolling in this class must have completed All Out Comedy’s Level 3 improv course or the equivalent at another improv theater.

People with no musical experience and people who’ve been told they are “bad singers” are highly encouraged to enroll!

Those who have previously studied or performed musical improv in the Bay Area will also benefit from this class—our curriculum is rooted in approaches and forms developed in Chicago that are not commonly taught in the Bay Area.

Instructor: Ming Wong

Ming is an All Out Comedy mainstage cast member and a founding member of both RiOt: An Improvised Rock Opera and the musical improv indie team The Fledglings. You can also catch him twice a month belting his heart out with All Out Comedy's critically acclaimed musical improv show Knockoff Broadway. Ming is a graduate of the musical improv programs at both All Out Comedy and Leela Improv and also performs regular improv with the mainstage cast of All Out Comedy Theater and independent teams Oakland Dogwater District, Quality Control, and Bango Manana.

Dates: Sundays, 11:00am-1:30pm, July 20-September 14 (20 Hours)
* No class 8/31 for the holiday weekend.

Registration: $379

Location: All Out Comedy Theater, 2550 Telegraph Avenue, Oakland, CA 94612
*Please check your maps says Oakland. There's a duplicate address in Berkeley.