Make it possible

📜🖋️CHOIR DIRECTOR ESSENTIALS🎶🎻

                               📝🎶Season 1. Episode 6. MAKE IT POSSIBLE 🪕🎷

Make it as easy as possible for choir members to attend rehearsals. Publish a rehearsal schedule months in advance, provide a nursery, serve coffee, and ensure that the church is at a comfortable temperature.

Conversely, make it inconvenient for them to stay away: insist on being notified if a member will not be able to attend a rehearsal. Choir members will soon learn that you consider each one's participation crucial and significant enough to warrant this procedure.

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Volunteers

  📜🖋️CHOIR DIRECTOR ESSENTIALS🎶🎻

                               📝🎶Season 1. Episode 5. CHOIR MEMBERS ARE VOLUNTEERS 🪕🎷

Service as a choir member involves a major time commitment, so be sure to offer your choir as much encouragement as possible. Pass on meaningful comments made by members of the congregation, thereby letting the choir know that it is having a positive impact on the congregation's spiritual life. For our choir, this realization is much more satisfying (and appropriate) than applause from the congregation or a compliment from the pulpit. It reinforces the efforts of the choir to serve as a conduit through which the congregation finds a new vocabulary of praise and worship.

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Still repertoire

📜🖋️CHOIR DIRECTOR ESSENTIALS🎶🎻

                                          📝🎶Season 1. Episode 3.STILL REPERTOIRE 🪕🎷

The Reformed tradition encompasses a tremendous variety of musical expression—as is evident from the content of several new hymnals. Acquaint yourself with the choral literature based on the tunes in these new hymnals. Also, watch for ways to vary expressions of praise. At RCCG(Redeemed Christian church of God. Nigeria) we strive to balance selections from the music of Handel and Bach with some of the contemporary anthems of composers such as Hal Hopson and John Ness Beck. The difference in musical styles is pleasing to members of the choir and the congregation—resulting in more meaningful worship. As long as the lyrics express a world-and-life view consistent with that stated from the pulpit, your music can explore the full range of expression available.

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EXPECT MORE

📜🖋️CHOIR DIRECTOR ESSENTIALS🎶🎻

                               📝🎶Season 1. Episode 4. EXPECT MORE FROM YOUR CHOIR 🪕🎷

Challenge your choir both through the repertoire you select and the role you design for them as worship leaders. In September, provide them with a tentative schedule of what and when they will be singing between mid-September and Christmas. Try to give them a sense of their ability to contribute to worship in both special and regular services through carefully selected hymns and anthems. With the cooperation of the pastor, consistently explain to the choir why they are singing, what they are singing, and when.

After a time, the choir will develop a momentum of its own and learn to keep its finger on the pulse of the congregation. For example, singing an anthem for baptism becomes more meaningful when choir members have been notified several weeks in advance and have the opportunity to express in a unique way their welcome to the newest member of God's covenant family. Through such experiences the choir begins to realize more fully its awesome responsibility to God and the congregation.

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Repertoire

    📜🖋️CHOIR DIRECTOR ESSENTIALS🎶🎻

                                          📝🎶Season 1. Episode 2. REPERTOIRE 🪕🎷

Selecting music is in many ways the most creative and rewarding part of leading a choir. It is also among the most challenging. It's important to know the abilities of your choir and to test and expand those abilities with a range of repertoire. Overloading your choir with too much difficult music can be just as demoralizing as singing the simplest hymn arrangements week after week. If you have very few men, don't be afraid to use the vast repertoire available in S-A-B format. But be aware that the baritone line moves around a great deal and may be somewhat difficult as a result.

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Rehearsal time and style

📜🖋️CHOIR DIRECTOR ESSENTIALS🎶🎻

                                          📝🎶Season 1. Episode 1. REHEARSAL TIME AND STYLE 🪕🎷

Before you decide on a rehearsal time, do some research. Find out when most of those who might be interested in singing can attend and when the practice room is available. Once you have determined the best time for your choir rehearsal—Sunday afternoon, for example—stick with it. You may lose some members at first, but in the long run both you and the choir will benefit from a regular time of rehearsal.

The main function of the church choir is to lead God's people in praise and worship. However, many choir members may judge the worth of their participation not only by their contribution to worship, but also by the content and value of rehearsals. As a result, it is critical that you establish a consistent style of rehearsing.

In my church we have tried to run rather intensive rehearsal with little opportunity for conversation. This style has a double benefit: members tend to learn more music in a shorter period of time and to look back at the rehearsal hour with a greater sense of accomplishment and satisfaction.

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Vibrato

  ✍️🎶MAKE YOUR VOICE SOUND BETTER🎻🎼📖

                                  🖊️🎵 Season 1. Episode 5. HEARFONES® VIBRATO🎶🖊️

A good vocal tone is not established by singing loudly, it’s established at medium volume. Good tone happens when vocal folds are strong enough to have a good closure but not touch. Releasing too much air creates a “breathy” tone and releasing too little air creates a “nasal” tone. Unless you’re really going for breathy or nasal as a stylistic choice, somewhere right in between the two is a perfect balance. HearFones® allow you to really hear yourself and work on your tone at medium volumes. You can find them on Amazon.com or Google “Hearfones.”

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CHOIR DIRECTOR ESSENTIALS

📜🖋️CHOIR DIRECTOR ESSENTIALS🎶🎻

                                                   📝INTRODUCTION 🖊️

For many choir directors getting people to sign up isn't the problem. Getting them to stick with their commitment is. Choirs that are loosely organized, that don't have a clear mandate and purpose, that lack an enthusiastic and creative director, often fade away before Christmas.

In the paragraphs that follow, Bright (C. E. A @TUNJIFORTRESS), offers these episodes that should help choir directors develop and nurture longer-lasting, better-sounding choirs.

For more vocal information's, visit our blog via http://tunjifortress.blogspot.com.ng 

TUNJIFORTRESS

Natural vibrato

 ✍️🎶MAKE YOUR VOICE SOUND BETTER🎻🎼📖

                                  🖊️🎵 Season 1. Episode 4. NATURAL VIBRATO🎶🖊️

Here’s a quick tip to get your vibrato working. Stand in front of a mirror; press on your chest with both hands, then, raise your chest higher than normal. Take a breath in and then exhale, but don’t drop your chest. Sing one note and hold it as long as possible with your chest raised. Press on your chest halfway through the note (press kind of hard and raise your chest to meet the pressure). Relax the back of your neck and keep your jaw open as you’re singing “ahhh.” Imagine the air spinning around in your mouth while keeping your chin tucked down a bit and your chest raised. Keep in mind, overuse of vibrato is not a good thing in contemporary singing (pop, rock, and R&B). At the same time, no vibrato is also not a good thing. So, try ending phrases with straight tone, then into a little bit of vibrato. The bottom line is to do what’s best for you.

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TUNJIFORTRESS

Power without strain

  ✍️🎶MAKE YOUR VOICE SOUND BETTER🎻🎼📖

                                  🖊️🎵 Season 1. Episode 3. POWER WITHOUT STRAIN🎶🖊️

Who doesn’t want more power without strain? This is a simple technique to apply and a bit easier than the one above. All you have to do is to keep your chin pointed slightly down and your pectorals slightly flexed (well sometimes it’s a lot flexed) when you go for more power. Most singers reach forward or lift their chin up to sing with more power. While it may temporarily work, it causes vocal problems.  Tipping your chin down not only works better and saves your voice – it actually SOUNDS better! Stand in front of the good ‘ol mirror. Sing an Ah scale up and down in one phrase (1-2-3-4-3-2-1). Press your chin slightly in (point your chin towards the floor) — usually only 1” or so. Don’t let your head bob up as you raise the pitch. Keep it firmly in place. Go all the way up the scale of your voice keeping this position. Notice how your chin wants to move up as you raise your pitch. Keep it planted. This will give you more power and control and eliminate strain. Practice it until it becomes natural!

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THINK DOWN

✍️🎶MAKE YOUR VOICE SOUND BETTER🎻🎼📖

                                  🖊️🎵 Season 1. Episode 2. FOR HIGH NOTES "THINK DOWN”🎶🖊️

The next time you sing an ascending vocal scale or you sing a high note,  try thinking of the way an elevator works. A heavy weight is attached to a  pulley and as the weight pulls down, the elevator actually goes up to the higher floors. So, the highest floor is reached when the weight is the heaviest. Similarly, you should think down for your high notes or think of adding weight (resistance) to your highest notes.

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Instant voice fix

✍️🎶MAKE YOUR VOICE SOUND BETTER🎻🎼📖

                                  🖊️🎵 Season 1. Episode 1. THE “INSTANT VOCAL FIX”🎶🖊️

This is a quick trick that makes you sound better instantly. Say A-E-I-O-U (watch your jaw movement in the mirror). Did your jaw close on any of the vowels? Chances are your jaw closed on the E and the U – and most likely on others too, if not all of them. Take your first two fingers and pull your jaw down 2 inches (or even better – use a plastic bottle cap or a cork (wine) to prop your jaw open). And speak the vowels again. And repeat again (we’re trying to re-program muscle memory – so the more the better). Now sing the vowels on one pitch. A-E-I-O-U. Your goal is to keep your jaw open (long not wide) without closing for all of your vowels. Repeat until you can do it. Now sing a phrase of one of your songs – and make sure your jaw opens to the same position on all of your vowels. You have to practice this a bunch before it becomes natural – but the more you do, the sooner this new movement is programmed into your muscle memory. And, you might be one of those lucky ones who notice the improvement in the sound right away (it will sound louder and more resonant with less vocal strain). If you don’t – don’t sweat it – you will. It just takes a little practice. (You might have some unwanted tension in your neck, jaw and throat muscles – try loosening them up and try it again.) The next time you TUNJIFORTRESS perform open your jaw more on your vowels — it’s a quick trick that makes you sound better instantly!

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