[okchorale] Leading a chorus

[Joe Kesselman <keshlam@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

"Random thoughts on directing an amateur chorus"
by Jeff Kelley, amateur conductor (semi-professional singer)
[Part of an informal e-mail exchange, reprinted by permission.]


Breaking the Block:
------------------
It's not much, but I have used tricks to shake music-block during
rehearsal.  Sometimes it works.  My most common tricks include changing
the tempo radically, transposing it wildly.  Johannes Somary likes to
work on nonsense syllables, like ta ta ta, or la la la.  I personally
object to ta, preferring da; it's easier to get a legato line without
worrying about all those fricatives.

I guess my favorite first-attempt is the tempo thing.  "Just for fun,
let's run through this once at lightning speed; make it jazzy like
Switched-On-Bach; don't worry about the little black notes, just try to
land on the important notes together..."

Marching around the room with great stomping of feet while you sing can
help with music that happens to be in polka rhythm.

Don't dismiss the unsightly and moderately embarrassing practice of
stopping and having everyone do a circle-neck-massage.  Tension is our
worst enemy.

It also often helps to Just Stop Conducting.  At Western Wind Workshops
(which I HIGHLY recommend going to as a group if you have the money), no
one conducts.  Ever.  It's all done by zen or  breathing through your
eyelids or some damn thing.  Really good for ensemble feel.  I even
convinced the workshop group I was in to try doing one really difficult
piece with our eyes closed.  It had a wonderful effect.

Whatever I try, it helps if I get everyone committed to "play" with
gusto; don't do it halfway, make it a game.  Otherwise it can have the
opposite effect of just confusing everyone.

Notes notes notes:
------------------

For tuning difficult chords, there's the obvious "lets stop on the
downbeat of 2-1-1" (pg 2, staff 1, measure 1).  Then you can slowly
conduct transitions from one chord to the next (easiest with a good
vertical chord construction; if the sopranos have all these wierd grace
notes and eighth note leading notes, it's harder).  This is a cumbersome
and painful exercise, but sometimes it's the only way to get wierd
chords in your ear.

Also the pair-wise thing works well.  In a parallel fugue, you can match
contrasting or similar fugue lines ("let's do basses and altos
together...now sopranos and tenors...").

Having all but one part sing outrageously quietly in turn helps
ear-training. 

Another useful exercise is have all voices together sight-read each part
to get a feel for what they're not hearing and need to harmonize with. 
However, I personally find learning lines out of context harder. One
solution if you have a good rehearsal pianist is to have him or her play
the other parts during this exercise.  One hard part about learning
difficult music is that the other parts are also learning and you don't
get a good sense about what you're singing against and it is harder to
find your "spot" in the harmony.

Susanne Peck sometimes has Charis sing beats instead of words or
nonsense syllables. 
  ONE two three FOUR | ONE two THREE FOUR | ONE AND TWO THREE four
  Then--------- he   | called  me    pa   | rum pa  pum pum-------
(or whatever)

The advantage/disadvantage of this is that it is like learning/composing
a new piece of music; but it DOES take your mind off your block maybe.

With difficult melismas or long sequences of eighth notes all mushed
together, it is good to practice (with committment) hammering the
appropriate notes (1st note in each 4-note block, for instance).  I've
had many conductors insist on ta or da in those runs.  I am not sure I
subscribe to this.  It does give a clearer separation but it doesn't
help the singer learn to do it right; and it limits the agility/speed.

Tuning:
------

Some intervals just beg certain parts to go flat.  Repeated notes,
descending half steps, ascending jumps.  For ascending jumps (especially
ones that cross the bridge), it is important to teach untrained singers
to position the instrument for the target note while singing the leading
note ("while you are singing the leading, lower note, get the upper note
in your ear and IMAGINE that you are signing it.")

It often helps to have everyone stand up in a tight circle and sing in
each other's faces.  Sometimes it helps to have sections cluster
together. Sometimes the scary exercise of breaking everyone up into
one-on-a-part quartets helps.

I haven't had an opportunity to try this since I learned how to do it,
but I have a hunch that harmonic overtone chanting might be a really
good ear-training exercise (with carefully chosen chords).  Harmonics
are the reason that sometimes a good ensemble chord just locks in and
takes everyone's breath away.

It's easy to underestimate the importance of ensemble vowels.  If half
the chorus is on a schwa and half on eee (and half doing some bizarre
C/W dipthong) it hampers that ensemble chord big-time.  This is related
to the different harmonics you bring out with different vowels.
Obviously you have to be sensitive to parts that might be at the top of
their range and have to modify everything to an ah.

Vocal Technique:
---------------

Poor Support is the Deadly Killer during rehearsals of new music.
Singers get all wrapped up in how difficult it is and forget to breathe
(literally).  It's hard to sing in tune if you don't have good support.
You also tire the musculature in your larynx and oversing.  Good
conductors of amateur choirs use warm-up exercises that tone the
diaphragm (probably more important than the ones that tone the vocal
chords).  Insist that everyone bring a bottle of water and drink from it
copiously all through rehearsal.

If you watch amateur choirs, even good ones, you see some amazing
technique problems.  You see people stretching their necks up to sing
the high notes ("LOWER your head to sing the high notes, lengthen your
column").  You see sopranos singing through clenched jaws.  You see
basses slumped in their chairs or soft couches.  You see altos with
their eyes glued to the music.  You see tenors oversinging (nay,
hollering).  It's hard to change habits like this.  I don't know if
group exercises or one-on-one is better.  As an object lesson, you could
have the ensemble sing a high passage with clenched jaws and then with
exaggeratedly open jaws; the difference in tone is amazing.  

For tenors and sopranos (and I suspect the other parts as well), the
physiological obstacle to a good high tesatura is that the larynx creeps
up.  Keeping the larynx down during high notes (and when crossing the
bridge) is the primary objective of years of vocal coaching.  It's not
easy.  I've been training to do this for years and still have a hard
time with it.  You can't just PULL the damned thing down unless you're
some kind of swami.  Good technique and lots of practice is the only
solution.  There are lots of visualizations pertaining to length and
straightness of resonating column, projecting sounds onto the palette to
get resonance in the sinus cavities, keeping tongue (hence, hopefully,
larynx) down, etc..

Attitude:
---------

ALWAYS START ON TIME.  Laggards will get the message.  Keep breaks short
and business-like; save the socializing and daquiris till after the
rehearsal.  It's easy to lose focus when you're not on a union schedule.

Being one myself, I'm not sure what to do about the potential problem of
the Chorus Clown.  Some singers feel an irresistable impulse to help
break the tension...repeatedly.  Sometimes this helps.  If overdone, it
can begin to distract.  It also can be a competitive thing.  I don't
think tough sanctions are useful, especially if the Funny One is a
committed member of the group.  Perhaps if these potential
trouble-makers get the social support (and musical reinforcement) they
seem to need they will be able to stay focussed (and be a resource to
the group).  Singing should be fun, but it can only be truly fun if the
individuals and ensemble are continually learning and growing.

Above all, don't give up.  "We're not walking away from this; if Bach
can get a bunch of SCHOOLboys to do it; I'm sure we can work it out" (a
questionable proposition, so say it with real conviction).

	"I tell ya, I can't get no Respect!" (R.Dangerfield),
	Jeff

P.S. Thanks for giving me the opportunity to reflect on this on paper.
It occurs to me that this is only the tip of the iceberg.  Books could
be written on the subject...wait a minute.  Books HAVE been written on
this subject, I'll bet!

-- 
------------------------------------------------------
Joe Kesselman, http://www.lovesong.com/people/keshlam/
Appearing February 10 at Walkabout: 
Pete Seeger and Tao Rodrigues -- order in advance!
http://www.WalkaboutClearwater.org/coffeehouse.html