My Musical Musings Blog | BetsyLeeBaileyMusic.com - The Music of Betsy Lee Bailey

Sing-Alongs by the Campfire

5/20/2026

Remember when sitting around the camp fire and singing songs was common?

Going out into nature, camping, building a fire to cook hot dogs and roast marshmallows, telling tall tales, doing skits, and singing songs everybody knew by heart?

Sure, I grew up in a musical family (for many generations). It didn't take much to get us to start singing. One of our favorite things to do was sing in the car on long rides (of which there were many). But the songs we sang were not the typical sing-around-the-campfire songs, even for that time. We sang choral works in 4 to 6 part harmony. We sang pop songs, and Broadway tunes, and even John Phillip Sousa marches. (Yeah, not normal.)

In elementary school, our music teacher taught us American Folk Songs. She told us that remembering the songs that helped to build our country was very important, even foundational. She also taught us Folk dances on Fridays. We learned songs that most adults knew by heart.

Home on the Range, She'll Be Comin' Round the Mountain, Don't Fence Me In, Down in the Valley, Yellow Rose of Texas, Red River Valley, Deep In the Heart of Texas, You Are My Sunshine, Ragtime Cowboy Joe, I'm an Old Cowhand, Shenandoah, and many others.

After looking at this list, it is possible that my teacher was a bit partial to western and cowboy songs. We lived in Texas, after all. But that's all right. Kids that went to summer camp, on Boy Scout trips, or camping with their families all knew those songs and could join in singing them around the campfire.

Unfortunately, the tradition of singing around the campfire is dying. I don't know if any American folk songs or cowboy songs are taught to the rising generation nowadays.

In a couple of weeks, our Ward neighbors have been invited to my backyard to have a Campfire party. The organizers are even bringing portable fire pits so that we can roast marshmallows and make s'mores. Because my yard has a stage, they asked if we can have a Talent Show.

I'm thinking that I'd better prepare some sing-alongs. Maybe we should square dance or do a Virginia Reel too? Might as well try to keep some traditions alive...

Honoring Mom on Mother's Day 2025

5/9/2025

Carolyn Thompson Lee (1928-2011)

When I went off to college at age 17, I had no idea how spoiled I had been. The main reason I knew I was spoiled is because I had a fabulous accompanist at my beck and call, any time, any where. My mother. Suddenly, I had no one to play the piano for me to sing. For a singer starting off in a Vocal Performance degree path I suddenly found myself in dire straits. (It took a while, but finally I found an accompanist, a good one, too, Sue Neimoyer.) I'm not really complaining, but it did take time to find someone I could work as closely with like I was used to with my mother.

For example, it came as a shock that if I needed a song "jazzed up" a bit or transposed quickly, my mother just did it. Other pianists couldn't just instantly make arrangements that suited me or the situation. My mother could also write songs. I still remember parts of a song she wrote for me late one night for a Roadshow that was set to perform the next day. My part in the mini-show, she said, needed character development and a song would do just that. It was a nice little short song and gave my character the needed development.

She could play the piano, sure, and sing like a nightingale. The amazing bit, though, is that she could do those things and also carry on six different conversations while sitting at the piano entertaining for parties. She was, and still is, the only person I ever knew who could enter a room and within minutes know every person's name and their life stories ----- and also get invitations to stay at their houses should the need ever arise.

My mother was a terrific cook, too. Seems like she could make something special out of the basest of ingredients in the fridge before the Saturday shopping day. For most of my early life, Mom only had the use of a car on the weekends. It wasn't until I was in Middle School that my parents got a second car. It took good planning to be able to feed our tribe of six kids with only shopping once a week. She made even common days holidays.

My mother loved people. And people loved her. She had friends everywhere, including the many places we lived --- the schools, the neighborhood, at church, the grocery stores --- and she kept track of and remembered them. People were always begging her to teach their children piano or voice lessons. She taught students at very inconvenient times --- at 6:00 in the morning until school started and then after school until suppertime. She had to teach me a few recipes to get dinner started on lessons days. (Poor family! They had to endure my poor attempts at cooking.)

I only wish I had more recordings of her beautiful voice. This is an arrangement she entrusted to me now. "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" from the Wizard of Oz.

Love you, Mom.

From Consonant to Consonant

4/27/2025

Choral singers come in many varieties. A choir may be made up of a wide range of vocal colors --- bight, dark, tremolo, breathy, etc. Whatever the vocal color, the singer will need to be aware of what they can do in order to blend with the other voices. The most important skills to learn are to have good vowel molds, good breathing, and know how to control the natural spin or vibrato of their voice. Those skills can be learned. The natural vocal quality of a voice should actually be celebrated as long as the singer can sing in tune and blend with the other voices.

Creating a cohesive sound over the entire chorus may take consistent effort from the conductor and the singers. The conductor may choose to work on one concept at a time before moving on to the next. "Singing from consonant to consonant" is an aspect of phrasing that involves both proper breath management as well as crisp diction.

Developing nuance within a phrase or line of music can be allusive, especially for a large choir. Even with all the effort that one singer might make, it won't be enough. The entire group needs to produce together as one big whole to get the job done. Breathing energy into the vowel sounds between the consonants in a phrase is what must be developed. We sing on the vowels. Consonants, of course, are essential to intelligible diction, but they usually break up the line.

We Americans tend to be lazy speakers. We barely open our jaws or use our tongues to enunciate when speaking. That does not translate well to beautiful singing. In order to make beautiful vowel molds, the jaw must be down in the "two finger" position which makes it harder for the tongue to work to create the proper vowel molds. We also tend to speak without engaging our abdominal wall muscles in order to project. We also forget to breathe deeply enough to have the power to support a tone through entire phrases.

Beautiful singing absolutely requires attention to good breathing, proper support, and utilizing the teeth, tongue and jaw to make the diction intelligible. But what happens between the consonants is what is so important to beautiful singing. The tone line should be disrupted for as little time as possible.

The consonants should only break up the line briefly. Some words have strings of consonants like "str," "rld," "schw," and "fths." Words with strings of consonants are difficult enough to pronounce while speaking and even harder while singing. A conductor may drill the chorus in difficult pronunciations in order to get the diction he is after from his group and quickly enough not to disrupt the phrasing.

Crisp diction is great but the nuance of dynamics and warmth of color still happen while the chorus is singing on the vowels. So be aware of what happens while singing from consonant to consonant.

When a group of choir friends helped me to record my original song "Forget Me Not, O Lord" we had just a few minutes to get the finished product. Fortunately, they were all very skilled singers and knew how to sightread music, quickly grasp the meaning and feeling of the song, and how to blend.

I am still amazed that we were able to get such a beautiful performance after singing through the song just a couple of times.

Clinicians at a Church Music Workshop

1/27/2025

Bonnie Lee with one of the Choir's Emmy Awards

This weekend, my sister Bonnie Lee and I will be clinicians at a Church Music Workshop in Gettysburg, PA. My sister will be giving a keynote address, then we both will be teaching classes. My sister is somewhat of a celebrity due to the fact that she recently retired from the Tabernacle Choir after serving for 22 years. She will be speaking about "Music: the Heart of Worship" and will probably use some examples from her many years singing in the choir. Then she will be teaching a class on "Accessing the Power of the Hymns" with the focus on sharing backgrounds of some new hymns released last year for the new hymnbook. I have been asked to teach a class on Primary Music

Bonnie Lee and Betsy Lee Bailey on Temple Square about 2013

We have both been struggling to narrow our topics down to what can really be accomplished in a 40 minute class period. When you serve a long time doing something you love (22 years in TabChoir for her and six years in the TabChoir and 43 years leading Primary Music for me), you tend to have many, many inspirational stories and a lot of stored up information you could share.

So how to pare down your thoughts to essentials? We were told that the main purpose of this Workshop is to inspire other music leaders to get excited about serving in their callings.

Here are some other topics we are to address:
1. Just how Music is so important for worship.
2. Inviting the Spirit into the meetings through the music, teaching activities, and good preparation.
3. Be as polished as possible so that you don't do things that break the spirit of reverence and worship.
4. In Primary especially, talk about how reverence is so important in setting the tone for worship.
5. How to "work the room" during Primary Singing Time to be able to switch effortlessly between the fun stuff and more reverent moments.
6. Model the excitement of serving in music callings and how special music is to worship

Because I like art, I could easily bring examples of 43 years worth of collecting and using Visual Aids and Games. But I think that could overwhelm some people --- especially the newly called Primary Music Leaders. So, I've decided to stick to essentials like:

1. Memorizing the Primary Songs before teaching them
2. Modeling good singing techniques (posture, breathing, tone, diction, etc.)
3. Learning good PACING (packing a lot into limited time)
4. Striving for the Magic 7 Mark (teaching to the seven learning styles)
5. Assembling a Song Leader's Bag of Tricks
6. Teaching the Gospel through Music
7. Bearing personal testimony.

Dr. Randolph Lee, Trumpet

We also want to encourage people in music callings to expound their love of REHEARSING. "Nearly every true musician has a life made up of rehearsals. "We like rehearsals!"

Here is a quote about rehearsing from our nephew Randy Lee who currently teaches at BYU and plays in the Orchestra at Temple Square. "As musicians we rehearse until there is no possibility of making a mistake."

This is such a privilege to be able to do this Church Music Workshop. I hope and pray that we can encourage the attendees to find joy and excitement in their Music Callings.

Agreeing on Choral Vocabulary

1/11/2025

Like our guest conductor said today at our Wasatch Chorale workshop, teaching vocal technique is a dark art. It requires a lot of black magic to get it right. Whenever a choir gets together to sing, they bring all sorts of variations in singing experience. A conductor usually spends a good amount of effort making sure that the singers in his choir can agree on the sounds he wants them to make.

Blending, vowel formation, breathing, articulations, and many other techniques cannot be taught the same way a stringed or brass instrument is taught. A person's individual vocal instrument doesn't have buttons or strings that can be pushed a certain way to produce particular sounds the same way every time. And each personal instrument can sound different.

Voice teachers and conductors may resort to telling some abstract visualizations to help. The vocal mechanism is basically a tube from the lungs to the mouth where the sound is controlled by the vocal folds in the larynx and modified by the tongue, teeth and mouth shapes to created tones and words. In order get the students to produce good breath and tone quality, he may use instructions like "breathe from your diaphragm," use a "sky hook" to maintain good posture, or "imagine focusing the tone from your raised soft palate", etc. They may never use the actual anatomical terms because most people don't remember difficult words like that.

Dr. Brent Wells who currently teaches choral music and directs two choirs at BYU, gave a lot of good advice today in our workshop. I appreciated how he wanted our choral group to learn to agree on vocabulary so that we could more easily adjust our tone production during rehearsals.

For example, he wanted us to learn five different positions to be able to produce our blended choral sounds. For instance, #1 would be a very bright, nasal sound. He demonstrated this by touching the tip of his nose and singing like "Ado Annie" from the musical "Oklahoma." That character's sound was not a good choral sound because it cannot easily blend with other voices. He had us try to replicate that sound. (Not pleasant.)

#5 sound is created by singing deep in the throat (or lowering the Adam's apple). This is too dark of a sound and not easily blended.

He had us also practice singing in the other more pleasing positions. #2 would be imagining the sound focusing forward by touching either side of the nose. It is a bright, forward tone, ringing but not nasally. Position #3 is a high-cheek position or what some teachers call "singing from the mask," still with a bright buzzing ring. #4 is focused more from the soft palate in the back of the mouth. Most choral singing ranges from #3 and #4 positions.

He worked with us to do a better job of pulling air into our lungs using the muscle of the diaphragm. (Incidentally, the diaphragm is a flat muscle like a pancake that only has one job -- to pull air into the lungs. It cannot help support the tone.) We worked on keeping our breastbones high and still, and supporting the tone with our abdominal wall muscles.

Getting a blended beautiful sound from a choir takes a lot of effort from everybody and it starts with having all the singers agree on choral vocabulary and how to use it.

Music Keeps Life Exciting

8/17/2024

Inviting Music Room door decor

Fall is in the air...

Well, the cooler weather isn't actually here yet, nor are the changing colorful leaves, but school has started up again in many areas, including mine.

One of my friends has been teasing her Facebook followers by advertising little bits of her fall semester choral classroom decor. Now that it has been revealed, it is impressive. Those students will be singing in Camelot every day. So cool! I envy those students who get to be involved in the music, the activities, and the classroom environment that is awaiting them this semester.

Yes, I was that type of student who loved to ride the waves of excitement provided by a few of my wonderful teachers. And yes, you guessed it, they were mostly my Music teachers. I loved singing, playing, and listening to music of all kinds. Preparing for concerts was the kind of excitement that kept my spirits up. I could stand the dreariness of listening to lectures on subjects I wasn't interested in or doing endless math problems when I knew that I would be going to music class later in the day.

In fact, I directly credit being involved in music classes with making good grades through Elementary school (and beyond). If I finished my work early and correctly, I got rewards like getting to spend extra time helping down in the Music Room. By Fifth Grade, my friend Judy and I were basically Mrs. Richardson's aides in her Music classroom. We built her bulletin boards, helped the younger classes do their assignments including demonstrating the harmony parts, and even assisted with folk dancing on Fridays. I loved getting hands-on experience teaching music from that very young age.

Janie and Carolyn practicing with BYU students on tour bus circa 1960

But my aunt and my mother were the real experts at keeping life exciting through musical activities. My aunt Janie was always doing shows. She worked for Brigham Young University (BYU) and was always being asked to provide entertainment. When the college students couldn't get away from their studies to go do a show, Janie would fill in with her family. I was even on a lot of shows when I was a child. ( I fancied myself a little Shirley Temple.)

When I was 8, our family moved to Texas. My mother kept up our family tradition of providing entertainment for almost any type of event around our area. She was the professional singer who could also accompany herself while she sang at the piano. Once my music teachers at school learned about my mother's abilities, she became a fixture at the schools, too. A woman of her talents was a valuable commodity anywhere we lived. And that was a lot of places --- 36 moves over 50+ years.

Bailey children singing for Christmas 1991

Here's a song Janie taught us to sing when my siblings Bobby, Betsy, Benny, Barby, Billy and Bonnie were little. I also taught it to my my family as well as many an elementary school chorus over the years.

"Don't Wait 'til the Night Before Christmas to Be Good"

For years I thought that my aunt Janie wrote this song. Turns out that she only borrowed it and put her own stamp on it. I finally wrote out her version so that we other mere mortals could enjoy performing it, too.

A Musicians' First Language

8/9/2024

A friend and I were talking on our way to a performance the other day. We really didn't know each other that well. So we started telling each other about our lives. And, as had happened so many other times, something came up that I've heard over and over again as I've talked to musician friends. That is that music seems to be their first language.

This friend was saying that she was in Church one day when she was very young following along in the hymnal. She noticed how the little dots moved up and down when the people sang up and down. It dawned on her that she could do that with her voice, too. She did not know how to read yet, but she figured out that following the music notes just made sense.

Benny, Betsy, Bobby, Barby, and new baby Billy 1963

I told her that I had had the same experience. My older brother "taught" me about reading the music in the hymn book when I was very young, too. Following those little black dots had meaning to me long before I actually learned to read words.

Every Sunday, Bob and I would sit together during Church practicing reading the hymn music. After a while, Bob told me that the other notes were other parts and we could practice singing those parts, too. Which we did. It got to be a sport. On each verse we sang a different voice part. Over the years, we got pretty good at singing all of the voice parts and holding our own parts against each other, too.

Our mother had us part-singing from the time we were very young. She said it was a sign of intelligence if you could hold your own part. In fact, there were times when we would get into heated arguments over who had to sing the melody. None of us wanted the stigma that we couldn't hold our own on a harmony part

Oh, the joys of being raised in a musical family...

The Importance of Ending Consonants

5/28/2024

While on a recent trip to Tacoma to visit my daughter's family, I also got the chance to go visit my brother Ben. All of our siblings are musicians from singing to playing instruments. Our brothers in particular love to play band and orchestral instruments. Bob plays any of the brass especially trombone plus string bass, Bill specializes in all of the various clarinets, and Ben plays any in the Tuba family.

Going to Ben's house is like going to a Tuba farm. You get to meet an ever growing number of tubas from standard sized euphoniums to big "Bertha" tubas. He even has a collection of baby euphoniums and plastic toy tubas that he can actually play. His entire collection is usually out in full view, but his wife had made him put them somewhere else while she was entertaining guests for a party just before I came.

Ben, despite having to deal with some health issues, keeps playing and arranging music. He now plays in three community bands and he enjoys writing arrangements for the various groups. Pretty good for a guy who recently had a stroke.

He is also the Ward Choir director. Because the Wards in the area have been newly realigned, this is a new ward to him. Also new to him is having a choir with no men. He decided to just run with that situation. He is starting out with a double women's trio. Ben decided to have them sing "Lift Thine Eyes" by Felix Mendelssohn included in the old LDS Hymnal.

Our mother made sure her children could sing this piece any time any where from memory a cappella in any combination of voices. Since Benny was a high Tenor, he sometimes sang with the sisters growing up. Anyway, we all know it and can still sing it from memory. Then Ben asked me to sing the first couple of lines. I said okay and began:

"Lift thine eyes, oh, lift thine eyes to the mountains
Whence cometh, whence cometh, whence cometh help."

He then said, "Betsy you did it right. You put an audible "P" sound at the end of 'help.' My singers can't seem to manage sounding the 'P.' Think about it. Without that ending consonant, the entire meaning of the phrase is changed --- and not in a good way!!!!"

Ben is holding a special emergency rehearsal before they sing on Sunday to get them to remember to sound the "P" at the end of "help."

Ending consonants are VERY IMPORTANT!

Staggering

5/6/2024

"Staggering" for singers is a little different from "staggering" or almost falling as you are walking along. But it probably should actually be "un-staggering" or taking a little breath in an obscure part of a phrase so that you won't fall over when you run out of breath.

Composers of choir music expect there to be many singers in a section so that long notes may be held for an impossible length of time or that very long phrases may go on for many measures without any breaks.

Learning how to stagger the breaths is quite a feat for most choir singers. Here are a few RULES that should be followed:

1. Never end the syllable with the finish consonants, especially "s" "t" or "k" when sneaking a breath.

2. Take a breath as silently as possible.

3. Don't breathe at the same time as your neighbor.

4. Use hairpin dynamics --- diminish your sound before the breath and come in softly after your breath.

Another technique that many choir directors promote is to take a staggered breath in the middle of a long word/note while holding the mouth in the shape of the vowel.

For the individual choir singer, marking when to take breaths in the score is a matter of course. Sometimes you even need to consult with your neighbor as to when to breathe so that someone is always covering the note during the long phrase.

Many good directors will practice staggering the breaths during warm-ups before starting choir practice.

Audiences have come to expect a choir to sing impossibly long held out notes with a big crescendo at the end of showpieces. However, they may become uncomfortable if they never hear the choir take breaths at phrases. Be aware that audiences have a hard time understanding the words that choirs sing. Clean diction is better accomplished with adequate breaks for breaths and crisp consonants.

Adjudications

3/8/2024

Yesterday I went with my daughter's Middle School chorus to a choral festival. Each of the three schools in the district sang 2-3 songs and the judges scored their performances. The hosting High School choirs also sang a few numbers.

This experience took me 'way back to the last time I remember being at a middle school adjudication. That was in Pasadena, Texas in the late 1960's. I remember wearing the chorus "uniform" of an A-line skirt and jacket in spring green with a light yellow blouse. Those were our school colors, light green and yellow. Just comparing how the kids dressed then compared to how they "almost" dress now pretty much made my stomach turn over. That and the cell phones.

Funny how back then, even in middle school, I felt like going to school was a privilege. I guess because I was in accelerated classes, I was grouped with kids who shared my love of learning. We were pretty competitive, but just doing school related tasks. Guess we were just a group of nerds. I remember enjoying school. I especially loved my art and music classes. We had a pretty large middle school chorus, too, probably near 100 students. Music, band, chorus and orchestra were big in Texas schools.

My daughter teaches at a Title 1 school where many of the students are from refugee families. Not only do they come from different cultures and speak other languages in their homes, many of their parents had very little if any formal schooling. Her students struggle and hardly get any support from home.

The adjudicators were very generous and took some time to work with her students. First, they talked a bit about how to overcome stage fright. Then they worked on posture, breath, matching pitches and rhythm. They knew that my daughter had already worked with them on these very things, so they had to be careful not to make it seem like she wasn't doing her job. The things they said to build her up were very nice, too. They even wondered if she acted and sang professionally on the stage. That really helped Cami feel better, too.

These two judges were very good at always building up not tearing down. It takes a special person to walk that fine line!

The Music of Betsy Lee Bailey copyright 2020