Stick Time: One Note is (Not) Easy

Singing a single note is easy, right?  Well that depends.

 

Try holding a single note for a few seconds.  Where does the pitch want to go? Down, of course.  Now hold it for 15 seconds.  A little more challenging.  Now hold it for 37 seconds . . . while the other sections of the choir sing lines that oppose yours with varying degrees of dissonance.   Then take a big breath and do it again.

 

One always laughs when our singers look at a new score that contains a significantly sustained line and whisper to one another, “Look, we only sing one note for, like, a million measures. This will be easy!”  They soon recognize the challenges of singing a single note.

 

Here ia a selection from a recent ACDA divisional conference in which the soprano section is faced with the challenge of singing a sustained pitch.