Smile when you're singing!!! YUCK!

Most male voice choirs are a miserable looking bunch! No don't be offended it's true!. Lovely warm engaging chaps who are quick to laugh, smile and crack a joke are instantly turned into stone faced monuments when placed in a male choir and asked to sing in front of an audience.

However, I am not in favour of the cheesy grin displayed by most choirs who are "trying" to be entertaining - I refer specifically to four part male voice groups who sing predominantly unaccompanied music with the melody usually in the second tenor line!

What I would like us to aim for is an expressive meaningful look on our chops that in some way conveys the music that we are singing. I can't imagine that during Beati Mortui a rictus like grin would be thought appropriate even by our hairdressing colleagues but our somber visage during "Five, foot two" is a bit embarrassing really.

So for next season, here is what I would like you to do for me!

Lets show some emotion on our faces as we sing - express the words during each song as you would if you were singing a solo. Honest emotion will help us communicate the song to each member of the audience and make the whole experience more enjoyable for all concerned.

And when do we smile???? After each piece is completed have a look round the audience and smile at them. The smile says "Thank you for listening, I'm glad you enjoyed the song and I love your applause!" There is safety in numbers so don't feel embarrassed doing this - try it for me, you might even enjoy it!!

I attach below two examples of honest emotion expressed by a male choir whilst singing their music. I attach two contrasting items from the BBC show "Last Choir Standing", both sung by Only Men Aloud. These fabulous arrangements are sung with utter commitment by the guys, they are technically proficient, wonderfully musical and so very engaging. I was a sceptic about Last Choir Standing but Only Men Aloud have added something that the rest of the show simply doesn't have.

Hope you enjoy these - please feel free to feed back through the comments.

The greatest songwriter of the last 100 years

It's the off season and I feel like digressing.........

Not too far of the beaten track here but in controversial territory for a "proper" musician - who am I talking about? This songwriter is American and to me is not only the greatest songwriter of the last 100 years but is also the greatest American songwriter.

His exquisitely crafted songs have drawn on early rock & roll (particularly doo-wop), reggae, salsa, jazz, gospel, blues, New Orleans, and African and South American music. In an unassuming, distinctive voice he speaks of matters personal and universal with attitudes ranging from the whimsical to the reverent.

He stands apart from most songwriters of his generation in that he has created a wide-ranging body of work in which the purely musical vocabulary - of style, instrumentation, and sounds - is as evocative and as expressive as his lyrics.

So, who is it? Jerome Kern, George Gershwin?

No, its Paul Simon.

From his first harmonising with Art Garfunkel to his collaborations with Ladysmith Black Mambaza, Simon's work stands head and shoulders above his generation, unique in his ability to touch the hearts and minds of audience.

So, I hear you ask, what is this to do with a choir. Very little directly I suppose except for this - this is an artist committed to reaching out to his audience, conveying meaning from each inflection, drawing deep inside to communicate his message.

We can learn a lot by listening to all styles of music - try some Paul Simon for size.

I include here a little known track - the subject of this song was Paul Simon's English girlfriend Kathy, the song "America" features her and it is said she was his muse during his time in England.

The text is beautiful, as is Simon's delivery.

Enjoy



I hear the drizzle of the rain
Like a memory it falls
Soft and warm continuing
Tapping on my roof and walls

And from the shelter of my mind
Through the window of my eyes
I gaze beyond the rain-drenched streets
To England where my heart lies

My mind's distracted and defused
My thoughts are many miles away
They lie with you when you're asleep
And kiss you when you start your day

And this song I was writing is left undone
I don't know why I spend my time
Writing songs I can't believe
With words that tear and strain to rhyme

And so you see I have come to doubt
All that I once held as true
I stand alone without beliefs
The only truth I know is you

And as I watch the drops of rain
Weave their weary paths and die
I know that I am like the rain
There but for the grace of you go I

Sunset Poem

A member asked me the other evening why we don't sing "Sunset Poem". I smiled sweetly, made a few appropriately polite remarks about pressure of other repertoire and not being able to see where it would fit into the general run of our concert commitments - this is perfectly true.

However, underneath all of this there is a simple underlying reason why we don't do it.

I hate Sunset Poem.

I find it the most odious item that I can possibly ever be confronted with in a male choir programme. Why so? I hear you ask; How can a few short verses of "Under Milk Wood" set to a perfectly reasonable chant by Troyte be so offensive?

Well, this is because of the horrendous way that almost every choir I have heard sing it.

Regard the text....

Every morning when I wake
Dear Lord, a little prayer I make,
O please to keep Thy lovely eye
on all poor creatures born to die.

And every evening at sun-down
I ask a blessing on the town,
for whether we last the night or no
I'm sure is always touch-and-go.

We are not wholly bad or good
who live our lives under Milk Wood,
and Thou, I know, wilt be the first
to see our best side, not our worst.

O let us see another day!
Bless us all this night, I pray,
and to the sun we all will bow
and say, good-bye - but just for now!

This text should be sung in speech rhythm - that means at the pace of good well-measured speech and in a similar shape. So this might mean for the first verse something like

Every morning when I wake
Dear Lord, a little prayer I make,
O please to keep Thy lovely eye
On all poor creatures born to die.

Compared to most performances that go something like

Every morning when I wake
Dear Lord, a little prayer I make,
O please to keep Thy lovely eye
on all poor creatures born to die

Hard to represent on the page but you must have regard to the meaning of the text and it is very poor form to accent the word “I” in tastefully performed Anglican chant!

Why have I just ranted about this – well I feel quite strongly that we don’t as a whole pay enough attention to the important things in the male choir world. We are very obsessed with showering the choirmaster with saliva on final “t’s” and accenting inappropriately the word contempt wherever it appears but singing with style and attention to the words and “painting a picture” seems to slip past most of us.

Let’s concentrate on

Performing each phrase appropriately by thinking about the meaning of the text.
Looking after each interval - making it just perfect.
Singing clean vowel sounds, unpolluted by affectation
Concentrating on the phrase at hand and by doing that remaining focussed on the moment, not worrying about that difficult phrase on page 12 (or whatever)

By doing those few things above we should think all the time about interpreting the music not just producing a collection of chords.

Oh, and as for Anglican Chant – this is fun!

Let's try this - I'm interested today in the starts of our songs - usually things like Beati Mortui that start on the last beat of the bar are the most difficult for us. The beginnings of these songs can sound abrupt and unmusical with no flow from the weak last beat of the bar into the stronger pulse of the first beat of the next bar.

So lets practice this exercise.

Breathe in - fill your tummy up from low down and hold it using your tummy muscles; as I count you in gently let some of the air escape and then start the music smoothly without breathing in again or jerking in on the first note.

If you find this difficult, try this exercise first.

Breathe in - fill your tummy up from low down and hold it using your tummy muscles; hum the first note and then transition the hum into the first phrase. For example mmmmmmmeati mortui - then try and remember the sensation and try mmmmmmmmmmmmbeati mortui.

Finally use the first exercise to practice a smooth start to the son.

With a La La La!

Once again I want us to think about legato. I have been working on some things with you regarding this and want to try and give you some things to work on at home.

Get out your learning aid CD for Beati Mortui and try this.

Instead of singing the words practise your part to a good old La!

But, and this is important, don't just la la la along - make sure that the music is in one continuous flow of sound and the "L" of La is merely used to define the start of each note.

Keep your mouth open in a really good shape - not over stretched, nor mostly closed - a nice open shape is ideal.

Breathe in nice and low down, expand your rib cage low down and out creating a nice barrel shape in your tummy and as the sound comes out conserve the air by using your tummy muscles (remember our hiss exercise)

Now La the phrase as a continuous stream of tone.

Only when we create a really good legato line will we be able to sing truly expressive phrases and create truly musical performances.

I dug around "tinternet" and found this example of gorgeous legato, delivered by a choir directed by the 20th century's greatest choirmaster (probably)

Enjoy