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