mike’s music pages

Posts Tagged ‘choral singing’

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 »

In your music you will often see various markings and abbreviations. Some of these markings are “dynamics” markings and are used by the composer or arranger to indicate the relative loudness or softness desired in the music. See the table below for the more common abbreviations and their meanings.

Note that these are relative terms. The director will guide you in setting the correct volume level, but your knowing what these abbreviations mean will be helpful to you and the choir.

Dynamic markings are part of larger set of markings called “expression markings” that are used to indicate how music should be performed. I will address other expression markings in another post.

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.