Learning Aids
The following web sites have been found to be very helpful by many amateur choral singers. Some are free to use, some involve a modest subscription, and some contain a mixture of free to use and subscription content. All the links open in a new browser window.
Choralia https://choralia.net
Choraline https://www.choraline.com
Cyberbass http://www.cyberbass.com
John Fletcher Music https://johnfletchermusic.org
Learn Choral Music http://www.learnchoralmusic.co.uk
Choralia https://choralia.net
Choraline https://www.choraline.com
Cyberbass http://www.cyberbass.com
John Fletcher Music https://johnfletchermusic.org
Learn Choral Music http://www.learnchoralmusic.co.uk
The FCS Handbook: Basic Notes To Help You Make Better Notes
Many members of Choral Societies, such as ours, have had little or no formal musical education or training, but have learnt their notes by "sitting next to Nellie". Don't be overawed if you seem to be surrounded by those more competent than you are - ask them to help you. These notes are intended to help you, and the Society, to achieve a more satisfying and enjoyable result.
The famous American choir trainer and conductor, Robert Shaw, identified three elements as important when preparing choirs for performance; (1) getting the words and pronunciation right (the sound); (2) getting the rhythms and note lengths right; and (3) getting the note pitches and tuning right. He would not progress to putting all three together until each element was secure. But he might expect singers to come to at least two three hour practices weekly, and to be taking individual singing lessons. We have to work faster with less time.
Breathing
Planned breathing is central to singing. Develop the habit of deep breathing in and controlling the letting out of the air (try hissing over 20 seconds or more). Use your diaphraghm and practice expanding your lungs - your chest cavity will expand outwards, sideways and downwards given the chance, greatly increasing your air capacity. Know where in a piece you are going to breath - avoid unnecessary breaths. With practice you will be able to sing much longer phrases than you imagine.
Singing With Ears
Good singing comes from careful listening. Listen to yourself and to your neighbours and the other parts. As an individual, are you making a pleasant sound? Are you focussing the sound, typically a foot or so in front of your forehead, or is it diffuse and woolly? Are you wobbling? Are you singing in tune? Are you even singing the right note? If you think you have the right note, stick to it even if you differ from your neighbours. If you are not sure, ask the conductor. Don`t be shy; the sooner the mistakes are put right the quicker the progress. Are you starting and ending the note at the right time? (Are you on the right page?)
A useful trick for listening to yourself in private is to stand in the corner of the room and place the open hands in front of the ears (so the palms face backwards), to allow the sound to travel less directly to the ear. While doing this, experiment with different vowel sounds, by altering the shape of the mouth and placing the tongue. Even a ventriloquist cannot get different vowels without altering his mouth. Compared with speech, singing requires an exaggerated movement of the jaw and mouth.
Seeing
Hold your book up, so that you can just see the conductor over the top of it. Keep it nearer level than vertical (i.e. don't sing into it but over it). Always have your finger in the next page as soon as you have turned. Try to read ahead. Don't just read the notes and words; read all the other information provided, including dynamic and expression marks.
Posture
Stand with feet slightly apart. Keep the upper part of the body relaxed, particularly the jaw and shoulders. Stand tall, not hunched. If singing seated, aim for the same body posture as if you were standing - sit tall. Do not imitate a bag of potatoes. Sit erect for good balance and breath control.
Reading Music
If you cannot read music then you can easily start to learn. Two later pages in this document contain much of what you need to know, though putting it into practice takes some time. Reading music and being able to sing at sight comes with repeated application of the basics. Alternatively, get hold of the EUP "Teach Yourself Music" by King Palmer, or the more recent Pelican, "Introducing Music" by Otto Karolyi - a set book of the Open University, or "How to Read Music" by Roger Evans, published by Elm Tree Books, who also publish Graham Hewitt's "How to Sing". You may have access to an instrument, if not a little electronic keyboard will help you find your notes, or a descant recorder in conjunction with a stage 1 tutor costs only a few pounds, and can be great fun of itself. (Still helpful even for those reading the bass clef).
Count
Work out, or find out, how many beats there are in a bar. They may be crochets or minims, dottted crochets etc. Then count in your head while you sing. Try to develop this to the point where it has become such a habit that you do it sub-consciously, especially in long notes and rests. Don't rely on cueing for youir entry from another part; they may get it wrong and lead you astray! The length of a note is relative, and depends on the tempo indicated at the beginning of the movement or section, (or by the conductor). Thus in one piece a crochet may be of greater duration than a minim in another. Avoid using the pedal "metronome"; it is a bit distracting, especially if you are stamping at a differrent time from the conductor`s beat!
Finding The Note
Be sure of what note you are going to sing before you start. Don`t try to feel your way in; work out your note from the accompaniment or another part, or remember it from the note you have just sung. (Observe when the key signature has changed). Start with confidence; don`t leave it to others and join in later. In rehearsal, it is better to come in confidently, even on the wrong note, than not to come in at all. Conductors, as chorus masters in the rehearsal, are there to put things right. They cannot do this if you don`t sing!
If the conductor asks your section to sing, on their own, a passage that is causing difficulty, don`t drop out until the rest have got it right and then try and join in; it is more than likely that you will still have it wrong! And when members of another section are doing their bit, don`t try to help them by "singing along", either their part or yours.
Annotation - A Different Kind Of Note!
Always have a soft pencil, preferably 2B, and an eraser with you; to mark your mistakes for revision, the beats where the rhythm is tricky, the expression where not indicated in your part or as indicated by the conductor, the places at which to breathe (or not), and occasionally to mark the final consonant at the end of a long note or run.
Mistakes
When things go wrong don't just hope they will be OK next time: mark your copy and analyse the cause. You will often find the problem is just before the point where you seem to stumble. Frequently it will be a repeated note, or group of notes in a run, or a repeated word, that is giving trouble. If you (or you and your colllegues) cannot sort it out, ask the conductor; (s)he wants to have it right at least as much as you do! It has been said that the weakest passage should be worked on until it becomes the strongest.
Discipline
Do resist the temptation to talk during the rehearsal. If you talk, you may miss some vital instructions from the conductor, you will make it more difficult for the conductor and the other singers to hear what is going on, and you will spoil the enjoyment of those around you.
Homework
Try to get hold of a recording of the work in hand or use one of the rehearsal aid web sites listed above. Listening to it will help you to get the general feel of it, besides helping you to learn your notes. YouTube has some good recordings of standard works. You may find it helpful to work privately with a friend. Between rehearsals, look through the vocal score so that you know where your part lies on the page, what comes when you turn each page, and where the 'problem' passages are (you should have marked these during rehearsals). It saves a lot of time if you familiarise yourself at home with the words, especially where these are not English.
Ken Tee
Revised August 2011 and by Berkeley Hill in January 2013.
The famous American choir trainer and conductor, Robert Shaw, identified three elements as important when preparing choirs for performance; (1) getting the words and pronunciation right (the sound); (2) getting the rhythms and note lengths right; and (3) getting the note pitches and tuning right. He would not progress to putting all three together until each element was secure. But he might expect singers to come to at least two three hour practices weekly, and to be taking individual singing lessons. We have to work faster with less time.
Breathing
Planned breathing is central to singing. Develop the habit of deep breathing in and controlling the letting out of the air (try hissing over 20 seconds or more). Use your diaphraghm and practice expanding your lungs - your chest cavity will expand outwards, sideways and downwards given the chance, greatly increasing your air capacity. Know where in a piece you are going to breath - avoid unnecessary breaths. With practice you will be able to sing much longer phrases than you imagine.
Singing With Ears
Good singing comes from careful listening. Listen to yourself and to your neighbours and the other parts. As an individual, are you making a pleasant sound? Are you focussing the sound, typically a foot or so in front of your forehead, or is it diffuse and woolly? Are you wobbling? Are you singing in tune? Are you even singing the right note? If you think you have the right note, stick to it even if you differ from your neighbours. If you are not sure, ask the conductor. Don`t be shy; the sooner the mistakes are put right the quicker the progress. Are you starting and ending the note at the right time? (Are you on the right page?)
A useful trick for listening to yourself in private is to stand in the corner of the room and place the open hands in front of the ears (so the palms face backwards), to allow the sound to travel less directly to the ear. While doing this, experiment with different vowel sounds, by altering the shape of the mouth and placing the tongue. Even a ventriloquist cannot get different vowels without altering his mouth. Compared with speech, singing requires an exaggerated movement of the jaw and mouth.
Seeing
Hold your book up, so that you can just see the conductor over the top of it. Keep it nearer level than vertical (i.e. don't sing into it but over it). Always have your finger in the next page as soon as you have turned. Try to read ahead. Don't just read the notes and words; read all the other information provided, including dynamic and expression marks.
Posture
Stand with feet slightly apart. Keep the upper part of the body relaxed, particularly the jaw and shoulders. Stand tall, not hunched. If singing seated, aim for the same body posture as if you were standing - sit tall. Do not imitate a bag of potatoes. Sit erect for good balance and breath control.
Reading Music
If you cannot read music then you can easily start to learn. Two later pages in this document contain much of what you need to know, though putting it into practice takes some time. Reading music and being able to sing at sight comes with repeated application of the basics. Alternatively, get hold of the EUP "Teach Yourself Music" by King Palmer, or the more recent Pelican, "Introducing Music" by Otto Karolyi - a set book of the Open University, or "How to Read Music" by Roger Evans, published by Elm Tree Books, who also publish Graham Hewitt's "How to Sing". You may have access to an instrument, if not a little electronic keyboard will help you find your notes, or a descant recorder in conjunction with a stage 1 tutor costs only a few pounds, and can be great fun of itself. (Still helpful even for those reading the bass clef).
Count
Work out, or find out, how many beats there are in a bar. They may be crochets or minims, dottted crochets etc. Then count in your head while you sing. Try to develop this to the point where it has become such a habit that you do it sub-consciously, especially in long notes and rests. Don't rely on cueing for youir entry from another part; they may get it wrong and lead you astray! The length of a note is relative, and depends on the tempo indicated at the beginning of the movement or section, (or by the conductor). Thus in one piece a crochet may be of greater duration than a minim in another. Avoid using the pedal "metronome"; it is a bit distracting, especially if you are stamping at a differrent time from the conductor`s beat!
Finding The Note
Be sure of what note you are going to sing before you start. Don`t try to feel your way in; work out your note from the accompaniment or another part, or remember it from the note you have just sung. (Observe when the key signature has changed). Start with confidence; don`t leave it to others and join in later. In rehearsal, it is better to come in confidently, even on the wrong note, than not to come in at all. Conductors, as chorus masters in the rehearsal, are there to put things right. They cannot do this if you don`t sing!
If the conductor asks your section to sing, on their own, a passage that is causing difficulty, don`t drop out until the rest have got it right and then try and join in; it is more than likely that you will still have it wrong! And when members of another section are doing their bit, don`t try to help them by "singing along", either their part or yours.
Annotation - A Different Kind Of Note!
Always have a soft pencil, preferably 2B, and an eraser with you; to mark your mistakes for revision, the beats where the rhythm is tricky, the expression where not indicated in your part or as indicated by the conductor, the places at which to breathe (or not), and occasionally to mark the final consonant at the end of a long note or run.
Mistakes
When things go wrong don't just hope they will be OK next time: mark your copy and analyse the cause. You will often find the problem is just before the point where you seem to stumble. Frequently it will be a repeated note, or group of notes in a run, or a repeated word, that is giving trouble. If you (or you and your colllegues) cannot sort it out, ask the conductor; (s)he wants to have it right at least as much as you do! It has been said that the weakest passage should be worked on until it becomes the strongest.
Discipline
Do resist the temptation to talk during the rehearsal. If you talk, you may miss some vital instructions from the conductor, you will make it more difficult for the conductor and the other singers to hear what is going on, and you will spoil the enjoyment of those around you.
Homework
Try to get hold of a recording of the work in hand or use one of the rehearsal aid web sites listed above. Listening to it will help you to get the general feel of it, besides helping you to learn your notes. YouTube has some good recordings of standard works. You may find it helpful to work privately with a friend. Between rehearsals, look through the vocal score so that you know where your part lies on the page, what comes when you turn each page, and where the 'problem' passages are (you should have marked these during rehearsals). It saves a lot of time if you familiarise yourself at home with the words, especially where these are not English.
Ken Tee
Revised August 2011 and by Berkeley Hill in January 2013.