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New Tips, October, 2006*

Conducting Tips and Techniques:

  1. DON'T SING WITH THE CHOIR. You can't hear what the choir is doing over the sound of your own voice and your own singing distracts you from helping your performers.
  2. LEARN EVERY PART. There is no substitute for your own practice. Aim for being able to sing the first notes of every part of every entrance correctly, whenever that choir section needs the help.
  3. PRACTICE CONDUCTING EVERY PIECE IN FRONT OF A MIRROR. You need to be able to conduct without burying your face in your music anyway; so this is a good way to check whether or not you have learned your music.
  4. MONITOR YOUR FACIAL EXPRESSIONS AND BODY LANGUAGE. Singing is a very emotional action. If people believe they can sing, they can. If you are smiling or have a look of approval on your face, your choir will be much more likely to sing well. (See #8 in this section, new.) 
  5. TO TELL WHO IS SINGING WHAT PART, assign different nonsense syllables to each part, such as: altos sing all their notes with a "da" syllable, basses sing "lu", while sopranos sing "mi" on all of their own notes, etc. Then if you hear an alto syllable on a soprano note, you'll know the altos are getting pulled off the part instead of thinking that the sopranos are suddenly much stronger, and you'll be able to work on the problem.
  6. TO HELP YOUR SINGERS UNDERSTAND HARMONY, instead of relating every part to the melody, start rehearsing the Basses first. Then rehearse Tenors with basses, then Altos, and finally add Sopranos. This makes your basses--the foundation of western music--extremely secure. It also helps your inner voices learn how their parts fit with the harmony--rather than being dependant on the melody. (Warn your accompanist ahead of time; this rehearsal technique requires a different piano skill.)
  7. DON'T START AT THE BEGINNING EVERY TIME. START WITH THE MOST DIFFICULT CHORD OR PHRASE OF THE MUSIC. Then move back a bit and lead into that section. When that is mastered, start from even further back and continue through the problem phrase and beyond.
  8. *When you are conducting a choir, your face must represent the meaning of the song/music so they can understand how to sing the song. Thank you, Teddy Siagian, from Indonesia.

 
 
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Musical Entrances:

  1. LOOK at the person and/or section that you are conducting.
  2. EXAGGERATE THE BEAT in the conducting pattern before any new part's entrance. Be sure the actual rhythm is not changed. 
  3. BREATHE WHEN YOU WANT YOUR SINGERS TO BREATHE. TAKE AN EXAGGERATED BREATH on the beat before any new part is supposed to start. (This works for instrumentalists as well as singers.)

Breathing Techniques:

  1. Breathe silently. Audible breathing is a result of air forcing the vocal cords open; this will give that singer a sore throat.
  2. Neck and shoulders should stay relaxed. Tight muscles around the throat will create a "pinched" vocal sound.
  3. The stomach should expand when you breathe. The diaphragm--which controls lung expansion--cannot be controlled voluntarily. The only voluntary muscles available are the stomach wall mucsles.
  4. After a stomach-controlled breath intake, gradually  tighten the stomach wall to control the quantity of air being released with singing.

Breathing Exercises:
 
Dear Website Producer,
Thank you for your tips [ in the Free Choir Starter Kit ] which are very helpful. Please, could you kindly help me again to know how I should direct these warm up and breathing exercises?
Thank you. TD

  1. Pronounce the "SSS" for some of your exercises and just blow out air for others.
  2. For both these exercises, singers should create a very narrow stream of air (as if they were blowing through a drinking straw), focused on a common point somewhere behind the director.
  3. Of course, remind the singers to gradually tighten the abdominal muscles to help control the stream of air.
  4. After singers can breathe in rhythm to your directing, have them sing a unison/octave Ah or Ooo, still breathing in rhythm.
  5. LISTEN for TUNING at all times.

Go to the SINGERS' PAGE for more helpful singing techniques.

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Credit Where Credit is Due:
I owe a great debt to choir directors whom I have observed and under whom I have worked:   David  Lacy, Jon Robertson, Charles Davis, Mark O. Davis, W. Patrick Flannagan, Steve & Vicki Fey and my good friends and fellow-composers Robert J. Greene and Beth Perkinson McCoy. Their techniques have become my own and it would be impossible to distinguish any one influence.
God bless you all and . . .
TGFM
Website Producer

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