Page 22 - CT 15-2

Stretching the Skills of Your Community Choir
Stretching the Skills of Y our Communit y Choir

Rehearsing Your Choir is Reactive musical phrases. Typically, amateurs sing individual notes
After these initial warming up activities, the conductor’s without any sense of the relationship the notes have to one
job becomes a reactive endeavor, reacting to whatever is another. They tend to leave aesthetic concerns to the per-
heard in the process of teaching notes. With community son they consider to be the only real artist in the room:
choirs, there is much that needs the keen attention of the the conductor. It usually doesn’t even cross their minds that
conductor. Whereas advanced college and professional they could use their own musical imaginations.
choirs are usually able to start in on aesthetics right away, One of the most effective methods to enhance a choir’s
with most community choirs, the choral instrument needs artistry is for the conductor to convince the singers that
substantial fine-tuning before moving into deeper artistic they should develop their own artistic imaginations, shap-
issues. ing lovely phrases, instead of singing seemingly unrelated
Beyond refining tone quality, an important objective is to notes.
help our community choir members develop the discipline Once choir members begin to use their own artistic
of listening carefully to one another while singing. This lis- imaginations, the conductor’s job is to shape those cumula-
tening affects all aspects of precision, rhythmic ensemble, tive artistic intuitions into one aesthetic entity. Don’t let the
uniform articulation styles, and dynamic proportions. Such conductor be seen as the only artistic soul in the room.
aesthetic considerations necessitate instant recognition and
analysis by the conductor, followed by practical and encour-
aging approaches to solving whatever the problems are. Being Sensitive to Amateur Singers
In amateur choirs, we should be sensitive during re-
hearsals to the feelings of our singers, keeping in mind that
Helping Your Choir one’s voice is intensely personal. If you play an oboe and
Develop Artistic Intuitions the sound is not all you had hoped for, you can say “it must
Amateur singers seldom have natural, artistic intuitions be the reed.” But, singers cannot distance themselves from
about issues such as the ebb and flow of momentum in their own voices in this way. In fact, emotionally they often

ChorTeach Volume 15 • Issue 2 22 Winter 2023