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

Choosing a Theme for a Concert or Program

12/5/2024

One of the most frequent questions I have been asked is "How do you choose a theme to build your concert or program around?"

That is a very difficult question, especially at Christmas time. Depending on what type of concert or program you are doing, possibly the easiest way to choose a theme is to look for a great song title and arrangement.

There have been so many great songs written for Christmas that no matter the style of your concert or the group you are working with, a theme songs is sure to emerge that will fit the bill.

For example, if you are working with a show choir, large or small, old or young, pop or traditional, you'll be able to find many songs that can serve as the THEME. Examples may be:

"We Need a Little Christmas," "Happy Holidays," "Deck the Halls," "Be a Santa," "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree," and so many more.

If you are doing a concert of more classical choral offerings, you may choose:

"Sing We Now of Christmas," "O Holy Night," "Gloria," or any title of the choral work and composer you are going to feature such as "Handel's "Messiah."

If you are putting together a program for a Church meeting, you might choose titles of traditional CAROLS or sacred songs like:

"Joy to the World," "Come to the Manger," "O Come All Ye Faithful," "O Come, O Come Emmanuel," and so many others.

Then, of course, you may find a new-ish piece that has a fetching title, and base your concert around it's theme such as:

"Ring Glad Christmas Bells," "O Tidings of Comfort and Joy," "On a Sacred, Still and Silent Night," "Lord of All." "The Greatest Christmas Card in the Whole Wide World," "Under the Christmas Tree," "The Christmas Alphabet," or "Don't Wait 'til the Night Before Christmas to Be Good"

Enjoy this arrangement of "O Come, O Come Emmanuel" for SATB, Piano and Cello.

On Top of the Pitch

10/28/2024

One of the most difficult things to work on in a small choir is matching pitch. In a Ward Choir, for example, the singers are generally untrained and older, so they may already have issues.

Untrained voices may have trouble with vowel formations, unruly vibrato troubles, or just lack of concept of how to blend with other voices.

Older singers may just not have the breath control to do the singing they used to. Sagging pitch or tone quality is the result.

As a conductor, you may have to do more vocal warm-ups and teaching to get the voices to adjust their vowel placement, support the tone better, and encourage staying on top of the pitches.

However, as a conductor of a small choir with older voices, you can also choose music that avoids issues that cause problems for older voices. For example, LONG SLOW Held-Out PHRASES, big variations in DYNAMICS, extremes in EXTENDED RANGES, and the need to use fancy VOCAL TECHNIQUES.

You could start by sizing up your group. If you generally have less than three in a section, avoid any music with split parts such as SSAATTBB. In fact, you may be wisest to use songs with mostly unison or two parts with occasional splits to SATB in some sections.

Be careful if you have a few great voices that overpower all the rest. Those singers may have fragile egos and will not stay if they cannot sing mostly in their natural full voices. This makes it hard to manage a blended sound in the choir.

So you may need to choose the music you perform with this situation in mind. If you have that one baritone that has a great sound but is louder than the rest of the men put together, make sure you use that to your advantage. Put all of the men on the same part as that baritone. Strength in numbers --- as well as the hope of a more blended sound.

It's all up to you as a conductor to navigate the delicate egos and enthusiastic less-trained singers you may have in your small choir. To be successful, you must keep everybody happy. Good luck!

Always have a few 2-part pieces ready to rehearse in between your more challenging pieces. Two part hymn arrangements are excellent for practicing choral techniques such as matching pitches, blending tone quality, and staying on top of the pitches. See Easy 2-Part Mixed Chorus

Getting Into a Groove

9/30/2024

Occasionally I have been asked to fill in for our ward choir director. I actually enjoy directing choirs, so that is not an imposition. But this week I wasn't sure if I could even get there on time. I lead the singing in our ward for Sacrament Meeting at 9:00, then drove 40 miles to get to my granddaughter's Primary Presentation by 11:00, then drove back to my town for choir practice at 1:00 pm. I got to my choir practice a few minutes late, but hardly anyone was there yet. We decided to start anyway even though we just had one Bass, 6 Altos, and two Sopranos. Eventually a few more men came.

We took a vote on which song we thought that our director was most likely to choose for us to perform in a few weeks. (None of us remembered exactly.) Our director has been having us read through many pieces just to get the feel of what she really wants us to do, so we have a lot of music in our folders. The one we decided to work on the most was a version of "This Is My Father's World." It has a lovely violin part as well as the SATB and piano parts.

This not my recommended way of trusting a substitute to run a rehearsal. Usually the substitute is given some instructions on what to work on at least. Unfortunately, I felt unprepared. I don't recommend sight-reading the parts you are supposed to be teaching.

Anyway, I decided that I would default to my usual choral conducting strategies. We began with a few vocal warm-ups. Then we dove into learning the piece. This was the first week during this Fall season we had so many altos there at the same time. It became evident right away that this particular group needed work on matching vowels and pitches. So, we worked to modify "ah" and "oh" sounds and the hard one -- the short "a" as in "cat." Soon, they were doing much better.

Another big part of this piece was the need to hold out notes for impossible lengths of time. We had to do a lesson on "Staggering Breaths 101." We practiced coming in and out of a line fading out the notes, sneakily snatching breaths at different times, and then quietly coming back in. Soon they were working as a team.

The last note of the piece suddenly becomes unison from a dissonant 4-note chord. That took some effort to realize that on a sudden unison soft note EVERYONE has to become even softer than the pianissimo they were positioned on in the previous measure.

It took some work, but we made some good progress. The problem will be that the next time we meet, we may have a completely different leader and voices, many who have never worked on these issues before. But at least our efforts were lending some consistency to get our ward choir into a groove this Fall season.

Comments from the accompanist, "You are quite the pistol," and "Do you have a lead foot?"

(He was referring to how fast I ran rehearsal and how I must have broken a few speed limits to get back in time for our rehearsal. Which I didn't, there just wasn't much traffic.)

The Art of Phrasing

6/8/2024

Conductor giving clean cut-off

Most choral conductors try to get to the point in rehearsals where they can suggest (and hope to get) good PHRASING from their choir. Sadly, this aspect of singing takes a long time to master. Many willing Ward Choir singers are just regular folk who happen to like to sing. They probably have never had lessons to improve their voices. They likely have never had the opportunity to actually hear their own voices. They might not really understand what PHRASING is or why it is important.

Good singing is made up of so many techniques such as POSTURE, BREATHING, PITCH, DICTION, TONE, RHYTHM, BALANCE, BLEND, and the list goes on. Choir directors have to choose their battles when preparing their groups for performance. At first they have to make sure the singers know their PITCHES. They might work on standing up straight to improve POSTURE and BREATHING. They might encourage memorization of the words and do a few tricks to help with DICTION such as singing on the VOWEL and getting clean CUT-OFFS. He might even ask for the group to follow the DYNAMICS (the louds and softs) as marked in the music.

And then they run out of rehearsal time. The Performance comes and goes, just like that. On to the next project.

Getting to the good stuff like PHRASING might always be just out of reach. PHRASING happens when all of those other techniques are already in place and then the musicality and interpretation can begin.

As a singer, especially when singing in a language I really didn't understand, I learned to trust the composer. When in doubt of the message in the text, I could follow the musical setting the composer created. The composer did the work of interpretation through his music. All I really needed to do was trust his judgement. If the music gave dynamics, and slurs, and crescendo/diminuendo marks, I followed them. Those were the indications for PHRASING.

For a Ward Choir Director, getting his group to intuitively add musicality and PHRASING may be long in coming, but it can come. Just try adding nuances a little at a time or choose music that lends itself to including PHRASING from the get-go.

You might even record the group during rehearsal. Let them hear themselves and be the judges of whether they are singing with good PHRASING.

In an effort to record some of my own arrangements, I have tried multi-track recording. There are built-in problems with singing with yourself. Getting the feeling and interpretations right is nothing like what you can do in a group. It is definitely not the same result as having a conductor pull out a performance from the group all watching and feeling together!

"Love at Home" for SSAA, Piano and 2 flutes.

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.

Singing for Prelude?

5/4/2024

Yesterday I was asked to direct the hymn singing for one of the Women's Conference sessions held at BYU. I had trouble getting a parking place at the Marriott Center, so I just barely made it down onto the floor in time to do my job. The organist, a friend from TabChoir Nora Hess, was there ready to play. We were instructed by the sound guy what our cues would be. I took a big breath (to try to catch my breath from running in heels several blocks and down the hundred stairs because I was late) and we were ready.

Whoever expected thousands of women to come into a big arena quietly to sing hymns for 10 minutes reverently BEFORE an event SURE GOT THEIR WIRES CROSSED!!!!! These women came in very chatty trying to find the rest of their parties and wanting to catch up and plan their day. They were so excited to see each other. They had absolutely NO IDEA that they should be sitting quietly and singing reverently. They were too busy trying to find seating near their friends.

So there I was singing a solo for 10 minutes waving my arms like a lunatic.

Every so often someone new gets put in charge and tries what they think is a novel idea. They think it is something that has never been tried before and will work splendidly and put everyone in the right frame of mind and will set a reverent mood for the meeting. (Oh, but this has been tried before and has never worked satisfactorily.) At an event like this, ladies need to have time to meet and greet and chat and just be excited with each other.

Even at General Conference in the Conference Center, the General Authorities never ask the Congregation to sing hymns reverently while they are filling that enormous building. Big halls take upwards of 45 minutes to fill. People make noise enough just shuffling around trying to get seated. And after a long drive, having difficulties parking, getting registered, hooking up with their friends, planning what classes to go to, and find seating together --- they just have to talk!!!! People settle down just fine once the actual meeting starts.

This was pretty ridiculous.

Then There Was Mutiny!

3/11/2024

4/4, 3/4, 5/4, 2/4 -- all in the first line of the song!!! Some choral singers find that changing meters are very difficult to sightread.

Yesterday, our ward choir director called me at the last minute needing someone to fill in for her. I agreed to run the choir practice, and headed off a little bit early so I could play through the music before the rehearsal started. As I was backing out of my garage, I noticed a car blocking my driveway. The choir director had driven to my house to hand me some new music for the rehearsal. Poor thing! Even in her sickness, she cared so much to make sure we had this new Easter piece in hand to get started.

So, at rehearsal, all of us were sight-reading these crazy changing meters.

Given the situation, I decided to have everyone just feel the steady quarter note beats. We tapped them as we spoke the words in rhythm. That helped somewhat, but it was still rather confusing. The other issue with this song was that each part sang independent lines. There was only one section that was homophonic (where SATB all sang the same words to the same rhythms). But we persevered and got through the piece making a good start at learning it.

But at yesterday's practice, we only had 8 people in attendance. Our normal choir size is between 15 and 20 people, which is fine for most medium difficulty SATB chorals. (Some of our usual "ringers" in each section were missing.) There are other talented singers in our ward who sometimes just come up to help us sing the performance, thus swelling our ranks to 30-35 singers. When that happens, we sound pretty good.

However, for Easter, our director expects us to sing an SSAATTBB a cappella song, this new SATB piece with all of the changing meters, and the 10-minute "Worthy Is the Lamb" finale from Handel's "Messiah." The singers in rehearsal yesterday are stalwarts and ready to try singing whatever, but they know that 8 struggling singers don't have a hope of doing justice to those very difficult choral pieces. Nor, do they have the stamina to sing melismas at forte for 10 minutes without more strength in numbers! Then when they realized that some of our very talented extra singers who could swell our ranks at the last minute were likely going to be out of town for Easter, well, there was mutiny!

I was tasked with taking a message to our conductor.

They would like to sing just two easier SATB pieces for Easter.

So, we'll see what our director decides...

Using Humor in a Rehearsal

2/19/2024

Using even unintentional humor in a rehearsal can cut the tension and help the singers do better. Here is a repost about something that happened during a recording session when the Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra at Temple Square were working on recording the entire oratorio "Messiah" by Handel in 2014

Agony Felt Good

Recording week for the Mormon Tabernacle Choir can be intense and stressful, but after all the effort, the results are worth it. So why the oxymoron? Well, no one was really in serious agony. What happened was simply this. We were struggling to sing the word "agony" with the proper lift. Once we got it, our director said, "The agony felt good that take."  We were so tired, that silly statement really tickled our collective funny bone and provided the needed levity to help cut the tension. I am sure that our conductor had no idea he was being funny. But at that moment, we really needed a stress reliever. That bit of unintentional humor was welcome indeed.

Good humor is so important in running a rehearsal.  When the stress of trying to make everything perfect gets so intense, it can actually detract from getting the hoped-for results. For a singer, the harder you try for perfection, the more stress you can feel. And the more intense the stress, the tighter and tighter your muscles can get. And when the muscles tighten, the tone quality gets pinched. And when the tone quality gets pinched, the conductor expresses in highly pointed language that you seriously need to fix it. And when the conductor is stressed, no one is happy. That is where a dose of good humor can come in handy.

A little laughter can relax tension in the muscles of the neck and jaw instantly. After the laughter, come the deeper cleansing breaths so important to efficient, beautiful singing. It doesn't take much good humor to do the trick, and it is a marvelous tool to get the most out of your rehearsals. Don't let the seriousness become so intense that tension mounts out of control. Don't allow your rehearsals to become agony. Try a little good humor to cut the tension.

Make the agony feel good!

The reason the word agony was so problematic is that it starts on a troublesome vowel for English speakers with no beginning consonant. The "a" as in "cat" is difficult because we American-speakers do not agree on the formation of that sound. Some sing the short "a" sound with a very flat, spread placement with a nearly closed jaw. Some try to imitate the British high placement but it comes across as a very swallowed, hooty sound in a deep throated "ah" with the jaw locked in an unnaturally dropped jaw placement. In fact, the proper placement for that sound will be "high" (tongue and soft palette) with the resonance focused towards the "mask" of the face with the jaw dropped to the "2-finger" measurement. Singers learn this placement as the Italian "a." (The "2 finger measurement" simply means that the singer should be able to fit 2 finger widths between his teeth when his jaw is dropped.)

Not many songs contain the word agony, but one notable song for Easter does, "Christ the Lord Is Risen Today" with text by Charles Wesley ("Jesus' agony is o'er"). I have included it in my arrangement of "An Easter Anthem Medley."  This piece weaves together thematic material from "All Creatures of Our God and King" with pertinent verses of "He Is Risen" and "Christ the Lord Is Risen Today." It should be a nice addition to your Easter repertoire.

Planning Choir Music

8/17/2023

One of the most difficult tasks for a choir director seems to be choosing music. It isn't so hard if the THEMES are already chosen, but that rarely happens. It doesn't even matter if the choir is a Children's Chorus for Elementary School, a Community Choral Society, or a Church Choir. The problems for the directors are the same. Picking pieces for their groups to sing is time consuming and hard.

First, you've got to find MUSIC THAT SUITS YOUR GROUP. That can mean that the song that you heard another group sound so good doing just may not work for your group. So your first thoughts are dashed to pieces.

You need to find songs that your ACCOMPANIST can manage. Or sometimes you have no regular accompanist, but the other options for accompaniment aren't that great, either.

Your BUDGET is tight, so you either have to use music that already exists in your library stacks or be very creative and frugal.

Seems I've spent my life doing the creative and frugal route. Many times I have searched and searched for that perfect piece for my chorus only to run out of time. So I just wrote one. Or, I didn't have an accompanist, so I just directed from the piano bench. Or I got around not having much in the budget by strategically using music from the library stacks or my own private files and only afforded that one new piece I just had to have.

In the end, PLANNING is a matter of being AWARE of upcoming needs and situations and by using your own CREATIVITY to work things out. It can be done.

This version of "Away in a Manger" came about because of some particular circumstances we had one year for our Ward Choir. I had a good choir of about 20-25 voices, a lovely young high soprano soloist, and a very inexperienced accompanist. (That year, we actually did several a cappella pieces on our Christmas program because our pianist could only handle a couple of songs. In order to fill out the program, we had to do a cappella pieces!)

The Music of Betsy Lee Bailey copyright 2020