Latest Blog Posts

FREEING THE NATURAL VOICE AND AVOIDING THE ‘I’m Sick’  SYNDROME by Mary Lynn Doherty          “Fear of losing the voice is one of the main causes of losing the voice” (Linklater, 1976, p. 196).        Writing to you from the Chicago area, I am starting to hear birds chirping and it is no longer […]

FIVE FROM THE FOLDER: JUNIOR HIGH & MIDDLE SCHOOL by Laurel Farmer   1.  “Chili Caliente.” David Giardiniere, Three-part mixed. Shawnee Press 35027085 Peppy little song about chili peppers, nods to Rossini’s “Barber of Seville,” elicits smiles from singers and audience alike.  Percussion could easily be played by choir members.  Teaches staccato, tenuto, and triplets. […]

My last post introduced the importance of leadership (or the ability to lead) to be a successful conductor. Most of us learn much of what we know about leadership from our own conductors/mentors/models. This is one of the most important ways we learn.   But one can be more systematic and explore the rich literature […]

(An excerpt from the interest session “Spirit, Style, and Score: Preferred Choices and Practices in Singing the ‘Traditional Spiritual’,” presented by James Benjamin Kinschen, Jr. during the 2014 ACDA Southern Division Conference)          “Traditional” choral settings of the sacred African-American folksong or “spiritual” were first made famous by the fabled Fisk Jubilee Singers in the […]

As I mentioned earlier in this series, it's rare that there's a place in any undergraduate music education curriculum, or even MM or DMA curricula in choral conducting on the topic of leadership. This is one of those things that's incredibly important, but rarely taught directly. It may be that your music ed or conducting […]

(An excerpt from the interest session “Overtone Singing as a Choral Art,” presented by Peggy Dettwiler and Stuart Hinds during the 2014 ACDA Eastern Division Conference)          Remember that overtones are the very basis of vowels, timbre, resonance, and intonation.  Overtone singing can help us increase our abilities in all these areas of singing […]

(An excerpt from the interest session “Taking the Pain Out of Sight Singing,” presented by Amy Beresik during the 2014 ACDA Eastern Division Conference)          If sight-singing is a painful part of your rehearsal, consider that singers are attempting to process and read in a new language. Research confirms that we become literate in […]

(An excerpt from the interest session “Unaccompanied Choral Music from Latin America,” presented by Cristian Grases during the 2014 Western Division Conference)          One of the most interesting aspects of Latin American a cappella choral music has to do with the different approaches in which composers write for the vocal ensemble. When setting religious […]

(An excerpt from the interest session “Masters in Miniature: Singing the Great Composers with a Small Choir,” presented by David Rayl and Zebulon M. Highben during the 2014 ACDA Central Division Conference)          The vast treasure trove of Renaissance music provides a wonderful resource for choirs of all types. Consider a piece like Dowland’s […]

(An excerpt from the interest session “Starting a Group,” presented by Deke Sharon during the 2014 Western Division Conference)          People in “a cappella” [the form of pop ensemble singing] have become too concerned with tuning.        Perhaps it’s the prevalence of pitch correction in recordings and pop music, but groups seem ever-concerned with […]