Added by Karen Boyce - 1719 views - 0 comments
I think I’ve started a new project that is going to keep me learning new musical skills for a long time….. I love working on choral arrangements, however the more I do and the more I think about them, the more I actually learn. I am extremely lucky to have a choir to try these arrangements out on. The Hut... read more
Added by Frank Pesci - 2068 views - 0 comments
One of my favorite choir tricks was to telling my singers to ‘aim for the top side of the pitch.’ This was, of course, because they were singing flat, and I thought the imagery would give my singers a way of thinking about an abstract concept (singing in tune) in a simplified, easily understood, silve... read more
Added by Frank Pesci - 1006 views - 0 comments
Having been a director, I acknowledge that through the years I have fallen prey to using cheap techniques – “tricks” that skirted around the issues of posture, tone production, breathing, vowel formation, physical awareness, and aural skills. These were temporary patches over a myriad of pro... read more
Added by Chris Rowbury - 1430 views - 0 comments
[this is a version of a post which first appeared on my blog From the Front of the Choir] We bandy terms around like ‘authentic voice’ and ‘natural voice’ when we talk about singing. photo by Jean Spector But how do we know when singers are truly being themselves? ... read more
Added by Frank Pesci - 1367 views - 0 comments
One Sunday, I was subbing in a choir in Mississippi. On that particular Sunday, the church in question was auditioning a candidate to be their next Music Director. He worked us a little bit, then said the following, in the laziest South Mississippi Drawl you can imagine, “Now, when you look at me, you see c... read more
Added by Frank Pesci - 1422 views - 0 comments
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard that “music is math.” Whether in relation to something simple (counting), or something more esoteric (highly-developed, academic analyses of harmony and structure), or whether it is a misguided argument to try to convince school boards that studyin... read more
Added by Frank Pesci - 5718 views - 0 comments
I brought this question up before as one of the fundamental problems of working with, and being a part of, a choral ensemble. After all, no one really wants to listen to an out-of-tune choir. It’s a complicated issue that involves both technical and conceptual components. Everyone’s... read more
Added by Frank Pesci - 969 views - 0 comments
I am an auditory learner. Rather than reading instructions, doing something manually, or watching someone do something, I need to incorporate information through my ears and process it with my listening in order for it to be fully engrained. You can imagine, then, what frustration I felt as a young player, relyin... read more
Added by Maria Soriano - 1797 views - 1 comments
Is singing good for stress? Yes, it can actually stress you out a bit... By rushing to rehearsals, trying to park the car and not finding a space, or getting stuck in public transport at peak times (I really wish there were more morning choirs) By loosing your sheet music, or having it disorganized or arranged i... read more
Added by Chris Rowbury - 3874 views - 0 comments
[this is a version of a post which first appeared on my blog From the Front of the Choir] Many choirs dress identically when they perform. Some have a choir uniform, some choose a particular colour for a particular concert, some have specially made t-shirts. I have had occasional requests from my own choirs f... read more
