When singers join a non-auditioned choir, they are usually expected to choose the voice part that suits them — without any help.
Over time, singers in community choirs can begin to wonder if they’ve chosen the right part. Here’s a simple way of carrying out a vocal range test with the whole choir.
It’s very easy for singers to stay in the same voice part in choir, even though it may not be the best place for them.
Lovemusic Community Choir by Patrick_Down is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0.
Rather than assume you can’t sing that high (or low), why not put it to the test? You might be surprised.
I had an interesting query from someone recently. In their choir, the tenor men sang the soprano part (an octave lower) and the soprano women sang the tenor part (an octave higher).
They asked me if there was any rule in choral music about which gender sang which part.
I often come across choir leaders asking for “men’s songs” for the men in their choirs.
It make me wonder: is there a difference between “men’s songs” and “women’s songs” and what does that even mean?
This is a series of five posts looking in a light-hearted way at the different types of singers in a typical community choir.
You might have thought that SATB choirs (Soprano, Alto, Tenor, Bass) have just four different voice sections, but you’d be wrong. There is a fifth section known as the Floaters (or Flexitarians).
An interesting question popped up on a Facebook group: How do you teach harmony parts to your singers?
There were several different approaches, some of them using recordings or keyboards. Here is how I do it.
Many singers in community choirs choose for themselves which part they sing. They are not allocated a part by having a vocal range test.
This might work for a while, but what if you’ve chosen the wrong part? Also, voices change over time. Maybe it’s time to change parts?
