Music Resources for the ACNA – Presented by the ACNA …



CHOIR TOOLBOX IBasics of Effectively Leading a Church ChoirMy goal, is that in the next seven pages, I will lay out for you a complete and time tested path for successfully leading a church choir.PROCESS OVER PRODUCTIt is my fundamental belief that the process of rehearsing together and working together in Christian love and grace should be maintained as a higher priority than the product of a choir or music ensemble’s offering in worship. Let me expound on what might seem a somewhat radical statement by those focused primarily on the performance of their ensemble—as was the case in the undergrad music school I attended.I have discovered since that if the quality of the group’s time together is prioritized and is well-prepared by the leader, full of the qualities of depth, meaning, beauty, and grace, this will all come out in the ensemble’s offering in worship. If these qualities are lacking in the rehearsal time, this too will come out in the ensemble’s offering in worship.Where does this group of Christians spend the most time together making music? The clear answer is in their weekly rehearsal. Prioritize the quality of that time together, the process over the product, and my experience is that the product will be just fine, and the better for it.APPROACHING MUSICWhen a seasoned musician approaches a piece of music, he or she knows that there is much more that can be brought into the music making experience than is communicated on the static page in front of them. The employment of musical phrasing, the choice of articulations, the stressing of key words, the use of tempo rubato—these all bring life to the printed page. This is both a key part of the making of music and much of the expressive joy and power of the craft.BLEND AND BALANCE—Learning to sing as one voice.Two key words in the art of choral singing are important to discuss as a starting point of leading a choir; they are blend and balance. Blend is the skill of listening and working toward unified vowels in the words that the ensemble sings. When singing, a choir spends 95% of their time on sustained vowel sounds, and so learning to listen for and be sensitive to blending vowels will be key to learning to sing as one voice. (Note: with consonants, I have the choir sing their consonant sounds the same volume as the vowels that they are singing so that their consonants do not sound unnatural.) With vowels, you are working to lead the church choir in singing tall vowels that are north/south oriented inside the mouth cavity, as in reading good poetry aloud. This is opposite of having an east/west vowel orientation, as in singing Country & Western music. You modeling the difference and having the choir experience the difference can be very helpful, along with frequent reminders. It is important to let your singers know in this that their experience of proper choral vowels for singing will be different than the vowels that they use for everyday speaking. A very helpful exercise for establishing blend between singers is to model for the choir the singing of some of the music’s text on a unison pitch, as in chant, with the employment of tall, north/south vowels and the stressing of key words while chanting. Chanting is the singing of speech rhythms on a single pitch. Either you as the leader can do this, or you can prepare a competent singer in the choir to model this for the choir. As you progress, ask the singers to listen deeply to the modeling and then to sing back what they have heard at a volume level of 2 (mezzo piano). Soft singing facilitates choir being able to hear better and to listen more sensitively.If then what you get back from the choir on the first try does not match the model, lovingly encourage them to listen even more deeply and to try again. They will eventually succeed and this activity will pave the way to “choral ear cleaning” for the singers as well as raise their sensitivity and awareness to the skill of blending together as a musical ensemble. Finally, in this work of establishing blend, have them apply these learnings to the singing of the text on the composed melody and/or printed harmony in front of them. The rewards of this fundamental blending exercise will become self-evident in short order and will reaffirm why the art of chant is so foundational to good singing.Balance, the second foundational element to good choral singing, is the skill of listening to and choosing balanced volumes between the individual singers in the choir as well as between the vocal sections of the choir (sopranos to altos, tenors to basses, etc.). For success here, both the individual singers and each section of the choir need to work at being sensitive to and artfully matching their volumes. Careful listening on the part of both the leader and the singers is key. A helpful balance exercise is to begin your work with a vocal section of the choir and model for them, at a volume 2 (mezzo piano), a good oo vowel on the pitch of A (the vowel oo is best formed with the space of the vowel oh inside the mouth and outside the mouth, the lips drawn together as though sipping through a straw). Now ask one singer in a vocal section of the choir to join you, in their own octave range) and copy the vowel and the volume that you are singing so that the two of you both blend and balance with one another. As you keep the sound going, gently cue in singers, one at a time in the section, asking them to join in and to listen deep enough so as to not “disturb the waters” when they do while maintaining the qualities of blend and balance. After establishing a good sound in one section of the choir, continue with adding in other sections of the choir, one singer at a time, until the whole choir is sustaining the A pitch on oo balanced and blended.Now, cue them to all stop. Then bring them in all together on the same pitch asking them to maintain the sound they just had so that they can confirm and experience success. As a final step, begin to “travel” their work by asking them to apply their now better blended and balanced sound to a basic vocal warm up, such as singing a descending 5-note scale that ascends in half steps on each repetition. (See Building Beautiful Voices – Director’s Edition by Paul Nesheim & Weston Noble, in the HIGHLY RECOMMENDED BOOKS section of the CHOIRS website page for an excellent resource for choral warm-ups and ear cleaning.)The next level in this work together will be to ask the choir to sing the 5-note scales at varying dynamics on a 1-5 dynamic level scale (1 being piano, 2 being mezzo piano, 3 being mezzo forte, etc.). I have found my singers respond very well to numeric dynamics (1-5) as they are quicker and more efficient than the longer Italian terms for dynamics. As a final task, ask your singers to now apply these many learnings to the music they will be honing together, maintaining their blend and balance while employing the variety of dynamics called on by the composer. You will find that the choir will sing more in tune, sing more as one voice, and be the richer and more expressive out of this work. Remember too, that as their leader, the choir will be counting on you to lovingly encourage them to keep these qualities in check and to “never sing louder than lovely”, as one of my mentors used to say.MOVING FROM “EAR CLEANING” TO SINGING MUSICA time-proven and successful method for moving a choir toward a “one-voice” sound, while working on hymns or anthems, is to have the choir sing together on a “telling” neutral syllable (e.g. pure, tall vowels of oo, loo, loh, or lah). Choose a neutral syllable from this list that best fits the mood and tone color of the music before you and that you want them to express. Then model for them the dance and the articulation that you desire for them on the chosen “telling” neutral syllable. This “componenting pedagogy” separates out the choir learning the melodic or harmonic content of the music from the text component of the music so that they can learn and absorb the music making and musical expressions in levels, and not all at one time. Be certain though, as the leader, that you have a good model in your own head and have prepared to demonstrate it. Or, again, prepare a good singer in the choir to illustrate for the choir what you envision for the dance, articulation, and vowel color for the piece.After the choir has carefully listened to the model, have them sing it in likewise fashion on a “telling” neutral syllable, about a volume 3 (mezzo forte) on a 1-5 volume scale. Again, “never louder than lovely”. Accept openly whatever the choir gives you in their first singing, maintaining a safe and loving environment for them. Keep in mind here that nothing zaps creativity and openness to new learnings than a threatening or tense environment or conductor.Finally, when they can sing the melody or their parts in this manner on a neutral syllable, and are listening carefully enough to sing together and blend as one voice, ask them to “drop the words” into that soundscape without changing a thing. If you chose an oo vowel as the best tone color for the music at hand, then the color of their sound when singing the words should still be within the sound color of the oo tone; likewise with a lah tone or a loh tone, etc. (I use oo for establishing a pure, smooth musical line. I use loo to aid the choir beyond singing oo alone so they can better sense the pulse of the musical beat as they sing. I use lah or tah for more dance-like music. And I use loh for music needing a darker tone.)Now, over the course of work on the music in the weeks to come; coax, model, gently correct, and encourage the choir into the sound model that you have in your head for the particular piece of music. You will discover that it will be somewhat of a “balancing act” for the choir as when singers focus on one element of good music making, they will often lose connection with another. It is your job, as the leader, to encourage and to help them to “keep their balance” and to hold onto previous learnings together. Yes, they can!HARMONIESTo effectively learn harmonies, try working the voice parts (S,A,T,B) required by the composition on the “telling” neutral syllable; the one that you have chosen to best express the tone color and the articulation of the music at hand. You will usually find that running two parts together, a bit under tempo so the singer’s minds have time to better absorb, will rehearse the parts most effectively. Sometimes the composition is harmonically “built” to run SA together and then TB. And sometimes you will find that rehearsing ST and then AB provides better learning of the harmonies for the choir. In this, I have found that running two parts together aids the singers to hear their parts in harmonic context rather than the slower, less effective, method of running each part individually. SCORE PREPARATIONIt will greatly aid the teaching of the music if the conductor takes the time to study the score beforehand. With experience, you can learn to do this in under 20 minutes. I do my score study with a pencil and a couple of different colored hi-lighters in hand. I first hi-light all of the voicing assignments (men on a verse, women on a verse, soloist, descant, etc.) in one color. Then I go back and hi-light all of the dynamic changes in the piece in another color, penciling in numeric dynamics (1-5) throughout. Next I sing or play through the verses and with my pencil I mark all breaths in all parts as well as any tempo or meter changes. I also take the time in rehearsal to convey these basics to the choir, reminding them that their pencil is their best friend! (Keep a collection of sharpened pencils in your rehearsal room available for all.) Finally, in my score preparation, I underline key stressed words in all text phrases so that the choir can sing and I can lead and conduct the text with better expressive meaning. (You can find many good recordings of anthems on YouTube or on the J.W. Pepper website and learn much from these; both good and bad.) Now that I have a better grasp of the piece, I look over the compositional architecture of the music to see how I might best teach it to the choir. Key questions to ask here are, “who has the melody at any given point, what harmonies repeat throughout the composition, are there obvious shortcuts here to help the choir learn the piece through repeated sections or harmonies?” You will discover that simply starting with measure one and learning the piece from beginning to end is not always the best teaching approach when you have asked these questions and begun to see how the piece has been constructed. If you approach teaching the piece in like components, allowing the learning of each to pave the way for the next, eventually singing through the entire piece will be much more attainable for the choir.Also, when first introducing a new piece of music, I usually play a good model recording for the choir. I share a bit about the text and the history of the music or the composer to heighten their interest in learning the piece. Then I often have the choir sight read the music cover to cover so we all can get a picture of what sections will need more work than others. In this sight reading time, I conduct a clear tempo for the choir, cue all major entrances, and help them with their parts through the piano by not always sticking to the accompaniment on this first read together. Tell them before you begin that you are going to ask them to sight read the new piece and that we will plow on together, cover to cover, on this first reading. Ask them to give you what they can. Sight reading will stretch your choir; challenging the poorer readers and affirming the stronger ones. Now begin to build the piece together, honing it as a potter would turning a bowl on his potter’s wheel. Do not fall into the trap of trying to get it all right in any single rehearsal. This will usually wind up frustrating both you and the singers. Remind both yourself and the choir that this is only one rehearsal in a long process of learning and eventually mastering the music. Learning music is, in fact, a “slow bake”, in a world of instant gratification. It is one of the special qualities of learning music together in community. There is always next week and there are even the positive effects born out of a second offering of the piece later in the year or next season, when the music has had time to mature in their minds and hearts.This “componenting pedagogy”, if learned as the team of conductor and musical ensemble, will serve the developing choir well as they learn the dance of making music together.CALLING, DISCIPLINE, AND REHEARSAL PLANNINGTeach and encourage your singers that they are not merely volunteers. That they are (1) called to an act of service, (2) leaders of worship through posture and song, (3) exhorted in scripture to sing with both their mind and their heart, (4) that each member is an important part of the whole and that they are each one involved in a sacred act of service that simply cannot be accomplished as individuals; choir requires a reliable team, and (5) that they are each being asked to offer their “first fruits” to the Lord through their sacrifice of time and service. If they share these fundamental traits of a church choir, whose members are called to the work of leading weekly liturgical worship on their plates, discipline issues such as tardiness, poor commitment, and excessive play or talking will usually be minimized. Furthermore, you as the leader must model these qualities as well as keeping your own talking to a minimum, using their time well, and through this letting them do more of what they are there to do—sing!In preparation for using the choir’s time well, I prepare and copy a Rehearsal Sheet each week for the choir. On it, I list the music for the upcoming Sunday, the anthems that they need to have out and ready for the rehearsal, any business of the choir, and then I list the music that we will be rehearsing together. On my own copy, I write in and budget the amount of time I plan to give in the rehearsal next to each piece so that I can not only begin and end on time, but in my mind never run out of time in my rehearsal. This provides more direction and calm for all involved. Our rehearsal time each week is from 7:00-9:00p.m. to allow time for prayer, sectionals, choir business, and adequate rehearsal time for anthems, hymns, descants, and needed Service Music. If you are well organized and use the choir’s time well, the two hours will fly by and many will often be surprised when it is time to go home.And finally, I have found that allowing a time for sectionals in each rehearsal allows the choir to double up on their work in the allocation of rehearsal time by having the men learn their parts in one room while the women work in another. I usually allow 25 minutes for sectionals, working on two pieces in a session. Afterward, we come back together and reap the benefits of our good work together. (I have a Music Associate to help me lead sectionals, but I have also used a talented singer or teacher in the choir with piano skills to help lead sectionals.)USE OF HUMOR AND ANALOGYUse of humor in the rehearsal, not sarcasm, can disarm many a potential conflict and avoid the building of group tension that is so corrosive to creative work together. Humor is clearly a gift from God. I imagine Jesus laughed.Analogy is another gift, a useful shortcut to communicating a concept or conveying a feeling to the choir. Referencing a common experience can in short order bring the choir into a quick understanding of what you want from them in their music making and is almost always much quicker than a long drawn out explanation. For example, you want the music to be sung in a gentle smooth fashion. Then ask them to imagine gently stroking a kitty as they sing. Or, you want the musical phrases to ebb and flow, so ask them to imagine waves gently coming up on the shore and then washing back out to sea in their singing of phrases. Many successful conductors use analogy often. ON CONDUCTINGAs your choir sings, if you as the conductor/song leader will listen carefully, without prejudice, and receive the sound the choir is giving you without analyzing while they are singing, your instincts will begin to kick in the moments after they stop singing. Yours “minds ear” will learn to quickly compare what it has just heard to the model that you have in your head for the piece. And as a song leader, you will develop the skill of being able to diagnose, in that connective moment, if the tempo dragged, or a section was sticking out, or the dance has been lost, or the vowel color has become spread. No doubt, this diagnostic skill is a learned one over time, but we conductors must all begin somewhere, so be not afraid and be patient with yourself. Give yourself time for this skill to develop. Also, listening at this level will begin to naturally inform you as to what gestures the choir needs to best help them to express the music. (See Evoking Sound –by James Jordan, in the HIGHLY RECOMMENDED BOOKS section of the CHOIRS page for an excellent resource for learning to better conduct a choir.)Starting a choir singing, “getting the train going”, can be one of the trickier tasks for a new conductor. Admittedly, when a choir doesn’t have a confident start, their own confidence tends to wane. Here are two simple ways to begin the choir singing. The first is to simply count off for them in the proper tempo of the music in this manner: one, two, ready, sing (if the music calls for them to begin on the downbeat with four beats in a measure) or one, ready, sing (with three beats in the measure). Admittedly, you will need to adjust the count off if the music does not have the choir coming in on beat one such as (e.g. ready, sing if they enter on beat three of a measure). The second way is to pulse the count off with your hand in a downward gesture, at eye level, with your hand about a foot out in front of you. Bounce the arm/hand about five inches up and down in the air in the tempo of the music. Now make the final beat (the ictus), before they are to come in, larger; now bouncing your arm/hand about ten inches in the air. You can, at first, combine this physical cue gesture with the verbal count off and later drop the verbal count off or merely mouth it. Whichever method you use to begin the choir singing, be certain to look up and to make confident eye contact with the ensemble so that you have their attention from the get go. Practicing all of this in a mirror will take you a long way toward learning these skills confidently.Furthermore, as the song leader, it is important to keep in mind that you don’t have to let the choir sing a whole section of music to be allowed to stop them. Let them know in short order what you are hearing from them, and then kindly encourage them how they can make it better. They are counting on you to shepherd them in this manner and also to let them know when they have got it right! And finally here, it can be most rewarding for the choir to run the music start to finish, especially as a reward for having working so diligently together. Possibly run it with the choir seated and then if it’s Sunday’s anthem, a second time, standing—to “seal the deal”. Ask them in the final run through to work to “create a moment in time and space” in their offering of this music together. It can be most powerful, both worshipping the Lord and communicating the Gospel through this gift of music. In fact, this is much of what choir is about and in it all, I find that success usually breeds more success. Now, go and build your choir!Mark K. Williams: Christ Church Anglican, Savannah, GA ................
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