(Book). Music theory has an unfair reputation as an arcane, complicated subject. But it can be easy to learn and beneficial for a successful career in singing. In Music Essentials for Singers and Actors, award-winning composer Andrew Gerle offers an accessible presentation, conveying an in-depth, practical method for learning the fundamentals of music theory and sight singing for aspiring and working singers alike. Gerle leads readers step by step through every aspect of written music, using examples pulled entirely from real-world Broadway scores. Drawing on his years of experience as a Broadway vocal coach, Gerle shows readers how to use music theory to analyze a score for character development and create a more detailed and powerful performance. He delves deeply into each concept, working thoroughly through its basis in theory and connecting it to the music that we hear and sing every day. His incremental and methodical approach demystifies abstract concepts, and his unique 1-START method for score analysis teaches singers to scan a new song for large-scale patterns, encouraging them to read musical "words" instead of single notes. Gerle also shows how to focus on the visual, graphical nature of musical notation, learning to read music as a series of shapes a technique useful for all readers but especially those with dyslexia and other visual learning challenges. Each chapter is accompanied by downloadable audio examples and exercises to lock in newly learned concepts.