A customer asked for ideas for vocal warm-ups. Here are a few video sources with warm-up exercises. Explore and experiment to find the exercises that work for you. And feel free to share any other sources that you know.
Ron Cross, the Music Ministry Coach. Ron specializes in information about the ministry of gospel music for praise teams, soloists, musicians, and also choirs. He has lots of stuff to check out, but here is his warm-up video --
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNw5oDeJ3oo
The other instructors here are not gospel-oriented, but they also have some warm-up exercise suggestions.
This is a re-post from 2010 from my old blog that disappeared when the web host suddenly went away. So glad I found it through the WayBack Machine!
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I get on this soap box a lot. Why do most of our gospel choirs only have three vocal parts — sopranos, altos, and tenors? My father tells me that back when he was young there were always four parts in the choir at church — soprano, alto, tenor, and bass.
Somewhere along the way, we replaced the bass singers with a bass guitar and started expecting all of the men to sing tenor. Webster’s Dictionary defines tenor as “the highest natural adult male singing voice”. How can we ask every guy in the choir to sing in the highest possible range?
A lot of us have had the same experience in our own choirs as they describe in Wikipedia:
One nearly ubiquitous facet of choral singing is the shortage of tenor voices. Most men tend to have baritone voices and for this reason the majority of men tend to prefer singing in the bass section of a choir.
Only in a lot of our choirs there is no bass section. So after a while, men get tired of being told, “That’s not the right note. It’s higher. Go higher.” And they stop singing in the choir.
At my own church, I’m trying to recruit some of these guys back into the choir. It’s not easy though. The contemporary gospel songs we sing are usually written in three parts, so if I want to add a bass part I have to create it myself. If I take the time to do that and then no basses come to the rehearsal, it can feel like a waste. And if a bass singer shows up on a night when I didn’t prepare a bass part, then I have to make up a part on the fly, which is no fun at all.
But I’m going to keep trying. Our next church concert is going to be at Pentecost, and I’m going to prepare bass parts for all the concert songs and see if I can get at least two basses to sing with us. We’ll see if it works.
Right now at ChoirParts.com, I have a client who has requested a song that’s in four parts. I just finished it for them. I hope their choir has a good time performing it.
And I found this on YouTube — the original version of a gospel choir standard, “No Greater Love” by the Gospel Music Workshop of America. I had forgotten that it includes a bass part. You can hear them singing by themselves at the 4:50 mark. Don’t they sound nice?
As a choir director, you want to have lots of different types of
songs in your teaching repertoire. The more songs you know, the more
you will be able to choose just the right one for a particular choir
or a particular event.
One category of songs that you need to have at the ready are easy
pieces, because there will definitely be times when you need to be
able to present an easy song in a rehearsal.
There are two types of easy songs that are good for
different situations.
Some songs are easy in the sense that they are good for
singers who have limited skills. If you are working with a
choir of young people or inexperienced singers, you want songs with
the following characteristics:
Lots of unison. It takes time for people to develop their
skills in harmony singing, so look for songs that are mostly in
unison. And sometimes songs that are usually done in parts will
still sound good in unison if they have a good melody and strong
lyrics.
An easy melody that doesn't have a lot of jumps or high
notes.
Simple rhythms. Nothing super fast and nothing with tricky
syncopation.
Now, for this type of easy song it's OK if the song has a lot of
words. If you start teaching the song far enough in advance, your
choir will be able to get plenty of practice and learn the words.
In fact, having a lot of interesting and inspiring lyrics is a good
way that a choir can bring a powerful presentation even if they are
not ready for a lot of fancy harmonies.
Teaching the right kind of easy music to a beginning choir can
help build their confidence and provide them with positive singing
experiences that will encourage them to continue on in choir
ministry.
Also, if you're working with a choir that is new to you and
you're not sure what their skill level is, you can start of with an
easy song or two and then you can see if they are ready for more
complex material.
This web article includes examples of gospel choir songs that are
good for inexperienced singers: Working with a choir of beginners.
Other songs are easy in the sense that they can be
memorized quickly. You may be working with an experienced and
talented choir, but you have limited rehearsal time (this often
happens with mass choirs at conferences and workshops). Or if
you're selecting new music for a concert and you have chosen some
songs that will be very challenging for your choir, you will also
want to choose some easy songs to bring balance and not overwhelm
the choir. The kind of songs that will be quick to learn are songs
like these:
A “catchy” melody. You know how some popular music gets
stuck in your head after you hear it just a little bit of it?
That's the kind of tune to teach to a choir if you want them to
learn a song in just one rehearsal. Usually, a catchy tune will
have short musical phrases that get repeated a lot. Those are the
easiest kind of tunes to remember.
Call-and-response songs. These are songs where the lead
singer sings a line and then the choir either repeats the same line
or sings something that answers back to whatever the leader said.
With call-and-response songs, as long as the leader remembers what
to do next, everybody else can just follow along.
Songs with few words. There are some beautiful choir songs
where the choir only has to sing five or six words. The rest of
the message of the song is covered by the lead verses.
Songs with words that are familiar to everyone. If the
lyrics to the song are taken from an old hymn or a well-known
passage of scripture, the choir members will already have the words
memorized.
Another way that these “quick to memorize” songs can be
useful is when you want to encourage the congregation/audience to
participate. After a hearing a couple of repetitions, everyone in
the room will be able to sing along.
The story of Advent and Christmas is rich with meaning. As music
ministers, we can find many themes and subjects to inspire choices
for Christmas music to use in ministry. Even some songs that were
not written with Christmas in mind can be beautiful expressions of
the spirit of the season.
Here is a list of topics that are related to Christmas. For each
one, I have a few suggestions of songs that fit, and I hope these
inspire you to think of other songs as well that relate to the same
topic that would be great for your choir or group.
These are major subject themes that relate to the
Christmas season:
(And for each category, I added an Amazon player so you can hear excerpts from all the songs.) Baby songs.“And
they came with haste , and found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying
in a manger.” – Luke 2:16.
Everybody loves babies, and songs about Jesus as an infant inspire
feelings of love and tenderness that are a beautiful part of “the
Christmas spirit”.
Christmas carols like What Child Is This and Away in a
Manger.
Mary Did You Know? (Lowry & Greene)
Sweet Little Jesus Boy (Mahalia Jackson and lots of other
artists)
Jesus, Oh What a Wonderful Child (Traditional)
Songs about beholding and
adoring Jesus.“And when they were come into the
house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down ,
and worshipped him:” – Matthew 2:11.
These are different from the “baby” songs because instead of
focusing on Jesus himself, they focus on our own feelings and acts of
worship toward him. This worship is what all of the visitors did
when they were in the presence of Jesus, and these songs encourage us
to do the same. There are lots of songs that are not actually
Christmas songs that would be great in a Christmas service because
they fit in with this same theme of reverent adoration and intimate
worship.
O Come All Ye Faithful / O Come Let Us Adore Him (Christmas
carol)
Emmanuel (Norman Hutchins)
Now Behold the Lamb (Kirk Franklin)
Here I Am to Worship (Tim Hughes) – “Here I am to
worship, here I am to bow down, here I am to say that You're my
God.”
Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus (Hymn) – “Turn your eyes
upon Jesus, Look full in His wonderful face, And the things of
earth will grow strangely dim, In the light of His glory and
grace.”
Other events from the Christmas story.
Along with the birth scene, there were other events that were a
part of the arrival of Jesus – the prophecies to Mary and Joseph,
the journey to Bethlehem, the shepherds on the hillside, the
treachery of Herod. Songs that recreate these happenings are an
important part of keeping the Christmas story alive.
Carols: The First Noel, While Shepherds Watched their
Flocks, We Three Kings, the Coventry Carol
Songs about the Advent of
the Savior.“ . . . and he shall send them a saviour
, and a great one, and he shall deliver them.” – Isaiah
19:20.
This is the reason WHY we needed Christmas. There was no one who
was able to save mankind before Jesus came. Songs that deal with the
Old Testament prophecies about Jesus or songs about our need for a
Savior remind us of the hope that Christmas brings to our lives
today.
Carols: O Come O Come Emmanuel
Still the Lamb (Mary, Mary)
Hero (Kirk Franklin). While there are some lyrics in this
that are Easter-related, the main message, especially in the
opening verses, is that we needed someone to come on the scene to
be our deliverer. That's Christmas.
Choruses from Handel's Messiah: And He Shall Purify, For
Unto Us a Child Is Born
Songs
about “the light of the world.”“The people that
walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the
land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined . . .
For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given . . .” –
Isaiah 9:2,6. “In him was life; and the life was the light of
men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended
it not.” – John 1:4-5.
Songs about the light of Christ are a part of the Christmas story
and also fit in with the “look” that we associate with Christmas
(the lights on the tree, the lights on the houses, all that pretty
stuff).
Carols: Silent Night. Pay attention to the lyrics of
“Silent Night”. There's a lot about light shining in darkness
– “All is bright round yon virgin”, “Glories
stream from heaven afar”, “love's pure light radiant
beams from thy holy face.” I think this song is more about
light than it is about babies.
Jesus Is the Light (either the hymn or the Hezekiah Walker
song)
Following the example of the
angels – corporate praise.“And suddenly there was
with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and
saying, Glory to God
in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.”
– Luke 2:13-14.
This is different from the intimate personal worship that the wise
men experienced. This is worshipers coming together to make a joyful
noise of praise. This includes songs about the angels, songs that
use the same words the angels sang (in Latin, it's “Gloria
in excelsis deo,
et in
terra pax hominibus
bonae voluntatis.”), or any other proclamations of
praise.
Carols: Angels We Have Heard on High, Angels from the Realms
of Glory, Joy to the World, etc.
Choruses from the Messiah: Glory to God or the Hallelujah
Chorus
“Keep Christ in Christmas”
songs.“Render
therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's; and unto God the
things that are God's.”
– Matthew 22:21
In the ungodly, materialistic world that we live in, these songs
remind us where we as Christians need to keep our focus during
Christmas. Yes, it's true that the winter solstice celebrations are
older than Christianity, and I'm OK with secular people doing the
holidays whatever other way they want to do them, but we who believe
in Jesus can be at peace with the secular world and still have a holy
holiday of our own. These songs are not trying to tell other people
what to do, they're reminding US of what WE want to do. It's
especially important for our children to hear messages like this so
that they will remember that even if the rest of the world sees
Christmas as a time of “gimme, gimme, gimme”, we are focused on
the Lord.
Jesus Is the Reason (Kirk Franklin)
The Real Meaning of Christmas (The Winans)
No Christmas without You (John P. Kee, Kirk Franklin)
My hope is that these suggestions will give you ideas to broaden
and enrich the Christmas repertoire of your choir or singing group.
May you and yours have a beautiful and blessed holiday season, always
with a song in your heart.
Church gospel choirs are known for
singing one type of music, and we do it very well. But how do you
expand from there? Does your choir want to do other styles? Jazz?
Spirituals? Classical? What do you need to learn if you're trying
to branch out into any of those areas?
I made a video that starts to talk
about ONE aspect of this – the music theory part of it. There's a
particular format that most gospel choir music uses to put together
the melodies and harmonies, but other types of choir music are not
put together the same way. This video starts the conversation about
how typical gospel choir music is structured and the ways you would
need to grow from there in order to do a greater variety of music
with your choir. There's a lot to say about this subject, so this
video is just the beginning; I'll be getting more into it in future
videos.
Don't worry if you've never studied
music theory before. We're going to approach it very gently. Here's the video:
A reader asked me for my thoughts about how to physically arrange a choir when they're going to sing. I think the best positioning will vary from choir to choir.
Back when I was a kid, church choirs usually positioned themselves in rows, something like this (where S stands for Soprano, A for Alto, and T for Tenor):
TTTTTTTTTTT
AAAAAAAAA
SSSSSSSSSSS
But as time went on, more and more choirs started using a block formation, like so:
SSSS TTT AAAA
SSSS TTT AAAA
SSSS TTT AAAA
Sometimes the sopranos will be on the left, sometimes on the right. Usually the tenors and/or basses are in the center.
I use the block formation and I like it for a few reasons:
It makes it easy for the director to signal to different sections of the choir. If I signal to my right, it's clear that I'm talking to the altos.
When all the singers in one section are close to each other, it can be helpful to those who sometimes forget their part. They can hear the others around them all singing the same note and they're less likely to drift onto a different part.
I'm not an expert on sound tech stuff, but it appears to be easier for the sound people to adjust the microphone levels to balance out the different sections.
But the block formation can have some downsides as well:
I've heard some choir members say that they don't get the full experience of the music because they can only hear their own part, the other singers are too far away.
On songs where the different sections are singing different lines and rhythms, it can be a challenge to stay on time together if sopranos can't hear the altos.
For those reasons, some choirs might do better with a formation where the different parts have more proximity to each other.
So a director will want to know their choir and choose the best positions based on their own choir's strengths and weaknesses. A really sophisticated approach would be to try different positionings for different songs, but I have not done very much of that myself (there was one song, though, where the basses worked out a new positioning for themselves because they found that it helped them support each other for their difficult part).
Another thing to consider is where to put individual singers within their sections. The singer with the loudest voice might need to be in the back, off to the side, away from the microphone. And the one who forgets their notes sometimes can benefit from being beside the person who's always solid on the part.
As a music minister in a church, your mission is to use music to advance the
purpose and values of your church. This might seem simple – “We're
a Christian church, so we do Christian music. Easy.” But to be
most effective, you want to align your music with the particular
vision and focus of your individual pastor and congregation. This can vary from one congregation to another.
What do I mean by that? Here's an example. Every minister
preaches about both God's forgiving mercy and God's righteous
standards for holiness. But sometimes one preacher's sermon about
holiness and discipline might strike another preacher as “harsh”
or “sounding like the Pharisees”, while somebody's teaching about
mercy and second chances might sound to somebody else like
“tolerating sin.” None of us would dare to pass judgment about
who is “right” in the situation, but as ministers we want to make
sure that the songs we choose are in harmony with the values of the
shepherd of that particular house.
Another example? A lot of gospel songs focus on messages of
prosperity. Some ministers see that as positive faith-building,
while others may feel that those songs are “all about self.”
Again, the music minister wants to know the heart of their own pastor
as well as possible in order to pick songs that will enhance his or
her ministry.
Remember that song from the '90s, “My Mind's Made Up”?
I like
that song, especially for teen choirs or when ministering to
unchurched people. But I had friends at one church whose pastor
wouldn't approve of the way the song says things like “I've been
in this thing too long. I've got to change my attitude.” At
their church they felt it was not appropriate for saved people to say
things like that, it sounded like they were still in sin. So the
choir changed all of the lyrics to the past tense – “I had
been in that thing too long. I had to change my attitude.” It
might seem like a small thing, but for them it was significant
because it kept the music ministry in line with the values of the
pastor.
And musical styles can be an issue, too. Maybe a certain pastor
thinks that rap is not edifying, or thinks that slow music depresses
the spirit of the service, or thinks that songs that use bits of
tunes from secular songs are worldly. You want to cultivate the kind
of relationship and communication with your pastor where he or she
can comfortably talk to you about what is desired from the music
ministry.
The best way to get to know all this is to spend as much time as
you can listening to and understanding the ministry and message of
your pastor. Sermons, Sunday School, and Bible study will help you
to gain this understanding. This can be a challenge if you are
working as a music minister in a church that is not the church where
your membership is. But still try to take any opportunities you can
to learn as much as possible about the spirit and values of the
church where you are working.
One of my theme scriptures as a music minister is “Know those
who labor among you.” (I Thessalonians 5:12 This is yet another
application of that principle.
