Musical Education

ddraver
ddraver Posts: 26,786

So I have an audition for a fancy choir in a few weeks...

Now I'm not bad at singing as amaters go and I have dabbled with enough instruments to be able to "read" music in the sense that I can look at a note and go well thats a 'd' and I know which button to press

However...knowing it's a 'd' is not much help when singing.

Knowing that a few of you do similar things, do you know of any (Free or cheap) things I could look at to try and improve this?

In reality I am quietly sing/humming along to the first run through of a section then maybe getting abit more confident on the second go before actually getting most of it on the third. Trouble is it's the sort of choir where they then say, "Great, lets move on" and it making my head spin...

We're in danger of confusing passion with incompetence
- @ddraver

Comments

  • briantrumpet
    briantrumpet Posts: 21,357

    @Pross will probably know of a lot more specific resources than I do, but general suggestion would be to look up what repertoire they've done over the past couple of years, and see if you can find training tracks for any of the works. You probably know what type of stuff they do already, but if they do stuff from a different periods, I'd probably look up some of the Bach they've done (if they have). A quick Google threw up this, which has all the major works, so a shit ton(ne) of material.

    If you want to go back to more fundamental stuff, googling sight singing training online will get you lots of resources. The key is to build up the ability to hear intervals in your head then to be able to sing the same, also singing scales, and relating them to notated stuff. https://www.tonegym.co/tool/item?id=sight-singing-trainer

    A fascinating subject for sure.

  • secretsqirrel
    secretsqirrel Posts: 2,199

    Maybe worth a browse around Youtube as well. There is likely some follow along exercises to brush up on those sorts of skills. It is certainly a useful resource for clarinet and saxophone. 🎷

  • Pross
    Pross Posts: 43,892

    I'm not much help in that I can read music the same i.e. I recognise what note it is, it's duration and various musical terms for volume etc. (although I'm singing on bass clef and after 10 years I still have to run a mnemonic to work out what note is what as I was only ever used to treble clef). I tend to learn by ear and repetition. I've started using Muse Score 4 and type my line out sometimes then just play the notes as I learn the words. I think you can use a PDF if you get a good quality scan and can then delete the unwanted lines before saving as an MP3 and there's another app I've used previously called Music Scanner that allows you to photograph the sheet music and play an individual staff. The results can be a bit mixed but I've used it quite successfully when the sheet music is printed in good quality. We also use the ChoirMate app in both my choirs and the MDs will record each part and save it on there to listen through. My sister is classically trained and can simply pick the music up and sight read it and the pianist in my one choir is blessed with perfect pitch which is a gift I would love but for me it's a lot of hard work outside of the rehearsal room. Learning songs in Welsh (or any other non-native language) is a particular challenge.

  • Pross
    Pross Posts: 43,892

    Also, if the section you sing in is strong just record the second or third run through once they know what they're doing and then use the recording. In my choirs I'm lucky to sing in a strong bass section but I can often sit there for ages whilst the other sections run their part over and over again.

  • briantrumpet
    briantrumpet Posts: 21,357

    Yep, I'd suspect that the vast majority of amateur choral singers rely on various training aids and 'section leaders' to hang onto (which can backfire if those 'leaders' go wrong).

    If you worked out the psychological process involved in accurate sight-singing within a choir, it's seemingly miraculous anyone can do it, though mostly it comes down to years of exposure to the sounds and musical clichés (scales, chords, harmonic progressions) that most choral music relies on (let's ignore the Webern Cantatas and similar).

    FWIW, 'perfect pitch' can be an absolute nightmare in amateur situations, such as when the pitch of a choir slips, or if the conductor wants to 'inflect' certain pitches to match some context or other. It's a useful 'trick' in certain situations, but more often a hindrance (or a discomfort).