Hi Katie,

 

1) Breathing in such a way that the abdomen expands, and sustaining the breath are commonalities between choral music and brass/woodwind playing.

2) Similar vowel formation among singers will improve intonation and blend in a choir.

3) Vowels may need to be modified to shape the vocal tract for comfortable/beautiful singing in a singer's upper range.

 

These are just a couple of suggestions. Hope they help. I would be interested in knowing what textbook (if any)  your instructor is using, and perhaps glancing at the syllabus for your course.

 

Amalie W. Hinson

ahinson(a)cvcc.edu

 

Just a few things off the top of my head...

 

Diction, vowel modification and unification accoring to range, dynamics and style

Text research

Vocal/breathing mechanisms, such as passagio, vocal development (kid / young changing / young / adult / senior), vocal fatigue and etc

Learning musicianship and musical literacy is a very different process for vocalists. Instrumentalists learn to read on an instrument, and the musical literacy is developed early on in tandem with the instrumental skills.  Singers learn to sight read on the basis of relative pitch, necessitating some kind of solmization system (usually movable do, and often with Curwen hand signals). It's a very different process than with instrumentalists, who press the right keys or valves and the right note will tend to come out whether they're hearing it or not. Choir students can go a lot further without reading music, so in spite of your best efforts to teach sight-reading, the fact that you could have some fairly advanced students who don't read music or know what key signatures mean is something that you'd almost never see in the instrumental classroom.

 

Also, I don't know if the issue of dealing with fundraising and boosters, etc., is being taught these days in Choral Methods (it ought to be). But it seems to be more of a challenge to get choral parents involved in boosters, volunteering for events, writing checks for uniforms and trips, etc. If only because of the fact that they've bought or rented an instrument, the instrumental parents just tend to be more invested and used to the idea of stepping up.

Hi Katie,

 

I'm an instrumentalist too and when I took choral conducting it was fascinating to me how choral requirements differ from instrumental. I actually loved it. I would suggest you attend as many rehearsals of good choral conductors as possible to see various techniques and maybe keep a notebook.  You might watch some Youtube videos too.  The replies you've received so far have been really good. Some of the things I've seen emphasized in better ensembles has been vowel shapes for intonation and indicating the ends of phrases so that the ensemble sounds the consonants together.  Listen carefully especially for those "s" consonants to be together so you don't get a snake effect (ssssss). Since vocalists, especially in inner parts really rely on where their pitch lies in relation to the chord and the other parts, know that just rehearsing their part alone is not enough.  Another thought is to practice having the group respond to your beat in time.  This happens in instrumental groups too but often there is a delay because there's a lack of confidence of what the next pitch is. There are many other things but I'll just throw this much out. Good luck on your methods class and enjoy!

 

Janet Lanier

Hi Katie!

All the previous responses are very good and well stated. I thought I'd take a moment to add my two cents. The text you're using cover a large amount of topics in a broader sense and so I think it is wonderful that you are on here seeking the knowledge and experiences of others. The following are things I think about (not in any order of priority):

1) Breath support, making sure the abdomen and chest are utilized when breathing (making sure the rib cage expands for full use of the capacity of the lungs)

 

2) Placement of singers, having two large voices standing next to eachother will not likely bring an ideal sound. 

 

3) Timbre-unification with modifying vowels (makings sure there is a coporate choral sound and not individuals sticking out)

 

4) The vocal ranges required for the repertoire (sure sopranos and tenors can sing high, but for a long period of time isnt very good for their voices)

 

5) Making sure that the choir can collectively agree on piano, meezo-forte, forte, and fortissimo dynamics. 

 

6) The Language of the piece (English, Latin -is the easiest for singing), French, German, Russian, Swedish, etc). Not only does this affect the timbre of voices but also how one would handle vowels and such.

 

7) Think about diction, clear crisp consonants and pure vowels.

 

8) The acoustics of the rehearsal space and the performance space (also affecting this is the choral formation that one would use, mixed, sections, etc).

 

9) Tuning chords via voice is much different than with instruments (having an SAB choir sing a major chord, the third should sit slightly higher than the piano would sound -not much though) and (locking octaves and fifths are crucial for good intonation. 

 

10) Downtime in rehearsal (if you're working on the soprano line and your altos, tenors and basses are just siitting around they are likely to talk and disengage. Whereas instrumentalist have instruments to empty spit from, they diligently mark their music, etc) and (Singers often just talk, so I believe there are different disciplinary issues that can arise). I am not saying that instrumentalists dont talk or what not, I know they do, its just a different thing in general between a choral rehearsal and an instrumental rehearsal. 

 

11) What is easier with choirs and not so easy with instrumental ensembles is that if your choir is constantly performing flat a piece that is in the key of Eb Major, you could have the choir sing the piece in D Major, by transposing their starting notes and the singers can (most of the time) easily shift. This may aid the choir in staying in tune and often fixes alot of rehearsal issues (if this technique is needed).

 

12) Understanding the different types of glottal onsets, hard, soft, aspirate can help clean up the tone. By understanding these you'd hear that breathy sound coming from your middle school choir and know that showing them an aspirate onset (putting an H in front of the first word of ever phrase) and then a hard onset (without an H and immediately attacking the first consonant) could change the tone of any choir and clear up some diction issues at the same time.

 

 

To name a few things I think about during rehearsals. I know that being an instrumentalist and entering the choral world as a conductor or teacher can seem daunting and like a completely different thing, but its just different techniques for a different instrument (this one being the voice). One you learn this stuff from your methods courses it is easier to notice these things in a rehearsal and it gets easier the more you do it. 

 

All the best, 

Alan