You may be in the middle of looking for a Christmas musical for your choir to begin working on in the fall. By preparing now, you can best position your choir to succeed during that
important — and busy — season. Then, by the time you reach the last two to three weeks prior to the presentation, you should be “polishing the apple”—making a pretty much completed product even better.
Make Good Choices Now!
There are some things that short-circuit the polishing routine when working with a volunteer church choir. Perhaps the music was not chosen or ordered early enough. The previews for seasonal music start coming out from publishers four to six months before the season. Get on a preview plan and at least listen to the musical appropriate for your choir. Selecting appropriate music is another barrier to polishing. If the director is not careful, they can get all excited by the sound of the studio musicians on the recording and purchase music that is too difficult for their choir. Likewise, overly simple arrangements can so bore the part singers that they are apathetic
Time to Polish the Apple.
The choir has most of the notes and rhythms. If you are using the accompaniment track, the choir is able to come in and stay with it. The soloist can sing their solo. Isn't that enough? Well, no. What you want to do now are the things that take an “okay” musical presentation to really good or even great status. These next few details will make the choir sound more professional. These tips should enhance their sound and make the words more understandable.
The filter through which most of our choral music is heard is the sound system. And many times the sound operator is just as important as the choir director when it comes to a final presentation. So bring that person or team of people in early. Practice with them as much as possible in the final month. Work out all the logistics with solo mics, narrator cues, and choir levels no less than two weeks in advance of the performance.
Nail the Difficult Parts.
The weakest musical link is often two things: the end of the choral pieces (which tend to be harder) and modulations. Spend some quality time on the endings. This spot often needs revoicing attention (leave out the high note, some altos help the tenors, sing another octave with the basses, etc.). Modulations are like the endings in that they are musically more challenging. Spend time working those by themselves in rehearsal. Don’t just blow past them. Look for common notes between the keys. Help the singers orient themselves with other parts. And don’t forget the accompaniment. The written piano score my sound nothing like the sound track. Sometimes the track does not provide the same support for the voices. A badly executed modulation can sap the energy out of a number and the choir may never recover. So work to get it right every time.
Lastly, focus attention on the VOWELS. The vowel is the power of the singer. And while the consonants are important for understandable diction, vowels that are not unified or sung badly stick out and can even send a choir out of tune. So here are some general principles for vowels—the whole choir should sing the same version of the vowel, help them listen for and sing taller vowels (particularly “ah”), and stress the first vowel of a diphthong (a two- vowel combo, like the one in “praise”) especially when the diphthong is on a long note.
Polishing should not be an afterthought. Plan to polish the apple the next time you prepare a seasonal musical. Sing with skill. And present your music back to the One who is the source of all our singing.