Learn how to sing in tune – matching pitch 1

Last week I looked at how you know if you’re singing in tune. It turns out that it’s quite complicated and depends on many different factors.

But what can you do to fix it if you are singing out of tune?

This week I’m going to suggest some things you can try so that you can improve your tuning abilities. Of course, I’m sure I’ve missed out loads of ideas, so please let me know if you have any other methods which have helped you stay in tune.

what do you want to achieve?

Do you need to be in tune with other singers, or with instruments? Will you be singing in unison or in harmony? A cappella or with backing? Practising for a karaoke night or a big performance with your choir?

I’m going to focus this week on the process of discovering how you can match pitch so that you can sing in unison with others. Next week I’ll look in more detail at things you can do to improve your pitch matching skills.

The week after that I’ll look at what can help you sing harmonies accurately, which means learning about the intervals between notes, how to recognise them, and how to hold on to them.

two sides of the process: listening and producing

In order to sing the correct pitch you need to be able to transmit a sound and also, at the same time, be able to listen to that sound and how it fits in with other sounds.

Most people jump right in at the transmission stage without considering the perception/ listening stage! There are so many elements involved in producing a sound with the human voice, and many, many different muscles are involved in vocal production. We have to learn to have some control over this in order to be able to consistently produce the sound that we want.

However, it’s not something that happens overnight. Think of how long it took you to learn to catch a ball when you were young, all that muscle control and hand-to-eye co-ordination. Now we need to learn some ear-to-voice co-ordination.

First off you have to learn to listen, and I mean listen.

• listen to others singing,
• listen to choral recordings,
• go to live concerts,
• spend some time in the country and listen to nature,
• learn how noisy a ‘silent’ room can be.

This has to be the first step in being able to produce the right note at will: learning to really hear what is going on, to be able to listen attentively.

This is vital even for experienced singers. As well as warming up the voice, we also need to warm up our ears before we begin to sing.

get some feedback

Now we move on to the stage of producing a vocal sound.

Somehow you will need to get some feedback as to whether you are hitting the right note or not. When you kick a football at a goal, you can see whether it hits the back of the net or not. As you begin train your ear, you will need some kind of feedback to tell you whether you’ve hit the right note or not. In the early stages of learning, your own ear is probably not the best judge!

If you’re on your own, you could practice singing with an electronic tuner that shows visually when you are flat, sharp or on pitch.

If you have a friend, singing buddy or teacher, then they can tell you when you’ve got the pitch right or not. Of course, the other person needs to have a good sense of tuning themselves!

working on your own

Play a note on an instrument like a piano, and try to match that pitch. Make sure the note is not too high or too low for you (see next week)! A good place to start is middle C in the centre of the piano keyboard. Then try to sing that note and look what the electronic tuner says.

If you’re sharp, then you’re singing too high (above the pitch) and will need to bring your pitch down a bit. If you’re singing flat, then you’re singing too low (below the pitch) and will need to raise your pitch a bit.

You will never get it exactly spot on – we are human after all! – so just aim to get pretty close.

A tuner is good place to begin, and will give you a rough idea of whether you’re near the note in question or not. You may get quite good at this, but matching pitch with an electronic tuner is not the same as singing with other people or with a band!

working with a friend

Perhaps a more realistic method is to have another person with you to tell you when you’ve got the pitch right or not. This could be a mate or a singing tutor.

There are several ways to use this other person. You can try matching pitch as follows:

• against an instrument like a piano
• in unison with another voice (not your friend’s)
• in unison with your friend’s voice

Basically, you try to match the pitch accordingly and your friend/ tutor will tell you if you’ve got it right or not. They will indicate if you need to go a little bit higher or a little bit lower (whether you’re flat or sharp).

matching against an instrument

Play a note on the instrument. Try to match it with your voice. Possible problem: the note you’ve chosen is not within your singing range (see next week).

in unison with another voice

Try to match the other person’s pitch. Possible problem: finding the right singing buddy (see next week).

in unison with your friend

Try to match their pitch. Possible problem: if you’re both singing at the same time, it might be hard for your friend to hear accurately that you’re both singing the same note (see next week).

There is another way that you can tell if two people are singing exactly the same note. You will find that if you are spot on, it’s as if the air itself begins to vibrate. You have found a kind of ‘sweet spot’ which resonates in the room. The sound will appear richer and more textured and you might be able to hear other, sympathetic notes ringing in your ears. That means you’ve nailed it!

I’m getting it wrong – what do I do now?

Next week I’ll look at how you can learn to make the right adjustments in order to sing in tune with a given pitch.

 

Chris Rowbury's website: chrisrowbury.com

How do I know if I’m singing in tune?

When singing with others, it’s important to sing in tune. But what does that mean exactly and how can you learn to do it?

This week I’m going to look at what ‘singing in tune’ might mean. Next week I’ll consider some ways of learning how to sing in tune, and how you can improve your listening abilities.

why can’t you hear how bad you are??!!!

As the current run of X Factor clearly demonstrates, there are many deluded souls out there who believe that they are singing perfectly in tune, but in fact are way, way out! Surely they must realise? After all, it’s pretty clear to the audience when things are off. Why can’t they hear how bad they are?

Often, even when singers are completely out of tune, their friends and family think they are wonderful. Are they hearing something different from us?

If these awful singers can’t hear how bad they are, maybe that means we’re always off too!

One big fear that many singers in choirs have is that they are singing dreadfully out of tune, but the others around them are just too kind to point it out! Most of the time you have nothing to worry about, but let’s have a look at what’s going on.

what does ‘being in tune’ mean any way?

Before you can decide whether you sing out of tune or not, we have to look at exactly what we mean by ‘singing in tune’.

‘To be in tune’ implies that there is something to be in tune with. If you’re singing with others, then you need to be in tune with them somehow. If you’re singing with instrumental backing, then you need to be in tune with the instruments.

There are two ways of being in tune with other singers or with instruments:

• singing the same note, i.e. matching the pitch
• singing the right harmony, i.e. finding the right pitch relative to another

The ‘pitch’ of a note is the frequency of the sound being produced, i.e. the speed of vibrations of the sound waves arriving at your ear. We perceive this as a note sounding higher or lower than another. The faster the sound waves vibrate, the higher the note appears to be.

It’s made more complicated because no note from a human voice or instrument is ever pure. There are many other notes going on at the same time known as harmonics which we don’t consciously notice.

singing the same, sounding different

Two singers can be singing the same note, but sound completely different. Each person’s voice has a unique sound depending on gender, physical make-up, culture, singing experience, time of day, singing style, health, etc. etc. It is like a fingerprint.

When a particular person produces a clear, simple note (no affectations, no vibrato) well supported by breath, there are many sympathetic vibrations created in their bodies. This gives rise to a series of harmonics (extra notes that resonate at the same time, but which we can’t usually hear directly) which gives the voice a particular texture, ‘colour’ or quality.

It’s these harmonics which make different musical instruments sound different from each other. It is related to the size of the instrument and the materials it’s constructed from. In the same way, no two human bodies will be able to make exactly the same sounds. The unique sound of each human voice is what keeps impressionists in show business!

So, when two singers sing the same pitch (e.g. the middle C on a piano), they will not sound the same. Usually they are similar enough for us to be able to tell if they are singing the same pitch or not. But sometimes, their vocal qualities are so different that it may appear that one singer is singing much lower than the other for example.

This is why some singers seem to ‘blend’ in well with each other when singing (that’s why your musical director sometimes moves people around in your section) and others don’t. It’s also why you might find it hard to pitch a note from one singer, but much easier from another.

pitching

Perhaps, then, it’s not a good idea to try to pitch off your neighbour. Their colour, vibrato, vowel formation, etc. might make you perceive their voice as being too low or too high, or you might not even be able to ‘hear’ the note they’re singing clearly enough.

In this case, try to find someone who you can pitch successfully from. In extreme cases it’s almost like you need someone to translate the note for you. The choir leader sings a note to the choir, your friend then has to sing it to you for you to be able to pitch properly.

Some people find it hard to pitch from other singers and need to hear the note from an instrument, e.g. a piano.

And finally, trying to pitch across genders can be disastrous! I’ve tried to explain before the difficult issue of singing in different octaves (i.e. male vs. female voices) (see Singing the same note - differently!). Not an easy thing to understand or deal with, so try to avoid it when starting out.

harmony can be so perfect

Some harmonies sound blissfully wonderful. We are so used to certain harmonies (e.g. 3rds, 5ths) because we hear them so often in Western pop and classical music. We might not understand the theory behind them, but they seem so familiar that sometimes we don’t even notice them. Sometimes we don’t even realise that a group is singing harmony because the notes just seem to fit in so well with each other.

Which means that sometimes we may be singing harmony against someone else but think we are out of tune. This can be because:

• the harmony is an unfamiliar one (e.g. 4th, 6th) so sounds ‘wrong’ to our ears
• we are singing perfectly in tune, in harmony but because it seems to easy and natural we freak out and think that we’re singing the same as everyone else.
   

there’s nothing to see when we get it right

Suppose we think we’re singing out of tune. How do we know? Unless the person next to us wrinkles their nose and gives us a funny look, we have no way of knowing. But even if they do, maybe they’re wrong too!

If you’re practising for basket ball, for example, you have clear visual feedback – the ball either goes in the hoop or it doesn’t. You then make tiny physical adjustments until the ball does what you want. But when you’re singing, there is no such visual feedback. You might not realise you’re getting it wrong, but even if you do, you don’t know how much to adjust your tuning until you get it right.

be patient

Like exercising any other kind of muscle, it takes time for individuals to learn to be in tune. You might even be an expert instrumentalist, but using your voice is a whole different instrumental challenge.

First off you will begin to notice large scale differences: you are singing the wrong note entirely whilst you are learning a new melody. You will soon hone in on the correct note as you become more familiar with the new song.

Next you will start to become sensitive to when you are slightly ‘sharp’ (a tiny bit above the correct pitch) or ‘flat’ (slightly below the correct pitch). The first step is to notice this, then you can begin to experiment with tiny adjustments until you feel that you are closer to the correct pitch.

Finally, in the advanced stage of learning, you begin to realise that you can express yourself (and each particular song) more clearly by varying pitch ever so slightly, bending notes, arriving at notes from slightly above for example. You will now have full control of pitch matching and can make fine adjustments at will.

This will all take some time, so please be patient!

maybe you need to sing out of tune

I had a friend once who had the most beautiful voice and could sing solo wonderfully. Her tuning was impeccable and she could hold a tune with no problem.

But as soon as she started to sing with others, even in unison, she went badly out of tune. She would sing the same melody as the rest, but ever so slightly out. It turns out that she was a bit of a control freak, and when she sang perfectly in tune she felt that she disappeared into the mix and couldn’t hear herself any longer. So in a sense she ceased to exist and began to freak out. The only way she could hang onto her sense of identity was to sing slightly out of tune with everyone else so she could still hear her own voice!

Singing together is a wonderful experience, and sometimes the music takes over and seems to have a life of its own. Individual singers disappear and the resulting sound seems to create itself. Learn to enjoy these moments and let your ‘self’ go. Give yourself up the selflessness of the music.

most of the time it doesn’t matter

We’re not machines. Nobody can sing perfectly in tune. It’s the slight variations between all the different voices in a choir which gives it such a rich, human texture.

Many singers, especially beginners, worry too much about being in tune. In my experience, most people are roughly in tune most of the time – or at least in the right neighbourhood. The beauty of a choir is that it averages out all the voices. So don’t worry if you think that you are out of tune in your section. Unless the whole section is consistently out, it probably won’t notice. It’s easy to lose sight of the whole if you’re just one person in a large choir (see The bigger picture).

it’s not just you!

Everybody has their off days. Not everyone can sing in tune every time. Some days the whole choir can be out. This can be to do with tiredness (too much rehearsal!), the weather, the key that a song is in, the difficulty of a song, etc. The whole choir might be flat or consistently be getting an interval wrong. But the next week, all will be fine, so don’t give yourself a hard time!

I may be wrong – it’s not an exact science

Sometimes when I hear a group or individual performing, I slightly wince because it seems to me that they are out of tune. Maybe consistently sharp, or just getting the tune wrong. But nobody else seems to notice!

Many times on the X Factor the judges mention that an act was out of tune, but I don’t agree. At other times I think a whole performance is badly flat, but the judges say nothing.

Tuning is in the ear of the beholder – both ourselves and our audience. Both parties don’t always agree! There is enough elasticity in the human voice that tuning can never be an exact science.

learning how to sing in tune

Next week I’ll introduce some simple techniques which will help you find out if you sing out of tune, and help you learn to pitch correctly: Learn how to sing in tune - matching pitch 1.

 

Chris Rowbury's website: chrisrowbury.com

How to tell if your choir leader is rubbish

A while back I attended a singing workshop and hated the way it was run. Was it just me, or was the workshop leader no good?

We all have different learning styles, so perhaps the leader’s teaching style just didn’t suit me. Or maybe there was some kind of personality clash – I simply didn’t like him as a person. How can you tell if it’s you or them? How can you know if your choir or singing workshop leader is any good at their job?

does the end justify the means?

One way of evaluating a teacher or choral director is if they get results. If we end up learning a song or performing an amazing concert, then we might say that a good job has been done. But does the end always justify the means? If you’ve had a really bad time and have been shouted at and belittled, then you might not think the job has been done well. If the group of singers you’re with is quite accomplished, you might end up with a good result despite the person who’s been leading you. So maybe judging the end result is not enough.

a good time was had by all!

Another way to assess a leader is if the whole experience has been pleasurable and rewarding. Surely if you’ve had a great time at a workshop or got a fantastic buzz from a concert, then you must have been lead well? But what if the music you’ve made is not really up to scratch? You might have had a good time, but the audience thought it was a lousy concert (see How was it for you?). You might have had a really fun day at the workshop, but have only learnt one song, and not a very difficult one at that. Was that money well spent? The danger of this approach to assessment, is that one person’s good time is another’s nightmare. This is where personality, taste, sensitivity, venue, personal life story, etc. come into play. “Having a good time” is too subjective an idea to use on its own.

growing and learning

Yet another means of appraising a choir or workshop leader is to reflect on whether you feel that you’ve learnt anything, or have grown in some way through the experience. This needs a certain amount of self-awareness. Some people lack this and simply won’t notice that they’re becoming better singers as time goes by! Others, who have a finely developed awareness, will almost certainly learn something from every experience, even bad ones. These people will learn despite the quality of the teaching. So assessing the learning outcome is not enough either.

there are no absolutes

The conclusion I have come to is that it is impossible to evaluate objectively whether a singing workshop leader or choral director is any good. Teaching styles, personality, choice of repertoire, gender, context, goals, are some of the many variables to take into account. Which implies that out there somewhere is a leader who will suit you perfectly, but not necessarily your friend.

good and bad

Good choir leading and song teaching – as with beauty – is in the eye of the beholder. A good choir leader for one singer might be a nightmare experience for another. A life-changing singing workshop for one singer might be a lame, simplistic waste of time for another more experienced singer. A teacher/ leader has to suit the singers they’re working with. Which is why people choose different choirs and different workshops.

Really bad leading and bad teaching will usually be found out. If someone is that bad at what they do, then nobody will get anything out of it. People will stop going to their workshops and stop joining their choirs.

getting away with it

For me, the worst things are mediocre or abusive leaders. Singers get used to a lacklustre or an angry approach. They start to believe that that is the only way of doing things. They get used to the leader’s style and find it hard to adapt to other approaches.

Some people actually enjoy being shouted at and believe that this somehow represents “hard work” and a “serious, disciplined approach”. Others like the safety and comfort of a lame leader – they don’t like to be stretched, challenged or threatened.

do no harm

As long as a choir or singing workshop leader is doing no obvious damage (to throats, to confidence, to music, to enthusiasm), then let them carry on. Just be sure to choose one that suits you, but don’t get complacent: use a certain amount of self-reflection (am I getting the most out of singing that I can?), and try out different experiences regularly (new workshops, choirs with different repertoire, challenging master classes). There is the right leader out there for you. If you’re not getting what you need or want from your current leader, then go and find a new one!

qualities of a good choir leader

If you’ve had experience of bad choir leadership, you may be interested in what I consider to be the six qualities that any good choral director needs.

 

Chris Rowbury's website: chrisrowbury.com

Is your audience just friends and family?

Does your choir actually have a public following, or are you just kidding yourself?

When a choir first starts performing in public, most of the audience will be made up of friends and family. We hope that they will then tell their friends how wonderful we are and they will come to our next show. Word of mouth will spread like wild fire until we have a huge following.

But is that how it is for most performing choirs?

Looking at a breakdown of our summer concert audience this year and last, it turns out that many familiar names pop up. In fact, a large proportion of last year’s audience came again this year!

Does that mean we have a core audience who follow us around? Or maybe some people only come to our summer concerts rather than, say, our Christmas ones. Or are we kidding ourselves, and this ‘core’ audience is our only audience? Is it, in fact, the same group of friends and family (and maybe a few other ‘fans’ thrown in for good measure) who have been following us from the start?

Although we are a largish choir (80+ voices on the books), we don’t really play large venues. Our audiences usually only number between 100 and 130. We have become used to this, and possibly this is normal for a typical choir performance.

Not only does the word ‘choir’ conjure up a particular image and perhaps put off some punters, but we also don’t sing the usual choral repertoire. So even if there are choral enthusiasts out there, they probably aren’t the sort to appreciate our repertoire (“We want more songs in English!”).

Now that you’ve read this far, you might be expecting some answers. I’m afraid I don’t have any though!

My hunch is that, yes, much of our audience is made up of friends and family. And yes, we do have a small, core bunch of fans who follow us around. Trouble is, what do you do when you’ve exhausted these people? After all there are only so many times your mum and dad want to come to the same concert!

I remember reading in Simon Callow’s book Being an actor about the time when he was in his first long run of a play. He talks about friends and family coming to his dressing room after the performance. Gradually, over the months, these visits begin to drop away as all his friends and family have seen the show. Eventually nobody visits his dressing room and he feels rather alone.

It is at times like this when we see who our audience really is. After the long run of a play, or a long concert tour, or many years of choir performances, friends and family may fade away and we are left with true fans of our work (if we’re lucky!).

So I guess my next question is: how can we widen our audience beyond just friends and family? Assuming that there is an audience out there for our work, how can we reach them?

Have we become lazy in promoting our work and presenting concerts because we imagine that there is an audience? But in reality it’s just the same core group of people following us. Time perhaps to rejuvenate our approach, brush up our repertoire, put some pizazz into the show, push our publicity. It’s never the wrong time to re-examine how you might reach a new audience. Complacency is the enemy of good work!

I’d love to hear of your experiences with your choir. Do you just have a following of friends and family? Have you found ways of widening your audience?

 

Chris Rowbury's website: chrisrowbury.com

Don’t blog when you’re feeling low

Not feeling well, so no blog post this week. Sorry. Like many teachers, I seem to always get sick in the holidays!

Points to remember:

• always keep a blog post in hand for situations like this
• don’t blog when you’re feeling low – you might regret what you say!
• you’re not invincible – look after yourself (Taking care of ourselves as choir and workshop leaders)
  
• writing a good blog post takes time and energy
• you’re not indispensable
• this too shall pass

 

See you next week.

 

Chris Rowbury's website: chrisrowbury.com

Writing what you want to read

It’s often hard for bloggers to come up with ideas for the next blog post, especially if you’ve been doing it for some time. When you first start, you write about what you know and hope that somebody out there will be interested. At least, that’s what I’ve been doing!

But how do you know that what you write is interesting your readers? How can you find out what makes for an interesting blog post?

As time goes by

• you get more and more readers (I hope!);
• people begin to leave comments (but never enough!);
• you might have a star rating for each post (if people can be bothered!);
• your analytics package tells you which are your most popular posts (but only if it’s a clever package!) and
• some of your readers even begin to suggest ideas for posts (hint, hint!).

Now it becomes a little trickier to decide on blog topics. Is it enough to continue to write about what you know, essentially pleasing yourself, or should you begin to take into account what your readers want? And if you do that, how best to go about it? How do you find out what your readers want if they don’t tell you directly?

Some of my posts get a 5-star rating. That makes me very happy! But often the rating comes from just two or three people. Not a very good reflection of my overall readership!

Some people leave comments on my posts. Not as often as I’d like, but often enough for me to believe (rashly?) that someone is actually reading the thing! But I notice that it’s often the same four or five people who comment. Again, not a very good reflection of my overall readership.

Then very, very occasionally (even though I ask people often), someone might offer a suggestion for a post. But is that just something that will interest them, a single reader, or will it be of wider interest?

What if I just go ploughing on and writing what I want to write? After all, that’s what I started out doing and it seems to have attracted some readers. Never enough, of course, but there are some people out there who seem to like what I’m writing.

But I’m not the same person as I was when I started and maybe I’m writing differently or on different topics. Perhaps I’ve lost loads of readers because I’m not delivering what they want. Even though I look at my stats and RSS subscriber figures, my readership is too small to notice any significant trends. Maybe I should take more notice of the readers and adapt my style and content?

Hang on a minute!! Now I remember why I first started writing. Not only did I want to share my thoughts, but the discipline of writing every week helps me to formulate what I really think about a subject. More importantly I wanted to start a dialogue and debate with other people. What do you think about these subjects? Have you come across the same issues? Do you have different or better solutions and ideas?

So I’m going to stick to my first principles. I will gladly take note of my most popular posts and possibly write something along similar lines in the future. I will take on board any suggestions or comments that my readers make. But the bottom line is, that I need to be true to myself and the intentions of my blog. If I don’t write what I am interested in and passionate about, then there’s not much point in writing, and the posts won’t be much good any way.

So I won’t ignore you lovely readers out there, but I will try to stay true to myself.

I’d be really interested to hear from all you imaginary friends out there, especially those of you who read regularly but never comment. Come on – it’s easy and not at all frightening! I’d be happy to if you just drop by and say “hello”. It doesn’t have to be anything profound. I’d also be extremely happy if you could let me know what you like and dislike about my blog, what subjects you’d like me to tackle in the future, what topics you’d like me to revisit.

I really, really want to make this blog more of a dialogue. I learn an enormous amount from you singers and choir leaders out there. I’d love to hear some personal stories about how you stumbled into singing or choir leading, what your high (and low) points have been, if you have any tricks or tips you’d like to share, and, of course, if you fancy using this opportunity to write a guest post of your own!

Just to let you know, here are some topics I’ve got planned for the next few weeks when the ‘holiday’s are over:

• Where does our audience come from – is it just friends and family?
• It’s festival season but they all seem to want loud, danceable music – where do we fit in?
• How can you tell if a singing workshop leader is good or bad – is it just personal taste?
• How do you know if you’re singing in tune?

I hope those of you in the northern hemisphere continue to have a good summer! I’m off down to the south coast for a week of fun and frolics. See you next week.

 

Chris Rowbury's website: chrisrowbury.com

Singing in cyberspace

Just thought I’d tell you about an initiative I’ve started on Facebook, and to let you know how you can connect with my singing activities in cyberspace.

A while back I had a crazy idea of trying to collect one traditional song from every country in the world! To that end I’ve set up a group on Facebook called A World in Song. According to Wikipedia, there are 203 internationally recognized sovereign states as of 7th April 2009 so I need all the help I can get! Do drop by and join the group if you can - I’ve only posted 3 songs so far.

Whilst on Facebook, you might like to become a fan of my page Chris Rowbury and keep up to date with my singing work. And if you're really hip to the cyber moment, you can even follow me on Twitter!

 

Chris Rowbury's website: chrisrowbury.com

The job of being a choir leader

A version of this appeared as an article in the Natural Voice Practitioners’ Network’s newsletter in 2006.

As a singing workshop and choir leader I have an incredibly easy life. I can get up when I want to and have no work commitments for four days of the week. I’m my own boss and can choose when I work and how much I do. I have holidays when the schools do, which means a long summer break each year.

I’ve just been away for a week to Suffolk, and have come back even more tired than when I went! How come? It was a restful week and we didn’t do anything strenuous.

So I got to thinking: how much do I actually do when I’m working? Perhaps it’s more than I thought. Maybe it’s like teachers and other high-energy, stressful occupations – when you eventually stop, you crash. Most teachers seem to get ill in the holidays when they let go. Perhaps it’s adrenaline that keeps us going during term time, and as soon as we have time off our bodies let go.

Until recently, when people asked me what I do, I felt slightly embarrassed to say that I just taught songs for two evenings a week, two hours at a time, and ran singing workshops three Saturdays each month. It seemed a pathetic amount of work for a grown man!

Then I realised that, of course, the “work” is not just during the contact hours, that in fact I am not just a teacher of songs, but a PR guy, a publicity designer, copywriter, PA, project planner, administrator, song arranger, office manager, website designer, recording engineer, marketing officer, song researcher, committee member, musical director, music transcriber, accountant, performance & rehearsal scheduler, community musician, filing clerk, stationery purchaser, fund-raiser … amongst other things.

In fact, I have a very FULL TIME job! I work evenings, weekends, bank holidays, and half-terms. Yet it doesn’t feel like “work” at all. When I’m arranging a song or designing publicity or writing this on a Sunday afternoon, it’s because I want to. It has to be done at some point, but I enjoy doing it, it’s creative, and I can choose when to do it.

I thought it might be interesting for those starting out (or for those who’ve been doing this for a while who didn’t realise how much work they actually do!) to give an idea of what a typical week might be like for a freelance teacher of songs/ musical director/ community musician. This is (some of) what I did during a fairly typical week shortly before I went on holiday:

• transferred a concert recording to my PC and edited it into separate tracks
• dealt with several requests to buy some of my song arrangements
• researched and contacted a range of venues in Lincolnshire and Coventry for autumn gigs
• updated my website with workshop information
• started to look for a suitable local venue for a workshop I’m running in October
• answered a backlog of emails asking general questions about singing
• planned and ran a workshop in Shropshire
• finished writing and arranging a new song about the summer
• liaised with a Stamford venue regarding an early September gig
• archived last term’s work with my choir and updated song lyrics and information for choir members
• ran choir on Thursday evening
• rehearsed with scratch choir for Warwick Folk Festival on Monday evening
• started funding application to be part of Coventry’s Peace Festival in the autumn
• agreed dates for more workshops next year
• confirmed rehearsal space for two projects for the autumn: Vox Mondiale and Foot and Mouth
• put in several invoices for recent work
• publicised my Beach Boys workshop in September
• sent out orders for choir CDs
• maintained mailing list (via website requests)
• designed flyers and posters for Vox Mondiale autumn gig
• updated my Facebook page and Twitter account
• started to collect songs for Woven Chords’ autumn term
• kept Woven Chords’ website up to date
• wrote blurb for Farncombe Estate open day
• made a recording of separate parts for a song arrangement that I sell

When I look back at that list it just makes me feel tired! Most of us get through huge amounts of work like this every week, but it’s only when we write it down that we realise how much we actually do to maintain our modest lifestyles, and that being a “community musician” or “choir leader” is not just about the music.

The job of choir leader

If you’ve enjoyed this post, you may be interested in several other posts I've written about choir leadership.

I’ve looked at the basic job definition, the roles and responsibilities and the notion of the ‘benign dictator’ (What the job of choir leader involves).

I’ve considered how you might assess a choir leader and whether the ends justify the means (How to tell if your choir leader is rubbish).

I've listed what I consider to be the six qualities needed by any good choir leader.

 

Chris Rowbury's website: chrisrowbury.com

Help! What am I going to do with no singing over the summer break?

For those of us who work to school terms, it is now the summer holidays. Unlike us poor folk here in the UK, the summer break is months long in the US ! Whilst we only have six weeks or so, the summer there lasts from early June until late August – almost three months.

When I started my first choir WorldSong back in 1997, when the summer break came along people began to panic. What would they do on Wednesday evenings for the next couple of months? Where would they get their singing fix? How could they last without seeing their singing friends each week?

As a beginning choir leader I was worried if we had a long break, people might not come back. Perhaps they would get out of the habit of coming each week, or find something better to do on a Wednesday evening.

That first year we broke up in early July and started back in late September – a break of 11 weeks (I needed a break at the time!). It was with considerable trepidation that I waited that first autumn Wednesday to see how many – if any – people would come back to choir after such a long break. Fortunately for me, quite a few singers came back, but it was a nerve-wracking time.

Next time summer came around, so many people were complaining about not being able to sing over the summer, that I decided to run a short ‘summer school’ consisting of four Wednesday evenings in the middle of the summer break. I managed to attract a considerable amount of interest, not only regular choir members, but others who weren’t able to make a regular commitment during term time. We had lots of fun, and some of the participants joined the choir in the following autumn.

One year, when I was running three separate community choirs, I ended up leading three summer schools in three different towns. It was becoming too much! I found that I didn’t get a chance to refresh myself and have a decent break, neither did I have enough time to source new songs for the coming term.

So I stopped running the summer schools. And people came back after the break after all. Sure, they might have missed singing for a while, but they had been on holiday and worked in the garden and had lots of other things on their minds. When the autumn term started everyone came back renewed, refreshed and eager to start singing again.

I learnt several lessons from this:

• a choir offers something valuable to many people – not just singing, but a sense of community and a regular hobby
• if you are offering something that people like and want, then they won’t desert you just because you have a long break
• don’t be afraid to say ‘no’ – trust that people want what you have to offer
  
• we all need a break to refresh and renew ourselves, not least the choir director who needs to replenish their energy before a new term
• there are plenty of other singing opportunities over the summer, and it’s good for people to try out a variety of styles and workshop leaders
• don’t believe everything people say: I have had people saying that they couldn’t possibly survive a whole summer without singing, but they do.

I have known choir leaders who have taken whole terms (or even a whole year) off from their choir, leaving it in the hands of a caretaker, or reducing the sessions to once every few months. In each case, the choir has survived and thrived.

I had known of individuals who have said things like: “This choir is my life, I don’t know what I’d do without it” and “I have to join your choir! Please, please, please let me join in the autumn”. And in each of theses cases the people have disappeared and never come to choir. Try to figure that out!

 

Chris Rowbury's website: chrisrowbury.com

Singing in harmony 2 – small group skills

Last week I wrote about some of the skills needed to be able to sing in harmony. Most of them were focused on singing in a large choir. This week I want to consider those skills that are needed to sing harmony in a much smaller group, perhaps a group with only one singer on each part.

Photo by Cindy Funk

I’d love to hear from those of you who sing regularly in small groups to see whether I’ve missed any important points out or if you have any useful tricks that you can share. Do drop by and leave a comment.

harmony singing in a small ensemble

Although I’m focusing here on small group singing, most of the points equally apply to larger choirs. The main difference will be in where you place your focus of attention. In a small group, the focus can be on all the other singers and the overall sound, whereas in a larger choir the focus may be more on the singers around you and the harmony between your part and the section of the choir standing either side of you.

I ended last week’s post with what I believe to be the three most important skills needed for harmony singing: the ability to listen, listen, and listen.

listen – to yourself

Singing begins with yourself. You make a sound which you have total control over. Using feedback you get from listening to others, you can adjust your own vocal output. By listening to yourself you can:

• check that you are always in tune with the other singers;
• make sure your volume is appropriate so your harmony part doesn’t drown out the others or fade into the background;
• see if your vowels and vocal quality are appropriate to the song and blend in with the other singers.

listen – to others

By listening into the other singers in your group – both individually and as a whole – you will get the necessary feedback to sing your own part well. Singers are human beings rather than beat boxes or synthesisers, so tuning, timing, vocal quality, etc. will shift constantly during any song. You need to be alert to all these minute changes and follow them accurately.

• Are the other parts louder/ softer than you?
• Have they slightly changed pitch?
• Is their timing getting faster?
• Where are they putting that syncopated beat?
• Where are they taking their breaths?

listen – to the harmonies

This is more about the overall effect of your group of singers. In some sense, it’s not about listening to the sounds that are there, but the gaps between the sounds. For me, that is the joy of harmony singing. Rather than feel that another harmony part is “putting you off” somehow, if you focus on the gap/ interval between what you are singing and what the other parts are singing, then it stops being about the individual notes and more about the effect that harmony has on us.

Harmony singing is all about team playing. By listening to the overall effect that the harmonies are having, you can make tiny adjustments to your own singing that will serve the whole. When harmony is working properly in a small group, it stops being about the individuals. It is almost as if the song is singing itself and you are simply enjoying and inhabiting the spaces between the notes.

self-awareness

To be able to use the feedback from what you are hearing, you need a certain amount of self-awareness. It’s no good noticing what the others are doing if you can’t feel or hear what you’re doing yourself. If you can’t detect that your body is in tension, or that you’re breathing incorrectly or that you’re singing too loud, then you won’t be able to make the necessary adjustments to serve the group. If you’re a control freak, then maybe harmony singing is not for you! You need to surrender your ‘self’ to the group and the music.

Developing self-awareness is not that hard, but can take some practice if you’re not used to it. The enemies of self-awareness are any things that take you out of being in the moment:

• fear (of making a mistake, of not being a good singer, of not knowing the words);
• boredom;
• arrogance (“I know this song inside out”, “I don’t need to listen, I’ve learnt this song before”);
• daydreaming, trying to repeat the past (“Last time we did this it was great, this time it’s going to be even better!”);
• anticipating the future (“I really hope the gig is going to go well”);
• measuring yourself against others (“They’re all far better at this than I am”);
• bringing outside baggage along (“I can’t believe how rude that woman was in the shop this afternoon”).

And many others. In fact, there are probably far more reasons for not being in the moment, than being in the moment! But … it is vital if you want to sing harmony well.

watch my lips!

Even though you might not be able to hear the exact notes coming out of a singer’s mouth (because you’re focusing on the harmonies), or see their belly move when they’re breathing, you can get important information just by looking at other singers’ mouths. Watch the others in your group like a hawk and you will stay in tune, breathe at the same time, and keep in time. Simple but very, very effective!

breathe easy

You might not be able to hear the others breathe, but you certainly need to know when they are breathing. Breath can be a cue to start a song. It will ensure that you all start the phrase at the same moment. It can enable sustained drone parts by ensuring that you all breathe at different times. It can help with moments of suspension/ tension in a song (i.e. sustained pauses).

keep your friends close

It’s not very British to stand that close to each other. We like our personal space! But just look at small groups Corsican singers for example. They stand exceptionally close to each other. Their focus is entirely on each other and the sound they are making. They are usually physically touching and you can see them leaning in and putting their ears right in front of other singers’ mouths. You can never stand too close when singing harmony!

focus in, and focus out

I’m assuming that your harmony singing group will want to share songs with an audience. This means finding the tricky balance between focusing totally inwards on the other singers and the beautiful harmonies that you are making (very tempting!), and sending the music out to the audience. You need to have at least three focuses of attention: on yourself, on the rest of the group and on the audience. It’s impossible to maintain three focuses at the same time, so you have to keep jumping between them, not letting any one of them dominate. A tricky act, but one which is possible with practice.

 

Chris Rowbury's website: chrisrowbury.com

Singing in harmony 1 – how do they do that?

Last week I wrote about How to be a good choir member. This was prompted by an post on whether you need singing lessons or not in order to sing. I pointed out that there are several skills that can’t be learnt in a one-to-one singing lesson. One is being in a choir, another is singing with a group in three or more part harmony.

Photo by Piers Nye

I thought I’d use this post to consider what skills you need in order to sing harmony in a group. This week I’ll focus on those skills that are specific to singing in a choir. Next week I’ll look at small group singing. Of course, many of the skills needed overlap whether you sing in a choir or a small group, so the division is rather arbitrary.

big group, small group

I have led several community choirs, all of which sing unaccompanied in three and four (and sometimes more) part harmony. The experience of singing as part of a large choir is very different from that of singing in a small group, and some of the skills needed are different too.

Sometimes I have invited people from a choir to try out for a smaller ensemble that I was starting. I would tell them that the main skill needed (other than being able to sing in tune!) was to be able to hold a part on your own. If it is a three part harmony, then you need be able to sing your part in a group of just three singers.

I knew that not many people in the choir were able to do this (simply because they hadn’t had the experience), and yet loads of people came forward, convinced they could hold a part on their own.

At the try-out, I would point out when people were not holding their part accurately, and they would be surprised, thinking that they were doing fine. This shows us two things: that singing in a small group is different from singing in a large choir; and that self-awareness is an important skill for singing harmony.

harmony singing in a choir

Large groups of singers are far more forgiving of inaccurate singing than small groups. If there are 15 altos and a few singers are slightly out, then it doesn’t notice that much. But if there are only two altos in a small group, then it’s disastrous!

Often it’s hard to be aware of the harmonies going on in a big choir. Singers are frequently only conscious of the others around them who are singing the same part. More confident singers may be standing on the join between two parts, in which case they will appreciate the harmony between those two parts. For me, that is when harmony singing becomes a joy. I can’t understand those singers who find that the other parts are a distraction to what they’re singing! If you listen to how the harmony works, it will help you hold your own part.

divide and conquer

In order to experience harmony singing fully in a large choir, the director will often divide the choir into smaller groups, or get everyone to walk around the room singing.

Once we have learnt a song, I often divide the choir into groups of four singers – soprano, alto, tenor, bass – and spread the groups around the room to sing. There are enough other singers in your part somewhere in the room for you to feel supported, yet you are close to the other three parts so can experience the full harmony at work.

The skills you develop in exercises like this are pretty much the same as those needed in a small ensemble. When you go back and stand with the other singers in your part, you will find that the overall sound is more accurate.

move around

Another way of honing your harmony skills, keeping in tune and understanding how harmony works is to move to a different part.

You can go and stand near another part whilst singing your own part to feel and hear how the harmony works. Or you can go and learn another part in addition to your own part to get a broader sense of the harmonies in a song. You can then hear your original part being sung against your new part. By changing parts frequently, you can also experience different aspects of the harmonies in a song: main tune, parallel harmony a third above, drone, mirroring part an octave below the tune, etc.

practice makes perfect

You don’t need to have any particular music training or understanding of music theory to be able to ‘understand’ harmony. Understanding can happen at a visceral, subconscious, or intuitive level too. When listening to the radio or a CD or your MP3 player, see if you can pick out any harmonies in the voices, or even better, sing along and make up a harmony of your own. You’ll be surprised how easy it is in most cases!

listen, listen, listen

These are the three most important skills needed for harmony singing. I’ll be talking more about them next week when I look at the skills needed for small group harmony singing. Other skills I’ll be considering are breathing, standing close to each other and focus of attention.

 

Chris Rowbury's website: chrisrowbury.com

How to be a good choir member

Last week I wrote about whether you need singing lessons in order to be able to sing. I suggested that people should simply jump in and join a choir before they ever consider individual singing lessons. I pointed out that there are important group and harmony skills that cannot be taught one-to-one.

Photo by CowGummy

This week I want to consider what qualities make for being a good choir member. Of course, this list is personal and not exhaustive, so I would welcome any additions from all you fine readers out there. Do drop by and leave a comment. I always welcome your feedback and wisdom (it can get lonely this side of the keyboard!).

So, in no particular order, these are the qualities that I believe make for an ideal choir member:

• punctuality
  It takes a while to build up a safe, creative atmosphere, but only a second to destroy it. If we’re doing some focused warm up work, we don’t want people wandering in half way through!
  
  I know some people get stuck in traffic or have to come straight from work, but persistent latecomers aren’t showing respect for their fellow choir members (or the work or the choir), and are often the ones who would benefit most from the voice training and stress-busting warm up!
   
• commitment
  Commitment to the choir can be shown in many ways (not least turning up on time!). But for most community choirs, the most important commitment is simply to turn up every week!
  
  There are many people who pay for the whole term but show up only once or twice. Again, this demonstrates a lack of respect for both the choir and its members. Also it implies that the work that we do each week rehearsing and learning songs is not that valuable and it’s possible to just turn up for the concert.
   
• responsibility
  It’s all too easy to let your choir director or other members of your part do all the work. It’s an easy cop-out. Yes, the director is in charge, but the final result depends on every single individual in the choir. It’s no good thinking that your fellow singers will back you up and cover you through the bits you don’t know that well. If every singer in the choir thought that, there would be no choir!
  
  You have to take responsibility to attend regularly (and on time), to know your part, to stay aware of rehearsal schedules, to listen to the director’s instructions, and so on.
   
• self-awareness
  Many people stumble through life not really paying attention. Or if they do pay attention, its often to the wrong thing! How many times have you been bumped into in the supermarket by someone whose focus is on the cereal packet they’re about to buy, and not the throng of people surrounding them?
  
  Often it’s simply a matter of being in the moment, being present and engaged with whatever is going on at that particular point. This can be helped by focusing on the warm up each session which assists in the transition between your busy daily life and the job of being in a choir.
  
  It’s by paying attention to what you’re doing that helps you to learn and improve. When the director points out that you’re tipping your head back, then check in with your own body and see what that feels like. When your fellow alto complains that you’re singing too loudly in their ear, check in with yourself and make a note of how it feels in that moment and what you can do next time.
   
• trust
  Some people find it very uncomfortable to be in the middle of a learning process. When you first start to learn a new song it can feel frustrating that you can’t quite nail the tune. Even when you’ve been singing a song for a while, you might still keep tripping over some of the words.
  
  Try not to get frustrated, but give yourself up to the process and trust that it will come out right in the end. Similarly, if the director’s new structure for a song seems weird, trust that she knows what she’s doing and is not setting out to make you or the choir look forward.
  
  Throw yourself into these processes wholeheartedly and trust them. If you want to analyse or question, wait until the process is over (i.e. after the concert or at the end of term) to evaluate. If you find that your trust was misplaced, you can always leave and find a better choir!
   
• attentiveness
  This is related to self-awareness and having a sense of the whole. Often an individual choir member forgets where they are and starts chatting to their neighbour for instance. After all, they’ve finished learning their part and are, in fact, talking about important singing matters after all. But what they don’t realise is that they’re missing what’s going on around them.
  
  You need to be attentive to the director (or you might miss your cue), the singers around you (you don’t want to breathe at the wrong time), the overall choir sound (make sure your part is not louder than all the others), and what your own responsibilities are (don’t miss your solo!).
   
• consideration for others
  This is all to do with respect: respect for your fellow human beings and hence respect for what you and other choir members are doing and therefore respect for the choir as a whole.
  
  Don’t be a prima donna – choirs are all about team work. Remember what it was like when you first joined the choir – help out new members. If someone in your part is struggling, don’t feel superior because you’ve nailed it – stand next to them and help them out gently.
   
• listening skills
  You may find it surprising that singing skills aren’t in this list of important things for being a good choir member. My belief is that everyone can sing and that, given time, everyone in the choir can get to the same high standard.
  
  However, to get to that point, instead of focusing on the production of the voice, you need to pay more attention to what you are hearing. Using your self-awareness, you can begin to hear when you are getting the notes right and when you are not. Listening to others in your part will help you stay in time, blend better and work as a unit. Reaching out to hear the other parts will help you stay in tune, enjoy and get a better understanding of how harmony works. And finally, listening to what the director has to say can only be a good thing!
   
• sense of the whole
  It’s no good relying on the director to give you feedback all the time. It’s also no good to just focus on those singers around you. It’s much more pleasurable to reach out and try to get a sense of the whole choir. Hear the harmonies working, check the blend, get the volume balance of each part right, wait for the choir to take a single in-breath to start the next song, feel part of a creative team – a living organism.
   
• sense of humour
  Maybe this is the most important aspect of all. Keep smiling when all around you are struggling. Laugh off the umpteenth time the director has pointed out that you’re getting a phrase wrong. Find the humour in the man standing next to you who constantly sings the wrong note – loudly! Relax, be playful, make it fun. After all, although you take the whole choir thing seriously, it’s only a bit of singing!

 

Chris Rowbury's website: chrisrowbury.com

Do you need singing lessons in order to sing?

I often get enquiries from people looking for one-to-one singing lessons. I tell them that unfortunately I don’t offer them.

Then I say that I don’t recommend singing lessons in any case, but recommend they join a choir instead. Do singing lessons help people sing better?

why do you want singing lessons any way?

The vast majority of people who contact me for singing lessons don’t give much background information! There’s none of this: “I’ve been singing in a choir for years and would like to increase my range” or this: “I’m just starting out and don’t know whether I can sing or not.” But on closer examination (and a few emails or phone calls later) it almost always turns out that people are in the last category.

She has been “meaning to start singing for years” but just “hasn’t got around to it”. In many cases it’s very similar to those people who’ve been “meaning to write a novel for years” but never quite got around to it. Will they ever get around to it? Will it simply be a flash in the pan? How much do they really want to sing? They only need to open their mouths and let the sound out!

singing with others is different

To be fair though, there is a huge group of people who love singing, maybe sing around the house or in the car, who maybe were even in a choir at school, but have not sung with a group before (or at least, not in a long time). They may feel comfortable and confident when singing alone, but are nervous about singing in front of, or with others.

That’s when all the doubts crowd in: maybe my voice isn’t as good as the others; perhaps I’ve been kidding myself and I can’t really ‘sing’ after all; it would be terrible if I inflicted my voice on other people and it turns out to be awful; maybe I can only sing along with my CDs and am not able to learn ‘proper’ songs with other people; I don’t know anything about music, so I’ll be a fish out of water.

We’ve met these people before. They’re often the people who think they can’t sing (Why people think they can’t sing, But I can’t sing that high!) or who love singing but never actually get it together to join a group (I love to sing, but I’m not leaving the house!).

singing lessons will turn you into a proper singer

Many people in this situation (i.e. choral ‘beginners’, those with not much experience of singing with others) are drawn to the idea of having singing lessons. They think the lessons will improve their voice, teach them to sing ‘properly’, give them feedback on whether they sound OK or not, introduce them to music theory, turn a ‘singing at home’ voice into a beautiful choral voice.

In many situations though, this is simply putting off the inevitable. It’s rather like people who want to write that novel and keep buying “How to write novels” books, but never actually get round to picking up a pen! There is no easy way to walk into a room of strangers and sing with them. There is no preparation that can help this step into the unknown. In fact, having a singing lesson is probably even harder than joining a choir!

singing solo with an audience

OK, so you’re feeling a little under-confident about singing with others. You’re not sure whether your voice sounds nice or not and you don’t know if you can hit the high notes. You’ve been singing round the house for years, but nobody (except the kids and the dog) has actually heard you. What’s the next step?

Why not pay an experienced professional singer (who knows much more about music than you do, who can probably sing much better than you, and who has years of experience of performing in front of vast audiences) to give you some of their time so you can stand in front of them and sing solo for the first time? No problem! Easy as falling off a log.

In my opinion this would scare any beginning singer to death! It’s not even as scary as singing in front of your friends since they don’t know much about music any way. This is an expert who will be able to hear all the little things you do wrong, who’s sung with some of the best voices in the business. Even if they’re the kindest, most sensitive, caring teacher in the world and really want to help you, what can they do?

If you’ve not sung much before, you won’t be that familiar with your own voice or how it connects with your body and breath. You also probably won’t know much about music theory. The singing teacher might start to say things like “lower your larynx”, “make sure your diaphragm is engaged”, “sing me a minor scale”. These won’t mean much to you, and even if they do, you won’t have had the experience to put them into practice in a way that means something to you and can help you improve.

join a choir!

But if you join a choir, you are just one of many. You are not put on the spot or asked to sing solo (unless you want to). You can spend many happy months or years singing with others and slowly learning to feel your away around your own voice. You will feel supported (you’re not the only one singing your part, nor are you the only one lacking in experience or confidence) whilst you gradually extend your range and the possible comfortable sounds you can make. You can be playful in the warm ups and discover more about how your voice works, how it feels, and how it connects with your breath and body. By singing a variety of songs, you will slowly start to pick up some musical jargon (minor and major, scale, interval, legato, 4/4). They might not mean much to start with, and it’s not necessary to know this stuff, but by experiencing the music and then connecting it with some of these new terms, it will slowly begin to make sense and add to your musical vocabulary.

time for a singing lesson?

Once you have sung with others for a considerable time, you may come across a limitation in your own singing. Despite all the warm ups and voice training that the musical director weaves into each choir session, it is not possible for them to give everybody individual attention. So even though your breath control and range have improved since you first joined the choir, you feel that there’s still room for more improvement.

Now if you decide to go for one-to-one singing lessons, you are in much better position to learn something. You will be more familiar with your own voice so will be able to make more sense of the subtle instructions that the singing teacher will give about posture, alignment, diaphragm, etc. You will be able to feel and appreciate the difference these small changes can make.

You will feel much more comfortable singing solo in front of the teacher and you will also not be phased if she uses any musical jargon. If there’s something you don’t understand, you will feel confident to ask for an explanation. In short, you are now in a much better position to learn more about your own singing voice.

developing choral and harmony skills

Whatever you might learn from one-to-one singing lessons, there is a whole set of skills that you need that can only be learnt in a group. For example, it’s not possible to sing three part harmony if there are only two of you!

My next post will be on the subject of how to be a good choir member, and the week after that I’ll be looking at the skills that I believe are necessary when singing harmony with a group of singers, whether it be in a large community choir or a small ensemble.

 

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