Amen, Peggy! Pass the collection plates!!
"Margaret L. Harrison" <peggyh@i...> wrote:On Mon, 06 Jan 2003 23:02:04 -0500 Barb Roberts <mikebarb@n...> wrote:
> I also have wondered (for years) about the poor > choral blend from the soprano section of the in the small church choir I sing in.
I know that choral blend was not your original topic....
However, in a lot of years of singing in choruses made up primarily of untrained singers, with mostly good directors, and the occasional ineffective director, I have observed two surefire ways to achieve a good "blend", in any section.
Way one is "vowel". If the director demonstrates and insists that the section sing the same vowel, a host of techical problems go away and the choral sound is effective, i.e., sounds good (I prefer that terminology to blended, as a sound can be blended but not sound good). Common vowel problems for American singers are that I as in "hit", E as in "bet", and e as in "bay", need to sound much brighter, i.e., more towards i as in "sea". Also vowels in diphthongs need conscious attention, especially in the "ou" as in "sound" vowels, which Americans tend to say more like the "a" in "cat", than the "a" in "father" which it should be for singing. There's more, but you get the drift. My best director likes to say, "singers don't sing words; they sing vowels".
Another way is simply asking section members to listen to each other. This allows the powerful unconscious mind to achieve the necessary technical adjustments. And everyone in the section can hear success, which is powerful reinforcement for learning. Which makes it much easier for the director to ask for the new, better, way of singing when section members inevitably slip back into their more accustomed way of singing.
Peggy
Margaret Harrison, Alexandria, Virginia, USA.
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