Working with the "13" Piano/Vocal Selections Book
If you're dealing with the piano/vocal arrangements for the musical "13" — music by Marc Shaiman, lyrics and book by Brian Yorkey — you are looking at a fairly substantial book with some genuinely tricky numbers inside. The show ran on Broadway in 2009 and is basically a high school story with teenage protagonists, which means the material sits in a specific vocal zone that is not necessarily friendly to every singer who picks it up. The book contains the main numbers from the score arranged for solo voice and piano. You get the vocal line with lyrics on top and a simplified piano reduction below. For most of the book, the piano part is playable by someone with solid intermediate ability, though a few numbers push into more advanced territory. The vocal ranges are written for the types of voices the show calls for — mostly contemporary musical theatre tenors and altos, with a few belt-range sections mixed in. One thing the book does not do is include every song from the show. The selections are curated, and some of the bigger ensemble or character numbers may be cut. If you are preparing for an audition, you should cross-reference what they are asking for against the actual tracklist rather than assuming the book covers everything you need.
How to Actually Use This Book
Start by identifying which songs match your voice type before you buy anything. The title page and table of contents list the keys and approximate ranges for each number. A few of the ballads sit lower than you might expect — something like "Beautiful Things" pulls down into a comfortable baritone range even though it is catalogued as a tenor number. If you are a high tenor or a belt baritone, that distinction matters a lot for whether you can actually sing it live without destroying your voice by week three. When you are practicing, treat the piano reduction as a guide, not as the final arrangement. Shaiman's orchestrations are layered. The piano book strips away a lot of that texture, and if you just learn from the book alone, you will miss important harmonic color and rhythmic drive. Listen to the cast recording while you practice each number. That recording tells you how the rhythms are supposed to breathe and where the orchestration fills in gaps the piano can't cover. I ran into a specific problem a couple of years ago when I was preparing a student for "13" — we were working "Beautiful Things," and the piano reduction has this repeated figuration in the left hand that never resolves cleanly into the cadence. My first attempt at playing it straight from the book sounded wrong to anyone who had heard the show. The issue was that the reduction compresses some of the harmonic movement into a simpler pattern. I ended up digging through the full orchestral score to find the actual chord voicings for that passage, then re-harmonized the left-hand pattern so it actually resolved. That took about twenty minutes once I knew where to look. If you do not have access to the full score, a pianist who has worked musical theatre scores regularly will recognize the pattern quickly and can adjust it on the spot.
Technical Notes That Will Save You Time
The vocal lines in this book are written in a contemporary musical theatre style. That means you should expect a lot of mixed voice and belted transitions rather than clean classical head voice work. If you are coming from a classical training background, spend time mapping out where the passagio sits for each song. The key choices in the book are performance-friendly, but the intervallic leaps in Shaiman's writing are not always intuitive. "That's Just What We Do" has a jump that catches people off guard on first read because it sits between conversational speech melody and outright belting. The rhythm sections in several numbers reference early 2000s pop-rock and teen-pop sensibilities. The piano part sometimes lays out in a way that looks simpler than it plays. A measure might show quarter notes and eighths but the groove underneath demands a certain bounce or swing feel that is not notated. Again, the cast recording is essential here. You cannot learn the rhythmic character of this show from the book alone. If you are playing for auditions or performances and need to transpose, the book does not include alternate keys. You will need to transpose by hand or use software like Sketch, SmartScore, or even Sibelius to shift the key. Transposing these numbers is usually straightforward since the harmonic progressions are fairly standard, but I would advise keeping the original piano-vocal book as your reference copy and working from that when you make any changes. Trying to transpose directly from memory or from a PDF screenshot leads to messy notation that will look sloppy on a binder page during an audition.
Get the Full Details
Where to Find It
The sheet music is published by Hal Leonard. You can order it through their website, Amazon, Sheet Music Plus, or any major sheet music retailer. The physical book is softcover and runs roughly 60 to 70 pages depending on the edition. Digital versions are available through platforms like MusicNotes and Sheet Music Direct if you prefer reading on a tablet. The digital editions lock the transposition feature behind a paid upgrade in most cases, so if you need to change keys frequently, the physical book plus a transcription tool will save you money over time. Let me be clear about the limitations. This book will not teach you how to belt. It will not coach you through the acting choices in any of the numbers. It does not include choreography notes, staging, or director commentary. If you are a performer using this for a solo recital or audition, you are responsible for your own vocal technique and dramatic interpretation. The piano reduction is a starting point, not a substitute for working with a coach who knows the show. There are also a handful of numbers in the full score that do not appear in the selections book at all. If you are prepping for a role that requires one of those cuts, you will need to obtain the full instrumental parts or locate a licensed performance score through the licensing agent. Hal Leonard handles the licensing for this show, so contacting them directly is the proper channel if you need material outside the vocal selections volume.
Overall, the book is well-organized and the engraving is clean. The fingerings and breath marks are generally thoughtful, though not every page has them. I would recommend using a pencil and marking your own breaths and articulation cues as you go through each number. That habit alone will cut your rehearsal time significantly and make the book easier to return to if you set it aside for a few weeks between sessions.
