Why Do Musical Theatre Performers Need to Know How to Count Music?

One of the most useful sentences a performer can say in a music rehearsal is: “Can we count that?”

Really.

Sometimes the problem is not that you cannot sing the phrase; you just have no idea where it goes.

Listening only gets you so far. A lot of performers learn rhythm by imitation: the music director plays it, you sing it back, they play it again. Eventually you remember the pattern.

That works until the rhythm changes slightly. Or you come in after four measures of rest. Or there is a syncopation you keep feeling differently every time.

Counting gives you something more reliable than “I think it goes around here.”

This comes up constantly in callbacks. You get new music and you have a short amount of time. Everybody learns it together, then somebody asks: “Are we in on four or the and of four?”

If you understand counting, that sentence is completely normal.

If you do not, “the and of four” sounds like someone made up an extra number because four was not specific enough.

Rhythm is usually more fixable than people think. I have heard performers say: “I’m just bad at rhythm.” A lot of the time, nobody ever showed them how to break a rhythm apart. There is a big difference between not having rhythmic ability and not knowing how to count something.

If a phrase is giving you trouble, stop trying to sing it beautifully. Speak it. Clap it. Count it. Yes, it feels ridiculous, but do it anyway.

Once you know exactly where the words land, put the pitches back.

Nobody onstage needs to know you counted it. This is practice-room work. You are obviously not supposed to be onstage thinking “1 and 2 and…” while delivering the emotional climax of the show.

Counting is how you learn the rhythm accurately enough that eventually you do not have to think about it.

That is why musicians count.

Not because we really enjoy numbers. (Even though a lot of us really do.)