🌯Burrito

Setup and Launch

You need four singers and a pianist. Decide in advance who conducts the ending — the pianist or one of the singers.

Flow

1. The four singers stand in a horizontal line on stage.
2. The team gets a suggestion. Then the pianist establishes a vamp — a short musical phrase that repeats in a loop.
3. Once the vamp is established, Singer A improvises a couplet — two lines.
4. Singer A repeats that couplet. The repeat shows the other singers and the pianist how long a couplet is. Every couplet keeps that length until the end of the Burrito.
5. Singer B improvises a couplet different from the first.
6. Singer B repeats that couplet, and Singer A sings her first couplet at the same time.
7. Singers A and B repeat their couplets, and Singer C improvises a third couplet, unlike the others, at the same time.
8. Singers A, B and C repeat their couplets, and Singer D improvises a fourth couplet, unlike the others, at the same time.
9. All four singers repeat their couplets at the same time.
10. All four singers drop their volume and keep repeating their couplets at the same time. Now the singers take turns to solo while the others cycle their own couplets. A solo is completely new lyric material: the singer elaborates the position and the perspective of their own couplet. The solo ends when another singer interrupts it. The interrupted singer returns to their couplet at the same low volume as the others.
11. After a satisfying amount of time, the pianist hits a sting — a short sharp musical accent. On that signal all four singers return to their original couplets and sing them at the same time.
12. Then the piano stops. The singers keep repeating their couplets without music.
13. On the second or third repeat, at a satisfying point, the conductor signals a hold. All four singers sustain the note and the word they are singing at that moment.
14. The conductor gives a cut-off gesture — everyone stops at once. The Burrito is finished.

Coach's notes

• Rhyme in a couplet does not matter. All the repeating makes rhyme add nothing to the ear.
• After your first entrance, sing every following repeat quieter. That way the next singer is heard on their own first entrance.
• The form works better when all four singers have different and heightened emotional states. And when all four take the same meaning of the suggestion. For example, "pain" sounds the same as "pane", a sheet of window glass. Everyone sings about one or about the other, never a mix.
• The form works better at a fast tempo than at a slow one.
• A major key works fine. A minor key works better: it nudges the singers toward tension in their lyrics. Tension gives more drama and a more satisfying Burrito.