voices: ACDA Notes

ACDA Notes - MORE

Ann Howard Jones NOTES

sing with the Full part of your voice
she shows big upbeats (before the music happens!)
doesnt allow singers to move past wrong notes
Can you paint it? (text)
warm up: cres. beyond anything beautiful (so brite)
relates singers to text as often as possible
Do not let speech come into singing. Always allow for elegant sounds
Singers stand and all sing parts together, and then sit as the melody they have stops
"release the vowel before the consonant and the cutoff will be together"
dont slide around when it gets softer
when closing to an N move slowly
stops conducting to foce them to listen and move on their own
staccato singing to sure-up pitches
size of pattern changes drastically with dynamics
movement from loud to soft...hands go to nothing
does not give big cues on enterances
"nuance of tempo is the only place a conductor is needed"

Group Recruiting

recruit like a fraternity
Talk with your colleges recruiter
its all about selling the school/program/envornment
get the kids who are in the group to go and get a soda with the possible recruits
have an ALL Men/Women day - rehearse all day and give a concert at night, with a party after
Nothing recruits better than sucess
Get Access to the schools mailing list 0 send out personalized letters (make sure they say that you DONT have to be a music major) send these to all freshman/transfer students who were in Band/Orchestra/Choir in H.S.
Chalk up campus
send personal emails
#1 reason students dont join is because they dont know
H.S. festivals
Go to Band Camp/Frat./Sorority

these are the loud people who want to fit in.

Work grad college - students who sang
INTERNATIONAL students
Facebook - create a group
Student contact - use assistant to call possible singers, then you talk to them if they are interested (come up with a script)
Colaberate with the voice faculty - may need to educate them on recrutiting
build a great quartet/octet and take them around campus
Some states allow you to purchase the "all state list" - contact those kids
Recruiting- Have potental student come to spend the night and then watch classes the next day. take them to lunch

Vocal Pedigogy/Science

Glottal Attack

2 different kinds: Hard Attack v. Glottal Plosive

Glottal Plosive - like uh-oh

3 types of onsets

hard/plosive - AVOID
soft (slient H) - gives breathy tone
Coordinated onset - the BEST way

Garcia said - coup de la glotte: a light stroke of the glottis

Stark,1998, Bel Canto - Good Reference
Begining singers do not use a full glottal closure - the breathy sound is valued in todays culture

useing the right exersizes allows for an increased attack

small cromatic movment
short scales

Vibrato

deined three ways

sound
physological
sycological

pitch can move 6-12% and double or half in volume
when only variating the note 6% the singer will hit the b and # above and below the note
rate of vibrato makes some singers stick out

teach them to match

Support

must be some level of glottal resistance - if too open it becomes breathy
low breathing, abdominal support, ribs expand
76% of women at a soft dynamic are not using good breath support
Rib Cage behavior is highly important
when using the ribs/abdomine you get more presure AKA more controll
glottal closure is GREATER when using more support
low airflow w/ good glottal presure = good sound
Lamperti - popularized "appagio"

would put a candle in front of a singer and if they blew it out they were releasing to much air
The voice is controlling the breath
he included the ribs in breathing technique

ttry and hear the difference between abdominal and glottal closure
staccatto warmups are helpful

Choral Accoustics

weston Nobel - voice matching

seat sngers with similar sounds next to eachother

change in standing order

best spacing is 24" appart in windows

stand like supperman

Becarefull that singers dont oversing in dead spaces
Spread out in rehearsal

standing against the wall doubles sound

hold folders up AND out
sing in many different spaces
Encourage Healthy and free tones

1. Technology for the 21st century

read 7 habits of highhly effective people
Use Bolgs for:

suggest CD's
Link to part learingin
rehearsal notes
recording sessions
answers for FAQ
google maps
Lang/Diction
Use skype - record it - publish it
Use blog to delegate out your weakness
Post videos on youtube
disscussion of emotional impact of text
how compers brings life into the work
google Calenders
Information Form
Publish the work you do!!

1. Choral Legends Disscussion
With Peter Bagley, Eph Ehly, Charlene Achibeque

Weston Nobel - get there mind into the composers head. Have a conversation with the phrase

P.B. - Deep River - Shaw Bio

Music - how lucky we are to work with genisus

E.E. - look for the original source of inspiration

Pedagogy

P.B. - know the text 1st. you must walk in their head

Interpretation

Paul Salomonivich - make a disission after a lot of study
eph - old music must relate to present music
C.A.- st. jose state. Must be in performance practice
P.B. - Become a part of the experience

julis herferd - msic must be in thier heart

C.A. - get body involved in how it feels
Eph - find what is not in the score

w. Nobel - choral sound - have singers sing my country tis of thee - stand section up. two sing at a time.

OPPOSITES get together

very important to open up the voice. Then change the tone for each work
Help the individual to be the best the individual does not force blend
Norman Luovff - shwedish radio choir (erick erkison)

no sound as marvelous as what you hear when you 1st look at a score
how ahall i say it so they can get it?

Programing

Paul S. - gregorian chant is sung prayer. It is a lifting of the mind and heart to god
Eph - ask: what can I teach with this peice?

renisance teaches us to pray
baroque to count
classical to think (forms)
romantic to feel

Cultivate an aspct of the period - we are a combination of everything that came before us
Jester Harrison - behind every good song is a story

P.B. - try to choose music I relate too

go into how it speaks for me
the hmm in spirituals is wordless prayer
21st century music - am I being manipulated?

C.A. - try to do all 5 periods every concert

musit love the music you do

Choirs move with each piece. stanidn order, movement in choir
Explosion of acapella - we have lost the intimacy of each other... acapella singing brings us back into it
W. Nobel - Shaw had a lot of energy
P.B> -be honest to the page. LISTEN

siners dont listen
listen to the room, pick out what you hear. then do it again

Sensitivity to the REST

C.A. - love your singers
Eph - teach people. Your student must surpass you, otherwise there is no progress

excite yourself and share this with the students
people who are burnedout were never on fire in the first place
Approach a choir as if they no nothing.
Transformivie power ofmusic

P.B. - three important traits

integrity
compassion
love
curiosity for the music

What it means to be human?
Eph - What do you want people to know?

everyone wants to do good, if they aren't they just dont know how
reentroduce music that brings out the best in man...so much of todays music brings out the worst
we are dealing with somthing very precious
be more concerted for the students who are not in music
stop directing. start teaching