The Old Songs

As a musical director, one of the most challenging things that I have to deal with is getting the singer off the music. Unlike a community choir, barbershoppers need to commit the music to memory before they perform it. Because I direct a non-competitive chorus, I find myself holding back from setting deadlines, imposing tests, or pushing singers. Yet I know that they would enjoy themselves much more if they memorized the music early. They don’t seem to realize that memorization also deepens their understanding of the music and enhances their ability to entertain the audience.

To be honest, I think singers often throw their music into the back seat of the car after rehearsal and then forget about it until the next rehearsal. I can tell which singers do this because I have to remind them of the same issues week after week. What singers fail to realize is that people around them know when you haven’t memorized your music. The audience knows, too.

Muddied sound

In many instances, there’s a split second time lag when the singer, who didn’t take the time to learn the music, leans on the singer who did. The result is a muddied sound. In extreme circumstances, a section or the entire chorus can forget the correct notes and words on stage. It’s as if a school of fish spontaneously turns in unison and goes in a different direction. I refer to this as a brain fart, and the few seconds that it takes to recover are excruciating. Nobody, especially the director, feels good about that.

It occurs to me that singers don’t instinctively know how to get off the music. I asked the MountainAires Music and Performance Committee for suggestions, and here is what some of them said.

• Use the “one hour” rule – Take at least ten minutes a day, six days a week, to study your music.
• Write out the words either on paper or on a computer. Writing out the words can reveal some patterns in the lyrics that can make memorization easier.
• Set expectations for each song. When a song is introduced, set a realistic date in the future when that music must be committed to memory.
• Let the singers know what you expect of them, and then “act as if . . . until.”

This last bullet point is difficult for a lot of volunteer singers. I once left a community choir because the music director wasted precious rehearsal time going over the same material covered in previous weeks. When I asked why, he said he didn’t want to set expectations because members of an all-volunteer choir might revolt if pushed too hard. What he failed to realize is that, by not setting expectations and following through on them, those who work on their music feel held back by those who don’t. Managing to the lowest common denominator is not always the best approach, and can be detrimental to the vitality of the group.

But how do you strike the proper balance between pushing too hard or not at all? What is the middle path? If you have some suggestions, please add a comment to this post. You’ll need to register to make a comment as a means to minimize blog spam, but I’ll approve your registration quickly. We all could benefit from your experience and ideas.

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