So
here's a question that came in about teaching kids to sing in
harmony:
I
am involved the our Son-Shine choir ministry of our church, ages 4-10
(young as mature 2 year, maybe a delayed shy 12 year old.) How
important is it to teach parts at this ages?
Or
when should parts teaching begin?
I
grew up listening to choirs, both in church services and in
rehearsals (my father was a choir director and my mother sang). I
acquired the skill through osmosis. I don't remember how old I was
when I learned to harmonize, but I was definitely younger than 10.
For kids who were not around choirs all the time, it might take
longer.
The
youngest choir I've ever directed was teens (the youngest was a
9-year-old who sang very well), and I was able to teach them some
harmonizing. But I found an article where some music teachers give
their recommendations for what ages are ready for what types of
singing. The article suggests that most children are ready for real
harmonizing (everyone singing the same lines, but on different notes)
at about the age of 10 or 11.
There
are two things I have recommended in the past when working with
singers who don't have experience singing in parts:
Start
with songs where the different sections are singing completely
different lyrics and melodic lines. The singers will find it easier
to hold onto their part when it's "independent" of the
other parts.
My
other technique is to choose songs where the soprano part is so high
that the altos wouldn't be able to switch over to the soprano part.
But that might not work with the vocal ranges of children.
This week I was listening to some beautiful music by the famous King's College Choir, and I started to wonder about how much time they spend practicing.
I looked it up and saw that the older members have daily practice and the younger members have TWO practices a day. Wow.
The rest of us don't live at boarding schools, so it isn't feasible to practice with our fellow choir members every day. But practicing alone is really beneficial. Doing it daily can be a challenge, though.
What are some times during your day that are good for practicing?
I just added an article to my website. If there's a song that you love that's done by a solo singer, and you want to teach it to your choir, these are ideas about how to arrange it: How to turn a solo gospel song into a choir song. Check it out and share any ideas of your own!
I'm sharing with the world my suggestion for the best way to clap on this song (the beat changes a lot, so you need to alternate between two different clapping rhythms.
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.
A reader had some questions about unison singing, so I decided to make a video on it (so glad to have the new webcam!).
Unison singing can be a very good thing for both beginning choirs and experienced choirs, but it still takes awareness and practice to make it the best that it can be.
In classical music choirs, warm-ups are seen as an essential activity before a rehearsal or performance. Some gospel choirs do warm-ups also, but others don't. What is the purpose of warming up? Why does it matter?
The phrase “warming up” really means getting the vocal cords ready to be used.
The tissues that make up the vocal folds should get a good circulation of blood flowing through them before you start singing in full voice. One choir director said, “It takes 7 minutes of singing for the vocal folds to fill with blood and literally be 'warmed up' enough for safe singing . . . Like with any other muscle we intend to use, we must first warm it up and bring blood to the muscle or risk significant injury to the muscle.” (Source: choralnet.org).
Singing loudly and singing high notes puts more demand on the vocal cords, so that's why warm-ups should start out with singing in an easy, comfortable range and moderate volume. Gradually work your way up to the more challenging singing.
The 7-minute guideline is how long it takes for your vocal cords to warm up if they're completely cold. They will not be that cold if you have been using your voice (talking, etc.) for most of the day. So warming up before you sing is only partially about physically preparing the vocal cords. Usually when you warm up you have other goals as well.
One of the things you want to get out of warming up is preparing the rest of your body to sing by reminding yourself of the postures and vocal techniques that you have learned for getting the most out of your voice.
Talking will bring circulation to the vocal cords, but when you're talking you don't use the same kind of breathing and projection that you do when you sing. During warm-up you want to take the time to remember how you want to hold your body, control your air flow, and relax your mouth, face, and throat in order to get the best sound without straining. Do your choir members ever show up at rehearsal feeling tense and tight after a long working day? Warm-up is the time to shake that off and get loose.
Warming up also helps to prepare the mind for singing. As the choir begins to sing together during warm-up, they want to focus their minds and their ears on listening to one another and working on blending their voices.
How do you know when you are really warmed up?
Your goal in warm-up is to be prepared for the singing you have to do. One voice teacher said, “When you can hit all the notes in your range with no discomfort and your passagio area is smoothed out, you are warmed up and can confidently apply full voice.” (Source: Judy Rodman) . The passagio is the part of your range where you have to shift from your chest-voice (lower-note) singing to your head-voice (higher-note) singing.
How do you warm up a whole group? If the goal of warming up is to get everything running smoothly in the body and the voice, won't it take longer for some people to reach that goal than for others? How can a director know when every person is ready?
The director can listen to the choir as a whole and decide when they're starting to sound the way they ought to sound. But there could be particular singers who still need more singing time before they're ready to challenge their voices. Encourage each person to pay attention to how they are sounding and feeling and continue checking their technique.
As the director, you may want to plan your rehearsal time so that the order of the songs allows people more “warm-up” time if they need it. You can start off rehearsing the songs that are in a medium range and at moderate volumes and wait until later in the rehearsal to do the songs where the singers need to “belt it out” or sing a lot of high notes.
As I mentioned in my post about best practices for conducting, a director should tailor their conducting to the particular needs of a specific song and a specific choir. Here are a couple of examples of how that works.
These are two videos of a choir that I work with in Orange County. In each of them you can see some standard choir directing moves that I use all the time, as well as some signaling that is specific to the particular song.
(By the way, this choir has excellent musicians who play on almost all of their songs. It's just a coincidence that both of these videos are a cappella songs.)
On this song, King Jesus Is A-Listenin', most of the gestures you see are my standard moves. The way that I'm following the rhythm of the singing and the notes going up and down with my hands, I always do that.
But on the lines where the sopranos say, "He's got power in His hand, and He's taking me away," you'll see a gesture that I improvised for this song. I hold out one hand in the direction of the sopranos, with my palm facing toward them (the first time it comes is at the 1:24 mark). The reason for the gesture is that during rehearsals the sopranos were sometimes singing the word as "hands", a plural, when it's supposed to be singular, "hand." So I started showing them my single hand as they sing that line to remind them not to put an "s" at the end of "hand."
Something else that didn't show up in the video is when they reach the part that says "oh, oh, oh, oh, King Jesus is a-listenin'", I formed "O"s with my hands to let them know we were going to that section of the song.
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Now here's another video of the same choir (different day and different person doing the filming, so it's a little rough):
This song is called "Hallelujah Lord."
Here, as we're starting into the song (at the 0:12 mark), you can see me doing the classical-style conducting beat patterns. That wasn't necessary at the beginning of "King Jesus Is A-Listening" because the beat isn't as strict on that song, you can be flexible with it. But on "Hallelujah Lord" everyone is singing different rhythmic lines that have to fit together, so it's very important to stay on a steady beat. The tenors are the ones who anchor the song, and I counted off two measures for them so that they would have a strong sense of the tempo before they started.
When the altos come in (at 0:31), you see me gesture toward them with two fingers outstretched. This is because they start with a split part, first altos and second altos singing different notes. They always remembered this anyway, but it doesn't hurt to give a signal that's in sync with them.
At 0:36, there's a phrase where the tenors sing one line while the other parts sing a different one on top of it. I start the tenors off because they come in first, but then for the rest of the phrase all of my conducting is synced with the other three parts. That's because the tenors were the most solid on their part. I knew that I could leave them to carry theirs on their own and focus on the others. If the tenors had been at all shaky about keeping to their rhythm, then I would have had to practice conducting their line with one hand and the line for the other parts with the other hand (that would have taken a lot of preparation and practice, but it is possible).
At 1:21, they start into another passage where several different lines are going on. The tenors start off, then the second altos, then the sopranos, then the first altos. At 1:38, the basses join in. Once they come in, my conducting is completely focused on the basses. It had been a challenge for them to hold onto their timing and their notes in this passage during rehearsals, so I give them full attention to help them stay on track.
***************************************
One of the beautiful things about rehearsal time is that you can observe your choir and see what areas they need the most support in. A director who knows their choir can work on guiding them through songs in the way that is best for them, a way that a stranger wouldn't be able to do, no matter how skilled the stranger may be. Sort of like John 10:27.
Conducting, of course, is the way you
communicate with your choir during the performance. How do you make
that communication the most effective?
Understand what information the
choir most needs from you. This will be different from choir to
choir and from song to song. On one song, their biggest need may be
for you to guide them through twists and turns in a complicated
harmony. On another song, they may need you to keep them focused on
staying in rhythm together. And in another song, they may be solid
on their parts but need reminders on the lyrics. You will know what
they need on each song observing their strong and weak points when
you're working with them in rehearsal.
Plan your signals. What gestures
do you want to use to communicate the needed information? I have a
web article about some of my preferred hand signals for choir
directing (here's the link:
http://www.squidoo.com/hand-signals-for-choir-directing).
But there will be some situations where you need to come up with a
signal that might be unique to that one song and that one choir.
Think about what you're going to need and come up with a plan.
Take time alone and practice
conducting through the song. Remember that whenever there's a
change coming, you want to give your signals enough in advance so
that the choir isn't taken by surprise and they can make a smooth
transition. Try to practice it enough times that it becomes
automatic for you, almost like a dance.
Think of rehearsal time as a time
not only for the choir to work on their vocals, but also for you to
continue to refine your directing technique for the song. You've
already been preparing on your own, but in rehearsal you see if the
choir is successfully getting the message that you're trying to give
them with your signals. And, as I said, you get an idea of what
areas the choir needs the most guidance in, and you can adjust your
conducting accordingly.
When the time comes that you're
singing the song in service, stay in the moment and stay focused. I
try to keep my body language flowing with the feeling of the music
at the same time that I'm giving the signals that are required to
keep everything together. This serves as an example to the choir
also of how to get into the spirit of a song at the same time that
they're focused on getting their parts right.
Choir conducting is an art. The
director brings both together both the technical skill and the
spiritual sensitivity to bring the best out of the choir and the
music. Work on developing both and communicating them both to your
choir.
They say all the time that a true
artist doesn't stick to doing the same kind of work over and over.
All real artists look to break new ground, take on challenges, take
risks with their art.
“When was the last time you tried
something with your craft you’ve never tried before? . . . If your
answer . . . is, 'I don’t remember' or 'Never' then I guarantee you
are not growing.”
How does that apply to your choir? How
do you feel about taking on music that is adventurous,
ground-breaking, challenging?
And I believe this really matters when
it comes to choir ministry. If a choir only knows a few songs and
sings them over and over and over, after a while people are going to
tune out (no matter how good a sermon your pastor preaches, you wouldn't want to hear that same sermon twice a month all year long).
And if the choir brings in new songs
that sound almost exactly like the old ones, that's just as
dangerous. Breaking new ground may be risky, but staying in the same
old rut is risky, too. You risk becoming irrelevant.
But of course, there's something we
don't like about taking on new challenges. When we challenge
ourselves, there is a possibility of failure. The new things we try
might work, or they might not. If you make a regular practice of
taking risks, it's guaranteed that you're going to fail sometimes.
So how do we handle the possibility of
failure in a choir ministry? We want to be a blessing to every
service and not a detriment. Does that mean that failure is not an
option?
Here are some ideas for how to balance
out the risk:
Take your biggest risks during
rehearsal times. Bring a new song with the understanding that it
may or may not work out well enough to end up being included in a
church service. It's OK for a director to try to teach a song and
then have to drop it because it's not working. Go ahead and try and
maybe fail. And if the song fails, learn from the experience,
examine what didn't work, what the choir wasn't ready for. That's a
part of growing as an artist. But don't be too quick to scrap a
song. Just because you don't get it perfectly doesn't mean you
shouldn't do it. Waiting for “perfection” can sometimes turn
into an excuse for never taking a chance. If you wait until
everything is perfect, you'll be waiting forever. Decide when it's
good enough and then go forward with it!
Then comes the time to sing that
challenging song during service. I recommend that if your choir
sings two songs during service (the classic “A & B
selection”), you can pair the challenging song with a familiar old
favorite. Sing the new one first and then the old one.
Remember, most of the congregation
doesn't know what the song is supposed to sound like.
Also remember that the message is
more important than the messenger. If you start to feel like you're
faltering, tune in with the message of the song. Sing it with focus
and with fervor. It will still be a blessing.
Choir is my life, so when I got married in 1998, I knew that I wanted to have a choir sing instead of a soloist. I put together a choir of friends and family from various churches, chose some songs, and had choir rehearsals in preparation. On the big day, my brother directed the choir and they did a beautiful job.
These are the songs they sang (in order):
God Gave Me You - A song that was co-written by my dad and my grandmother.
I was looking on YouTube for any videos of gospel choirs singing at weddings and I found a few, but I didn't see a very wide range of song selections. They were mostly doing gospel songs from movies (Oh Happy Day . . . Joyful Joyful . . . ) or else they were singing pop songs.
What would be some other gospel songs for choir that would be a really good fit for a wedding?
Also, if you have been to a wedding where a choir sang, whether you were a guest, a member of the choir, or the bride/groom, I would love to hear about it.
Hey, I am in prayer about something and hope that someone
get this. I am a director, that hasn’t directed in a while, but I got
an opportunity to direct about two months ago and God was on fire, but
it was only one time, and now I am feeling like I should be doing it
more often. Any advice on which direction, I should go in???????????
The thoughts that came to my mind are these:
If you’re a member of a choir, talk to your minister of music and
tell them about your interest. If they agree that you have skills in
that direction, they might want to include you as a part of a rotation
of directors.
Perhaps start a choir from scratch! Talk with your pastor. It
could be that there is an interest in the church in establishing a youth
or children’s choir, a men’s or women’s choir, or something else.
If your church doesn’t need anything new in terms of choirs or
directors, perhaps there is another church in your area that doesn’t
have a choir at all. You could offer to help them start one. It might
take some serious planning to figure out how to schedule your activities
at another church and still keep your commitments to your home church,
but if you can make it work it would be a great blessing to them and to
you as well.
I would love to hear any other suggestions that anyone has on this question.
This is a question that I get asked from time to time -- "How can I learn to pick out the soprano, alto, and tenor parts to choir songs?"
It takes practice, practice, and practice. And then practice. The more time you spend at it the more clear it becomes.
People who have been singing
harmonies in choirs for a long time start to develop an understanding
of how the harmonies work. Some altos and tenors can get a feeling for
what their part will be as soon as they hear a song. But that is after
lots of time spent singing lots of other songs.
I would suggest that people try listening to recordings repeatedly and trying to sing
along with the different parts -- sing the soprano part, then the alto,
then the tenor. You may need to listen to one song over and over and
over until you can differentiate and sing all the parts. Doing this
with several songs will help you get better at hearing the parts in
other songs as well.
Remember that when the different vocal parts sing together, they are
making a chord. If you're a musician, or if you're friends with a
musician, you can look at the chord structure of the song and get some
idea of what each of the vocal parts should be doing. The chords that
the voices are making may not always be exactly the same as the chords
the instruments are playing, but it's a good start.
If you're really serious about learning this skill, something else that could help a lot is going to rehearsals where a director is teaching who
knows choir parts really well. Listen to them teach lots of songs and
sing along with each part when they're teaching each one. The more you
do it, the more you'll develop an instinct for hearing the harmonies in
other songs.
Does anyone else have suggestions? How did you learn how to pick out choir parts?
This past Sunday I had the good fortune to attend a free concert by the Master's College Chorale. It's a college choir, all students, very well trained.
One thing that's so impressive about choirs like these is how every individual member of the choir knows their part for themselves for sure. No one uses anyone else as a crutch.
The video above is from a performance that the Master's College Chorale did in Israel back in 2009. You can see how they're standing single-file all around the room. Not only that, every singer is standing between two other singers who sing a different part from theirs. The song they're doing in this video starts off with a lot of unison, but they break into full harmony at the 2:00 mark.
When I saw this chorale perform in Long Beach, they were not only spread out across the stage and around the walls, but also down the two center aisles. Right next to my seat was a soprano, behind her was a bass, behind him an alto, behind her a tenor. And every one was singing with full confidence.
Those of us who direct choirs at small churches sometimes wish that our choir members were all that solid. Most of us have that alto who has to be sandwiched between two other altos, or else she'll start sliding up to the soprano part. Or maybe that tenor who will start singing the melody (but an octave lower) if you don't watch him. Or the soprano who will have a tendency to sing parts that are even higher than she needs to go (until she notices that the other sopranos aren't with her).
One of the beautiful things about choir is the fellowship of working together. Like the Hezekiah Walker song -- "I need you . . . you need me . . ." Together, we help each other and strengthen each other. But there's nothing wrong with wanting to build up each choir member to the point that they can still go forth even if there's no help around.
It's interesting to think about what kind of practice would be needed to get every member of the choir to the point where they could sing their part with no support. Having them sing one by one in rehearsals? That could be frightening to some. I'm going to do some thinking about this.
If any of you have any thoughts, please share them in the comments.
