EXERCISE! Thoughts of pain, time, and hassle? It doesn’t have to be that way.
Change the thought of EXERCISE to MOVEMENT and feel good just about all the time.
You don’t need to move your body fast and work hard in order to experience great benefits. You do not have to go to the gym or to a class. You do not have to buy cute work-out clothes.
A healthy body is a healthy voice ~ Keeping your strength, endurance and range of mobility helps not only the body but also the voice – benefiting the respiratory, laryngeal, and vocal tract coordinators.
Every function of every organ and system in your body is enhanced by body movement. When they are activated, your:
1. Respiratory and circulatory systems deliver more oxygen and glucose to the muscles that enable more cognitive sharpness.
2. Metabolism increases.
3. Glands of the immune systems are better supported and protected(1).
The most important thing is to be consistent and use appropriate movements. This does not have to involve heavy weight lifting, aerobic classes, or even a personal trainer.
3 PAJAMA APPS – STAY IN YOUR JAMMIES AND STAY AT HOME –
Down Dog: My absolute favorite app in the world. It is rated the top yoga app in the app store. Best feature: User friendly Important features: FREE at least until May 1. If you are an educator, it’s free until July 1: downdogapp.com/schools If you are a healthcare worker, it’s also free until July 1: downdogapp.com/healthcare
Sworkit: Quick workouts, varying levels. Free trial, but then you have to pay to play. Best feature: Designs 6 week plan for you based on age, gender, weight and skill.
Tai Chi: Chinese martial art practiced for both its defense training and health benefits. The term taiji refers to a philosophy of the forces of yin and yang. Free, but Best feature: Lovely traditional Chinese music in background. Great features:
THE TAKE AWAY You don’t need to carve out an hour a day or even a few days a week. You can do small twelve minute sessions of any movement to receive great benefit. Those twelve minutes make a vast difference in stamina, outlook and focus.
I hope you’ll give it a try!
Footnotes: 1). Thurman, L. & Welch, G. (2000). bodymind & voice: foundations of voice education. The VoiceCare Network, USA, Book 3, 639-640.
Lynn Swanson working with members of the Zhuhai Classical Children’s Choir, Zhuhai, China
Understanding the Use of Articulators and Resonators in a Choral Setting specifically for those working with Chinese choirs ~
This presentation and accompanying video is made specifically to help those that are working with novice Chinese choristers learning to sing classical music. It is designed to help Chinese singers whether they are mature or young.
During the time I led choirs in China, I learned that the native Chinese speaker used their articulators differently from the native English speakers. It is critically important to understand what articulators are and how they are used before any singer can begin to expand the vocal range as well as achieve good intonation. Good intonation is especially critical in a choral setting and is often neglected. I found that the primary focus for many Chinese choirs was expression. The first concentration should actually be on securing accurate pitches and exact rhythm. Then attention can be given to expression and how to bring the lyrics to life.
•It’s important to understand the differences in how to use articulators and resonators when singing different languages.
•Requirements for the use of articulators in the Chinese language is different from that requirement while singing Classical music.
• Before you can make a beautiful sound, you must learn how articulators bring energy to the resonator. •
•You must learn how to use articulators and how to use resonators according to the music you are singing.
Why does your choir do vocal exercises? How to know what to do when – Sequential Choral Training Exercises and its importance
It’s important to think of the voice as not residing just in the pharynx. Think of the voice as being part of the mind and the body. Vocal exercises should have a reason behind why each and every one is done. For example: Singing a bright “nee-nee-nee” raises a suppressed larynx to a more neutral position. This is especially important to bass singers who find themselves pressing their larynx to sing even lower. Singing a “nee to a nah” brings the sound forward. Vocal exercises should include continuous body movement no matter how small. This increases circulation, enables natural breathing from the diaphragm, and provides oxygen to the brain.
Not only should movement happen, but the brain should be triggered to think about what the ear is hearing and what the voice is singing. Doing activities such as writing your name in the air with an imaginary balloon helps engage the mind. Looking about the room and finding something new about it, engages the mind. Calling out the new found thing and naming it’s shape, color, purpose and if it serves any purpose to you.
How we actually begin making our first sounds is important. Using descending slides to gently pull the vocal folds toward the cricoid ring and back toward the thyroid sets good habits into play.
Helping our singers understand the difference in our articulators (teeth, tongue, mouth, and jaw) that make consonants and resonators that make our vowels therefore our pitch is equally important.
I hope you will read below to better understand what a sequential vocal warm up is and how to employ customized exercises to maintain healthy singing for the whole of your life.
There are 8 steps in the SEQUENTIAL CHORAL TRAINING EXERCISE:
▪Connect Body and Mind
▪Alignment
▪Breath Management
▪Phonation
▪Articulators
▪Tone quality/Timbre
▪Aural skills
▪Reading skills
BODY and MIND Wash car/windows ▪Dig a ditch ▪Swim front/back stroke ▪Swim circles ▪Quick jog ▪Hand off the dance ▪Draw name with balloon
ALIGNMENT Massage jaw, temples, neck muscles •Yawn and stretch with arms over head then open to side and drop •Shoulders to ears, drop with blades high •Roll up on toes; back on heels; side to side; soften the knees •Drop, hang over feet, roll up one vertebrate at a time as if stacking blocks on top of blocks •Look about the room – freedom to move •Tongue stretches
ACTIVATE DIAPHRAGM / BREATH MANAGEMENT •Choir Shoulder Check – right hand on neighbor’s shoulder, lightly tap if shoulders rise •Measure Air Stream •Silent breath in, out on “ch-ch-ch-ch-ch” •In 4 out 8 – lungs completely emptied (fast stream of air) •In 2 out 12, 16, 20, 24 •In 1 out 16
KEYS: No audible breathing – closed-mouth yawn Keep shoulders down during inhale Keep muscles engaged Keep moving
ARTICULATORS: Mouth, Teeth, Tongue, Jaw
distinguish articulators from resonators:
Other ex: Cha – tta – noo – ga, Cha- tta- noo – ga Choo. Bu -tta – bu- tta, Bu – tta – bu- tta Boo
RESONATORS and TIMBRE •Whistle register small [u] through head-mix-chest •Bright to Dark [ne] using pitches A-C#-E over 8 counts Reverse Dark to Bright •“Pepe Le Pew”
•Moving Sound Forward: 1. nasal 2. nasal to open 3. open
Agility:
Breath Energy – use “z” to springboard the air:
AURAL SKILLS ~ PRACTICING AUDIATION
Pitch Matching Teacher calls, students echo; Individual calls, choir echoes; Altos call, sopranos echo, etc.
Audiation Using Curwen Hand Signs: Teacher signs three/four pitches: (“do-re-do”) singers sign & sing pitches
Hearing intonation:Explain that each pitch contains 100 cents; Give “middle E” pitch then gradually move over 10 pulses down a half step (moving 10 cents each pulse)
Divide choir into three or four groups. •All sing an ascending major scale. •On the descending scale, each group stops and sustains one pitch in the scale, creating a major chord, all resolve on cue to do, mi or so. •Use to work on tuning, balancing chords, dynamics, and harmonization.
SIGHT READING: Choose a system and use it everyday. Think methodically – do not leap frog over any steps
Systems that work include:
Sight-Singing for SSA, Crocker & Eilers, Hal Leonard Publishing
Sight-Reading for Success for SA voices, Stevens & McGill, Hal Leonard Publishing
J. Reese Norris: JReeseNorris.com available strictly online
Young Singers Journey Book 1 & 2, Baldwin, Bartle, Beaupre, Hinshaw Music
•Transfer and Recognizing Patterns and Which one is not like the others:
Major/minor
scale
Major/minor
arpeggio
Major/minor
pentascale
Repeating rhythms
Sing the tune: OLD HUNDRETH, lyrics by Thomas Ken in the key of any new piece you are singing
soprano line in solfege: so-mi-do-re-fa-mi-re-do:
REFERENCES
Cooksey, J. M. (1992). Working
with adolescent voices. St.
Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House.
Daugherty, J. (2012). Sequence
of a Choral Warm-Up. University
of Kansas, KS: Science-based voice education course, Department of Music
Education and Music Therapy.
Freeman, C. (2014). Sequential
Choral Training Exercises for Middle School. The Institute for Healthy Singing.
Hasseman, F. , Jordan, J. (1991). Group
vocal technique. Chapel
Hill: NC: Hinshaw Music, Inc.
McKinney, J. (1982). The
diagnosis and correction of vocal faults: A manual for teachers of singing and
for choir directors.
Salem, WI: Waveland Press, Inc.
In the over forty years I have been leading choral ensembles in community, professional and church realms, I have seen many trends and fashions come and go, and I have seen more than a few come back and then go away again. It is not an exaggeration to say that most of the fads that have inflicted our art are best forgotten.
In recent years however, there has come a movement that I believe has already positively impacted the quality of choral performances and the health and hygiene of singers’ voices: the science-based approach to choral pedagogy that has been championed by a number of leading programs, including the VoiceCare Network based at St. John’s University in Minnesota, the Master of Music Education in Choral Pedagogy offered by the University of Kansas in Lawrence, the Institute for Healthy Singing based in the Kansas City area, and the Developing Voices blog.
[Full disclosure: Though I have no role on the faculty of the Institute for Healthy Singing (www.HealthySinging.org), the IHS is a program of the William Baker Choral Foundation (www.ChoralFoundation.org), an organization I founded in 1990.]
Not only has the work of these researchers and leaders contributed mightily to the effectiveness of choral and individual vocal training, this effort has helped choral conductors adopt methods and techniques of gesture, rehearsal pacing, teaching process, and repertoire selection that maximizes the health and expressive capacity of individual voices in the ensemble.
With the foundation well-established through the science-based approach to choral pedagogy, as a part of choral training, I would offer two suggestions to carry the benefit and training to the next step: using a) chant and b) chorale as training tools for the purpose of applying the newfound health and freedom of voices to the goal of building more sensitive ensemble unity and, consequently, stronger musicianship in every area.
I recommend devoting 5-10 minutes of the choral training session at the beginning of rehearsals to using chant and chorale for ensemble building.
Chants are found in many configurations, but I believe pointed plainsong and Anglican chant to be the most useful forms for this exercise. Over the course of a semester it could be instructive and helpful to begin taking several lines of text to chant in unison on a single tone. Though it is tempting to save time by using the unison chant exercise to work out a text issue in the repertoire scheduled for rehearsal, I recommend using words that are not being otherwise rehearsed so the full attention of the singer during the chant may be invested in the inflection of words, clarity of consonants, purity of vowels and sensitivity to articulative nuance across the entire chorus.
After unison chants are mastered on a single tone, pointed plainsong verses may be employed to carry the same principles forward into a deeper realization of text painting, natural sensitivity to dynamic and timbre, and nuance of enunciation. The less gesturing from the conductor the better. The entire exercise is intended to increase sensitivity and mutual awareness of each individual voice in the ensemble and in the ensemble as a whole. It is critical to engender a keen awareness of unison tuning through this exercise in the context of the rehearsal and performance space.
The final step in this exercise is a study of four-part chant in the Anglican tradition. All of the musical goals of single-tone chant and plainsong are present, of course, but harmonic tuning and chordal balance is added to the mix of skill sets with the study of the 4-part chant. I believe the wise conductor who approaches this process with intentionality and care will experience an amazing improvement in the tonal center, intonation, enunciation clarity, and expressive potential of the ensemble.
There are few treasures in the last 1000 years of choral expression as profoundly rich as the chorales of Johann Sebastian Bach. Not only are these works a great pillar of religious expression, they are a virtually limitless reservoir of common practice period harmonic understanding and practice. The study of Bach chorales, shamefully neglected in recent years, provides a ready resource for building harmonic understanding, balance, blend and tuning in choirs at every level.
I find it useful to choose a Bach chorale for weekly choral training. If an accompanist is available, the chorale can be sung on nonsense syllables with piano, then on nonsense syllables a cappella, and finally a cappella with texts. Because the primary focus of the exercise is musicianship building, I recommend using English texts for the chorale exercise. I also recommend building sightreading acuity by using a different chorale with each rehearsal. Fortunately, Bach left us enough wonderful chorales to provide exercises for many rehearsals without repetition.
Whether the choir is a high-functioning community chorus, a professional project choir or a developing parish choir of volunteers, I believe these exercises, patiently and consistently applied, in conjunction with a program of science-based vocal health and hygiene, will positively impact the intonation, enunciation, tone and expressiveness of every performance of the concert season.
Dr. William O. Baker, Personal E-mail Account
913-488-7524
by Jennifer Berroth, Contributing Author, DevelopingVoices.blog
Movement is often used to engage a singer’s breath, energy, and musicianship. Young singers can benefit from using gestures throughout a rehearsal to help them understand musical concepts they are performing. Here are some kinesthetic gestures I use to help my own singers.
Staccato gestures
Staccato phrases can be tricky. Singers might find it hard to stay in pitch, maintain tall vowels, or continue the shortened rhythms. I have my singers “pop bubbles” in the air with their fingers while singing staccato phrases. The “popping” helps maintain the shortened sounds. I also instruct them to sing with the round space of the bubble.
Other staccato gestures can be “throwing a dart”, tip-toeing in a space, or tapping the staccato rhythm with their fingertips on their shoulder or arm.
Singing Legato
Legato phrases can be tough to get singers to sing with energy through the entire phrase. Here are some gestures I have my singers use:
Paint on a blank canvas with smooth brush strokes in the air
Add a color to your “painting”- If you want a warm sound have your singers visualize warm colors: deep reds or oranges.
Spread the butter or frosting gesture
Use one arm to “spread” your sound evenly over the other arm.
Long, legato rotations
Using the arms, rotations should move perpendicular and not parallel to their body. This helps singers keep their energy and sound moving out in front on them verse staying right in front of them.
Have singers imagine they are lifting weights. When someone is lifting weights, the support should come from their core strength and lower body; the idea is the same for singers supporting their tone. Some things to remember when having singers utilize this gesture:
Keep knees slightly bent
Don’t allow the chest to drop, vice versa, don’t overextend the straightening of the spine
Singers should imagine they are lifting a fairly heavy object and the weight should be lifted over the entire phrase.
Phrasing- I really like to use sport gestures for phrasing; Throw a baseball/football, shoot a basketball, shoot an arrow, etc. The same way we might see football laces or baseball laces spin throughout a throw, so can singers visualize “spinning their sound” to the end of the phrase.
There are many ways you can have your choir experiment following through with their energy and phrase.
Other Kinesthetic Gestures
Using opposite movement for ascending or descending line
Have singers move their arms upward when singing a descending line to avoid coming down too hard on their sound. The same thing applies to ascending lines and using downward motions. Have singers try to bend their knees, or a plie squat to create support and an ease of sound through-out the ascension.
Move around the room
Use the rehearsal space to have singers move freely while singing. Encourage them to really listen and fill up the entire room with their sound.
In addition to the benefit these movements provide in learning new musical concepts and vocal technique, they are a great way to break the monotony of “choir class,” and encourage a classroom climate that is relaxed and safe.
Article written by Jennifer Berroth, Choral Director, Leawood Middle School, Leawood, Kansas, USA.
