At this point, silence came upon the members. (I recommend this approach if talking within the ranks is a problem!) I told them that there needs to be two other things that they must do when they reach for that next breath.

ISM

There are three things that a singer should do when running out of air before the next passage. I call it the “ISM” approach. Those three things are:

• Inhale (an obvious and vital first step)
• Smile
• Move

Let’s look at all three elements.

Inhale

First, let me be perfectly clear on one point: I am talking about planned breath spots throughout your music, not catch breaths to extend a phrase. At these planned breath spots, the first thing that the singer has to do is get a full tank of air. While this is not a discussion on how to inhale properly, just remember to use an open throat and your diaphragm to fill up for that next phrase.

Smile

I use the phrase “smile through the breath,” meaning that each time a singer inhales, a smile should cross their face. Even in a tender ballad or sad passage, a warm smile can keep the tone bright. This takes a lot of practice and repetition. Remember, each time you inhale, you must smile.

Move

Finally, move your feet. This is also called a reset. This final step is the reason that this approach applies to planned breath spots in the music. You might not want movement occurring during a catch breath on a long phrase, for example. This movement adds a visual element and increased energy to the next phrase. Some guys get lock knees or cement feet. By inviting them to move each time there is a planned breath can get them into the feeling of the song.

So try it and let me and the blog readers know how it works for you. You might be surprised how a simple little “ISM” can make a whole lot of difference.

We were probably more prepared for this show, musically speaking, than for any other show in recent memory. We got off of the paper in rehearsal earlier than we had in the past. We spent the final month or two polishing up each number. We sang music that was, for the most part, familiar with the singers, having done an Irish show about 6-7 hears ago. So what’s bugging me?

The music vs. the song

For the most part, we sang the music but not the song. We replicated the musical notes and words, but failed to capture the essence, the soul, of the song. Similar to an earlier blog post (see “Singing with Soul” posted on 10/29/06), I heard good harmonies and in-tune singing, but I didn’t hear much emotion.

A knowledgeable barbershopper was asked to critique the show for a program known as “Standing Ovation.” He commented: “The guys need to smile more, to emote more. It was an unsettling and sharp contrast between you [meaning me, the director] and the chorus.”

One of the biggest nuts that I am trying to crack is the notion that a non-competition chorus, such as the MountainAires, just needs to sing well. “We don’t want to do choreography or show emotion. That’s why we joined a non-competition chorus.” Getting the guys to even move during a song has been a challenge for me.

An example

One of the songs that we sang was Don Gray’s arrangement of “My Wild Irish Rose.” I felt that I had interpreted the song well enough to carry the meaning of the lyrics. Yet the louds lacked power, and the softs were weak. There seemed to be little emotion behind the music. One look at most of the singer’s faces and you’d see what was missing. There was no heartfelt expression to the lines: “Some day, to her I’ll propose. And if she will agree, that’s heaven for me!” That line, and many other lines that came before and after, cried out for some feeling behind the notes.

Willingness to be vulnerable

As singers, we need to be vulnerable. A dictionary defines vulnerability as “the state of being open to criticism or censure.” That’s not a state that we naturally want to inhabit. But vulnerability doesn’t mean that you will be wounded (the root of the word). Instead, the operating words are “the state of being open.” If we just allow ourselves to be open to express the emotion of a song – be it joy, loneliness, love, sorrow, excitement, broken heartedness, forgiveness – we can turn a piece of music into a wonderful experience for member and audience alike. Openness, in a safe and protected environment such as the brotherhood or sisterhood of barbershop singers, is a good thing.

Musical potholes

Musical potholes are the little things in a song — note intervals, lyrics, word combinations, consonants — that make understanding the song a challenge to the listener.

Our job as singers is not as easy as we might think. We have to do extra work so that the audience doesn’t have to. What do I mean?

How often have you heard a song on the radio or elsewhere, and wondered: “What did they say?” Once you saw the lyrics printed out, or had someone else tell you what that line was, only then did you say: “Oh, now I understand!”

We must work extra hard to make the lyrics understandable so that the audience members don’t have to wonder what we just sang. Let me give you some examples from the music my chorus is doing on St. Patrick’s Day.

Examples

In the song At the End of a Cobblestone Road is the lyric: “from my Ireland, far over the sea.” If the singer doesn’t take the extra effort to pronounce the “r” in Ireland, the line sounds like: “from my island, far over the sea.”

The introduction to It’s a Great Day for the Irish contains another pothole. “March 17″ is difficult to sing because of the “ch” on the end of the first word, and the “s” sound on the beginning of the next word. The singer must put out the extra effort to pronounce the “ch” sound in the word March before singing the next word. It takes thoughtfulness to do this right.

Here are some other lyrical potholes to avoid:

• Sing hour whenever you see the word our — otherwise, it comes across as are.
• Sing your and you’re like it rhymes with sewer. Without that effort, it can sound like yore.
• Sing aisle whenever you come across the work I’ll — otherwise, the word sounds like ahl.
• Sing difficult words, like there’ll, with the extra effort that it takes to pronounce all the syllables.

There are other potholes that are hidden in our music. I’d like to hear from you about the others that you have come across, and how you avoid them.

Bottom line

The bottom line is this: Singing well is more than just learning the notes, the words, the choreography, and the dynamics. You must also make the conscious effort to find those potholes and do what it takes to smooth over them so that your audience doesn’t have a bumpy ride.

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.

We all seem to want a better sounding singing voice, section, and chorus. All of our chapter educators – directors, assistant directors, sound specialists, and choreographers – can impart all of their training and knowledge to you, the listener. But all of that knowledge falls silent unless you, the listener, put it into practice.

Think back to the last time you sang. Did you do anything differently from what you have been doing before? Were you conscious of trying something differently? Be honest now. You probably are like the rest of us who must answer “No” to that question.

A realization

So here’s the deal. Your quartet, your section, your chorus will not get any better unless you make a conscious decision that you want to improve. Then you must make a conscious effort to do the things that will make you better. (Did I emphasize the important word enough?)

It really all comes down to you, after all. You must do something differently when you sing. You must be the one who tries supporting your tone with proper breathing techniques. You must be the one who stands tall with an open chest. You must be the one who consciously tries to change what you have been doing on an unconscious level up until now.

If each “you” in your chapter makes this effort, then the improved results that you want to hear will happen. You and you alone hold the power.