[Menvi-discuss] Conducting a choir

[Brandon Keith Biggs]

Hello,
Do you know the 3 major conducting patterns?
If so, I would just practice with the recordings, queuing entrances 
after long rests, making sure you are clear at the tempo changes and 
that you are showing the dynamics.
I don't know all the commands, but there are several commands that are 
used everywhere. If possible, ask a teacher or someone who has conducted 
before to give you a crash coarse in the commands.
The hard part is keeping time with the signs.
Thanks,

On 1/11/2014 5:41 AM, German Pinzon-Jimenez wrote:
> Hello Brian!
> I am from Panamá. I used to live in Springfield and studied classical 
> guitar at NOVA. After my AAA I traveled to Argentina where I studied 
> Orch and Choir conducting.
> The first thing I believe you have to do is, to figure out what king 
> of choir you want to put together. Poliphonic, adults, youth, 
> instruments or not. Then thy must classify your voices, if you dont 
> know how to do so, ask a singer friend who can help selecting at least 
> your 3 main voices S A AND MEN (regardless of tenor or bass) but if 
> you want get the 4pack at once. You can also find in the internet all 
> kinds of vocal warm ups in pdf formats for free. I recomend you check 
> on the Robert Shaw ones, very help full.
> First thing is to get them to sing tunned with unison melodies, 
> everything from classical/popular canons or well know worship music. 
> For a few rehearsals keep doing it until you have a feel of balance, 
> tunning, color etc.
> I am speaking from a Poliphonic choir point of view, I have no 
> knowlegde of what you mean by Worship Leader. I target purely about 
> the musical procedure.
> Gestures are the less important. Thy shall know the music and texct of 
> every single voice by heart.
> If the choir does not read music, teach short logical phrases using 
> "quironimia", not necessary Kodaly, but clear specific heigth level 
> (from belly button to head or above depending on the melodis passage.
> Once you get one voice clear, get quickly to the other voice and make 
> them sing together so they get a feel of singing different melodic 
> lines. Specially low voices and soprano first, since alto tend to have 
> more difficult and senseless passages, afterwards they will realize 
> they fill in the richness of the harmony (generally).
> Get every day in front of the mirror to practice you tempo marking and 
> pickup"anacrusa" gesture.
> As I said before, it all depends on the style of choir you want to put 
> together.
> I f you want easy and fast results get instruments, and sing unison 
> with 6ths or 3drs above or below the principal melody... after that 
> you can try to apply on the basses, I-IV-V-I melodic passages. These 
> are options if you have to arrange your own music for the choir.
>
> By knowing the music by heart everything just flows, My choir in my 
> city in Panama, only two teen know how to read music because they play 
> instruments, the rest just like to sing, no one knows music. Using 
> just a pitch fork, and knowing the music by heart every rehearsal the 
> sing 4 measures of a ramdon back Bach choral W/O text just using 
> lala-nunu etc. Within 6 month of one practice per week they are 
> singing liszt  and elgar´s ave verum corpus, spanish renaisance, 
> salieri canon, madrigals, whitacre, kodaly, bartok etc. two weeks ago 
> i started to send them midis, for home learning. Just usings hand 
> sings, and fast and clear teaching of any melody.
>
> There is a lot more when it comes to choir... it all depends on your 
> spectations.
>
> Alyson Moore Shirk is and excelent conductor and pedagoge, I met her 
> at a Kodaly international festival/seminar in Hungary. she lives in MD.
>
> I hope something of what I said works...
> musically yours
> German Pinzon Jimenez
>
>
> On Saturday, January 11, 2014 8:37 AM, German Pinzon-Jimenez 
> <germanepj at yahoo.com> wrote:
> Hello Brian!
> I am from Panamá. I used to live in Springfield and studied classical 
> guitar at NOVA. After my AAA I traveled to Argentina where I studied 
> Orch and Choir conducting.
> The first thing I believe you have to do is, to figure out what king 
> of choir you want to put together. Poliphonic, adults, youth, 
> instruments or not. Then thy must classify your voices, if you dont 
> know how to do so, ask a singer friend who can help selecting at least 
> your 3 main voices S A AND MEN (regardless of tenor or bass) but if 
> you want get the 4pack at once. You can also find in the internet all 
> kinds of vocal warm ups in pdf formats for free. I recomend you check 
> on the Robert Shaw ones, very help full.
> First thing is to get them to sing tunned with unison melodies, 
> everything from classical/popular canons or well know worship music. 
> For a few rehearsals keep doing it until you have a feel of balance, 
> tunning, color etc.
> I am speaking from a Poliphonic choir point of view, I have no 
> knowlegde of what you mean by Worship Leader. I target purely about 
> the musical procedure.
> Gestures are the less important. Thy shall know the music and texct of 
> every single voice by heart.
> If the choir does not read music, teach short logical phrases using 
> "quironimia", not necessary Kodaly, but clear specific heigth level 
> (from belly button to head or above depending on the melodis passage.
> Once you get one voice clear, get quickly to the other voice and make 
> them sing together so they get a feel of singing different melodic 
> lines. Specially low voices and soprano first, since alto tend to have 
> more difficult and senseless passages, afterwards they will realize 
> they fill in the richness of the harmony (generally).
> Get every day in front of the mirror to practice you tempo marking and 
> pickup"anacrusa" gesture.
> As I said before, it all depends on the style of choir you want to put 
> together.
> I f you want easy and fast results get instruments, and sing unison 
> with 6ths or 3drs above or below the principal melody... after that 
> you can try to apply on the basses, I-IV-V-I melodic passages. These 
> are options if you have to arrange your own music for the choir.
>
> By knowing the music by heart everything just flows, My choir in my 
> city in Panama, only two teen know how to read music because they play 
> instruments, the rest just like to sing, no one knows music. Using 
> just a pitch fork, and knowing the music by heart every rehearsal the 
> sing 4 measures of a ramdon back Bach choral W/O text just using 
> lala-nunu etc. Within 6 month of one practice per week they are 
> singing liszt  and elgar´s ave verum corpus, spanish renaisance, 
> salieri canon, madrigals, whitacre, kodaly, bartok etc. two weeks ago 
> i started to send them midis, for home learning. Just usings hand 
> sings, and fast and clear teaching of any melody.
>
> There is a lot more when it comes to choir... it all depends on your 
> spectations.
>
> Alyson Moore Shirk is and excelent conductor and pedagoge, I met her 
> at a Kodaly international festival/seminar in Hungary. she lives in MD.
>
> I hope something of what I said works...
> musically yours
> German Pinzon Jimenez
>
>
> On Saturday, January 11, 2014 6:34 AM, Brian Howerton 
> <bshowerton1 at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hello all,
> I just recently took a position at a church here in the Richmond
> Virginia area as a worship leader.  I studied worship and music studies
> in college at Liberty University, and I took conducting, but
> unfortunately, my professor gave up on working with me privately on how
> to conduct.  That is the one thing in college that I felt like I really
> missed out on.  So now I am going to have to conduct the choir at the
> church where I serve and I have no idea what to do. Can anyone give any
> conducting tips for someone who has really had no experience doing it at
> all?  Thanks so much for the help,
> Brian
>
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-- 
Brandon Keith Biggs

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