5 reasons why every choir concert should include at least one a cappella song

Many choirs use instruments or backing tracks to accompany their singing.

photo by Andrea Pineda

But I believe that you should always programme at least one a cappella song in every concert. Here’s why.

Vocal exercises to help singers tune into a cappella harmony

I thought I’d share a few vocal exercises that I use to help singers tune in to a cappella harmony. 

© Susie Mendelsson

I often integrate these into the warm up sessions to get people listening more closely before we move on to learning harmony songs.

To mic or not to mic? – that is the outdoor choir question

At this time of year many singing groups are asked to sing outdoors.



Whether it’s on stage at a noisy festival or a pop-up choir at your local village fete, the question of amplification will arise. Let’s look at the pros and cons of using mics for your choir when performing outdoors.

How do you know how loud you should sing in choir?

Your singing teacher is always telling you to be more confident and sing up.



But your choir leader asks you to sing quietly and listen to each other. So how loud should you be singing?

The differences between a ‘natural voice’ choir and all the rest

You may have come across the term ‘natural voice’. You may also have realised by now that I am a member of The Natural Voice Practitioners’ Network.



But what exactly is the ‘natural voice’ and how do choirs run on ‘natural voice’ principles differ from other choirs? You’re in luck! Caroline Bithell has just written an amazing book that answers all your questions. Let’s look at what’s in it.

Corsican polyphonic singing

While you read this I will be in sunny Corsica on holiday!



For years I’ve been meaning to attend the annual Rencontres de Chants Polyphoniques de Calvi (literally: Meetings of polyphonic songs) organised by the Corsican singing group A filetta. This year I’ve managed it!

Arranging songs for your choir 2: the basics of arranging

Last week I wrote about choosing suitable songs to arrange.

Photo by the incredible how

This week I want to get down to the nitty gritty of how to create an arrangement.

When is singing jargon not singing jargon?

Jargon is a useful shorthand for people in the know. But for those outside our world, it can be confusing or even meaningless.

We might think we’re being clear, but how can we be sure that everyone understands what we’re trying to get across?

Invent a singing workshop (and win a free place)

I’m always on the lookout for new ideas for singing workshops.

© Copyright Paul Anderson and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence

I’ve pretty much covered all the bases so far: gospel, Eastern European, sacred songs, ABBA, Beatles, Beach Boys, Paul Simon, 60s California, World Music, Sing Africa, Rhythm and Voice, Songs from the British Isles, Men’s harmony singing, Classic Pop, Songs from the  60s, and more  ...

I’m running out of ideas, so I thought I’d hand it over to you.

What’s in a name? Creating good singing workshop titles

Like a newspaper headline, or title for a blog post, a good name for a singing workshop can make all the difference.

Queue for the Banksy Exhibition (Nigel Mykura) / CC BY-SA 2.0

I’m constantly wrestling with titles for new workshops. I’m always on the lookout for that killer title that will get the punters flocking in. In the process I’ve discovered a few guidelines that I’d like to share with you.

Have voice, will travel

I love my job, I really do. I just need some space and a bunch of people and we will make beautiful music together.

Photo by Heather Jennings

No equipment, no special work-wear, no musical instruments, no particular room or building, no need to speak the language, no vetting the people – just me and you and our voices. Have voice, will travel!

People are often surprised when I say that I don’t need a piano – they can’t seem to imagine that we can make music with voices alone. Or pick a staring note out of the air.

People are often amazed when I say that I don’t use sheet music – they seem to believe that ‘proper’ music-making is somehow connected with pieces of paper.

People are often suspicious when I say that anyone can join in regardless of experience – they seem to think that it must be for beginners only and besides, nothing of quality will come of it.

People are often stunned when they hear the results after working with a bunch of strangers for just a few hours – they can’t believe the beautiful music we make after such a short time.

People often don’t believe me when I tell them I have no music training – they assume that I must have studied somewhere otherwise how on earth could I be doing this job.

People often stumble over some of the foreign words and find the physical warm ups a bit strange – but that means I can teach anywhere in the world. Who needs language when you’re making music?!

People often think that you need a decent room with proper acoustics and maybe a microphone or two – they can’t understand that singing can be done absolutely anywhere under any circumstances.

I feel rather smug sometimes when watching a so-called ‘acoustic’ band set up with all their leads and amps and microphones and mixing desks and sound-checks and stands and speakers and effects boxes.

I can just stand up and sing.

Or I can grab a bunch of people and we can sing in harmony. Anywhere, anyhow, anywhen with anybody.

That’s the beauty of my job and I love it!

So if you fancy having me over to run a singing workshop for you – anywhere in the world just to see how I do it, please feel free to contact me and I’ll see what I can do. Do call, it’ll be fun!

Or maybe we’ll bump into each other one day in an unfamiliar place and we’ll sing together, just for the hell of it, with no preparation or equipment. Just you and me and our voices.

Keep on singing!

 

Chris Rowbury's website: chrisrowbury.com

 

I may not know much about music, but I know what I like!

Somebody asked me the other day if I do workshops on songs from the musicals. I hate musical theatre! So the answer is “no”.

Often people come to singing workshops because they just love to sing. They’ll sing anything, as long as they’re singing. Me, I only like to sing particular kinds of music. I need to love the music before I can sing it. Any old thing just won’t do. So what is it I do like?

traditional songs

A long time ago I fell into harmony singing by encountering full-on songs from the Balkans, then Georgia, and then more generally Eastern Europe. I love klezmer bands, gypsy singing, Balkan brass, middle-Eastern lullabies – all that kind of stuff. Next I discovered the amazing harmony singing from South Africa. Later I moved onto other Southern African countries, then onto the whole of Africa.

I couldn’t get enough of the stuff!

Over the years I’ve focused on unaccompanied harmony singing. The kind of stuff you hear from countries like Bulgaria and South Africa. Some people call it ‘choral singing’, but for me that doesn’t do it justice. The songs I like tend to come from age-old traditions. They’re effectively folk songs. They’re sung in a full-voiced, passionate, open way without artifice.

I know what I mean, but it’s quite hard to pin down because we all have different definitions of the words we use.

harmony singing

I bandy the word ‘harmony’ about. By this I mean usually three or four different parts being sung at the same time. Sometimes the parts are far apart, at other times very close and slightly clashing.

In daily life we use the word ‘harmony’ to mean people getting along and working together, usually doing something similar to each other with some kind of implicit agreement and no conflict. But in singing, that would probably lead to unison singing, or at least only ‘nice’ harmonies. In singing ‘harmony’ means something different.

Then there’s ‘close harmony’. This is when the notes in different parts are close together. Unlike the clashing harmonies in Balkan songs, it usually means that all the parts are close together most of the time. This is the kind of thing you tend to hear in barbershop singing.

Some people don’t like harmonies with lots of ‘holes’ in them (e.g. fifths). They prefer ‘proper’ harmony, as opposed to more rhythmic singing where the parts are quite far apart.

acappella

Then there’s ‘acappella’. I try not to use that term. Most of the general public don’t know what it means so I use the phrase ‘unaccompanied singing’ or ‘singing without instrumental backing’. Acappella has come to mean vocal groups singing genres like doo wop and barbershop, or an ‘unplugged’ version of a well-known pop song. Whilst those with a more classical or religious background take it to mean early church singing such as madrigals.

choral singing

Is what I like ‘choral singing’? Not really as this is most often associated with church singing and/ or more formal, music-reading groups of singers who often focus on choral ‘literature’ and Western classics. The kind of music I love doesn’t tend be sung by ‘choirs’.

world music

I often say that the singing I like comes from the ‘world music’ repertoire. But so many people don’t even know what that means! It was a term invented by record companies to try to promote music that didn’t fit neatly into any of the existing categories. Even if someone does have an idea of what it means, they usually associate it with guitar music from Bali, or the Buena Vista Social Club.

what do you like then?

I’ve discovered that it’s hard to explain the kind of singing and songs I’m drawn to. I can’t sing them to people (I can only do one part at a time!), so I need to resort to other reference points (“You know that song that advertises baked beans or German cars?”), or more simply, play an example.

Which is what I’ll do next week. I’ll try to find some good examples of the kinds of singing that I like and give links to them: Now THAT’S what I call singing! Volume 1

 

Chris Rowbury's website: chrisrowbury.com

Learn how to sing in tune - harmonising

For the last two weeks I’ve been focusing on learning how to match pitch with another singer or instrument. That will help you become better at singing in unison with others. But what about singing in harmony?

Singing Trio by Walter Watzpatzkowski

I’ve covered many of the issues involved in harmony singing in a previous post (Singing in harmony – how do they do that?), but in this post I’m going to look in detail at how you stay in tune whilst singing harmony with others.

mind the gap

Basically harmony singing is when two (or more) different notes are sung at the same time. The gap between these two notes is technically called an interval.

Intervals can be of many different sizes. Two notes can be very close together (found often in Eastern European harmonies), very far apart (for instance, when men and women are singing together), easily found (because they are familiar from pop songs and Western classical music), tricky (because they sound a bit unusual like blues or jazz).

back to basics

I know for many of you out there this is very elementary and you all have music theory backgrounds and know your 7ths from your 2nds, but I want to go back to basics and really consider what we’re trying to achieve, so please bear with me!

climbing scales

Even if you don’t know what a scale is, you can practice singing in harmony. The easiest way is to find a piano or keyboard and find middle C (that is the white note nearest to the middle of the keyboard). This is note number one in the scale (of C). Play this note first, then the white note to the right and so on until you get to note number eight. These are the eight notes in the scale.

experimenting on your own

To begin to find out what singing intervals feels like, you can work on your own with an instrument such as a keyboard. Play the first note in the scale and sing a matching pitch (you’ve learnt how to do this from Learn how to sing in tune – matching pitch).

Keep singing this pitch (breath when you have to!) and play the second note in the scale. This may feel a bit weird as the two notes are very close together. Move onto the third note in the scale (whilst still singing note one) and it may feel a bit more familiar (this interval is called a third and is extremely common in Western harmony).

Carry on up the scale and just feel what the different intervals are like. You may prefer some intervals to others. It can seem like each interval creates its own mood.

You may need to keep going back to note one to check that you are still singing in tune.

experimenting with another voice

It’s more likely that you will be singing harmony with another voice rather than an instrument. If you’re starting out, it’s best to work with a singer who has some experience of being able to sing scales accurately and to stay in tune.

You can carry out the same experiment as you did with the instrument, but this time with a human voice. You sing (and hold) the first note in the scale and your friend sings each of the other notes in the scale in turn.

This experience will be different from singing against an instrument because the quality of the sound you are both making is much more similar. You will feel much more of a connection between the two voices and it may have a strong emotional effect on you. Again, depending on your personality and life experience, you will prefer some intervals to others. Each one will create its own mood.

it’s the same note, but it FEELS different!

You may discover an interesting effect at this stage: even though you are always singing the same note, it might feel different as the other note changes against yours!

That is a danger point since it can mean that you drift off towards the other note without noticing and are soon out of tune, especially if the particular interval is one that doesn’t feel ‘pleasing’ to you.

Often it’s the bass section in a choir who get the drone note and, even though on the face of it, it seems simple, it’s very easy for a drone (see below) to drift out of tune as all the other voices change around it.

moving on up

Basically what you’ve been doing up to now by sticking to the first note in the scale is singing a drone note. This is a very common harmonising technique in certain cultures (e.g. Scottish and Georgian). Now it’s time for you to move onto other notes.

Practising either with an instrument (preferably one that can sustain a note like an organ) or another singer, it’s your turn to move up the scale whilst the first note is being played or sung.

You’ve already learnt how to stay on pitch, so begin by singing up the scale with the instrument or your friend to check that you’re singing accurately.

Now, as the first note in the scale is being played, sing the second note in the scale, then move onto the third and so on. This is basically the same listening experience as when you were holding the drone note, but now you are changing pitch all the time.

choose your interval

So far we’ve methodically gone through all the possible intervals in a scale one at a time, in order. Now it’s time to pick specific intervals and see if we can sing them accurately.

Again, it’s easiest if you have something like a keyboard handy. Play the first note in the scale and then pick another note to create an interval. When you start out, the easiest, most familiar notes are the third and the fifth note in the scale.

Play the two notes in the interval. Choose one to sing and get your friend to sing the other one. Double check with the keyboard that you are matching the pitch correctly. Then get close to your friend to see what this interval feels like. If you think you’ve nailed it (the air will seem to shimmer and your voices appear to ‘lock in’ to each other), then try for each of you in turn to slide your note slightly up or down, then come back precisely to where you started.

Take turns at singing the first (root) note of the scale and the interval note. It’s amazing how different it can feel! Also, see what difference it makes sliding up as opposed to down, and then back to the original note.

working without instruments

Now that you’ve had some experience of singing against a keyboard or other instrument, we’ll now move onto just using voices without any external reference points.

Pick a comfortable note in the middle of your range and sing it. Let’s call this the first note of the scale. Now sing a scale, giving each note a number, i.e. 1, 2, 3, ... , 8.

This is the same as you did when singing against the white notes on the keyboard, it’s just that now note number one might not be a C. Make sure that the high note is comfortable for you. If not, choose a different starting note and try again.

Sing this scale a few times to make sure you’ve got it right. Get your friend to give some feedback on your accuracy.

Now we move on to building the scale up one note at a time. This is good practice for singing intervals accurately and is vital for harmony singing.

Sing note number 1, then 1, 2, then 1, 2, 3, then 1, 2, 3, 4, and so on. Basically you are building the whole scale by returning to the root/ first note each time, then adding one more note of the scale at the top until you reach note eight (by the way, note 8 is an octave above note 1 if that’s of any use to you!).

finding the right gap

Once you’ve nailed the building a scale exercise, you can move onto singing just intervals without any help from an instrument.

Start by singing note 1 in the scale. Then sing note 1 followed by note 2 (easy and familiar so far). Then sing note 1 followed by note 3 (we’ve missed out note 2!). Then try note 1 followed by note 4. And so on.

This is an incredibly useful exercise, but can be quite hard at first. Even though you’re now very familiar with the scale, can sing up it with ease, and can even build it one note at a time, you will find that sometimes you will over- or under-estimate the gap between note 1 and the note you’re aiming at. This is when a friend (or a keyboard) comes in as useful feedback. Try it for a while on your own, then get some feedback to see if you’ve been getting it right.

You might find that some particular intervals give you more problems than others. You will almost certainly find note 7 hard to get (this is blues and jazz), and some people find 4 rather tricky. You may also find that you are consistent in the way that you get it wrong. For instance, you may always misjudge note 3 by going a bit too high. If you find this out through feedback, then you note this tendency and try to correct it each time.

Once you can do this interval exercise quite well, move onto a different key by choosing a new note number one, and repeat the exercise.

up or down?

There are two ways of singing an interval when it occurs in a melody (as opposed to a harmony where both notes are sung at the same time): up or down. For example, you can start on note 1 and go up to note 3, or you can start on note 3 and go down to note 1. It's a good musical training exercise to go back over some of the exercises in this post and do them in reverse, i.e. start from the top and work downwards.

well-known intervals

If you have no instruments or friends nearby and you need to sing a particular interval, there is a neat trick that can help you. Various people have compiled lists of well-known songs that feature specific intervals. All you have to do is to sing that bit of the song, and you’ve found your interval!

For example, a fourth (the interval between note 1 and note 4) is the beginning of Auld Lang Syne: “Should old ...”. As mentioned above, you might come across intervals in melodies going from up to down, rather than the other way round. These lists of intervals give you examples of both directions.

You can find examples of interval lists here:

• interval recognition

• a handy musical intervals table

• musical intervals learning guide

singing with a friend

You’ve practised intervals on your own by singing the first note of the scale, followed by another note in the scale. Now it’s time to enlist the services of a friend to play the same game.

Choose an interval (e.g. that between 1 and 5). Take turns at singing a note, any note. This is note 1. The other singer then sings note 5.  Check that the interval is correct.

To move onto harmony singing, you then sing your notes at the same time. This should then begin to feel like the exercises you did when one of you sang a drone note. The main difference is that you have chosen a particular interval, and you have sung it without reference to an instrument. Again, try sliding in and out.

beyond two-part harmony

So far, you have just been singing two part harmony. That is, one part has one note and the second part has a different note, which then creates an interval.

Most harmony singing is in more than two parts. Three part harmony is very common. This is when three different notes are sung at the same time. These three notes then create what is known as a chord. A very common chord in pop songs is a major chord which consists of notes 1, 3 and 5 in the scale.

Of course, you’ll need another friend to sing three part harmony! One of you picks and sings a note (that will be note 1 in the scale). Another sings note 3, and the the remaining singer sings note 5. Take turns to sing the different notes to see if it feels different at all.

getting it right feels like getting it wrong!

Sometimes you are singing in harmony with one or more other voices when it feels so absolutely perfectly right. You’ve totally nailed the intervals and are spot on pitch and it sounds wonderful! But because it’s so perfect, it’s as if the notes are singing themselves. In fact, you’re no longer sure which part you’re singing. You listen hard, but each note fits in so perfectly with the others that you can’t remember which is yours. Maybe you’re singing the same note as one of the others and have forgotten your own part?

This is very common. Often when singing harmony in a small group I suddenly panic and think that I’m singing in unison with another voice instead of my own part. But usually I’ve got it right and it’s just working really well.

If you have a doubt (and it’s in rehearsal), then stop and double check. Most of the time you will have been singing the right note and just need confirmation.

carry on singing!

Now that you can match pitch accurately, find intervals with ease, and sing perfectly in harmony, then check out the other skills needed to sing in a choir or with a small group (Singing in harmony – how do they do that?), and keep on singing!

 

Chris Rowbury's website: chrisrowbury.com

Performing outdoors – tips and tricks

I really, really don’t like performing outdoors (I’ll come to why in a moment)! But sometimes it’s unavoidable, so what can we do to make it work?

Since I haven’t performed outdoors that often, I would love to hear any advice from those of you who do it more often, or who perhaps even like it! Do drop by and leave a comment.

why I don’t like performing outdoors

• it might rain
  You can never rely on the British weather! There’s a big danger that there will be a downpour in the middle of your performance and the audience will either run away or disappear under a sea of umbrellas. On the other hand, it may be so hot and sunny that you end up with heatstroke!
   
• the wind carries the sound in the wrong direction
  Sod’s law is that the wind will be blowing the wrong way and will carry your beautiful sounds away from the audience. Even if it doesn’t manage to do that, you can bet it will suck the sound right out of your neighbour’s mouth so you can’t hear her harmonies.
   
• the audience are often too scattered
  No matter what you try to do, there will be audience members who will try to sit as far away from where you’re performing as is physically possible. The rest will scatter themselves about so it is impossible to sing to them in any direct way without constantly rotating on the spot. Then at the end, the audience who were furthest away will complain that they couldn’t see or hear you!
   
• people might just wander off
  I hate busking! The audience can just bugger off if they don’t like you. I’d much rather get punters to pay and chain them to their seats. Similarly at a festival, if someone doesn’t like you in the first 5 seconds, they can just wander off leaving your heart to sink into your stomach: “They don’t like me!”
   
• the singers can’t hear each other well enough
  There you are, singing your heart out, when you realise that you can’t hear anybody else. There is no acoustic, the wind is blowing hard, and the audience are chatting away. You can’t hear the other harmonies so go out of tune easily, and the timing is rubbish ’cause you can’t hear the other singers.
   
• there is a tendency to shout instead of sing
  It’s the big outside world and it needs to be filled with sound, plus the audience are miles away. You can’t hear your fellow singers so figure they can’t hear you either. So you end up singing LOUDLY. Actually, it’s not really singing at all. Since you can’t even hear yourself outdoors, you end up SHOUTING.
   
• trying to amplify a group of singers is very hard
  You roll up at the gig and the sound man convinces you he knows what he’s doing. He sticks a couple of mics up, there’s no time for a proper sound check, and off we go. The monitors (if you have any!) are too quiet and pointing in the wrong direction. The mics are all directional and only pick up two singers (who sing the same part). If there does happen to be a mic each, then that’s an awful lot of cable to trip over! It’s a fine art setting up microphones for acappella singing, and there aren’t that many sound people out there who have the experience!
   
• using microphones is a new skill to learn
  You’ve spent years honing your acappella skills and work really well as a group. You lean in to hear your fellow singers, you look them in the eye, you stay close, you are aware of their every nuance. Suddenly you are at an outdoor gig and have a microphone shoved up your nose. Your fellow singers seem to be miles away, your voice sounds weird through the monitors (and you can’t hear the others either) and you can’t see anyone over the top of the mic stand.
   
• the venue might not be suited to performance
  It seemed a nice idea when the local village fete booked you, but when you turn up there is no obvious place to stand, the field (which is still wet and muddy from last week’s rain) is a strange L-shape and full of trees, there is no fixed place for the audience, and even if there was, the huge marquee in the middle makes it difficult for them to see you wherever you stand.
   
• competing with background noise and attention
  It’s outside. There are cows, planes, passing cars, trees rustling, fireworks, audiences talking, overspill from the reggae tent next door, much more interesting things to look at, crying babies, people selling shiny things, tannoy announcements – why would anyone want to listen to you?
   
• no control over the situation
  No matter what the organisers say, don’t believe them. They will lay it on thick about what a wonderful venue it is, how the audience always sit along that bank at the back (honest!), that the PA system is state of the art, that there will be lights (it’s just that the truck hasn’t arrived yet) so the audience can see you in the dusk, that the ice cream van won’t be there on the day. They are lying!
   

what you can do to make the best of a bad situation

• don’t shout!
  Resist the temptation to try to sing loudly and fill the space. Focus on your breathing and resonance and make sure you listen carefully. You don’t have to be big just because the space and the audience are big. Being small and subtle can draw an audience in.
   
• focus on each other
  Forget the audience (well, not totally – you might like to face in their direction at least). Make sure you focus on the other singers. Stay close, listen carefully, look at each other often.
   
• do it for yourselves
  Imagine that the gig is just for you, an intimate experience that will be so excellent that it will draw the audience in. This will make the space seem smaller and the occasion not so intimidating.
   
• take the songs to the audience
  If you’re not restricted to a stage, you can wander around and really use the space to literally take the songs to the audience. Move the group around and within the spectators. They will feel more involved, the people being focused on will feel special, and the rest will feel that they’re missing out so will pay more attention.
   
• it’s a completely different gig to the indoor version
  Don’t try to replicate the experience you had the last time you did the gig indoors. Outdoor gigs are a completely different experience, each one being totally unique. Go into it well-prepared, but try not to have expectations. There is much more scope in an outdoor gig for improvisation and playing it be ear.
   
• have a dry run
  If at all possible, have at least one rehearsal in the space. Get used to any acoustics (if there are any!), figure out where the audience will be, try out different groupings, etc.
   
• be in control
  Take as much control as you can. If you need PA and/ or lighting, then bring your own if at all possible, or at least have your own sound person. Find the best place to perform and insist upon it. It might be a good idea to have a wall behind you to help with the acoustics. See if there’s any way you can help the audience to gather in a tighter group as near to your performing space as possible (e.g. tape an area off, set chairs out in advance).
   
• see what else is on
  Check to see if any other acts are due on at the same time and if they’re going to be loud, see if you can negotiate different timings for your set.
   
• don’t take the audience reaction to heart
  They might look bored, they might just walk away, but don’t take it to heart. They may just have a naturally looking miserable face, or they might have to get home to feed the baby and wished they could stay longer. I’ve written on this subject in an earlier post (How audiences affect us)
   
• stay close!
  Make sure you are physically close to the other singers. You will probably need to be even closer than usual. And I mean close! If you’re using microphones, try to set these up so you can stand as close together as possible.
   
• always have a back-up plan
  However carefully you’ve planned, something will go wrong, that’s guaranteed. So consider all eventualities (weather, lack of audience, tuning going out, PA system breaking down) and think of an alternative to get you out of the fix.
   
• don’t do it!
  I’ve saved the best piece of advice for last: if you have the choice, just DON’T EVER PERFORM OUTDOORS!

 

Chris Rowbury's website: chrisrowbury.com

Why I don't like a cappella

I was asked recently if I would like to conduct an interview on my blog with a well-known singing group who have just released a new CD. I had to be honest and say that I didn’t actually like their singing! I said: “Their a cappella singing does nothing for me, so I don’t think it would make for a good interview”.

This brought up for me a thorny old subject which is: why don’t I like most a cappella singing out there? And how do I describe what it is that I do like?

When I think of a cappella I think of barbershop, of small groups singing close harmony, of contemporary songs with lots of ‘doo bas’ and ‘dum de dums’, of doo wop and pop music. Even though a cappella means simply “singing without instrumental accompaniment”, the term has come to represent a rather limited (in my view) genre of music. Although I do like the occasional 1950s style R&B, generally I dislike contemporary a cappella singing, especially when the voice is used to emulate musical instruments. I mean, what is the point??!! Why not just put the instruments on the record?

Like a lot of purely skill-based activities (juggling, riding a bicycle, hand stands, etc.) audiences seem to respond to the clever clever impersonation of an instrument, they applaud the vocal pyrotechnics that are just there to show off. But where is the soul of the music, the inner life of the song which make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up?

So why is it that I don’t like a cappella singing? For me, it is just too clean and smooth. It’s rather like all the other processed food and pap (reality TV?) that we get served up in the modern world. The aim seems to be to blend the voices perfectly, iron out any individuality and be absolutely perfectly in tune. There is no soul in the singing, no texture, no humanity. I love it when voices are ever-so-slightly out of tune with each other and you can hear the beats of the harmonics in the air. I love it when you can hear everyone singing the same note and yet the quality of all the individual voices shines through. I love it when you can hear the breathing and emotion and humanity behind the voices.

A glance at any of the many websites dedicated to a cappella (e.g. Primarily Acappella, A-cappella.com) gives you an idea of the kind of material that’s covered: vocal jazz, contemporary, collegiate, doo wop, barbershop. With groups such as Take 6, The Swingle Singers, The King’s Singers, The Bobs, Manhattan Transfer.

But the stuff that I like is raw and vital. It almost always involves traditional rather than contemporary songs, and is usually from cultures other than western. The songs have been handed down from generation to generation and singing is done for the love of it, rather than for the performance (in fact many cultures don’t distinguish between ‘performer’ and ‘audience’). These are songs of heartache, of love and loss, of work, of hardship, of dreams and promises, all rooted in everyday life.

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When is a song not a song?

I’ve just come back from a fantastic week away on a song writing for voices course. During the week I came up with several ideas for songs which never really came to fruition since I couldn’t see any way of realising them. One was for solo voice and Indian drone instruments, one a ballad in a Scottish style, and another which required a swampy backing groove from a horn section. I don’t have an outlet for any of these songs really since I’m not a solo performer, don’t have a band and am not planning to make a CD!

My outlet for songs is acappella harmony groups, both large and small. Many times a choir member will come up to me and suggest a song for us. Often the song is simply not appropriate for an acappella arrangement or just won’t work with a large group. Many recorded songs these days have really important instrumental backing and if you take those familiar riffs away, there is often not much left of the song! Personally I am not a fan of those acappella arrangements where the voice impersonates an instrument or has too many “dum dums” in the backing. I recently heard a version of a song from Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon. It was an amazing effort, using the voices to replicate instruments and almost sounded like the original. However, my reaction was: what’s the point? why bother? Apart from admiring the singers’ skills, I’m really not sure where the artistry and creativity is here. Why not just listen to the original? Or if there’s a trumpet needed, then simply play a trumpet. I just don’t get it. I’m really not a fan of showing off skills for skills’ sake. For me there needs to be some element of creativity or the adding of something extra to an existing song, or why bother? Particularly when the human voice is concerned – I want to hear the humanity shine through, not be convinced that actually I’m not listening to a human voice at all, but really a keyboard!

Then there are wonderful, delicate ballads with many verses telling an extraordinary story. However, if arranged for a large choir the delicacy can be destroyed and the story and words completely lost in the mix. So the question is: when is a song suitable for a purely vocal arrangement and when is it not? I guess some of that is down to taste, but I don’t think it’s true that anything can be adapted for just voices.

My point also extends to cover versions generally. If you’re going to cover an existing song, then you have to add something to the original or else there’s no point. Just reproducing the original is a waste of time!

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Fitting into the right musical box

I regularly get emails out of the blue from various singing groups scattered across the globe. Only yesterday I had one from a Russian ensemble, and a few weeks ago I had one from a women’s group in the US. They all ask if I can help them to set up a tour in the UK. I’m afraid that I almost always turn down their offer. I’m not a producer, I don’t have any particular connection with any venues, and besides which, I really don’t know whether this kind of stuff goes down well in the UK.

The US has several well-known “world music” singing groups, for instance Kitka, Northern Harmony and Libana. They regularly gig in the US, have a large following and release CDs on a frequent basis. Northern Harmony has toured the UK several times, but even though their gigs are well-attended, they’re usually off the beaten track, often in churches and small village halls. I was once told by a local rural touring producer that “acappella just doesn’t sell”. So not only is it hard for groups such as Artisan and Coope, Boyes and Simpson from the folk world to get gigs, but virtually impossible for any groups who sing so-called “world music”.

There may well be audiences in London for specialist groups like the London Bulgarian Choir and Maspindzeli, but elsewhere groups like this are few and far between and seldom seen at gigs or festivals. I once approached a big summer festival only to be told that they want “music that people can dance to”. i.e. loud and boppy. So is there no room for those gorgeous unaccompanied harmonies from Georgia, Bulgaria, Russia and beyond? Do African songs always need big dances and accompaniment, or can we do the occasional Zimbabwean lullaby?

How come there are more groups in the US and they get regular audiences? Is it because they have a bigger imigrant populations from harmony singing countries like Croatia and Macedonia, for example?

I always used to think that the sort of choirs that I run are unique in their repertoire, and hence something special and different. That may well be the case, but instead of that being a selling point, it seems to be a drawback because nobody knows exactly which ‘box’ we fit into. I use the tag “world music choir”, but either people don’t know what the phrase “world music” is or think it has to involve guitar playing from Mali. I get loads of requests from people wanting a choir for their wedding and I think we offer a really interesting alternative: South African wedding songs, church songs from Georgia – all to make your day special and unique. But when I write back, I never get a reply because most people want the standard Ave Maria or the gospel singers that they saw in the movie Sister Act. (We are, however, doing a wedding in the near future for a choir member who really appreciates what we do!).

Hence I say that I can’t help these groups from abroad looking for gigs. I simply don’t know who to approach, which venues or producers may be interested. It’s taken WorldSong 10 long years to build up a half-way decent following in our own back yard, I just hope that there are enough similar groups out there that we can build awareness across the whole UK and get to see more “world music” singing. Spread the word!

Of course, this presupposes that we can clearly describe exactly what it is that we do do. Many people aren't familiar with terms such as “world music” or “roots music”. This was the subject of an earlier post: What is it that you do exactly?

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It does exactly what it says in the blurb – or not!

Just a quick one this week as I’m just about to leave for two weeks travelling in the Baltic states: Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. It’s supposed to be a holiday, but I’m hoping to pick up some songs for future use! I won’t be posting next week as I will be somewhere in the middle of a Latvian national park and I’m not taking any technology with me. Normal service will be resumed on Sunday 19^th August.

Last week I ran an open workshop for the Warwick Folk Festival. It was billed as “World Songs” with a sub-heading “community choirs”. Rather an odd way of describing what I do, but nevertheless we had a healthy 40+ people turn up and they seemed to enjoy themselves. I’m always very nervous before a workshop, no matter how many times I’ve done them, especially when there are no advance bookings. I had absolutely no idea how many people would turn up, and convinced myself I would be happy with just six or so. Hence I was very pleasantly surprised by the turnout, even attracting about eight blokes.

As is often the case, the first few people through the door were a bit hesitant as they too did not know what to expect. I always try to put people at ease and usually ask: “Have you come to sing?” (just in case they had expected to attend a ceramics class and had wandered into the wrong room by mistake). I get many responses to this question. Often: “Oh, no, I’m just here with my friend. I can’t sing”. More often than not I persuade them to join in and they end up having a good sing by the end of the workshop. This time a couple of women looked especially hesitant and said something like: “Yes, I think so, but it depends what it’s going to be like”. They went on to say that the day before they had been on a ballad workshop and had been made to feel rather inferior and left out as they didn’t know all 30 verses of a particular song!

I tried to put their minds at ease, and very soon they were smiling and joining in wholeheartedly with the African songs. It made me realise that there were still people out there who somehow managed to put people off singing, even when those people had made the effort to turn up to a workshop and were looking forward to sing. I wonder what would have happened to those two women’s confidence if they had not come to my workshop, but just left the festival with their first experience to take away with them.

It also made me think that it’s very important to try and explain exactly what a workshop is going to be. To try and give it an appropriate name and a bit of blurb so that people know what to expect. Sometimes that’s hard as people perhaps don’t have any reference points to the subject you’re going to be covering, but you should at least make the attempt to be clear.

I ran a Beatles workshop a while ago. I advertised it as Beatles acappella and had some blurb explaining that I would be teaching some well-known Beatles songs in three and four part harmony. A couple of young women came along, but only stayed for the morning. They explained that they had quite enjoyed themselves, but it wasn’t really what they had expected! I really don’t know how to be any clearer with that one!!

On another occasion I ran a workshop called The Paul Simon Songbook. Again, explaining that I would be teaching well-known Paul Simon songs in three and four part harmony. During the warm-up I made a joke that Paul Simon was stuck on the M6 and he had phoned me to ask me to carry on with the workshop until he arrived. Everyone laughed. Except – I later realised – for two women who thought I was serious and complained to the box office when Mr. Simon hadn’t arrived by lunchtime! So we can always try to describe what to expect, but we’ll never get it exactly right!

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What is it that you do exactly?

Sometimes it’s easier to say what we don’t do!

This is what we DON'T DO
We don’t sing classical music (well, actually, we do sing the occasional “classical” song – like Plaisir d’Amour – but the bulk of our repertoire is not the typical Western classical canon).

We don’t sing pop songs (well, actually, I recently taught Bobby McFerrin’s “Don’t worry, be happy”, and I have tried versions of U2 and the Beatles, but it doesn’t make up the bulk of our repertoire).

We don’t sing folk songs (well, actually, we do sing some English folk songs, although not many – and usually the arrangements are a little unusual – and most of our foreign songs could be said to be “folk” or traditional).

We are not a gospel choir (well, actually, we do sing quite a few gospel and spiritual numbers although we are not a church choir).

We don’t sing close harmony or barbershop (I’m not even sure what “close harmony” means! But as soon as you use words like acappella – which simply means singing without instrumental accompaniment – people immediately assume we sing barbershop).

We aren’t a religious choir (well, actually, we do sing many religious songs – who said the devil has all the best tunes! – but we are definitely a secular choir).

We aren’t like the local choral society or parish singers (now that is true, especially in the sense that we don’t stand in neat rows identically dressed with books in our hands).

We don’t do songs from the shows or easy listening music (that’s true too – mainly because I don’t like musicals!).

And this is what we DO do
So what is it that we do do, and why is it important?

We sing unaccompanied songs in harmony. That is, we don’t involve musical instruments, and most of the time we’re not all singing the tune in unison.

We sing songs from all around the world (in the original foreign language!), usually from cultures and traditions where there is a strong harmony tradition like Eastern Europe, New Zealand, USA, South Africa. That is why we hardly ever do songs from Asia or South America: they simply don’t have a harmony singing tradition. That’s also why we don’t often do British or Irish folk songs. Although there is a harmony singing tradition in this country, songs are often delicate and story-driven so don’t really work (in my opinion) with a large choir. Same with pop songs.

Now we know what we do, the trouble is it’s hard to explain it to potential audience members for our concerts, or participants in our workshops. I’ve tried many different ways over the years, but we still get audience members saying things like: “Oh, that’s what you do ! I really enjoyed it”. How come they were surprised? Hadn't we explained what we do before they came? We know by now that if we just get people along to our workshops or concerts that (usually) they really enjoy themselves. The hard bit is just getting them through the door.

Most people just don’t have the reference points for phrases like world music or acappella or unaccompanied harmony singing. There was a point when we could refer to adverts on television. At one point Ladysmith Black Mambazo (male South African singers, sung with Paul Simon) were used to advertise Heinz baked beans, and the Bulgarian state women’s choir (made a famous CD called Les Mysteres des Voix Bulgares) were used on a car advert. But it’s not happened recently.

So for concerts we rely a lot on word of mouth and friends bringing people along. For workshops, I went through a period of designing several more popular, accessible workshops just to get people singing in harmony (e.g. ABBA, Beatles, gospel, Paul Simon – see our workshops page for more details. Shameless plug: I will be running a residential weekend version of my Paul Simon Songbook workshop in September in the Cotswolds). Having got people along and introduced them to the joys of harmony singing, I can then slip in the odd Balkan song without them noticing!

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Where did you get that song, where did you get that song?

I’m often asked by concert-goers and choir leaders alike “Where do you get all your songs from?”. Well, here’s the short answer to this simple question: “From everywhere and everyone”. Now for the longer answer!

When I started my first choir back in 1997 I reckoned I had enough songs to last me for one term (about 10 weeks) after which I was seriously thinking about panicking or retiring. But now, somehow, after teaching in excess of 500 songs over the last ten years, I have another 600 waiting to be taught!

Like most things, when you become seriously involved in something new, your radar begins to pick up signals from previously unnoticed sources. I listen to a lot of CDs in the car (all that driving between Coventry and Stamford!) as well as Late Junction on Radio 3. I also used to listen to World Routes on a Saturday afternoon on my way over to Stamford, but now that they’ve moved it to 3pm, I have to miss it. I occasionally listen to Andy Kershaw usually by using the BBC’s “listen again” facility.

Often on one of these programmes I might hear a wonderful track that might be suitable for the choir, so when I get home I use the internet (a wonderful tool!) to look at the track listings for the programme. Then I track down the CD on the web (using Google) and try to listen to a few more tracks before possibly buying the CD (again, over the internet).

So I have ended up with loads of world music and roots CDs in my collection. If I want to teach one of the songs I can often work out the parts from the recording (if it’s already in a harmony arrangement) or I work out the tune and put my own harmonies on. Often I do background research on the internet to try and find the lyrics (I will never teach a song phonetically from a recording unless I can find the proper lyrics in the original language, and preferably a translation or a rough meaning). Sometime I might stumble across a written score or arrangement which I can buy or copy (anything for an easy life!).

You have to be very careful when searching for lyrics and song information on the internet. Never believe everything you read! Rather like finding a builder, I always look for at least three independent sources. I stress independent, because some sites just copy and paste information from other sites! I have sometimes found the background to a song which seems a bit suspicious and have ended up tracking down the individual who wrote it and asked them for their source. Often it’s just hearsay!

I also collect many written scores. I buy books from a variety of sources (again the internet is a good place to start). Fortunately I read music so can usually pick out the tune on my guitar, but some traditional music has fiendishly difficult rhythms or harmonies so I really need to hear a recording first and then use the score as an aide memoir and basis for teaching and harmonising.

Being a pretty poor musician, I often type a score into the notation programme I have on my computer (Finale PrintMusic about £70) simply so I can transpose it (lame, I know!). Sometimes the transposition is not straightforward (the bass becomes too low, or the tenor part is no longer suitable for women, or the top part becomes too high for a community choir) and I need to tinker around and move parts about (which means sometimes the bass get the tune for a change!).

Some people out there do wonderful acappella arrangements for choirs, but don’t write music or choose to make their work available for people who don’t read music. This ranges from the wonderful Dee Jarlett (of Naked Voices and the Gasworks Choir) to Ysaye Barnwell of Sweet Honey in the Rock (“Singing in the African American Tradition”). Some arrangers make both available, i.e. written score accompanied by a CD with all the parts on.

I learn a lot of songs by attending workshops (this year I’m going on a Northern Harmony workshop in Wales, and a fantastic world harmony week at Laurieston Hall). Sometimes I record the workshop whilst I’m there (although increasingly I just want to be a punter and enjoy the workshop), but sometimes I can get the written score or a recording from the workshop leader (or at least they might point me in the direction of a useful source).

Over the years I have also started to do more of my own arranging. I might find a lovely tune in a old music book (I get lots from second hand shops) or hear an old folk song on a CD that I’ve borrowed from the local library.

A good place to start is the Natural Voice website which has a resource section of members’ stuff (Nickomo’s books are particularly useful and he also transcribes songs taught at the Unicorn summer singing camps). Northern Harmony books and recordings can be bought from their website (they take sterling cheques as payment). There are various world music publishers out there (e.g. World Music Press), publishers of particular genres (e.g. Bulgarian) and general acappella publishers (e.g. Acappella.com)

So there you have it. A mix of listening to CDs and the radio, going to workshops, buying songbooks and written scores, going to the local library, and also receiving suggestions from choir members.

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