Choir Workshop Fall 2016 Vocal Production and Choral Techniques

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1 Choir Workshop Fall 2016 Vocal Production and Choral Techniques

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3 Choir Workshop Fall 2016: Vocal Production and Choral Techniques *I recommend a great book called The Singerʼs Companion by Brent Monahan which is a wonderful resource for all this stuff, and comes with a demo CD. The first step to making a great choral sound is ensuring that we individually are making the best, most consistent sound we can, and a lot of what can hurt sound production comes from common mistakes or being unaware of our bodies. A note is sung simply by air vibrating our vocal cords; to the extent we get out of their way we increase flexibility; to the extent we control the airflow we gain strength. I. VOCAL PRODUCTION Stretching is always important, as it opens up muscles which we need to be flexible while we sing. Everyone has a different range of motion, though, and itʼs important not to pull anything by overzealous stretching. A good torso stretch allows us to loosen muscles which might inhibit the diaphragm, and neck stretches keep our head feeling free. A good way to fix posture is to imagine a string tied to the top of your head, suspending your whole body. Automatically a lot of things fall into place. The Six Points of Balance: 1. The point where the spine and skull meet interconnect (A-O joint). 2. The point where your arms connect into the torso. 3. The point where your waist/thorax is. 4. The point where your legs intersect with your pelvis at the hip joints. 5. The point where your legs bend at the knee joints. 6. The point where your feet articulate with your ankles. When these points align, you are balanced. Rock back and forth with each point, and find the place of no work this is balance. Points 1 and 3 carry the most weight; when we sit and sing properly it is as if we are still standing points 3, 4, 5, and 6 are still engaged and must be balanced.

4 Kinesthesia: Raise your hand above your head and wiggle your fingers. Notice that you have a sense of your fingers moving even though you canʼt see them. This is your kinesthetic sense. Now bring your hand to where you can see your fingers and wiggle them again. Notice how your sense of their movement has changed. There is much about singing which is hidden from our eyes, and of which we can only have a kinesthetic sense. Relaxing: Relaxing is also very important, as tense muscles cannot move as much as relaxed ones, and our muscular system is so complex that often a tense muscle in one place (like the shoulder) can affect something in another (like the lungsʼ ability to take in air) The lungs need exercise just like anything else, and breathing exercises slowly open them up to a larger capacity. This is why any breathing exercise be done a few times in a row, and you can feel the lungs working just a little more each time. An inhale should be thought of as letting the body intake air rather than sucking air in. Our lungsʼ natural position is not completely empty - we aim for our inhale to be a continuation of the feeling of them filling up from empty to the natural position. The throat should be completely out of the way while breathing, especially inhaling. We breathe with our lungs, with the help of the diaphragm, which is even lower than the lungs...this is where the magic happens, not the throat. The relaxation of the throat holds for the exhalation too - practice breathing in-out continuously, gently and without making any sound. The first exhales should be openmouthed sighs, becoming more and more focused beams of air (and thus longer exhales) but still completely silently. Sound comes from something obstructing the airflow, and unless it is our vocal cords making beautiful music, we donʼt need it

5 IN FOR 4, OUT FOR 4 A breathing exercise I learned this exercise from Don Batchelder, principal trumpet NYC Opera, principal sub New York Philharmonic. It is designed to 1) expand the lung capacity, 2) control the exhale, and 3) keep you tuned in to your body, helping manage stress and other triggers. The basic outline is below, followed by important reminders. Start with empty lungs. Breathe In for 4, out for 4 In for 5, out for 4 In for 6, out for 4 In for 7, out for 4 In for 8, out for 4 In for 9, out for 4 In for 10, out for 4 In for 4, out for 4 In for 4, out for 5 In for 4, out for 6 In for 4, out for 7 In for 4, out for 8 In for 4, out for 9 In for 4, out for 10 In for 2, out for 10 In for 1, out for 10 In for half, out for 10 In for a quarter, out for 10 In for a quarter, out for as long as possible In for a quarter, out for as long as possible TO DO THIS CORRECTLY Set a metronome to 60 or use a second hand on a clock. Sit (you might get dizzy) Exhale onto a plant, curtains, or a suspended piece of paper to see the exhale Breathing in and out should make no sound. A t may initiate the exhale Do not hold any air in; the inhale-exhale turnaround is immediate If you inhale or exhale too quickly, repeat the step, but don t stop Use subdivisions of the in/out count to gauge lung fullness/emptiness Explanation how does this work? The first part extends the inhale, and increases the lung capacity. The second part extends the exhale and thus uses the increased capacity. The first step of part 2 (in 4 out 4) will feel completely different from the initial in 4 out 4. The third part gradually shortens the inhale, but the goal is to fill up as if it were a long inhale the diaphragm vacates the space and the air fills in, almost like a gasp. The repetition of the final step forces us, even after emptying on a long exhale, to maintain control enough to get another good inhale. Ideally the final exhale should be longer than the penultimate.

6 Phonation: After complete relaxation in respiration has been achieved, phonating, or vocalizing, is obviously the next step. ʻAhʼ Vowels are very good to start with because they are what we call open and forward. Vowels like ʻEeeʼ are very closed and ʻEhʼ are very back. We should aim to have the same relaxation on the more complex vowels as we do on Ah. Reprinted here with the permission of the International Phonetic Association (c/o Department of Linguistics, University of Victoria, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. Placement: Placement is a singerʼs term for where the sound feels like it is (remember kinesthesia). Generally, we want the sound out of our throats and forward and up, into our sinuses, noses, and foreheads. This helps relieve fatigue, deepen resonance, and increase projection. II. CHORAL TECHNIQUES

7 Letʼs see if we can put what we learned about vocal production into practice we will try numerous exercises today, but also these are things you can do (and should do) at various points throughout the day they are also great stress relievers do them in traffic, at the store, while on hold on the phone, etc! 1. Points of Balance stand and identify, kinesthetically, the 6 points of balance, from the top (A/O joint) to the bottom (ankles). For each one, gently wave in and out of balance until you find the place of no work if an earlier one gets out of joint later on, go back and address it. 2. Relaxing take time to get in tuned with your body, noticing its balance, and how you are breathing. Donʼt actively try to do anything but gain control and use that control to steer yourself toward the most natural (effort-less) way 3. Breathing Do the In for 4/Out for 4 exercise at least once a day eventually you will be able to summon the deepest breath at a momentʼs notice, and execute it will good body usage to make a beautiful sound. If you like, try this with one hand on your abdomen and one on your sternum, or your open fingers on the bottom of your ribcage. 4. Phonation On an exhale, start phonating; itʼs not important on what vowel or pitch, but try for an open Ahhh or a focused Oooo. Then try alternating, paying attention to when and how the vowels are changing through their full spectrum. 5. Placement On an exhale, execute a long sigh, starting as high as is comfortable and ending as low as comfortable. On successive breaths, repeat this, always extending the range while keeping good body usage. You can also do a siren, starting low and going up and down; you will have to change your vowels for this. III. PRACTICAL APPLICATION 1. Canons as a new feature this year, each month we will sing a different canon in rehearsal. A canon is like a round. They will be taught only by ear, and when we sing them our aim will be to apply everything weʼve learned about vocal technique. Beyond learning the melody, while singing we should ask: Am I inhaling fully and exhaling in a relaxed way? Am I healthily producing and sustaining a beautiful tone?

8 Can I hear the other parts? Am I blending with my section? Am I tuning with the rest of the choir? Am I making, at this moment, the best sound I can make? 2. Harmonic Listening. While singing my own part and listening for the other parts, can I be aware of Are my vowels matching those of my section, and in the choir in general? Are my consonants lining up with the others, and are they not impacting how I sing my vowels? Is this piece in a major or minor scale? Is this particular chord major or minor? Which note of the chord am I singing? Is my note doubled in any other part? As a review, here are the 5 most basic types of harmony we will encounter: Unison singing when everyone is on the same pitch, the goal is to make it sound like one fantastically perfect singer. Blending is paramount. Fifths if a note is harmonized with just one other note, it most often is a fifth (5 notes away). Fifths are very pure and can also sound quite harsh. Triads if you fill in a fifth with a middle note (the third), you will get a triad, or a 3 note chord. Triads are the most common type of chord and are what people mean when they say Bb Chord, C Chord, etc. They can be major or minor, and the note which distinguishes this tonality is the third. Seventh Chords if you took a triad (root, third, fifth) and added another note a third above, it would be the 7 th note from the root, which gives these chords their name. Seventh chords hold tension and thus usually resolve back to a triad using what is called voice leading*. Color chords especially in more modern music, sometimes we encounter chords with notes added just for an effect, or a ʻcolorʼ. If you are on the ʻcolorʼ note, it is important to know this. *Voice leading is the rules-based progression of notes within chords. There are basic traditional voice leadings which sound very natural, yet composers can use innovative voice leadings for special effects.