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

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.

Bel Canto Singing

1/15/2024

Apparently opera singer Luciano Pavarotti was a real fan of Frank Sinatra. When he met Sinatra for the first time, he actually bowed to him. He called Sinatra the best singer in the world because he sang with beautiful bel canto stylizations. (Frank Sinatra was a big fan of Pavarotti, too, and they became great friends even though they didn't share the same language.)

According to the Encyclopedia Brittanica, the definition of bel canto singing (Italian: “beautiful singing”) is a style of operatic singing that originated in Italian singing of polyphonic (multipart) music and Italian courtly solo singing during the late 16th century and that was developed in Italian opera in the 17th, 18th, and early 19th centuries.

But it is so much more than that. When I was studying Vocal Performance in college, my teacher said that bel canto singing techniques can be applied to almost any style of singing. He said that bel canto should be built around beautiful interpretations of the lyrics and the vocal line by using good breathing, proper intonation, classic vowel formations, and expressive phrasing. Although Frank Sinatra sang mainly popular songs, NOT ITALIAN OPERA, he certainly followed these techniques.

Breath Control is so important for solo singers especially. Posture, support, and breathing are the foundational techniques needed for beautiful singing. Where choral singers may be able to sneak breaths when they need them within the context of a large group, the soloist needs to plan breaths to support the tone as well as to make the phrasing understandable.

Proper Intonation helps with singing the musical line as well as singing in tune. Often I hear singers who just don't pay attention or get lazy, and allow their voices to go flat, or don't stay with the rhythm, or don't listen close enough to match pitches with other singers or instruments well.

Vowel Formations need to be consistent. Singers usually begin their practice with warm-ups using particular vowels (the Italian vowels a, e, i, o, u). English has 11-22 vowels plus dipthongs and tripthongs, depending on the regional dialects. Professional singers (soloists or choral) really should learn to sing so they can transcend all of the dialects and blend well with others. So to start with and continue staying up with vowel sounds, the 5 Italian vowels are used. If a singer can master those, the other vowel formations come quite naturally.

Probably the most recognizable part of bel canto singing is the Expressive Phrasing. This is where attention to dynamics, emotional feeling, and all of the other techniques come together. That's where Sinatra and Pavarotti were both experts.

(If you don't believe me, just look up Luciano Pavarotti or Frank Sinatra on YouTube or Spotify and listen with these techniques in mind.)

I studied Opera, but also got to sing choral, musical theater, and pop, as well as jazz over the years. I never forgot how my teacher encouraged me to always remember to sing with bel canto techniques. Here are a couple of excerpts from my performances, one as a soloist singing John Rutter's "Magnificat" with a local Master Chorale in Maryland (where I wished I had been adequately mic'd. It was so exhausting to sing against the choir and orchestra.) The other is a recording of a jazz tune, "Misty" with a jazz trio.

Thinking Big, Possibly Too Big?

9/25/2023

Some hymn arrangements were definitely written for large choirs. For example, think of a piece that has the 1st Soprano section holding a note high above the Treble staff for 8 measures at the end while the orchestra does the play out big finish. Yeah, well that doesn't exactly work well for a small 12-15 voice Ward choir with only a piano for accompaniment.

And what about the arrangements that start out pretty straight forward, possibly in unison for the first verse, then suddenly split into 4-part Men or 8-part full choir. That doesn't work so well for a group with only 4 Basses, 1 Tenor, 5 altos, and 2 Sopranos.

Sometimes even with a "bigger" group, or a small group with "bigger" voices, the balance just doesn't work out right. Sure those pieces that are performed so well by the Tabernacle Choir or a fine College Choir seem fun to pull out for a Ward or Stake group. But should you? Really?

There is quite a temptation to think big when planning for a special event such as Stake Conference or Christmas. A choir director who knows there are some great voices in her ward or stake might feel that "certainly, if I choose some grand choral works I will attract those singers to come." Realistically, though, people have issues in their lives that sometimes make it impossible for them to support even the most worthy projects.

And even if some of those good singers say they will come up from the audience just for the performance (because they already know the song or they can sight-read well), they don't really contribute to helping the group be cohesive. Plus, there is merit in having those good singers at rehearsals to help the stalwart singers feel more confident.

My advice is to make sure you have the SUPPORT you need before you choose the music. Once you reasonably can judge your REHEARSAL attendance you can responsibly select music to suit your group.

As an audience member, I would much rather hear a simple hymn or arrangement sung well-blended with the Spirit than hear ambitious music done poorly.

Christmas in July

7/19/2023

Can't help but notice all of the "Christmas in July" action going on right now. From Hallmark movies to special sales, for good or bad, Christmas is the biggest holiday to be commercialized.

For musicians, though, they have to look ahead to get prepared for shows and concerts six months out. For schools, music teachers HAVE to prepare in July for the end of Fall semester concerts. It's just the way things work.

I have been noticing people asking for help and guidance to find new music and programming ideas for their shows. This doesn't surprise me. THERE IS SIMPLY SO MUCH STUFF OUT THERE to sift through. Teachers and Choral Directors have quite a job trying to come up with fresh material year after year.

Some schools don't have a dedicated music program, so the classroom teachers must provide their own numbers for the "Christmas Sing" Concert at the school. Most teachers just do the same songs each year. Now as a grandma of many, I cringe at going to hear the same songs year after year, concert after concert. Maybe try a five year rotation...

There is something to be said for having a few numbers on the program that are TRADITIONAL. But, if just for the sake of the long-suffering audience, it is so refreshing to have most of the program different from year to year. That said, you don't want all of the songs to be completely brand new, either. Singing at least a few old favorites helps the audience appreciate the show better.

Having a THEME to help unify the show is ultimately the best programming device the teacher or director has. Many times through the years, finding a good THEME for a concert has been the best and yet hardest part of my job as a director. I have spent days, perhaps months, scouring music stores for just the right theme songs for my shows. (That was in the olden days.) Now, having access to online sources and many chat groups for advice, the job seems so much easier.

Some of the Christmas Holiday show THEMES (songs) I have used are "Holiday Harmony," "Be a Santa," "Walking in a Winter Wonderland," "Caroling, Caroling," and "Under the Christmas Tree." Another theme song that became a fun show is "The Greatest Christmas Card in the Whole Wide World." These last two theme songs I actually wrote because I ran out of time searching.

Fortunately at my schools, we did not have to worry about being "politically correct." We just sang a wide variety of songs --- from winter fun songs to Nativity songs, even a few Jewish songs. All were appreciated.

Singing with an Orchestral Conductor

2/21/2023

Choral conductors and Orchestral conductors often have very different styles. For example, an orchestral conductor often sets the beat to get things started, then expects the players to stick with the set tempo and count. He will then use his motions to indicate dynamics and articulations and the general "feel" of the composition. He will only beat time when a tempo change is needed or working through a difficult passage.

On the other hand, a choral conductor understands that the choir is made up of many individuals who need guidance for entrances and cut-off's, especially when they involve tricky consonants like "ch," "t," or "s." Vocalists also depend on the conductor for guides to shaping vowels and phrasing, as well as overall help to keep the lyrics crisp and understandable.

When I have sung under the batons of orchestral conductors, I remember how hard it was to cue into their moves. We singers could hardly distinguish an ictus let alone interpret other conducting maneuvers. Sure, we got that they were indicating mood and pathos, but we definitely were used to more spoon-feeding from our regular choral conductors. We depended on precise preparatory beats for breaths and entrances, plus clear cut-off's. Many singers do not have the training that band and orchestra players do when it comes to counting. Besides, it helps to be able to get to know the conductor and get used to his style. Usually, our choirs only got to sing with the orchestral conductor for special projects or a one-time performance. Not really enough time to truly get to know the conductor.

While attending a concert the other night, I enjoyed watching the conductor who was a world-renown orchestral conductor. Again, he was mainly conducting for the orchestra who did not need preparatory beats for taking breaths, or clear cut-off's to unite difficult consonants. I was proud of the choir to be able to do as well as they did without the benefit of beat patterns or even cue indications. They all had to count as precisely as clarinets and violins. Their diction was good, but maybe I could understand them because I knew the piece pretty well. Who knows.

Kudos to the choir for holding their own!

Clever Conducting Cues and Clues

1/6/2023

January begins the Ward Conference gauntlet for Stake Music Coordinators. Sometimes they also need to arm themselves with ideas of how to help the Church Musicians in the various wards they go to visit. Working with the Ward counterparts on how to grow Conducting skills is usually high on that list. Here is a repost from 2014 about Conducting Cues and Clues.

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Once upon a time, I taught a lot of conducting workshops to budding church musicians. We used a handbook that had a section on conducting styles with comical descriptions of incorrect methods.

The cartoon caricatures (from the old LDS Conducting Manual put together by Ralph Woodward) were delicious - Flamboyant Flossie, Tremulous Thomas, Stolid Stephan, Amiable Annie and Down-the-Line Dorothy. Each of these characters demonstrated how "clueless" these put-upon conductors were. Obviously, most of these characters were thrown into the opportunity to conduct music with very little training or experience.

Where Flamboyant Flossie thought that she needed big, showy motions to direct the singing, Tremulous Thomas barely moved a muscle beyond the shivering in his boots from stage fright. Stolid Stephan could keep the beat but nothing more, and Amiable Annie kept the same sweet facial expressions no matter the pathos of the song. Then, there's Down-the Line-Dorothy who was so intent on following the music that she never took her eyes up, out of the score.

Obviously, a good conductor must keep a good solid beat. And, yes, there are times when a conductor will use big, showy motions. It goes without saying that he will pay close attention to the score. Hopefully, he won't be shaking in his boots from stage fright. But one of the most important jobs of the conductor is to give expressive facial clues to help the performers know how to emote and create a good performance.  Conducting is all about giving easy to follow cues and clues.

As I have studied what good conductors do, I have noticed the vast repertoire of CUES and CLUES they use to get the job done. Facial expressions are easily the most fun to remember such as:

The "Look Alive, People!" face -- the conductor holds his fingers up at his eyebrows indicating you may need toothpicks to keep your eyes open to look engaged.

The "Evil Eye"-- indicating that there are certain singers in your section allowing their voices to come out of the fabric of the dynamic.

The "Stinky Diaper" face -- indicating that the passage just sung was terribly out of tune, SO FIX IT!!!!!!!!

The "Come On, Everybody, Let's Do This" face -- indicating his great expectations of the singers with just a twinge of anxiety. This face is usually employed just before the beginning of the first downbeat of the first number.

The "Good Job, You Finally Did It" face -- Oftentimes employed in conjunction with a thumbs up, indicating a satisfied conductor.

Other interesting CUES and CLUES include:
1. The sudden, intense tapping on the chest to indicate the correct TEMPO.
2. The index finger pointing up, up, up bidding the singers not to sing FLAT.
3. The sudden grabbing of the cheeks to thrust the lips FORWARD (creating
fish lips) hoping to quickly better the vowel sound.
4. The frantic arching of the hands and arms in the "I'm a Little Teapot"
stance to urge the singers towards a more perfect placement of the tone.
5. The conductor holds his arms still with palms flat in the STOP! pose
indicating that "nobody had better move or even breathe until I give the
RELEASE."

Conductors are fascinating to watch. To the untrained eye, their motions may seem clueless and even comical, but to the trained choral singer, all of those idiosyncrasies are full of deep meaning and have power to build great performances. We performers depend on those quirky CUES and CLUES!

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With Ward Conferences in January - March, the Ward Choir Directors may need choir pieces that are quick and easy to put together. Hymn Arrangements for Easy 2-Part Mixed Chorus may be just the ticket when there is little to no time to prepare!

Programming is Everything

9/10/2022

Many school bands and choirs and orchestras, as well as Community and Church choirs are starting up again after the summer hiatus. Directors are planning ahead to concerts down the road. Even Primary Song Leaders are busy preparing for the Children's Sacrament Meeting Presentations. Here is some good advice from the renowned Choral Conductor Mack Wilberg of the Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra at Temple Square. A while back, he shared with the Choir his views on selecting music for the Broadcasts. His counsel applies to all of us as musicians. (Enjoy this repost from 2014)

Programming is everything. When you choose songs to perform for a choir concert, talent recital or even a Primary program, how the songs will work together in their order of presentation is very important. We were singing "Climb Every Mountain" yesterday getting ready for the Music and the Spoken Word broadcast, when our director Mack Wilberg explained the order of things. Because "Climb Every Mountain" ends in such a dramatic way, the song that follows it must be something extra special. "There are not many places you can go after "Climb Every Mountain." So, he talked a little bit about his thoughts on programming. "Whether you want to believe it or not, this is show biz."

What he meant was that most people associate the Mormon Tabernacle Choir with songs of a religious or classical nature, definitely not with "show business." And many classical musicians don't even want to think of themselves as functioning in the "commercial world." They serve the art not the public. Yet, music is meant to be performed for an audience and so it becomes a business (whether you like it or not) to please your "public" and keep them coming back for more.

So, in programming a finale number on the broadcast to go one step beyond "Climb Every Mountain," Mack had us sing "Come All Ye Nations of the Earth" which indeed goes well beyond the majesty and scope of "Climb Every Mountain."

Many school and church choir directors forget that programming is everything. They may think that it does not matter the ORDER in which the songs are sung, or even their MESSAGES, or KEY RELATIONSHIPS, or how much fussing with REORGANIZING the players or SHUFFLING music has to happen in between the numbers. But those things really matter very much! The ideal arrangement of songs in a concert should create a nice EBB and FLOW leading to a CLIMAX. The arrangement of topics, styles and genres should also take the listeners on a harmonious adventure. They should be arranged in such a way to engage the listener and keep their interest over the entire length of the concert without wearing them out.

So, whether in a choral concert, band concert, piano or dance recital, school chorus concert, church worship service, or even in a Primary Program, how the songs work together really does matter! It is show biz, whether you want to believe it or not, and PROGRAMMING IS EVERYTHING!

Choral Warm-Ups --- Too Little or Too Much?

6/8/2022

Even the experienced group of choir singers can benefit from WARM-UPS. I have been to so many rehearsals where the group had a hard time pulling together. In those cases, the choir singers were just not ready to sing. Let's face it, we all come from different physical places, emotional states, and psychological tangents when we come into a choir rehearsal. Warm-ups do more than just get the voice ready to sing. Warm-ups can help ready the voices, certainly, but can also help ready the emotional, physical and psychological state of the singers. WARM-UPS help singers get FOCUSED.

The big trick for the conductor is to DO JUST ENOUGH in a warm-up period and NOT TOO MUCH. I once attended a rehearsal for a Stake Conference Choir where the conductor was new and did not know many of the people. She had planned on separating the men and women for section rehearsals at the beginning so that the woodshedding could be more efficient. The unfortunate part was that the person she had asked to work with the men did not come at the beginning. Her whole plan had been upset.

So, I offered to take the men to rehearse their parts. She took a chance, not knowing me either, and let me take the men off to another space to rehearse. She told us when to return. We did a few warm-ups and proceeded to go over the Tenor and Bass parts. Then, in walked the guy who had been invited to work with the men. He was a full half hour late! We were actually just getting ready to go back into the main rehearsal.

Without even considering the time, this man proceeded to start from "his" beginning. He took these men through a grand College lecture about preparing to sing and had them do many vocal warm-ups. (He asked me to stay to play the piano, so I witnessed it all.) He never actually got to the practicing of parts before the Conductor sent a runner to beg the men to return to the main rehearsal. This man was rather put out. (He had not even considered that the rehearsal I had already done with the men was valid.)

The concepts the man was lecturing about were useful, but were just too many and took up too much time. He taught about POSTURE, BREATHING, LIFTING THE SOFT PALATE, VOWEL PLACEMENT, SUPPORTING THE TONE, and was ready to launch into so much more. Had he come on time, perhaps what he was teaching may have been appreciated. But as it was, the men were just annoyed. Better to come on time and to do a very focused WARM-UP lesson on just a few concepts.

I had already been working with the men on practicing the INCEPTION OF THE SOUND or LIFTING THE SOFT PALATE while taking the initial breath. We practiced setting the abdominal wall muscles to support the tone, correcting posture, and breathing in the shape of the vowel all from that one concept. It seemed to be working well, too. Anyway, at least we had gotten some woodshedding of the parts done before that man came!

Here are some Warm-ups I have collected over the years.
Fun and Easy Warm-up Songs for Choir

The Music of Betsy Lee Bailey copyright 2020