mike’s music pages

Archive for the ‘choral singing’ Category

Correct breathing is fundamental to good singing. This post addresses the most basic aspect of breathing, taking the breath.

In my experience I have found that breathing for singers is similar to breathing for athletes and wind instrumentalists. The breath should be taken low. Imagine that your lungs are not in your chest but are in your belly. If you are one of those fortunate people who does not have a belly, then imagine that you have a belly and that your lungs are in your imaginary belly. When you take a breath, imagine that the air is filling your belly. When you sing, release the air in your “belly” by using your stomach muscles to control the airflow. You don’t want all of the air to rush out at once. You want the air to flow out in a controlled manner. Your belly should be hard. Read the rest of this entry »

A new study commissioned by Chorus America has concluded that choral singing is good for children, adults and communities. The study says:

… singing in one of the 270,000 choruses in the U.S., such as a community chorus or a school or church choir, is strongly correlated with qualities that are associated with success throughout life, the study finds. Greater civic involvement, discipline, and teamwork are just a few of the attributes fostered by singing with a choral ensemble.

The study goes on to say that “Children who participate in a chorus get significantly better grades than children who have never sung in a choir.” It is unclear from my reading of the summary whether the students get better grades because they participate in a chorus, or only better students choose to participate in chorus.

What is clear is that choral singing is a great way to introduce children to the arts. They don’t have to buy an instrument and they don’t need any special training to start, so their is usually no monetary investment required. This means that choral singing can be available to almost everyone, so encourage a child to participate in a chorus or choir.

They Told Me That I Was Singing An Octave Too Low.  What is an octave?

Sometimes in our rehearsals there is a bass singer who is singing an octave lower than the other basses. When the director says that someone is singing an octave too low, it makes no difference because the offending bass does not know what an octave is. In this lesson you will learn what an octave is and hear some examples.

Many basses think that to sing bass means always to sing low. They don’t think that they are singing bass if they are not rumbling at the bottom of their vocal range. Bass is the lowest voice, but the top of the bass range overlaps the other voices and therefore some bass notes are not very low. If your choir director has told you that you are singing an octave too low, then you need to keep reading. Read the rest of this entry »

Have you annoyed your choir director by not watching him or her? Do you bury your eyes in the music and never look up? You may think that you can just feel the beat and sing. Well, for much choral music you must watch the director.

Unlike most popular music that you hear on the radio, most of the choral music that we sing has tempo variations and varying dynamics. The music that you hear on the radio is compressed so that you don’t have to adjust the volume controls during a song. Live music  has a wider dynamic range than recorded music. That is one way that your ears can tell the difference between a recording and a live performance. Read the rest of this entry »

Fig. 1 Treble clef

Are you in a choir but you don’t read music? If so, then when the music is passed around you may not know what notes you should sing? Well, even if you don’t read music, it may help you to know which notes you should sing so that you know which lyrics are for you. In this lesson you will learn how to distinguish the different vocal parts so that you will know how to find your part. Read the rest of this entry »