Village Baptist Church Choir Newsletter November 2015

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Part 2 – The Tuning Challenge

In our choir we have a fine bass named Sok-Tu who sits in the back row toward the left side, and a fine soprano named Ning who sits on the front row on the right side. Put the names together and you have “TU-NING” which is what I’d like to talk about in this article. Keeping the choir in tune is comparable to keeping any instrument in tune—it is impossible to make excellent music on an out-of-tune instrument, no matter how great that instrument is—a Bosendorfer Piano is one of the finest, but when out of tune it can’t produce its best music. Doesn’t make any difference how much you’ve spent on a fine instrument if it isn’t (or can’t maintain) its tuning! Notice how carefully an orchestra tunes before playing a concert, and this includes professional musicians who constantly adjust tuning while playing—always aware that their contribution to the ensemble must be in tune to attain their collective potential ‘perfect’ performance. Great conductors insist that their orchestra members play in small ensembles (string quartets, brass quintets, woodwind ensembles) to become accustomed to listening acutely for “ensemble” which definitely includes individual and group tuning!

Tuning includes ‘toning’ which means matching the tonal characteristics of your group. In choral singing, toning is achieved by matching vowels with the singers around us. Remember, the sound (tone) is in the vowel and when we work to match tone the tuning becomes more naturally accurate. This is why I stress keeping the jaw relaxed and open and why we warm up with vowels to get the ‘sound’ in our collective ear. Everybody in the group must be listening to the sound so they can match theirs to the group. Tuning requires control of one’s own voice in both quality and volume—most choral tuning problems are the result of singing too loud. We naturally hear our own voice most, it occupies the same space in the head with the hearing—the bones and make-up of the skull resonate with the voice that sends our sound directly to the hearing center. Therefore, if you go sharp or flat and hear mostly your own voice, you can be out of tune with the others around you and not able to hear that

Essential Re-choirments – Gordon Borror

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Village Baptist Church Choir Newsletter November 2015

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you are! No choir member would purposely sing out of tune with his neighbor, we all want to sound the best we can—it just happens if we don’t control our tone quality and volume. Listening to the ensemble (and especially our own voice) and keeping it even in volume with others around us is an essential element. When listening to a fine choir (or choral recording) notice how the sections blend into one sound and tuning center—this is vitally important for any choir, (especially ours!!)

Another key to choral tuning is vibrato. Too much vibrato as with volume becomes a problem to choral singing in tune. We all have vibrato, it is a natural product of the vocal mechanism. Some singers completely illuminate it, but that is un-natural. (Notice in ensembles that feature very ‘tight’ harmony, the singers use no vibrato because it makes it impossible to sing really ‘tight’ chords.) In typical choral singing, some vibrato enhances the choral sound; the problem comes when the vibrato becomes excessive. This is especially true in the upper registers of the voice; the higher notes require less vibrato, which can cause negative effects on tuning! Good breathing habits help keep vibrato under control!

I can hear some saying, “I had no idea singing in choir was so complicated, I just like to sing—why make it a science??” My purpose includes making us into a better choir, and that requires attention to the details and mechanics of choral singing. This series is created with a more spiritually effective and quality, improving ministry in mind!

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Village Baptist Church Choir Newsletter November 2015

Foundations Of Faith

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It Is Well With My Soul

Horatio Spafford was a prominent American lawyer in Chicago. At the very height of his financial and professional success, Horatio and his wife Anna suffered the tragic loss of their young son. Shortly thereafter, the Great Chicago Fire destroyed almost every real estate investment that Spafford had.

Spafford scheduled a boat trip to Europe in order to give his wife and daughters a much-needed vacation and time to recover from the tragedy. He also went to join D.L. Moody and Ira Sankey on an evangelistic campaign in England. Spafford sent his wife and daughters ahead of him while he remained to take care of some last minute business. Several days later he received notice that his family's ship had encountered a collision. All four of his daughters drowned; only his wife had survived. With a

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heavy heart, Spafford boarded a boat that would take him to his grieving Anna in England. It was on this trip that he penned those now famous words, When sorrow like sea billows roll; it is well, it is well with my soul.

For more than a century, the tragic story of one man has given hope to countless thousands who have lifted their voices to sing; It Is Well With My Soul.

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A time signature tells you how the music is to be counted. The time signature is written at the beginning of the staff after the clef and key signature. Time signatures consist of two numbers written like a fraction. The top number of the time signature tells you how many beats to count. This could be any number. Most often the number of beats will fall between 2 and 12. The bottom number tells you what kind of note to count. That is, whether to count the beats as quarter notes, eighth notes, or sixteenth notes. So the only numbers you will see as the bottom number (the denominator) will correspond to note values:

• 1 = whole note (you’ll never see this) • 2 = half note • 4 = quarter note • 8 = eighth note • 16 = sixteenth note

A common time signature is 4/4 time. A time signature of 4/4 means count 4 (top number) quarter notes (bottom number) to each bar. This table should help you count out different notes and rests in 4/4 time.

So, in ¾ time, the quarter note and rest would still get one beat, but there would be 3 beats on the measure. Here are different time signatures we have in our music this year.

Time Signatures

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Village Baptist Church Choir Newsletter November 2015

Main Adult Choir Website: http://tiny.cc/t0si2x

Choir Member Spotlight

Ning Hallen

Ning is a Soprano. She has been singing for 11 years. Ning sang in the choir at a Southern Baptist Church in Los Angeles for 6 years before moving to Beaverton in 2009. A special thanks to fellow choir member Charlene Du for inviting Ning to join the choir! Ning has been attending Village for 6 years. It was at Village Ning met and married her husband, Jeff.

Ning’s favorite Bible verse is Rom 8:28.

Nov 1-Sue Doherty, 12-Brian Roberts, 13-Mary Roberts, 15-Gordon Borror, 21-Lois Faris, 23-Paul Poelstra

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When in 2/4 time, like 4/4 time, it can feel like a march. When singing in ¾ time, like 6/8 time, it can feel like waltz. (No dancing now!) What can help you keep the beat is to feel the strong pull of the downbeat.

Are you ready to practice different time signatures? Sure you are!

• 6/8 - means the 8th note gets the beat and there are 6 beats in the measure.

• 3/2 - means the ½ note gets the beat and there are 3 beats in the measure.

• 5/4 - means the ¼ note gets the beat and there are 5 beats in the measure. Seems like the song writer was mean to do this, but we have sung a few songs with this meter.

Time Signature Abbreviations

A few other time signatures you may see use special abbreviations instead of numbers. 4/4 is called common time since it is so common. 4/4 time is often marked with a C instead of 4/4. It means the same thing.

Another common abbreviation is for cut time meaning 2/2 time. Cut time is usually written as a C with a slash through it.

While not as common (sorry the pun!) as 4/4 or 2/2 time, we have also sung a few songs with these time signatures. I hope this helps. Go through our music and practice reading the time signatures. This should be easy now!