What's The Use Of Wond'rin': Lead Sheet / Fake Book

Vocalists love this lead sheet for its emotional generosity. The melody sits naturally in the voice while the implied harmony offers enough sophistication to keep pianists engaged, making it ideal for lessons where you want both musician and accompanist challenged. The form is clear enough for students to grasp quickly, yet the song contains the kind of honest sentiment that cuts through performance anxiety and lands with audiences every time.

There's a wistful quality to this melody, a quiet reflection born from the specifics of character and moment rather than generic emotion. The song unfolds with the pace of genuine thought, with space for uncertainty and gradual clarity, never demanding a grand gesture when a truthful observation will suffice.

Piano students working toward mature jazz and pop voicings will find this lead sheet invaluable for learning how to interpret chord symbols musically. Vocalists preparing audition material or looking for a period piece with genuine dramatic weight benefit from the melody's accessibility and emotional depth. Voice teachers use this as a teaching tool for students exploring musical theater repertoire.

• Shape the melody with attention to text stress; Hammerstein's lyrics guide phrasing naturally if you follow the meaning rather than forcing the melody into even segments.
• Allow rubato in the slower passages without losing harmonic clarity in the accompaniment, which grounds the vocalist's freedom.
• Determine whether you'll voice the chord extensions fully or suggest them lightly, depending on the pianist's comfort level and the venue's acoustic.
• Let silence breathe after key moments of introspection in the lyric; don't rush to fill empty space with accompaniment flourish.

Include this in a musical theater survey program alongside other Rodgers and Hammerstein selections to show the range of their writing, or feature it as a solo moment that showcases a vocalist's ability to inhabit character. It works beautifully as an encore piece because its brevity and emotional focus feel like a gift to the audience rather than an extra obligation.

• Reading lead sheet notation and interpreting chord symbols into voice-leading decisions
• Singing in the musical theater style without oversinging or sacrificing musicality
• Accompanying from a minimal notational framework while maintaining harmonic integrity
• Phrasing lyrics with attention to syntax and emotional subtext rather than mechanical breath patterns
• Collaborating between vocalist and accompanist to achieve interpretive consensus