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December 19, 2006 at 12:19 PM

I had our Christmas choir concert on Sunday. I was also thinking about the vibrato thread as I was rehearsing. I ended up rehearsing with just one of my fellow sopranos the day before, a little mini-sectional, and it was very interesting. This woman is an adult beginner with respect to singing, she takes voice lessons, and she has a nice vibrato at least when she opens her mouth.

I usually just go along thinking that every amateur singer has the same problems I have--which are mostly with volume and tone (no vibrato and all that). But my friend has completely different issues. For example, she hits a note correctly and then goes flat. She also goes flat if she doesn't open her mouth widely enough. At one point I just had her do a few intervals, repeatedly: a fourth, a major sixth, a minor sixth, and then she got those jumps down, and in tune, forever afterwards. I'm no voice teacher, but I don't understand why her teacher doesn't do that with her all the time! If she got the notes, she'd be great. It just surprised me to hear vibrato come so naturally to someone who struggles with pitch.

I had a bit of a frog in my throat the morning of the performance and was warming up in the car driving to the church trying to get rid of it. I didn't, completely, but enough so that I was able to hold my own through the difficult descant. I was humming all the way home, and still singing "Gloria" (Vivaldi) under my breath.

Now it's time to concentrate on violin. I invited some friends to come hear me play this weekend, too. With all the other holiday hoo-ha, I'm feeling like I don't need this, too. But then on the other hand, it's a way to concentrate and shut it all out and make Christmas about something other than trying to be organized and cross things off my to-do list.

From Terez Mertes
Posted on December 21, 2006 at 2:36 PM

Hey, congrats on completing your concert, fellow singer! : )

And on this comment:
>It just surprised me to hear vibrato come so naturally to someone who struggles with pitch.

Oh, I KNOW!!! That is precisely what I was talking about in your other thread, and why I think vibrato is independent of craft. We've got one of those sopranos in our choir. First soprano, at that. Beautiful vibrato, but she doesn't hear herself going flat. I find myself almost sharping during the a capella pieces to try and keep the soprano section "up." Occasionally the choir director will have the accompanist play the note we were supposed to end on, and it's just shocking - sometimes an entire note flat. And all the other sopranos look so shocked and dismayed and I feel like saying, "Well DUH. Can you not hear it?" But as I am only a seasonal member, I just duck my head in my folder and shuffle pages around.

Funny, though. I will continue my argument that the best choir member is someone who can stay in tune, take direction, sing well with others. And if vibrato comes into the equation, well, that's nice icing on the cake, yes? (In fact, that's all it should be in a choir! Delicate icing, at that.)

Anyway, Karen, fun to hear your choir musings. No one in my choir plays the violin, so it's enjoyable to converse with someone who speaks both these musical languages. : )

From Terez Mertes
Posted on December 21, 2006 at 2:46 PM

>With all the other holiday hoo-ha, I'm feeling like I don't need this, too. But then on the other hand, it's a way to concentrate and shut it all out and make Christmas about something other than trying to be organized and cross things off my to-do list.

That's exactly why I, too, find time to fit extra music into my December (including that concert). You said it well!

From Karen Allendoerfer
Posted on December 22, 2006 at 12:37 PM

Thanks for referring to me as a singer! I was recruited into a church choir about 10 years ago by the person standing next to me in a church service. She heard me singing the hymns and said she thought I could add something to the choir. I was so flattered to have been asked that I went to the next rehearsal. I've moved hundreds of miles since then and am in a totally different church and choir now, but that's still why I'm there.

Before that I was pretty self-conscious about my voice and about singing at all. Those comments, meant to be helpful, where they tell you to play something on the violin like you were singing it, would always bring me up short or make me feel self-conscious. I'd be like, "no, really, you don't want me to do that. Have you ever actually heard me sing?" In music theory, we had to do some sight-singing and I was just a basket case before those tests. It was weird, in retrospect. Here's to second chances and music learning as an adult!

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