Sixty-Minute Miracles

In university ensembles, we often work 5 hours per week for 8 weeks or more to prepare 1 concert.  Yet, Sunday morning comes for church choirs relentlessly every Sunday, needing a song of quality to support worship.  I follow a few simple steps to help make each week’s selection productive and helpful for services. 

 

1) I prepare myself.  I know my music well before rehearsal.  I know who will be present from my overall pool of singers and select songs within their technical abilities.  I bring an attitude of excitement and enthusiasm to the rehearsal that is infectious to the participants. 

 

2) I teach notes first through neutral syllable.  After they have shown me they understand the rhythm and pitch well, I correct diction problems outside the melodic context then add it back to the music.  In my analysis of the music, I isolate the most difficult technical passages and focus on teaching those first so that the rest of the piece feels easy.  Also, I group repeating phrases and teach them together. 

 

3) I teach music by showing it, not by talking about it.  Most people learn best through visual demonstration or kinesthetic practice.  Church choirs are mostly non-educated volunteers.  Therefore, church choir is not the setting for music theory lessons.  Teach music through games and fun, and teach by showing rather than telling.  For example, rather than saying “your tempo is dragging”, I have my choir tap the right tempo in their bodies through multiple possible methods.  

 

4) I show as much musicality as possible with my conducting gesture.  Church choirs may be non-educated volunteers, as discussed, but all singers tend to respond naturally to certain conducting gestures.  The more I can show with my hands, the better my choir will sing at a faster pace.  The less I talk, the more I can accomplish in the time allotted.

 

(From the interest session “Sixty-Minute Miracles: Producing Music of Quality for Every Sunday,” by Jonathan Adkins.  Presented during the 2012 Southern Division Conference)