The Choir Director Corner Podcast
The Choir Director Corner Podcast
095. Tips for Translating Your Score Study into Rehearsal Techniques
Diving into a choral score is a big process, but also one that is critical in bringing the music we have before us to life. Once we have tackled our score study, a new challenge emerges–how does the work we’ve done in preparing the score show up in our rehearsal process?
In Episode 95 of the podcast, I’m sharing with you some tips for how choir directors can connect the dots between the in-depth analysis of a choral score and the practical, and creative, aspects of rehearsal planning, ensuring every rehearsal is not only productive and purposeful, but also engaging!
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Diving into a choral score is a big process, but also one that is critical in bringing the music we have before us to life.
Speaker 1:In this episode of the podcast, I'm going to offer some tips for how choir directors can connect the dots between the in-depth analysis of a choral score and the practical, creative aspects of rehearsal planning.
Speaker 1:Diving every rehearsal is not only productive and purposeful, but also engaging. Let's get into it. Here we go and hello my friends. Welcome to the Choir Director Corner Podcast. My name is Matt Walker, I'm your host. Thanks so much for stopping by and joining me for today's episode.
Speaker 1:Well, today we are talking about score study and specifically how to translate that score study from the page into your rehearsal process and also some of the rehearsal strategies that you will want to use. And score study has been top of mind recently. I've had some questions from some of the members in our Choir Director Corner Community membership and also one of our monthly missions trainings has been on this topic of the essential elements of score study, and in that video, one of the things that I talk about is how do we get from the score study and convert that into the rehearsal process and then mapping out our rehearsals from there. So in today's episode I have some tips how to get from one to the next, because we do all this work on score study and preparation but we don't want it to be all just sort of stuck on the page. How do we use that to inform our rehearsal process? How do we use that to really create engaging rehearsals for our singers but also create rehearsals that are going to be very productive and efficient as well? So let's take some of the things that you might encounter that you might feel like you want to emphasize in your score study and then how does that then translate into, maybe, a rehearsal strategy that you might use in your rehearsal process?
Speaker 1:Well, the first thing is taking a deep dive into dynamics. Dynamics are one of the many concepts that you're going to encounter when doing your score study Right, and this can include dynamic levels for different sections of the piece, can also include the dynamic level within particular musical phrases, as well as, maybe, how the written dynamic level might differ even within the different sections of the choir or within whatever accompaniment might be used in the piece. So this is something that obviously we're going to be noticing, making note of, literally and figuratively, in our score study and preparation. Well, how does that then convert into rehearsals? Now, you can emphasize these dynamic changes by incorporating dynamics into the phrasing of your warm-ups, such as a mesa di voce Right, then when you encounter that type of phrase in the music, it is something that your singers are familiar with. So, whatever type of phrasing or dynamic changes that you are seeing within the piece, can you take that and then incorporate that into one of your warm-ups? Right? You can also rehearse sections of the piece at different dynamic levels than what is written, so that the singers can compare and contrast for themselves what it's like to sing a particular phrase at lots of different dynamic levels and also experience what does that do to the overall performance of the ensemble? Right, and I think we've probably all encountered situations where our singers don't even really realize how loudly or how softly they are actually singing, right, and so experimenting within the rehearsal process at dynamic levels, different dynamic levels. You have a wide variety of dynamic levels and, who knows, you may actually choose in this sort of collaborative effort with your singers. You might actually choose a slightly different dynamic than what's on the page, and one of my professors in college that always used to say, dynamic levels are only a suggestion. So there you go, taking that score study. And how does that? What does that look like in your rehearsal process? Yeah, definitely lots of different ways that you can incorporate dynamics into your rehearsal process and your rehearsal strategies.
Speaker 1:Next, talking about articulation. So articulation, often in music, what is it there for? It's there to add musical interest. Yeah, articulation is helping to shape the texture, the style, even the emotion of a piece, and that's why it's so important in the score study and preparation process. So then in rehearsals, what can you do with this? Well, you can have the ensemble experiment singing a passage with different types of articulation, so that they can hear again the difference and then can compare and contrast the effect on the sound of the ensemble. So it's really effective if you have them sing and you record it and then you play it back for them, and even if you give them a handout with just a couple of prompts where they can write out their responses, sort of like a reflection. Yeah, this really makes this a super impactful strategy just within the general flow of rehearsal, right?
Speaker 1:Also, one of my favorite rehearsal strategies when it comes to articulation is to have the choirs sing everything in a passage staccato, and what this does is it provides a lot of clarity as far as the pitch accuracy or the lack thereof, as well as making the vowels being sung more clear and uniform. Because I tell you, when you do this, if there is any sort of inaccuracy in the pitch, in the rhythm, it's very evident. If there is any sort of ambiguity in the vowel that's being sung at any particular time, you're going to be able to hear it. Yeah, because everything is so very focused and isolated because of singing everything staccato. So you can certainly explore different types of articulation and see how that sort of affects the performance of the piece, but also, using the strategy of singing everything staccato, this can help you to analyze and assess things that are even not even related to the articulation. But getting to some of the other learning objectives that you might have for that particular rehearsal or that particular piece.
Speaker 1:Next on our list we have things dealing with singer independence, and you know we just watched the Broadway video version of the newsies, so I have it on the brain all for one and one for all. So singer independence really has a lot to do with that. Yeah, all for one and one for all. Your singers could encounter a different set of challenges depending on the vocal texture of the piece, which is why the score study and preparation part of this is so important, and it's gonna differ depending on that texture. Music that's mostly homophonic could more likely contain some intervals and or moments of dissonance that your singers are really gonna find challenging. But if the music is more polyphonic, the challenge then could turn to the singers being able to focus on their own part, right? Well, polyphonic texture really requires a higher level of independence on the part of the singers.
Speaker 1:Well, no matter what texture you are working with here, one strategy, one way to combat this and to help your singers become more independent is to have your singers sing in their section in a circle facing inward, so that they can hear their part being sung at them more clearly. To sort of another takeoff on this strategy is to designate a singer within each circle to listen. So they number off, you know, one to eight or one to 10 or whatever and I will say okay, this time number three is not gonna sing, number three is just going to listen, and so we sing through the passage and then it's that person's job to give feedback to the singers, and oftentimes what they will find is they hear things that they don't even notice or don't even realize when they are normally singing right, because they can focus a lot more intently on the listening aspect of what's going on around them, so it could be within their part. It could also be what's happening within the other parts as well. Another strategy that I have found useful, especially with polyphonic sections, is that in the learning process, every section, every singer learns every vocal part. Now, what this does is it creates the feeling of strength in numbers, and when, as a singer, I feel like there are strength in numbers, I'm going to be more willing to sing out. I'm going to be more willing to step outside of my comfort zone as I am going through the learning process, and I think that is really important. Now, once we've done this process, if everyone has then helped everyone else sing through each of the parts, then we go back and everyone is back to their own part and we sing it all together and we try to put everything then together, and then that is a great sort of informal assessment. How did we do? Well, we get to that end that last time through, where everyone's on their own part and they sing it pretty successfully. I know that that process of going through those individual parts with everyone there was successful. If not, then well then, I've got immediately some information for next rehearsal. That that's the section that I need to go back and review with these particular voice parts right Now. Not only does this strategy help singers become more secure in their part, it also cuts down on the amount of talking in rehearsal. And whether it's polyphonic or homophonic, you can certainly use this same strategy Just that way. Maybe with a piece of music that is more homophonic, some of your points of emphasis in doing this might be a little bit different. Right here it might be some of those beautiful dissonances that you have to deal with. Right, or those tricky intervals or the voice crossing yeah, things like that. So, no matter the texture, there are lots of different ways that you can build singer independence. You just have to find the right strategy for it.
Speaker 1:Next on our list is incorporating physical movement. So as you scan through the score, you're going to run across a lot of different technical challenges that your singers are going to encounter. I have found one of the most productive and efficient ways of tackling some of those technical challenges is incorporating physical movement into rehearsal. So this could be a movement that reduces tension on some high notes, right, this could be movement that helps singers to feel a particular rhythm or a shift in time signature. Or maybe it's movement that helps singers visualize the phrasing of a particular musical passage. There's lots of different ways that you can incorporate physical movement and again, this is going to be something where you just have to kind of experiment for yourself and try some different things. And maybe there's particular movements that your singers find particularly helpful, depending on the objective that you have set before them. But by incorporating that physical movement, that's oftentimes it's going to be more helpful. But it's also going to be more efficient than us just stopping every single time and talking at our singers and trying to fix it that way. Sometimes the best thing we can do is just stop, introduce some physical movement to try and fix that issue, and oftentimes it will work. Sometimes we have to play around with the particular gesture or movement a little bit in order to find something that works. But as you go through your score study, this is what you are looking for and you are thinking about. You're already going to be brainstorming ahead of time what physical gestures and movement you might be able to incorporate into your rehearsal process. Another reason why score study is so important you can sort of do a preemptive strike on some of the issues that you see popping up in the music.
Speaker 1:The next thing on our list is creating a collaborative rehearsal process, and once you've gone through your score study process, it's really fun to find some spots, find some ways, maybe particular concepts, where you can then turn things around on the singers and get their perspective, and sometimes they come up with things that you haven't even thought of in your preparation process. Right, this really starts with just asking questions in rehearsal of your singers. Invite choir members to do things like share their insights on the score, discuss their interpretation of certain passages, or maybe discuss even the parts that they find challenging, and chances are, if they have a question, there's someone else in their section that also has that same question that maybe is just too self-conscious to bring it up in rehearsal. Right, this collaborative approach does a number of things. Number one it deepens the choir's sort of collective understanding, but it also fosters a sense of student ownership in the musical process. You're getting them more involved, you're giving them the opportunity to give input, whilst, from a singer perspective, if I feel like the conductor values my input, boy, I'm going to be a lot more involved and invested and attentive to that rehearsal process. Right, that just makes sense. And in this sort of this process of asking questions, you might also then get some information that's going to help you plan future rehearsals. Yeah, singers again voicing that they have questions about particular spots. Well, what am I doing in rehearsal tomorrow? I'm reviewing that spot. Now. I've got some time to sort of come up with a strategy to help my singers tackle whatever challenge. It is that they had a question on, right? So stopping and just asking questions can really be just the start to an incredible collaborative rehearsal process and giving our students again, our singers, a little bit more of a sense of ownership. That's really an important point here.
Speaker 1:Last but not least, we have encouraging emotional connection to the music that we are singing. So as we study the score, we gain again a better understanding of the meaning behind a piece of music. What's the story behind this? What's the story that we want to communicate through our performance? You're going to start to come up, then, with ideas on how to help our singers relate and emotionally connect to the piece. Not only will this create a more meaningful experience for them, but it's also going to result in a more meaningful and authentic performance. And one way you can do this is to encourage choir members to express how the music, how the lyrics, resonate with them personally. You know discuss how different sections of the score evoke various emotions. What are you feeling here, what are you feeling in this section here, and how then we might be able to reflect this in our singing, in our performance of the piece?
Speaker 1:One of the more interactive and collaborative strategies that I have done to help encourage or this connection to the music is I broke my singers up into groups and in each group they had to come up with a mini movie sort of depicting what they felt was the story, the emotions, the main themes of the piece. And there were kind of silent movies where they could use like a recording of the piece and that was the background of the piece, and then they sort of acted out the story Boy. It was just a fantastic experience. They really just dove headfirst into not only the filming of these movies, but they really enjoyed. Then we took some time in rehearsal and we watched all of them together and they really enjoyed that part of the process. But they also gained a lot of insight into the piece, because they all brought different things to the table right. They all brought different Experiences and ideas as to what the piece meant to them and what they thought it was about. And so, you know, overall they just gained a greater understanding, a much deeper understanding of the piece, and they were able then to connect to the, the music, in a more meaningful and authentic way.
Speaker 1:So you could ask your singers to create something. It doesn't have to be in groups, it could just be individually. Maybe they do a drawing or a poem or a short story, or maybe it's a Slide show, you know, of some different photographs that they they find online that all sort of relate to the emotions, the themes, the story of the piece and just going through that process. Yes, the end product that they create is wonderful, but it's going through that process. They learn so much about the music and then also about how they themselves are Relating to the music by going through that process.
Speaker 1:Well, my friends, those are my tips and strategies for translating your score study and preparation from off the page and into your rehearsal process and your rehearsal Strategies. You know score study and preparation. It has the biggest impact not when it stays on the page, but when it can directly enhance and influence your rehearsal process. So I hope this episode has given you some ideas that you can use to not only prepare your choir in the technical aspects of the music, but also deepen their connection to the music. This is going to lead to performances that are not only technically skilled, but they're also authentic and Meaningful. And if you want to dive deeper into the topic of score study and preparation, again, I mentioned that resource.
Speaker 1:One of our monthly mission Trainings is all about the essential elements of score study and preparation. So to get access to that training, as well as all of our monthly missions, our online courses, our PDFs and classroom resources, simply head on over to choir director corner. Comm forward, slash membership and become a member today. Well, thank you, my friends, for listening to this episode and until next time, keep being awesome. Are you looking for resources that will save you time and frustration? Want to dive deeper into topics related to your teaching? Then check out the choir director corner. Community membership Over at choir director corner. Comm forward slash membership.