Singing can be daunting at first because there are so many things to remember: posture, breathing, smiling, tuning, balance and so on.
But if you try to focus on all these at once, it will end in disaster (especially in performance). Here’s what you can do instead.
Even though we’re still in the midst of a pandemic, some countries are slowly beginning to lift Covid restrictions to varying degrees.
When your choir is finally able to rehearse indoors once again, how can you stay safe, but ensure that you’re as inclusive as possible?
I’ve written before about the general and well-known benefits of singing in a choir: Why you should start the year singing – and then sing some more!
In this post I’d like to look at how singing together can benefit your mental health and how and why that works.
If you want to be a real success, it’s not enough to just do the job at hand. You need to deliver more than is expected.
What does that mean for singers and choir leaders?
It has been said that every setback is an opportunity in disguise. Singing together has had many setbacks during the pandemic and choirs have been affected badly.
Here’s how you can turn those obstacles into positives.
Here in England, we’re limited to a maximum of six singers rehearsing indoors.
When restrictions are finally lifted (in three weeks we hope), many choral skills will have gone rusty over the last year or more.
This is the last in my series of how to honour the source of a song.
I’m going to sum up briefly give an overview of the process and point you to some further resources which might help.
I’ve written before that even if it’s a folk song, somebody wrote it.
The identity of that individual may have been lost over time, but to honour the song, you still have the responsibility to try to find out who it was.
Just because we can sing a song, doesn’t mean that we should sing it.
It is important to honour the cultural and historical origins of a song so we know whether it’s appropriate to sing it in a different context or not.
When using songs from cultures different to ours, we have the responsibility to teach or perform them as accurately as we can.
We honour the song by being as authentic as possible when pronouncing the words, and reproducing the melody and harmonies.
When you learn a song — especially if it’s by ear — you take on trust what you’re told about the song’s meaning. This is particularly relevant if the song is in a foreign language.
But meaning is a slippery thing. Incorrect meanings get passed on like Chinese whispers. Some inexperienced song teachers even make stuff up if they’re not sure (see Bele mama from last week’s post).
When honouring the origins of any song, you need to be as precise as you can about where the song came from.
It might be hard to find out, but there is no excuse for being lazy and saying something like “This song is from Africa.” Here are some things to consider when tracing a song’s origins.
Many songs get handed down by ear and labelled ‘traditional’ without any clear understanding of where they come from.
It’s important to honour the source of all songs and the cultures they originate from. Here’s a guide to the things that you need to consider.
There has been some talk of insisting that singers are vaccinated before they can attend choir.
Not only is this problematic, but even if all your singers are vaccinated, there are still risks involved.
Many people are put off by the word ‘choir’. It can mean that people feel excluded from singing with others because of their preconceptions.
‘Choir’ can take many forms though, so maybe you’re looking in the wrong place.
Some choirs decided to stop all activities when the pandemic started.
As restrictions begin to ease in many countries, singers are wondering: will my choir still be there?
Many of you won’t have sung with others in a physical space for several months, or even a year or more.
As vaccination roll-out increases and restrictions are eased in many countries, when will it be safe to sing together again in person?
A drone is a note continuously sounded throughout most or all of a song.
But singers have to breathe, so how can this be achieved?
Many of you won’t have sung with others or led a choir over the last year.
Does that mean you can’t call yourself a ‘singer’ or ‘choir leader’ any more?
It’s been a year since I last led a singing workshop with real live people together in a room.
When it becomes possible to lead singing sessions again, will I still be able to do it?
I couldn’t let Christmas pass without a final post before this blog goes into ‘pause’ mode (see Time to hit pause on this blog).
Also, being a numbers nerd, I needed to publish post number 800 to finish on a round number!
I can hardly believe it, but I’ve been writing this weekly blog for 14 years – that’s 798 articles!
I haven’t missed a single week in all that time. Until now.
It’s the time of year when many choirs roll out their familiar winter repertoire. Whether it be Christmas carols or Hanukkah songs, they tend to be the same old favourites.
But what if you want to try something different? Here are some resources for discovering new songs for the winter festivals.
Joseph Jordania has outlined nine different types of polyphonic singing in his book Choral singing in human evolution.
I will be working through each type trying to give a simplified explanation and some musical examples.
This week it’s synthesis polyphony, the last of the nine types of polyphonic singing.
Joseph Jordania has outlined nine different types of polyphonic singing in his book Choral singing in human evolution.
I will be working through each type trying to give a simplified explanation and some musical examples.
This week it’s chordal polyphony.
Joseph Jordania has outlined nine different types of polyphonic singing in his book Choral singing in human evolution.
I will be working through each type trying to give a simplified explanation and some musical examples.
This week it’s overlapping polyphony.
Joseph Jordania has outlined nine different types of polyphonic singing in his book Choral singing in human evolution.
I will be working through each type trying to give a simplified explanation and some musical examples. This week it’s heterophonic polyphony.
Joseph Jordania has outlined nine different types of polyphonic singing in his book Choral singing in human evolution.
I will be working through each type trying to give a simplified explanation and some musical examples.
This week it’s ostinato polyphony.
Joseph Jordania has outlined nine different types of polyphonic singing in his book Choral singing in human evolution.
I will be working through each type trying to give a simplified explanation and some musical examples. This week it’s contrapuntal polyphony.
Joseph Jordania has outlined nine different types of polyphonic singing in his book Choral singing in human evolution.
I will be working through each type trying to give a simplified explanation and some musical examples. This week it’s canonical polyphony.
Joseph Jordania has outlined nine different types of polyphonic singing in his book Choral singing in human evolution.
I will be working through each type trying to give a simplified explanation and some musical examples. This week it’s drone polyphony.
Joseph Jordania has outlined nine different types of polyphonic singing in his book Choral singing in human evolution.
I will be working through each type trying to give a simplified explanation and some musical examples. This week it’s parallel polyphony.
Most choirs sing in harmony. They sing a kind of ‘vocal polyphony’.
It’s a bit of a daunting word, but very useful. So let’s find out what ‘polyphony’ means.
I wrote last week about how wearing masks might affect singers and how they can overcome any obstacles.
This week I want to look at the impact on choir leaders.
Choirs are starting to rehearse again, both indoors and outdoors. Many are insisting that their singers wear masks.
What are the difficulties (if any) of singing while wearing a mask?
Those of use who love to sing in harmony sometimes forget how hard and scary it can be for those who haven’t tried it before.
We all lead our choirs in different ways. There is a whole range of leadership styles out there.
What type of choir leader are you?
The world is full of clichés at the moment: “We’re living in unprecedented times”, “Every cloud has a silver lining”, “Getting used to the new normal”.
With everything in such turmoil, now might be a good time to re-evaluate your relationship with singing.
Many choirs are open-access: they welcome all kinds of voices and don’t hold auditions.
But is it still possible to keep everyone happy and be truly inclusive without making too many concessions?
Although I don’t have a regular choir, before the pandemic I used to lead one or two singing workshops each week.
I now realise that was my main exercise! Since lockdown, I’ve become a couch potato.
The socially-distanced reopening of indoor performances in England was due to take place last Saturday, but the government has now postponed it for at least another two weeks.
With circumstances changing so frequently, how do you prepare for future concerts and rehearsals?
During lockdown many of us have had to fall back on our own devices. We’ve been cast ashore on a virtual desert island and asked to fend for ourselves.
It’s tough when you have to do everything by yourself, but it can also be liberating as you have nobody to account to. There are pros and cons to both ways of working: by yourself or in collaboration.
People join choirs for many different reasons. Whatever those reasons might be, a choir ends up being a small community.
In fact, some consider a choir as a kind of family. But what might that mean?
I keep seeing virtual choirs on Facebook and hearing about amazing Zoom singing sessions.
It’s hard not to compare and feel that you’re not keeping up. But whatever you’ve managed to do, you’re doing great.
I started my first community choir over 20 years ago. I used to worry that, after the long summer break, the singers would have forgotten me and wouldn’t return to choir when it started up again.
With choirs and singing groups not meeting in person, those worries are magnified. How can you keep your singing groups alive and ensure that your singers are still there when this is all over?
That last time I was in a room with a group of singers was nearly four months ago.
If I had known then that I wouldn’t be singing like that for the foreseeable future, would I have behaved differently?
Last week I looked at What is unique about singing together.
In this post, I’ll consider which aspects of singing together can be duplicated online and which can’t.
Singing together in a group is something special. It is a very different experience from singing on your own.
But what exactly is it that we get from singing with others?
There are plenty of studies now about the many benefits of singing together. But they only look at the experience of the singers in a choir.
I’d like to consider what choir leaders get out of leading a choir and what they might be missing when choirs aren’t meeting.
