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Stretching the Skills
Stretching the Skills

of Your Community Choir
of Y our Communit y Choir

b
by Michael Kemp
y Michael Kemp

Michael Kemp (1946-2021) led church, school choirs, bers of a community choir don’t have to be there. They are
and community choruses, and community orchestras in neither graded nor paid. As a result, conductors of amateur
multiple states. He authored five books for choral direc- choirs have the added responsibility to motivate their sing-
tors and voice teachers. ers to be there, a skill not often taught to conductors. In
addition, because most amateur choir members have not
The following article is reprinted from Choral Journal, May 2013, had private voice lessons, rehearsals must include continu-
Vol 53, No 10. We reprint this article here to introduce it to those ous reinforcing of fundamental vocal skills. The most sig-
who may not have read the original publication. The original article nificant of these fundamentals are posture, breath support,
includes photograph examples of posture. Read the article in full and tone placement. The language often used to explain
by visiting acda.org/choraljournal. Log into the website with your these concepts is obtuse to most amateur singers. They
username and password, and choose “May 2013” from the archive know they should sit up, but what that means specifically
menu. might be unclear and interpreted differently by almost ev-
eryone. The same is true regarding breath support and tone
placement. This article will provide ideas and explanations
Let’s face it. Conducting a community choir is different in language that is accessible for amateur singers.
from conducting with advanced college or professional
choirs. Although interpretive goals are basically the same
for all choirs, conductors working with amateur choirs Posture and
must employ many skills and sensitivities beyond those Spinal Alignment
that are taught in standard choral training. A community Unintentionally, amateur singers tend to slump forward
choir is composed mostly of amateurs who, by definition, with their upper torsos and then look up at the conductor,
simply love to sing. These singers care about quality. They jaws lifting forward. When they begin to sing with this pos-
work hard to sing well and improve their musical skills, ture, tension is created in the upper abdominal wall, which
but for them singing is essentially an enjoyable and fulfill- slows the amount of upward air flow. Inadequate air flow
ing pastime. A significant difference among community puts strain on the larynx and creates pitch instability and
choirs and college or professional choirs is that the mem- weak sound. With seniors, it produces what we interpret as

ChorTeach Volume 15 • Issue 2 18 Winter 2023