Product Description

12 vocal selections from this Broadway smash complete with souvenir photos from the production. Songs include: Another Day, Halloween, I'll Cover You, One Song Glory, Out Tonight, Rent, Santa Fe, Seasons Of Love, Take Me Or Leave Me, What You Own, Without You, Your Eyes.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #144138 in Books
• Brand: Hal Leonard
• Published on: 1996-12-01
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 104 pages

Customer Reviews

RENT OBC vs. RENT the movie vocal selections
This is a great vocal selection book, however, it only has 12 songs. RENT the movie vocal selections has 18. The music is pretty much the same in both, even though some of the words are changed in the movie book. I think the movie selection book is only $1 more and it's well worth it. If you are a hardcore RENThead like me though, you may prefer the OBC (original broadway cast) vocal book because it is more true to Jonathan Larson's original production.

Song by song from a piano expert
Rent- Interesting. Most authentic in the Collins part
(Allison, baby...) and the JoAnne part (your new production manager...). Play the chords, not the melody

One Song Glory- In the OBC CD, the guitar does that little pluck then echo thing, which isn't great when you try it on the piano. The only complaint I have about this song is that I don't really know when to switch from 'plucking' the notes to actually playing the chords, etc.

Out Tonight- Not what I expected, but can still work. The song itself is very repetitive. Possible to add the melody line here. Takes some improv.

Another Day- Probably my favorite song to play in the book. It's very long, but written SO WELL. The part that I think is the weakest is 'I can't control....is just to be.' When you get to 'the heart may freeze' and 'there's only us' I would suggest playing the broken chordswritten on top. Sounds really good. Make sure to familiarize yourself with that part before you play, it can be somewhat hard.

Santa Fe- This isn't even a song, let alone can you put a piano in it. It needs a bass and drums. VERY DIFFICULT because you're not playing to sung words, most of the song is sung. I'd rather see La Vie Boheme in there...

I'll Cover You- Works a lot. My suggestion would be, in the beginning, to play the intro with your left hand in the bass and just play the chords, until Collins comes in, then play what's written. It's fun to play the reprise- Just slow it down, play the chords, add a little swing to it, and play some Seasons of Love.

Seasons of Love- If you ever want to play a Rent song at a party, a local benefit, or WHATEVER, get a group of friends together and DO THIS SONG!!! If you play it the way it's supposed to be (not really the way it's written) it will be AMAZING. Since the actual song involves a piano MAJORLY, that will make this much more impressive than something that should be played by a guitar. Keep playing the intro- works best without the melody.

Take Me Or Leave Me- Another song that works well with piano. The melody is a bit wierd, perhaps because it's afunky blues type of song. When you get to the part 'so be wise.......that I'm your baby,' it gets hard and doesn't make too much sense. Just keep working on it.

Without You- Melodic song, but very, VERY repetitive. Not one of my favorites. The melody is the same 1-5 (Do-Sol), it just changes key a couple of times. Simple, but you're playing most of it in bass clef, which adds some difficulty (some people can't read bass clef that well).

Halloween- Kind of hard to get the bass and the treble coordinated. Takes time and practice to get the beats right. Complaint- 'why our entire years....3-D imax of my mind' is not great. I like it though, but it's pretty short.

What You Own- Ehh...One of my favorite songs in the OBC CD, but doesn't do well here. Melody line can work in this song. You need to add your own chords, so become familiar with the song.

Your Eyes- Good, does really well on the piano. I like it a lot.

Great
The music is great, as well as the songs that are in the book. It's not challenging for the piano, so anyone can easily learn to play it.