well. Tis makes a final sound that has no relation to the sound with which the chorus started. As the chorus attempts the decrescendo, coach them to keep the air flowing at a steady pace, never cutting back on it. At the same time, they need to be conscious of the continual yawn throughout the decrescendo. (P. 55 & 56, Te Perfect Blend)
2. Matching Vowels with Hand Motions - I ask for gestures as they sing vowels. Have students choose their own pitch to sing within a given chord (this allows them to choose the tessitura that is comfortable for them since the exercise is about vowel color not range extension). Have them sing “Ee” - lower chin, round lips, pull the “ee” out of the crown of the head. Move to “Eh” - bring the hand around in front of the face and down in an elongated gesture. Next, “Ah” - simply loosen the jaw, getting rid of tension, but not dropping it too dramatically. Next, “Oh” - “lasso” the lips for the “oh”. Lastly, “Oo” - pull the “oo” out as if through a straw. (P. 78 & 79, Te Perfect Blend)
3. Woofers and Tweeters - I explain that your mouth is the tweeter and your pharynx/throat is the woofer, and I demonstrate how to move the tone knob. I ex- plain that as you change the settings on the tone knob, it doesn’t affect the pitch but only affects the timbre. We explore the different tone knob settings and from then on, all we do is balance resonators. We do this by using our finger as the control - the finger out in front of the mouth is the tweeter and the woofer is back by the ear. I can ask them to move their resonance bal- ance more toward woofer and less toward tweeter to address thin vowels. (P. 68 and 69, Te Perfect Blend).
Another exercise I use is taking my hand and placing it horizontally in front of my mouth and ask them to sing the “Eh” vowel like it looks (result is bright) and as they continue to sing, I turn my hand vertically (result is taller and warmer). Tat one hand, moving from horizontal to vertical, makes them relax their tongue, drop their jaw, etc. (P. 71 & 72, Te Perfect Blend)
In the end, I always say there is not a tone that is too dark for me and tell the students, “Ponder this, children, there is no sound that is horizontally conceived that is beautiful”.
WV: Next one: How do you address intonation sagging on descending musical lines?
TS: I remind my singers that I need them to “float down” as they descend. All too oſten, we get lazy on descending phrases because we think, “Tis is easy. We’re going down.” Ultimately, we lose the focus and the energy because we’re
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not paying attention. Te trick is to pretend you’re hold- ing a box of tissues and on the last note of the descending phrase - take a tissue out. (Helps to create liſt on last note)
I also tell them to think about the interval as smaller than it is. Pretend it’s 3/4 of a step and not a whole step. So, it might be sharp - I don’t care! We spend way too much time worrying about the high notes and should focus on the low notes.
Lastly, the “tractor pull” involves students dividing into 1-2, 1-2… Have them face each other and take the wrist of the other singer. First, sing the phrase with no feeling for legato or energy. Now have them pull on each other’s arms, trying to pull the other person off balance. As they sing, coach them to pull harder through the phrase. Te “tractor pull” on pianissimo is magic to teach them to sing pianissimo, es- pecially at the bottom of their range, while exerting energy. We tend to check out physically and mentally on those low notes. (P. 83, Te Perfect Blend)
WV: Last one, how do you work on blend?
TS: In a setting without assigned seats, singers tend to gravitate toward voices that are just like theirs. I ask them to categorize their voices (loud, soſt, bright, dark, etc.) and have them look at what their neighbor wrote down. I say, “If your neighbor has anything close to what you wrote down - move. Find someone who has the opposite of what you are.” Tis way they have identified the quality of their voice themselves, not me.
Also, when conductors say, “I want you to sound like one voice” and you don’t tell them which voice, your loud singers assume it’s them and your little blenders think, “It couldn’t be me.” So, your stronger singers get louder and your smaller voices get quieter - all because you didn’t tell them what voice. My recommendation is to pick a quartet that best represents what you want the sound to be and have them model for the group.
Philosophy and Quotes
WV: Tere’s a quote from your book, Te Perfect Rehears- al, I love: “Tere is no activity people engage in that meets as many basic human needs as being in a choir.” What a huge and flattering responsibility. What do you think when people relate making music in an ensemble with being on a sports team? (P. 48, Te Perfect Rehearsal)
TS: In that section of the book, I quote Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. One of them is safety. As choir direc- tors, we make our room safe for people to be exactly who they are - that may not be happening on the football field.
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