Intonation - Postscript (had to post this!)

Sorry, I really AM done with the series, but couldn't avoid posting this--credit to ToneDeafComics.com:

Intonation XIV - Final Thoughts

OK, no such thing as "final" thoughts on a topic as big as choral intonation! But this IS the final installation in this long series of posts. No more (unless I respond to your comments) until late August--if you have thoughts on new topics of interest, send a note!

A resource I've used is a book on choral intonation by P.G. Alldahl, a Swedish composer (and choral conductor) who followed Lars Edlund as the teacher and coordinator of ear training at the Conservatory in Stockholm. I met P.G. in 1990 when doing research for my dissertation and he's a fascinating person. I have a copy of the Swedish version of his book on Choral Intonation, which deals with ideas of just intonation, exercises of how to approach it, with examples from the literature. What I didn't realize (stupidly) until now is that there's an English version of the book. It's published by Gehrmans and the Swedish price (228 kr) is currently the equivilent of ca. $35, but I don't know about shipping. You could order directly from Gehrmans, but I've also had great luck (and quick response) from Bo Ejeby, who is not only a publisher, but a retailer. He's very quick to respond and ship and you can order with your credit card. I've just gone ahead and ordered a copy for myself, since the English version has been updated and, as you'll see from this short sample pdf, also deals with some interesting literature in terms of problems (Verdi Ave Maria, for example). So sorry I didn't think of this earlier, since it's a great resource for many of the ideas I and others discussed earlier in terms of just tuning.

Thinking a bit more about Eric Ericson's approach, I thought I'd offer some thoughts about what I've seen him (and other Swedes) do.

Eric's (and many Swedish) choirs have long been known for really beautiful, in-tune singing. Eric would say that the Swedish language has some advantages: all very pure vowels and a legato, connected way of speaking (he would also say that "the front side has a back side," that Swedes have to work harder for crisp rhythm or diction, for example). As I noted early on, pure unified vowels go a long way towards helping with good intonation.

But Eric always had a particularly accute ear and early on developed a keen interest in excellent intonation. Of course, Eric was trained as an organist and pianist, so came from the background of equal tempered tuning. When I was in Sweden the summer of 1990, it was he who introduced me to P.G. Alldahl and Eric was very aware at that time of just intonation and incorporated it into his tuning. I suspect it may have happened as early as his trip to Basel after World War II, when he studied at the Schola Cantorum with people such as the pioneering viola da gambist, August Wenzinger, Ina Lohr and others. He had a particular interest in early music and, in fact, his (at that time 16-voice) Chamber Choir was founded in 1945 specifically to perform early music his group of friends had studied, but had never heard. If he did not come across other ideas of tuning possibilities at that time, he certainly would have in the late 1960s when there were some notable collaborations between his Chamber Choir and Niklaus Harnoncourt's Concentus Musicus. And by the time I was in Sweden, Eric was regularly collaborating with the period-instrument Drottningholm Baroque Ensemble as well. 

In addition, to do contemporary scores (of the sort Eric conducted) justice, it required new skills with pitch for both choir and conductor. As Eric said,

The music department at the Radio had many competent people who really jumped on impulses and picked up all the big personalities of the 1950s . . . I sat there with my choirmaster position . . . and was ordered, here comes Stravinsky, here comes Hindemith, and they want to guest conduct their pieces with the Radio Choir, etc.--and I had to be able to study all that. But of course it also meant incredibly inspiring contacts and demanding jobs--"Here you go--study this Dallapiccola . . . "--and that was horrendously difficult at that time! So we stood there with our assignments, and it was exciting for us to jump into all of this modern music.

And then,

You asked how technique and proficiency developed, and I can almost mention certain pieces which were "rungs on the ladder" . . . because that's how I feel so strongly when we've learned a difficult and very good piece. I'm thinking naturally from the viewpoint of the Chamber Choir with [Lidholm's] Laudi from 1947, Fyra körer from 1953, then the big pieces of Stravinsky, Nono . . . Dallapiccola perhaps most of all, which is where we learned to read notes and rhythms. And then of course we have a Swedish piece, again by Lidholm [1956--Canto], that we struggled with for half a year. I have a certain sense that, when you "come out on the other side" after having done a piece like Lidholm's Canto, you are a better musician, a better conductor, a better chorister. Canto feels like a final exam for the '50s choral life . . . early pieces that were difficult tonally and rhythmically became less so. Canto combined all the difficulties one was thrown between.

To sing this music well requires tight control of pitch. When you sing clusters or demanding non-tonal chord constructions, too much vibrato or any vague sense of the pitch simply doesn't work. For the music to sound, the pitches have to be very precise (and more likely with equal temperament, of course). 

I had an interesting experience when doing Lars Edlund's Gloria with my PLU choir (a piece that was very effective with our audiences, once I introduced it with verbal program notes). It involves quarter steps, which are never, however, used harmonically--the choir simply "bends" a note a quarter step higher or lower, then back again--it's an ornamental inflection. In almost all performances I'd heard (including Eric's!) the quarter steps were really close to half steps. So I worked in the following way: 

• First, we did Robert Shaw style exercises to learn how much distance there really is between a half step and worked these regularly--for example, ultimately having two parts (in octaves men/women) a half step apart gradually "change places" (the higher pitch sliding downward, the lower pitch sliding upward), but at a specific tempo and length, with the goal that half way through we'd meet briefly on the quarter tone (we weren't exact, but got quite good at it).
• I also had our composition teacher help me program our Yamaha DX-7 to play quarter-tones. When we worked on the sections with the quarter-tone inflections, I wouldn't allow them (for quite a long time) to sing them--they stayed on pitch and I played the inflections for them, so they could hear an absolutely mathematically accurate quarter-tones.
• Finally, I allowed them to sing the quarter-tones themselves, which they did quite well

The interesting thing was that piece never went flat or sharp during 12 or so performances on tour--other pieces did, but not the Edlund. I think all the intensive work they did on pitch in that work resulted in such a keen sense of where those pitches were (and the consequent muscle and tonal memory) that they had it totally locked and could reproduce it no matter what the acoustic or how tired they were. 

Certainly, I've found that work with contemporary music which requires intense concentration on non-tonal pitches gives the choir a much keener sense of intonation, which can carry over into other music as well.

To get back to Eric:

The kinds of things I alluded to (and which P.G. has in his book) about using the piano to give "pedal" reference notes for intonation come directly from watching Eric in rehearsal. So, a bit about Eric's use of the piano (whether he played or an accompanist--all of whom knew his methods quite well).

First, Eric was a superb pianist with a marvelous, light and "vocal" touch. He almost always played with the una corda ("soft") pedal down and created a transparent, non-percussive sound. Too often I hear either conductors or accompanists pound notes in a way which invites harsh attacks and sound. Never from Eric or his accompanists. I saw Eric work with his own choirs (the Chamber Choir, Conservatory Chamber Choir, and Orphei Drängar), in masterclasses with a "put-together" choir of Americans or Canadians, or at the 1990 IFCM in Stockholm, and guest conducting the first concert of Choral Arts in Seattle as well as other choirs, plus at two workshops at PLU when I taught there. So please understand that we're not talking beginning choirs!

He never simply played along with the choir, doubling what they did. Here's what was typical:

• sometimes without the choir singing, he'd simply play (normally from memory) the music (Bach's Der Geisthilft, for example, demonstrating all important parts), saying, "I think it might go like this," giving a very complete idea of rhythm, phrasing, and shape
• he would often play pedals (usually in the treble, above the soprano, but also bass lines) to help establish pitch (but without implying equal tempered intonation and working for just intonation)--often "rocking" an octave back and forth to keep the sound going
• in something very slow, he would often improvise a melody above the choir in 16th notes, so there was always a pulse audible
• if the music was harmonically complicated, he would either play (as in the first example) something for the choir, but never exactly what the choir sang--simply a reduction of the harmonic content and shifts so the choir could hear it easier
• he would also help the choir hear the harmony when it was complicated by playing below and above  choir choir (a bass-line and treble chords), but not in their pitch area
• and, of course, much of the time the choir sang a cappella -- he played only when it was necessary to help stay in tune, or to help with one of the musical issues listed above

Eric also loved jazz and could improvise in a jazz style rather easily. One of the things I remember from conducting classes was him having all the conductors conducting (asking them to reflect the music--light/heavy, etc.--in their conducting), beginning with the opening of the St. Matthew Passion and then evolving to a jazz version with all sorts of syncopations, etc., all to provoke the conductors to show more of the music in their conducting.

Eric had excellent ears, as I've said, but not perfect pitch. He recorded nearly every rehearsal and would listen to it afterwards--I remember my first time in Sweden in 1989, where I accompanied him and Orphei Drängar on a short tour, when after the concert in the bus, he'd put on his headphones to listen to the recording, humming and occasionally checking pitches on his little Casio keyboard to see exactly where the choir started to go flat or sharp.

An amazing man!

It's been a pleasure to write these posts--good for me to re-think what I just do and get feedback and new ideas from others. Have a great summer!

Intonation XIII - Answering questions from comments

As I bring this (long!) series to an end, I'll attempt to answer questions or highlight comments made by others to this series--a huge thanks to those who took the time to comment, correct, or add to what I've said. I will likely say a few things more on Saturday before signing off for the summer. If you have questions, ask them now!

A number of people have brought up issues of singing technique. My earlier posts (here, here, and here) [note that these links connect to my posts on ChoralBlog--that's where most the comments are] deal with different aspects. A few mentioned mouth position for vowels and yes, this is important. While not all singers will use the same mouth position for the same vowels (for example, I was suprised watching John Potter, a former member of the Hilliard Ensemble, to see how little he opens his mouth!), with young singers what you see can be an important clue to what they're doing correctly or incorrectly. Get out of the score and watch your singers!

On my last post, both Stephen Bigger and William Copper (my most prolific commenter and one of the most interesting!) offered comments. Stephen spoke of tongue position (follow the link to the comments to see the specifics). While I don't disagree with anything he said, I tend to be conservative about dealing with issues of the tongue with my choirs. Primarily, this is because I can't monitor something like tongue position very well with a large group of singers. In the private voice studio I would certainly do this, but then I can closely and easily monitor what the singer does and correct it, if necessary. It's very easy, in a large group of singers, for an individual to misunderstand what I say and for me not to notice it. Part of this, of course, is also that I've been dealing for a long time with relatively experienced singers (at PLU or UNT with singers who are almost all taking private voice). I expect that their teacher will deal with those issues, and also don't want to "step on" the voice teacher's toes! Both at PLU and UNT the relationship between voice faculty and choral faculty is extraordinarily good (not always the case, I know!) and I want to make sure that the things I ask for are congruent with teaching in the studio. If I see/hear something specific happening with one of my students, I don't hesitate to speak to their teacher and ask about it. On the other hand, if I was working with a younger group where almost no one was taking voice lessons, I'd probably do much more--as I mentioned in an earlier post, for many conductors, you are the primary voice teacher for your singers.

The post just before that got the largest number of comments. I responded to most of them there, so won't reproduce all of them (you can read them yourselves), but thought I'd reference solfege here, since I haven't spoken of it. I'm far from an expert in solfege, but because most of my current singers are from Texas and the UIL requirements are to read with moveable do solfege, I will sometimes have my choir either read or rehearse with solfege. In terms of intonation, solfege offers several advantages, among them: singable vowels and the singer learning where various scale degrees "belong" pitch-wise. Much as with count-singing, however, I tend to use occasionally as a tool, rather than as part of my regular teaching/rehearsal pattern. That has to do with my background and what, over the years, I've found works for me - it may be to my detriment!

Again, personal experience: I came to college not really reading, but having always learned by ear. I'd taken some piano lessons the summer before I started and knew note names and key signatures, but not to the point where it was  automatic. I had to work really hard to catch up since I was so far behind the other singers and instrumentalists in my theory and sightsinging classes (by the way, Joan Conlon was my freshman year ear-training teacher). We learned with moveable do (although with do-re-me minor, not la-ti-do). This was very helpful for me initially, since it did give me a reference point for where pitches were in relation to Do. However, I never became truly quick and proficient with solfege (I later worked a bit on fixed-do solfege as well, after an experience with a teacher trained that way), so can't, for example, read with solfege syllables as fast as many of my students do (although I can read far better and more accurately than they can!). It's my experience that solfege (unless you're incredibly well trained) doesn't help much with really chromatic music of the 19th century or 20th/21st century music.

Basically I learned to read . . . by reading. I sang in virtually every grad student's recital (Bruce Browne was one of the DMA students at the UW at that time, for example) and simply got to the place where I had enough experience to just read. With some friends I also got together regularly to read madrigals (wine was also involved!). I believe strongly that one learns to read by reading - it's one of the reasons I'll almost always let my choir read the music we're doing, unless it's so difficult that's just not possible. I encourage them to read however it works best for them, given the difficulty of the music: complete with words, with solfege, on neutral syllables--whatever's easiest--and if they get lost, find their way and jump back in, not giving up. I want them to have that experience. I also encourage them to sing in a good church choir (around here, many of them can get a position as a paid section leader), which will force them to read and learn a lot of repertoire. If you know Nancy Telfer's sightreading series, I think she makes some excellent points about reading with text.

When I started doing more 20th century music, particularly after I became interested in Swedish music, I worked some with Lars Edlund's classic Modus novus, which is a great primer to reading non-tonal music. And as I conducted more and more such music, my score-study and preparation made me a much better musician and reader of this music. It really is all about experience.

Next, choral gesture as it relates to intonation: William Copper wrote a post with a great question: WHO adjusts pitch to tune a choir? I'd encourage you to read all of it and the responses. Eugene Lysinger responds with a comment about choral gesture, referencing the work of Rodney Eichenberger (yes, my first real conducting teacher and Eugene and I sang together with Rod some 40 years ago--and I sang in at least one of Eugene's grad recitals at the time). This is to the effect of gesture on intonation (and the way singers sing).

I certainly still use some of Rod's concepts, although I don't conduct as low as most of his students do. But I'm concerned with getting energy where it belongs (lower, where the breath comes from) and not giving tense, high gestures that can cause singers throat tension. It's not that singers can't ignore that, but it's harder than you'd think! Even experienced/professional singers will find it more difficult and young singers will almost invariably get tension where you don't want it and cause vocal and intonation problems. 

I want my gesture to engender the breath flow that my singers need to sing well. It has to flow with the phrase. My sense is that gesture can be higher if there is no tension and it also depends on how close I am to my singers. My preference is NOT to be too close to the choir. That makes a huge difference. I don't want tension in my hand (thumb and forefinger pinched together, for example) or in my shoulders. 

Eugene also references a technique of Rod's using the hand (of the singer!) to lift the soft palate. I use this all the time and with groups that are fairly experienced or absolute beginners. Easy to show, hard to say in words! I turn to my left, so the choir sees me from the side. With my right hand held next to my face (like a karate chop, with the side of my hand directly toward them), I'll ask the choir to do exactly as I do. The hand is first at a 45 degree angle and very flat/straight. I ask them to sing an ah on a given pitch. While they're singing I rotate my hand forward and curve to create an arch in my hand (they copy this, of course). I then go back and forth between the two hand positions. The difference in sound is remarkable, since any singer, regardless of training, will lift the soft palate as the hand mimics the position of the soft palate. It's physiologically impossible for them not to lift the soft palate. Once they've done this a few times, I can use my left hand in this manner to remind them, even in a performance, since it will remind them of the physical feeling of lifting the soft palate. This is one of the things I said early on was an important part of vocal technique to sing in tune. Try it if you haven't before! (Rod's video, What They See is What You Get, will give you lots of ideas about this topic and lots of things to try).

And finally, back to one of my original topics of just intonation: William Copper, as part of a series of comments here said, first quoting someone else, "This method becomes somewhat tricky when singing through the circle of 5ths are what was once your 5th scale degree (tuned higher), is now the root of the new key, so constant adjustments must be made." 

William then followed this with, "It becomes VERY tricky VERY fast: you simply cannot sing many chord progressions in just intonation, period.   As a very simple and ubiquitous example, the progression I vi ii V I in root position (triads in C major: C , a minor, d minor, G major, C major) is impossible to sing accurately.  Not just difficult, impossible." He then offered: "I recently posted an illustrative video-score of a four-part a cappella piece, with a tuning graph for each voice on youtube, showing just how dramatically changeable tuning must be to keep both harmonic and melodic intonation pure. Contact me for the link if interested." www.hartenshield.com

I think he's dead on about the (in)ability for choirs to keep to just intonation all  the time. And I don't try to do that, quite honestly. I also work primarily by ear and demonstration. I'm always concerned with: 1) working with the choir initially so they hear and can produce good unisons, fifths and pure thirds 2) working to get pure thirds at cadences (in passing harmonies I won't be as concerned) and 3) working to stay in tune (i.e. in a cappella music, not going either sharp or flat).

One of the things one has to deal with, given pure thirds and trying to stay at the same pitch, is how to accomodate both. Oversimplifying, barbershoppers want the lead (melody) to sing in tune with the (equal-tempered) piano--then the harmony parts must sing pure intervals from the lead, no matter whether it's on the root, third or fifth. The other way to do this is to keep the roots of the chords in tune (i.e. with the equal-tempered piano) and tune purely around that. That's what I'm more likely to do. 

If you know Bruckner's Os justi (or can look at a copy from cpdl), we can use the opening as an example. It opens with an F major chord, 3rd in the soprano. I want that chord tuned purely (so will avoid giving the chord on the piano, but teach the choir how to tune "justly" from just the F)--the A will be lower than on the piano. Next the bass sings a passing tone E to D, where the chord switches to d minor. In this case, I want my basses to sing a fairly high E-natural and a D that matches the piano (it's easy to sing too wide a half step from F to E, so the D is flat--it's also a question of vowel--from the ee of justi to the eh of meditabitur the basses must concentrate on a forward eh vowel, not too far from the ee). That means the soprano A to D has to be a fraction higher to make sure the lower pitch of the A (3rd of F major) to the D that will match the basses's tempered D. In the fifth bar there's a G major chord with the 3rd in the soprano (slightly lower), but in the next bar the same B is the fifth of an e minor chord (and perhaps a fraction higher). Note that I'm not telling them to sing X cents higher, but pointing out what needs to be higher or lower, getting them to listen carefully and place the notes accordingly (I may need to demonstrate as well where the notes belong). Having "anchor" chords which must be tuned justly is part of what I figure out when learning the piece. William mentioned in a previous comment about the need to sing sometimes with equally tempered intonation, and that's absolutely true. You have to figure that out by the accompaniment (you can't retune the piano or organ, although strings, winds and brass can all play with just intonation) and by the style. If a composer clearly thinks in equal temperament, sometimes just intonation simply doesn't work (William gives a good example).

This may sound complicated, but it's really a matter of getting the basses to sing their line absolutely in tune with the piano, but the parts above to listen carefully and tune to it (it's one of the reasons why, if my choir is in sections, the basses are most often behind the sopranos--it makes it easier for the sopranos to tune if they hear the bass part, which often has the roots). IF they've learned what nice just major and minor chords sound like, it's not as difficult as it may seem. Of course, to do this well, they have to have all the basics down and be able to sing this with very little vibrato so the chords tune. Again, I'm not attempting to tune every single chord with just intonation, but listen for those places where it makes a difference, and particularly at cadences.

Do the basses always stick with the piano? No. In Lauridsen's O Nata Lux the opening chord is a D major 9th with the basses and sopranos on the 3rd. Here, I give a D, but want the basses and sopranos to sing a pure third (lower than the piano). In order to keep the piece in tune I may play single note pedals (usually above the soprano part, where it's more easily heard) that usually (not always) correspond to the roots of chords. 

Once again, this has gone on longer than I thought!

I'll post at least one more time and address a few more issues. If you have any final questions, ask them in the comments section or send a note.

Intonation XII - What to do when the choir goes flat?

I had no idea this topic was going to go on this long! Comments from all of you talented people (on ChoralBlog) keep new posts and ideas coming. As I said in my initial post, intonation is a complicated subject.

 

If you haven't looked at the comments on ChoralBlog, please do so! This community has many sharp (I don't mean pitch!) and talented people, and they've added to what I've written. My last post got a lot of excellent comments--take a look here. I gain as much as I give here.

 

So, now to flatting (I'm speaking here primarily in a cappella music)! What do we do about it? As with all to do with intonation, it depends on the cause. There's no one reason why the choir goes flat. I remember Michael Korn saying at a workshop one time that the proper use of the left hand was a finger pointing up, reminding the choir not to flat! I can't agree with that very much, although a gesture can help at times.

 

First (and sorry, this isn't the magic answer you may be seeking!), you have to work constantly on those things we've been talking about:

• good vocal technique
• unified vowels - good placement of vowels
• good unisons and octaves (and perhaps a vibrato that doesn't obscure the pitch--YMWV/"your mileage will vary"--my way of saying that everyone's taste will vary here!)
• work on whatever tuning system you choose--if it's just intonation, the choir has to learn where those major thirds belong, for example
• good rhythmic ensemble and vowels that coincide when they should
• tuning exercises--I highly recommend John Goldsmith's exercises!

It should be said that this is a long-term plan, not something that happens overnight. It's an important part of your training the choir and choir members to be better musicians and to have better ensemble and vocal skills. And it's work that never ends--do you think the Swedish Radio Choir never rehearses these things? Of course they do! At a different level than most of us do, but they constantly address all these issues, too.

 

It also means that your rehearsal plan needs to be appropriate to each stage of the choir's development on a particular program. In the early learning stages, don't overwhelm with too much at once. Work on neutral syllables or count-sing (instead of text), work at a slower tempo (so they can absorb the pitches and harmonies better). Pace your rehearsal well so the hardest work comes when they're still fresh, and make sure that demands are varied throughout the rehearsal (see my earlier posts on rehearsal technique).

 

Separately from this, what's the room like where you rehearse? Easy or difficult for them to hear each other? Too reverberant, not reverberant enough? Temperature relatively well-controlled, or often too hot or cold? These aren't always things you can control, but if you can, do so! I've worked in great and terrible rooms, but manage to make it work in all. But if you can work in a better room or improve the room you're in, you'll want to do it.

 

But, assuming you're doing the things on the list above (appropriate to the level of your choir), what goes into a choir singing flat? Back to basics first--your diagnosis has to tell you why they're going flat. Possible reasons and solutions:

• poor breath management - remind them about proper use of the breath -- are they slumping in their chairs? Are they using enough breath energy?
• are descending intervals too wide? If they've done exercises such as John's, your feedback will mean something to them and they can make adjustments, for example, on a descending minor third that is too wide (a common fault)
• are the vowels dull or placed too far back? work with them on brightening and bringing vowels forward -- have them sing on a brighter vowel/syllable (tee), then go back to text -- do a quick exercise to bring the primary vowels that are poorly placed where they should be
• are they singing with a lowered soft palate? do an exercise to get them to raise the soft palate
• do they "scoop" up to pitches? then work with them on making sure each onset is exactly in tune
• is the key part of the problem? Perhaps you need to try transposing up or down.
• how about their energy on the day? or a room that is too hot? do something to bring up their energy, a physical exercise/movement, switching to a lively piece that they like, etc.

All of these are possible problems and solutions. Your experience, listening and observation (what you see in the choir can often give a clue to the items above) will tell you a lot about why they're flat and what to do about it.

 

But there's another issue that I spoke of last time: that of tonal memory. Patrick Taylor, in a response to that post, said that he believes it's more about muscle memory than tonal memory--and I should have mentioned that. It's certainly a combination of those elements (thanks, Patrick!). I can't say what the percentage is of each, but it doesn't really matter. If the choir sings flat for very long, or sings an interval too far down on the descending side or not far enough up on the ascending side . . . they will memorize that as correct (whether tonal or muscle memory). And once they do that, it's very hard to get them to sing it correctly.

 

For that reason, I don't want to allow the group to sing under pitch when they learn a piece. I will use the piano in the following ways:

• I (or my accompanist) will play some chords or pitches to keep us in key, but not play constantly
• we can also play pedal notes (in the bass or the treble--usually below or above where the choir is singing) that help establish correct pitch
• it's possible to play along with them as well, but I'd try the other options first

I simply don't want them to start to learn the piece in the wrong key.

 

By the same token, I have to be very aware of melodic patterns or intervals that are flat (the descending minor third above is an example). The choir or section needs to be made aware of that and correct it. Again, singing that flat just a few times will make it a part of how they hear and feel that passage and it will be much more difficult to sing in tune.

 

There will also be difficult transitions/modulations or a difficult series of chords to tune. Special time needs to be spent here. I remember during one of the rehearsals I did preparing the Swedish Radio Choir where the accompanist (Mikael Engström, a wonderful musician!) said, "take some time and care there--it's a dangerous place." You can't gloss over these passages, but need to make sure the choir is very secure.

 

Chords may need to be tuned in isolation. Are unisons and octaves really unisons? You may need to point out a place where the tenors and sopranos are in octaves so they listen and tune together. There also may be dissonances that have to be pointed out--if the basses and altos sing a major seventh, but aren't aware of it, they may try to "correct" by ear to an octave. Those are places where I'll isolate just those sections of the choir. Just asking the choir to listen (unless they're very accomplished) won't do the trick--you have to point out to them what to listen to and how to correct the tuning.

 

Of course, I'm also aware of other causes--if it's vocal/vowel, I have to fix that. If it's poor rhythm, I have to fix that.

 

Additionally, when learning (and remember, more of their conscious brain power is focused on finding the right pitch, rhythm or word) I have to be aware of tempo. Music that is fast has to be rehearsed more slowly, so they have time to perceive the correct pitches, hear and reproduce them. By the same token, slow music might have to be taken faster--it's very difficult to sustain a slow tempo vocally, and when they're learning, I want it to move at a tempo that makes it easier. As they know it better and have control of pitch, then I can gradually slow down or speed up towards the real tempo.

 

The key may need to be changed. This can come about because you realize that the key simply doesn't work for your choir and moving it up or down makes it comfortable and they sing in tune. Or you can plan for it. I used an example of this in a response to the last blog: I know that Weston Noble was once preparing the Nordic Choir to do Bach's Singet dem Herrn, which is written in Bb, but was probably done during Bach's time at a pitch close to a half-step lower - Weston rehearsed the choir in Ab almost exclusively and then raised the pitch to A major just as they began performances . . . and apparently had no flatting problems whatsoever. Here I think he was taking advantage of the fact that the new key (A major) was a very fresh one for the choir with no memory (muscle or tonal) of any problems in the lower key. It also may have been helped by being in a sharp, rather than flat key (although we can argue about whether this is psychological or physiological!).

 

My mind is starting to go and I'm brain-dead, even though there is much more to say. Please add your ideas in the comments! Help us all out with your ideas!

 

If I have enough mind left, I'll make a couple last posts on this topic next week. Happy weekend!

Intonation XI - Tonal Memory--A Two-Edged Sword

John Goldsmith's two guest posts (here and here) demonstrate a wonderful way to train your choirs to remember and audiate patterns, shifts of tonality, accurate half and whole steps, scales, etc. He creates ways to train the tonal memory in a positive way, which will help your choir in reading as well as to sing better in tune. It's a learnable skill.

 

Tonal memory can work against us as well, however. Singers have impressive abilities to memorize where pitches are.

 

On the positive side, Robert Fountain used to do an exercise in tonal memory with an Eb Major chord (from the bottom up: root, 5th, root 3rd), asking his choirs to be able to produce it from memory at any time. I've known other conductors who've worked on that kind of memory (not perfect pitch, but to develop a memory for a particular chord or pitch).

 

When I'm working on a piece intensively, I almost always find that if I don't think about it, but simply begin singing it, I'm almost invariably in the correct key (I don't have perfect pitch). My choirs can often do this as well.

 

But it also takes little time to memorize pitches incorrectly. An example:

 

With my PLU choir I did John Gardner's wonderful and dramatic, A Latter-Day Athenian Speaks (published by Oxford, now available only on rental, it's a fabulous--and difficult--a cappella setting ca. 13 minutes long). We'd been working on it, preparing for a January-Term tour to the mid-west and east coast. The end of the piece has a dramatic double-choir fugue and, even though we'd been singing it well in tune through the rehearsal process, when we got to the first performance, the choir (with all of the energy and excitement that goes with a first concert) drove that section of the piece a half step sharp. After that, we always sang it sharp. I'd rehearse it with some reference pitches from the piano and they'd lock it in, but in concert they'd be a half step sharp within very few bars. In essence, they now memorized going sharp there, heard the opening of the fugue that way, and no matter what I did, that's what was going to happen.

 

The power of tonal memory is just that strong.

 

It's one of the reasons that you have to be very careful not to allow your choir to flat or go sharp early in the learning process--it quickly becomes a part of how they hear the music and tonality. It's a reason to listen carefully early in the process. It's also why rehearsing well, not trying to do too much too soon, or using Robert Shaw-style count-singing/rehearsal techniques, etc., can make a huge difference in whether your choir stays in tune or goes flat (more usual than sharp, of course).

 

It's also the reason why, if your choir has been going flat in a particular key, if you suddenly raise the pitch by a half-step, they may be able to keep it in tune: you've moved out of the tonality where they've memorized going flat. They can now approach it with a fresh sense of where those pitches belong.

 

It's not about listening! Sometimes we say, "Listen!" . . . well, how could they go a quarter-step flat, exactly together, unless they were listening to each other?!

 

I'll write next about some ways to rehearse to avoid these kinds of problems. The use of the piano in rehearsal is a part of that.

 

Until Saturday!

Intonation X - Calibrating the Ear II - John Goldsmith

This is the second part of John Goldsmith's Calibrating the Ear warm-ups. To understand this, you must first read Part I! The singing of chromatic and whole-tone scales will be done every day, along with the earlier exercises. The more advanced exercises can be added later if you wish.

 

These are great exercises which will vastly improve the ability of your choir to sing accurately and in tune--but only if you do them regularly!

 

Singing chromatic and whole-tone scales (the ultimate test for accurate chromatic calibration!)

By concentrating on the ear rather than the voice, you accomplish much more than simply warming up!  After the minor melody exercise have your singers ascend the chromatic scale a cappella singing "doo-doo" while you conduct quarter notes in an Andante tempo.  Ask them to sing the octave up and down first (or a 1-3-5-8-1 arpeggio), to establish the aural destination (I suggest the "D-D" or C#-C# octave - relatively comfortable for all voice parts).  

 

The first time they will over-shoot or under-shoot the octave after those twelve notes! Sing the octave again. Repeat the chromatic scale up in quarters. Work until they can sing an accurate chromatic scale up and down, ending on the same pitch with which they began.

 

Remind them to sing softly (mp dynamic).

 

When they can sing the chromatic scale accurately up and down at a steady tempo (all quarter notes) have them sing up with quarter-notes, down the chromatic scale in 8th notes, then back up in triplets, and down again in 16ths.  Don't change the tempo - make the singers do the subdivisions with good ensemble. It's not easy to do the chromatic scale accurately at a rapid tempo, but they will get it.

 

The most important skill for singers is the ability to sing and hear the difference between half-steps and whole-steps . . . which leads to the next step: the whole-tone scale. This scale has only six tones.  Sing the octave again, then repeat as above . . . up the whole tone scale in quarters, down in 8ths, up in triplets, down in 16ths.  The Whole-tone scale takes a bit longer to learn, but you will be surprised how quickly it sinks in!

 

Singing minor and major arpeggios:

Conclude with singing minor arpeggios up and a major arpeggio down (start around B, since it's easy for all voice ranges). Remember, you must be able to demonstrate this! Each shift up a half-step must be done without the piano.

 

If this becomes easy, you can work on arpeggios with all minor thirds (diminished) or major thirds (augmented).

 

Some Advanced Techniques:

 

Once your singers can sing the minor melodies shifting down by half-steps accurately, the chromatic and whole-tone scales, and minor/major arpeggios, challenge their tonal memories as follows:  Sing to them a different five-note minor melody, ask them to sing it back . . . then ask them to "audiate" the melody (i.e. hear it silently in your head), then say "OK, sing the 3rd note when I conduct it."  Might not work at first . . . try again.  Then try shifting the five-note down by a whole step, or up by a half-step.  Then "audiate in that tonality, and sing the 4th (or 2nd) note on my cue."  You can also create five-note melodies based on the whole-tone scale using these tonal memory exercises.  Even more advanced: sing a 5-note melody, have them sing it back, then - in silence - ask them to shift down a whole step plus a half-step and audiate in that tonality . . . then "sing the 3rd note when I conduct you!"  If they can do this their tonal memories are STRONG!

 

Again, my huge thanks to John for sharing with us!

Intonation IX - Calibrating the Ear--John Goldsmith

John Goldsmith is a terrific musician, directs the Heinz Chapel Choir at the University of Pittsburg, and teaches the musicianship courses for the Music Department. He was a member of Chanticleer and sang with Robert Shaw in France. If you wish to reach him directly about his workshops, contact him through his email address at the University of Pittsburg.

 

I first came across John's Calibrating the Ear--Developing Tonal Memory workshop material through Simon Carrington, requested a copy (which John gladly gave), and then met him briefly at a NW ACDA Conference. I've used these exercises with my choirs at PLU and found them valuable. I haven't used them since coming to UNT but, now that I'm reminded about them with this blog series, plan to this fall! I highly recommend them. This is the first of two parts:

 

Definition: Tonal memory is the ability to accurately sing back long phrases of melodic line after one hearing. This ability develops into the skill of singing in tune and maintaining a stable key center in a cappella singing.

 

Premise: Most choral directors do vocal warm-ups with the choirs prior to beginning rehearsals. The most common method is to sing five-note scales or arpeggios up and down, possibly while playing along on the piano. The exercises are usually done in major mode and all tonal shifts are given to the singers with the piano. This type of warm-up actually prevents the development of tonal memory because: 1) no one really "listens" when singing in the major mode, 2) singers go on "automatic" and simply match pitch without thinking if the piano plays along, and 3) singers are not asked to engage their intellects or use their ears.

 

The Ear Calibration Warm-up system is an a cappella warm-up which utilizes patterns in the minor mode (which is so odd that singers actually pay attention), thus turning on that illusive "listening switch" in the brain. By teaching the fundamental skill of being able to hear and sing the difference between half and whole steps, tonal memory is developed and expanded, parts are learned more quickly, unisons are beautiful, and singing in tune becomes automatic. 

 

At first the routine may take 8-10 minutes. Don't be impatient--tonal memory takes time to develop and the initial investment will be well worth it! Furthermore, the calibration rolls over from year to year, and new singers catch on quickly.

 

The Calibration Routine pre-supposes that the conductor can sing the given 5-note scale minor patterns, chromatic and whole-tone scales up and down, a cappella, in tune, and can demonstrate it.

 

Rehearsals are begun with a couple minutes of relaxing exercises (backrubs; shoulder rolls; movement of shoulders, arms, and face; yawns (raise the soft palate); and sprechstimme imitation (raise the soft palate). The Ear Calibration warm-ups must be done in an environment of silence. If there is a band playing next door your singers will not have enough quiet to hear that inner voice.

 

The First Step for Turning On the Brain's Listening Switch:

In a medium-high tessitura, using a neutral vowel (nyah, nyoh, nyoo) with no vibrato (you cannot tune vibrato!) in a soft dynamic, sing a five-note melody using the notes of the minor triad (e.g. mi-Do-re-ti-la) and ask your choir to sing it back to you. Then ask them to shift down one-half step and sing it again.  Even if the singers accurately shift down a half-step (not likely), the exercise will fail the first time because they will sing the melody back to you in major.  

 

Stop them . . . tell them what happened . . . say: "we are in minor, not major . . . make the 2nd note lower (i.e. "Do") - demonstrate.  Start over.  Sing the melody to them again and ask them to sing it back.  Pause.  Forbidding your singers to sing or hum, ask "can you still hear the first note (i.e. "mi") in your head?"  (If anyone sings or hums the pitch the entire exercise is ruined for everyone else . . . tonal memory gets exercised in silence!)  

 

Then ask them to silently shift down one-half step (NOBODY is allowed to sing or hum the new starting pitch!) and sing the melody back in the new tonality.  Chances are they will have shifted at least a whole step.  Repeat all this until they catch on to what a half step sounds like!.  At consecutive rehearsals change the order of the minor melody always beginning on the fifth (e.g. mi-ti-re-Do-la; mi-re-ti-Do-la; mi-la-re-ti-Do . . . etc.)  NOTE: by beginning in medium high tessitura and shifting down by half-steps the voice relaxes, and singers spend their concentration on the pitches rather than trying to sing higher and higher (and getting tighter and tighter).

 

Additonal notes:

• do the entire calibration warm-up routine at every rehearsal
• always entirely a cappella! never play the new shifts on the piano--insist that the singers remember (wihout humming) the first pitch of the previous tonal center, and make the half-step shift down without help (coach them and demonstrate it)
• begin the descending five-note pattern moderately high--by using descending patterns the voice will relax as you go rather than tighten up, as it inevitably will if you begin in ascending patterns
• make sure your singers are aware they must raise the soft palate!
• with whatever vowel you choose:
  • watch their mouths for uniform shape
  • demand perfect unisons (say, "make unison")
  • soft dynamic with no vibrato
• be extremely picky about pitch accuracy, and be specific about which pitches are not accurate (e.g. "the fifth note is low because the fourth note was too low")
• when the five-note pattern becomes easy for the choir, change it

From my experience, this is a demanding exercise, but the singers will improve rapidly (wait until you see part 2!). It will make a huge difference in the ears of your singers and, therefore, in their intonation. Many thanks to John for being willing to share this Ear Calibration routine!

Intonation VIII - A Few Other Vocal Issues

A few other vocal issues to consider in terms of intonation:

• Extremes of range - moving to the top of any singer's range will be a challenge--vocally and therefore for intonation as well. This is an area that needs the kind of long-term vocal work that I've already described: vocalizes that help singers learn how to sing high notes well and modification of vowels, especially for sopranos as they move to the top of the staff and above (closed vowels will need to be more open) - these aren't short-term fixes (although if you've already been working on these techniques, sometimes a reminder is all that's needed)
• Music written in the passaggio or break -- this is too complex a topic for a brief blog, but we're speaking of the transitions from one register to another -- suffice it to say that you need to learn how to help your singers deal with this issue and it's always an area to consider when diagnosing intonation problems -- all singers will find it challenging to sing with consistent resonance in this area (well-trained singers might not) and therefore to sing in tune as well
• Sustained or repeated notes - this is both a vocal and mental/ear issue: when a singer has to sustain a long note, it's easy to 1) fail to keep a constant flow of air/let energy flag 2) fail to keep a pure vowel sound or 3) the singer fails to listen or pay attention to pitch -- any of these mean that sustained or repeated notes can easily go flat unless . . . attention is paid to air flow/energy, mentally "repeating" the target vowel, and the singer listens for sustaining the same pitch and not allowing it to change
• "Placement" of vowels - Mike mentioned in his post on barbershop the importance of vocal resonance and placement, much as I did when discussing vowels and teaching concepts of "bright" and "dark" (which one could also consider "forward" and "back," although that's a simplfication) - in general it's easier to keep a forward, brighter vowel in tune, compared with one that is placed further back or is darker (if these terms don't mean much to you, then we may need more discussion) -- really well-trained singers will be able to sing a much richer, "darker" tone without it affecting pitch

These are specific issues, but a reminder that intonation problems have many (and sometimes, multiple) causes. Don't forget to consider all the vocal issues in both the training of your choir or in your diagnosis of why the choir's singing out of tune in a specific place in the music.

Intonation VII - Rhythm & Ensemble

While I haven't exhausted the topic of voice and vowel, another area that intersects with intonation is that of rhythm/ensemble. As I mentioned early on, poor (or excellent) intonation has many potential causes. That's why we have to diagnose correctly what the underlying problem is and help the singers solve it, rather than just saying, "You're out of tune!"

 

Because of the way that unified vowels affects intonation (see this earlier post), chords won't tune as well if the rhythm of the choir isn't crisp and together--because the vowels happen at different times and don't "line up" in such a way that all the overtones/partials line up as well.

 

There are two parts to this: understanding diction and that we don't really deal (technically) with words, but the sounds that make up words. "My country 'tis of thee" has five words, six syllables, but seven vowel sounds. The diphthong in the word, "my" means there are two vowels--if those vowels aren't together, the intonation won't line up either. This is the genesis of Fred Waring's "Tone Syllables" (if you've seen the old Shawnee Press editions, you know what I mean!). Robert Shaw was brought to New York by Waring to help prepare his new radio choir and Shaw certainly learned those lessons. To get the best diction, the best unification of vowel (and best unification of pitch), the choir has to be able to sing all the sounds precisely together. I remember watching/hearing the King's Singers in concert quite a few years ago from the first row, dead in front of them. The unanimity with which they closed through every single dipthong was amazing--you could literally see their mouths closing through the "oo" as the vanishing vowel of the diphthong "oh" exactly at the same time.

 

The second part of this fits with Shaw's development of the technique of count-singing. This is a way to get the ensemble (before they pronounce words) to find a precise rhythmic ensemble and sense of intonation (since they're all singing the same vowel: one-and-two-and-tee-and) at the same time. Once the choir moves from count-singing to text, each sound (not each word) has to fit precisely in place. Shaw said, "There is no such thing as good intonation between voice lines that do not arrive or quit their appointments upon mathematically precise, but effortless schedule."

 

Again, the level of your choir will determine how far you take this and how you choose to teach it, but without a good sense of rhythmic ensemble and being able to sing all the vowel sounds in a given phrase together, your choir will not sing as well in tune as they could. Building a technique/discipline (whether or not you use count-singing) of rhythmic ensemble and learning how to correctly sing all the different sounds in the words we pronounce will make a huge difference in not only diction and blend, but of intonation as well.

 

And when intonation in your choir seems to be fuzzy, ask yourself whether the rhythm and ensemble of your choir is fuzzy, too. Again, Robert Shaw (although probably paraphrased, since I'm doing this from memory--Howard Swan's chapter in Decker/Herford's Choral Conducting: A Symposium): good intonation and good rhythm make a pretty smooth couple.

 

Well said!

Intonation VI - More on Voice and Vowel

I talked last time about vowels. So, a bit more about voice training with your choir.

 

All of you have choirs at a different levels, from a choir (of any age group) with no vocal training whatsoever to perhaps a university or professional choir of trained singers. While one has to deal with vocal issues with any choir, right now let's speak of choirs with little or no training.

 

With such choirs many of you will be the only voice teacher your choir members have. I like to develop a plan to teach the fundamentals of singing, with the following basic elements:

• good singing posture
• managing breath (I tend not to use the term "support")
• learning to phonate (initiate tone, "onset")
• creating a good resonating space ("tall vowels," raised soft palate)
• getting a good balance between "space" and "ring" (it's possible to have too much vocal space and no ring to the sound, or all ring and no resonating space--Willie Nelson, anyone?) (and don't get me wrong, I like listening to Willie Nelson! But there's little choral repertoire where I'd want my choir to sound like him!)
• learning to find the best resonance for each of the vowels
• learn maximum vocal efficiency (the least physical effort to create the best sound you can make--learning not to tense muscles that are not necessary . . . which connects up with many of the previous steps)

This blog post can't be a course in voice training (I'm not writing a book about that!), but these are the elements that I believe are most important. You can find any number of resources (books, workshops, etc.) to help with this. First, the fundamentals listed above include both concepts (where the "light bulb" can go on and the choir members now understand what to do and why) and skills (which take practice to achieve). With any group I will teach the basic concepts, but then use vocalises at the beginning of a rehearsal to build those skills--which then they must be reinforced constantly as you work on repertoire.

 

This is important for our discussion of intonation, because singers who have difficulties with any of the above basic elements will have difficulty singing in tune. In my first post, I mentioned that the conductor has to diagnose why the choir is singing out of tune, and one of the first potential culprits is vocal production: is the choir using good posture (which allows the breath to be used well)? Do they know how to manage their breath or is it inconsistent? Is the breath flow adequate or inadequate to good tone? Is there a lack of vocal space with a low soft palate? Are vowels produced with too much space and no sense of resonance or ring? Or are they ringing, but no vocal space? Are vowels placed too far back or are they dull? Or are vowels too bright? Is there obvious vocal tension (jaw, shoulders, etc.)?

 

The better vocal production the individual members of the choir have, the easier it will be to sing in tune. So your training of the choir (if you're the primary voice teacher, as well as conductor) is going to be primary in your success. I don't mean for you to turn your rehearsals into voice lessons, but that you need to find a way to teach these basics, work on skills in brief warmups at the beginning of rehearsal, then interweave work on vocal skills into the rehearsal (even including a quick vocalise, if helpful) of the music itself. If you've read my post about musicality, you know I believe in teaching phrasing and expression from the very beginning. In fact, all elements must be worked into your work on the music (but at different proportions at the beginning of the rehearsal process and near the end). My rehearsals are relatively "dense" with a fair amount of drill (see my earlier post here which speaks of John Wooden's concepts of "scrimmage" vs. "drill") and (I hope!) a high proportion of singing to talk. I will probably touch on many different things in a short time working on music, from the shape of the phrase to vowel to locking intonation on a specific chord to dynamics to rhythmic ensemble. The trick is to go very quickly from an instruction or two back to singing--the goal being as little talking as possible and as much singing as possible (they don't get better while you talk!). As my earlier series of posts on building culture mention, one of the things to work on with any group (taking into account what they can currently do) is to build their ability to focus and work with this kind of density and intensity. But where ever you are with your choir, you have to find a way to teach them to sing better.

 

Vocal models are a quick way to get where you want to go. As a singer, I model a fair amount (which also has the advantage of giving them information about lots of things, not just the one I just mentioned to them), but I also use singers in my choir as models fairly frequently. If you are not an accomplished singer yourself (although hopefully you understand good vocal technique and sound even if you're not gifted with a great instrument), you can use singers in the choir to model for your singers. You can also bring in someone with skill at teaching these concepts. With vowel (last post's focus), the easiest way to get there is to model the vowel (whether you or someone else) in order to get unification (and better intonation).

 

Long enough for today! As you strive towards better intonation in your choir, know that their level of vocal skill and technique will make good intonation possible . . . or create problems! Seek to teach the very best vocal technique that you can, given the limitations of your choir and how much time you have to work with them.

 

And always remember, technique is a means to an end--we teach these things because ultimately they can lead to more successful, creative and expressive performances.

Intonation V - Voice and Vowel

So, away from tuning systems for a bit!

If you read Mike O'Neil's excellent guest post, you'll notice he talked about vocal production and vowels as barbershoppers are taught to work on both tuning and blend.

The basic principals are no different, no matter what the style and level of choir you conduct: to get the best intonation, vowels must be matched.

The reasons are again, scientific in nature. Given exactly the same pitch, one can tell the difference in timbre between an oboe, flute, violin, or soprano voice. The reason is that the unique way each instrument (or voice) creates sounds emphasizes different harmonics (remember them from the intonation discussion?), which we now call "partials" (if you love the science, wikipedia has a reasonable article on partials). Above whatever fundamental pitch is played or sung, the long series of partials (not normally heard as separate pitches) are each stronger or weaker, depending on the instrument or voice. There will be a similar pattern for each instrument, no matter what the fundamental pitch.

For singers, each vowel will also emphasize different partials (because of the different shapes we create in our resonanting chamber), creating the unique sound of an ah, oh, or oo.

On a practical level, then, if our singers closely match vowels, the partials (or harmonics) will be emphasized in exactly the same way, leading towards better pitch matching (as well as "blend"). And the opposite is true if our singers use different varieties of vowels that don't match very well--the differing partials emphasized will tend to "fight" and not agree.

There are some ways I begin to deal with this in any choir, no matter young or old, inexperienced or expert. But for a less experienced choir there are some exercises to help them understand how this works.

To demonstrate how vowel affects pitch I'll have four or five singers (on the same part) come in front of the choir, give them a pitch and ask for an "ah" vowel (no prior instruction). After they sing it, I'll ask one of the singers (quietly, so no one else hears) to sing the "ah" as an "uh" -- then they sing it again. I'll then ask them to sing as well in tune with each other as they can. It's rarely a beautiful unison. Then I ask the singer with the "uh" to gradually change to an "ah" and see how well in starts to tune. Finally, I'll ask all to carefully listen to the vowel they sing and unify it and the pitch as much as they can. This is all so they understand in a concrete way (not the scientific explanation above) how much easier it is to tune if they match vowels. I then extend this to the whole group and play with having them sing with a variety of vowels, then start to coalesce on a single, unified vowel. This may take demonstration from me of the vowel I want as a "target" vowel.

This assumes, of course, that you've been working (usually in vocalises) on different vowels and how to sing them already, or are about to.

Another exercise with vowels is designed to get even an unsophisticated choir to hear and understand terminology you will use, in this case the concept of "bright" and "dark" vowels. I think I stole this from Royal Stanton's conducting book, The Dynamic Choral Conductor, which is now out of print. I'll have the whole group sing a single pitch (octaves in a mixed choir) on an "ah" vowel. Then I'll ask them to sing it as if they were a country western singer (with the right age group, Willie Nelson will always bring a certain tone quality!). Then as if they were an operatic basso. Then as if they were a children's choir (you can use your creativity to come up with other examples or analogies). I then show (with my hands far apart) a continuum from bright (Willie Nelson) to dark (operatic basso) and ask them to go back and forth. Next, I ask one side of the choir to sing with a dark "ah" vowel and the other side to sing a bright one. As I bring my hands together, they're to gradually move to the center until they all find a mid-point with the same vowel that has both characteristics in it, but where they sing the same quality of vowel. I then might do the same thing again, but asking them to be very aware of how easily they agree or disagree on pitch as the move from vastly different colors to one that is unified.

This is simple, but allows any group to have a concrete understanding (not theoretical) of what you mean when you ask for a brighter or darker vowel. It also has the effect of letting individuals realize (without pointing it out directly) that they naturally may sing farther to the bright or dark side of the vowel spectrum and have to be aware of that (I will probably ask them to think if they tend towards Willie or the operatic basso!).

Assuming the group understands this, the task is now to get them to consistently work for unified vowels as we sing. This takes repetition and reminders, even with an experienced choir. More about that next time and (if I have time and space) to speak of vocal production itself.

Intonation IV - Barbershop - Guest Post by Mike O'Neil

Here's a guest blog post on barbershop tuning from Mike O'Neil, who taught high school for five years before becoming a music educator for the Barbershop Harmony Society (formerly known as SPEBSQA). He wrote to me offering a guest post and I happily accepted. Incredibly helpful and useful information. He included a couple examples of exercises they use, but I'll let you find them on the Barbershop Harmony Society website, since I don't want to violate copyrights.

Per your request, I am emailing you about barbershop tuning / methods to teach it.  Obviously, we use the just intonation system.  We feel the chords have a much better chance of creating the overtone and undertone series when tuned justly.  We teach “horizontal tuning”…that is, tuning to the key center, and we teach “vertical tuning”…that is, tuning the harmonies to the melody.  In our style, it is vital the melody stays true to the tonal center (horizontal), and the harmonies stay true to the melody (vertical).

As barbershop uses a large percentage of dominant 7th chords, one of the most important things we teach is that the root must be tuned to the tonal center, the 5th scale degree must be tuned on the high side, and the 3rd and minor 7th must be tuned on the low side (in comparison to equal temperament).  This method becomes somewhat tricky when singing through the circle of 5ths are what was once your 5th scale degree (tuned higher), is now the root of the new key, so constant adjustments must be made.   

We also place significant emphasis on matching vowels perfectly within the ensemble.  We have many exercises (like the ones attached), built around the circle of fifths, in which we incorporate many different vowel sounds.  This allows the singer to learn how to tune each interval and tune to the tonal center, all the while concentrating on matching the vowels of his fellow singers.  Barbershop vowels are obviously much more vernacular and casual than those sung English vowels in choral music, but the concept is still the same.     

Vocal resonance and placement are key to tuning for us as well.  Barbershop ensembles strive to match each other as well as possible (I dislike the word ‘blend’!) from a placement standpoint.  If the lead singer has a natural, forward, bright placement, the rest of the ensemble makes every effort to match that same resonance.  If the lead singer naturally sings with an open, full, rich, resonant natural tone…the other singers have a job to follow suit.    

Finally…you will rarely, if ever, see a piano in any of our rehearsals.  We utilize justly tuned learning tracks to teach to the majority of our amateur singers, so they can get the full understanding and aural memory engrained in their brains.

We attempt to do all of these things by teaching proper vocal technique, breath support / management, posture and alignment, and free / relaxed / effortless singing.  It is quite the challenge, but once a ‘barbershopper’ hears that perfectly tuned chord and executes it a few times, he usually is able to repeat it over and over again, and is very eager to do so!  There is nothing quite like singing with three other people, but sounding like 5+ people!

Many thanks, Mike!

Intonation III - What system do you use?

Many of us have gravitated towards a system of "just" intonation, rather than the tempered scale that's used for tuning pianos. You may not have even thought about this and simply accepted that the piano is the arbiter of what's in tune and what's not. However, equal temperament is really a compromise tuning system (and all systems will have their pros and cons). However, if one tunes according to the natural harmonics present, one gets a very different tuning for particular intervals (especially the major third) than with equal temperament. 

 

On a keyboard, of course, one has to choose a tuning system and deal with its pros and cons, since once tuned, it's fixed (until you tune again). There are examples of organs with split sharps that allow for a different D# than Eb, for example, but that need not concern us here (you're unlikely to have one available!).

 

However, with a choir (or instrumental group that can be flexible with pitch) one can sing or play pure thirds, for example, no matter what the root of the chord. This is, in essence "just" intonation. This wikipedia article can give you a start if this is new. Barbershoppers use just intonation all the time and I'll have a guest post soon about that approach.

 

To show the differences in cents (remembering that there are 100 cents in a half step), here is a chart of chords in just intonation with the difference in cents between just and equal temperament.

 

As you can see, the major third is 14 cents lower in just intonation than in equal temperament. And the dominant seventh chord includes the same lower third, but 31 cents lower for the seventh (which is a chord used constantly in barbershop)!

 

There's much more I could say about science, but I think it's more important to get to practical matters! How do I use this in my choirs? How do I teach them to do this?

 

First, you have to train your own ears to hear the difference between a tempered and pure major third. This will take some work if it's totally new to you. I still remember an interview with David Willcocks, after his choir participated in the Bach cantata series on Telefunken with Gustav Leonhardt. He was asked if he accepted the lower tuning of the thirds and responded that he felt it was surely correct, but that his ear still heard and wanted a "brighter" third.

 

Most of us were trained at some point to sing the third "high" because otherwise in a dominant chord (where the third is the leading tone) the tonic chord that follows will be flat. I can say that doesn't have to be the case, but can't deal with that yet--patience!

 

With my choirs I often do an exercise early in the year to help them hear a pure third. This requires a group who can sing accurate unisons/octaves and a room which is resonant enough to be responsive to overtones. I have them sing a chord in A or Bb with voicing B2 root (near the bottom of staff), B1 fifth above, T2 octave, T1 fifth above, A root above that, and S the fifth above that (i.e. near the top of the staff). They need to sing very pure and unified pitches with a clear, ringing fifth. I usually use an "ah" vowel and it needs to be a very bright, forward (and unified) "ah." And they need to sing senza vibrato with a fairly loud dynamic (I ask them to breathe frequently and keep the air flowing). In other words, they only sing root and fifth, no third. If they can do all of this and the room is reasonably responsive, you (and they) will start to hear the third appear in the room as a harmonic. Sometimes it takes a while, or my singing the harmonic lightly as an example after they've cut off, for them to hear it. But normally it will start to become clear and in the right room can be quite loud (you may have had the experience of a harmonic appearing that no one is singing when your group sings particularly well in tune). 

 

If I can get them to hear this, then I can ask sopranos or tenors, for example, to match the third they hear in the room. If they can do this and learn to feel/hear the restful nature of this pure third (because it is in "harmony" with the natural harmonic system, there are no beats), I can then re-voice the chord in different ways with different parts singing the third. It's very interesting then, if they've really settled into this tuning, to play the same chord/voicing on the piano, which now sounds very "jangly" (OK, that's a vague and perhaps invented term, I know! but to my ear the beats in the thirds on the piano strike me that way!) and out of tune. I wrote something about this in my blog after the last NCCO conference in reference to how my ear has changed over time.

 

This is just an opening exercise, but then I have to work on tuning chords in vocalises at the beginning of rehearsals, and as we begin to work repertoire, to do the same, particularly on any chord that is held for any length of time. Most often, if they aren't tuning the third well, I remove the third from the chord (so that only parts with root and fifth sing) and then sing the third for them myself. Then I have the part which sings the third match my intonation. It takes time to do this and skill builds gradually, but it's very possible. If barbershop quartets and choirs can do this, there's no reason your choir cannot as well. But it takes consistent effort.

 

This has already gone on a bit too long--and might be too esoteric for some! I promise I'll get around to more basic issues of teaching good intonation and fixing various intonation problems. 

 

Until Memorial Day I'll be posting twice a week, Thursday and Saturday, so I can cover more ground on a fascinating and important topic before the summer hiatus. Next, a guest post about barbershoppers's methods of teaching tuning, then next week, how I use (and don't use) piano in rehearsals.

 

If you have the chance to try the exercise I give above with your choir, let me know the results!

Intonation II - "What is good intonation?"

As I started to outline potential posts in this series I came up with a ridiculous number--only some of which may actually happen before the summer hiatus! One of the problems is that so many areas overlap--you can't talk about vowel without talking about vocal technique or your idea of an ideal sound. So some posts will end up relating to others. The nature of the beast, I think.

 

So to begin by asking, "what is good intonation?" "What are your standards?"

 

I think all of us will have differing ideas, depending on our experience (how we're trained, who our models are) and the level of our ensembles.

 

Our ears (or more accurately, our brains) will adjust perception of what is acceptable--in a very average (or slightly below average) choir, for example, the range of pitches perceived as "in tune" will widen. On the other hand, in an advanced group, especially if they sing with much closer tolerances of pitch, small deviations from what is now established as "in tune" will be very noticeable. So the consequence of singing with narrower tolerances in pitch is that deviations are heard more easily! It's a risk I'm willing to take, however!

 

That rather wide tolerance of deviation from a central pitch is also, however, what creates the sort of "gray" lack of color one hears in many amateur choirs (or amateur bands--that sort of washed out sound in a large group of flutes, none of which are zeroed in on the center of the pitch). The lack of a clearly focused pitch means that overtones are not re-inforced and the sound doesn't project nearly as well. Having heard the Swedish Radio Choir up close (and prepared them for a Brahms Requiem, among other works), they have the ability with just a few added singers (48 when I prepared them) to sing the Brahms with a full orchestra and yet be heard clearly. The combination that makes it possible is 1) big, trained voices who sing with full "singer's formant" 2) great ensemble and ability to unify vowel and 3) minimal vibrato (but they do sing with it!) and absolutely focused, unified pitch.

 

My experiences with Swedish choirs, plus a long interest in early music, mean that I look for less vibrato than some, but singers still singing with full singer's formant, and clearly defined pitch. Additionally, if you are to tune with either "just" intonation or earlier tuning systems (quarter-comma meantone) with very pure thirds (lower than the thirds on the piano), you have to use less vibrato to hear the difference (too much vibrato blurs the two types of thirds).

 

That means I want a narrow definition of what a good unison is and how much tolerance there is for chords to be in tune. Of course, that changes with style--if I conduct the Verdi Requiem, I'll expect more vibrato and the consequent widening of what is allowed in a unison on one or multiple parts. Some research shows that with vibrato, humans perceive the mean frequency as the center of the pitch. One study of modern performances of Schubert's Ave Maria showed a mean variation of plus or minus 71 cents (100 cents is a half step) and more variation in a Verdi aria. Of course, there is also a difference between the perception of a solo singer with orchestra and a group of singers. If you're like me, you've heard some performances of the a cappella quartet in the Verdi Requiem where you couldn't recognize the chords!

 

So, opening salvo! 

 

Next, on to tuning systems.

 

If you want to hear what my groups do (hard to discuss sound without hearing--and being able to say, "Oh, THAT'S what he means!" by the amount of vibrato or something else), here are two examples with my Collegium Singers:

 

Handel Dixit Dominus from last Thursday: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jz4ZVusFsTo

and

Victoria Requiem from the Berkeley Early Music Festival last summer with just 14 singers from last year's group: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUBIxg6ZpKE

 

In the Victoria, in particular, because it's a small group (3 each on soprano, 2 on other parts) singing with very minimal vibrato, you'll see that small deviations in pitch are more noticeable. In the Handel, because of the virtuosic nature of the vocal writing, my singers have freer range in terms of vibrato, although there may still be some who think I'm restricting vibrato more than their taste -- and taste does enter into it!

Intonation I

Intonation is an incredibly important subject for all choral conductors, but one that isn't simple. In this next series, I'll write about different aspects of choral intonation. Not only what does it mean to sing "in tune," but how do you help your choir sing better in tune?

When I say "isn't simple," I mean that as conductors, when we hear out of tune singing from our choir we need (most often) not to tell them just, "It's out of tune" or "you're flat," but diagnose why it's out of tune or why it's flat and help them solve the underlying problem. Is it a vocal issue? Is it a particular interval that causes the problem? Is it a complicated harmonic structure the choir can't yet hear? Is it that the choir isn't matching vowels? Is it poor ensemble? Is it that the chord isn't balanced?

Further, how about your ears? How sensitive are you to good intonation and how well can you hear exactly where the choir starts to flat, or which section is sharping, or what note in the chord is out of tune?

What have you learned or accepted about tuning systems? Where do you hear thirds as in tune? Is your ear trained by the piano and equal temperament? Have you done early music with a keyboard tuned to another tuning system (quarter-comma meantone, for example)? Have you worked with a system of "just" intonation?

What's your philosophy about vibrato and tuning?

All of these are areas I'll explore in the next number of weeks.

I'd also love to hear your feedback! There are areas where we may disagree and in that discussion can sort out our own biases, but also share the techniques that have been most successful for us.

If a particular topic calls to you, consider sending me a potential guest blog post.

Here's to better intonation!