HAVING TROUBLE BALANCING THE CHOIR VOICES? TRY THIS TRICK (THE HOUR GLASS TRICK)

Choral music is the kind of music that involves group singing, be it traditional or western Choral music. Choir Directors, Music Producers, Mixing Engineers and Singers would understand that achieving balance is always a great challenge when a group of singers (especially amateur) come together to perform the task of singing. It is always a challenge to get a group of inexperienced singers to come together and sing like a choir and not like a group of solo singers. In order to achieve balance, it is important that the Choir Director regulates the volumes of different parts/voices, thus making sure that all the parts sing at the volume required of them and not at the same volume with the rest of the parts.

But first it is very important to note that, in order to achieve an efficient and enjoyable choral or instrumental rehearsals as a Choir Leader, Band Leader and Music Producer, good planning is very much vital. Never attempt to learn the music at the same time and place with the singers or instrumentalists. Make out time prior to the rehearsals and study, listen and practise the music alone. If you have issues with sight reading or aural perception, there are a lot of computer programs out there that can lend you a helping hand. Read through the sheet music, get familiar with it, score out individual parts on the piano and identify possible pitfalls or difficulties that the band members or singers would likely encounter. This could be issues like complicated rhythmic patterns, difficult intervals (especially leaps), complex harmonic movements and diction issues. This fragments really contribute to blend and balance in music. You don't want to keep the band or choir idle and staring at you while you are trying to figure out the parts and rhythm.

The choir or band leader should have specific rehearsal goals and objectives beforehand. Specific requirements in which rehearsal activities are to be focused are important. The following objectives may be considered:

TONE QUALITY

This is the most important and paramount element of performance that reaches the audience's ears. It is vital that the overall tone of the performance be pleasing to the ears regardless of the beauty of the piece (composition) or notational accuracy. This means that the pleasantness of the performance’s tone should not solely rely on the original pleasantness of the composition. Let it be the case of beautiful performers performing a beautiful piece. The Director or Band Leader should guide the group to produce the tone which can convey the intended mood of the music. The aural perception skill of everyone should be high as everything musical comes down to the ears.

NOTATION/RHYTHM ACCURACY

Notes, rests (silences), intervals (melodic and harmonic) must be perceived and presented accurately in order to present accurately the musical message(s) of the composer(s).

TEXT (LYRIC)

This is not only the most unique aspect of vocal music, it is also the most important. Not only the notational elements but also the possible phonetic and linguistic issues of the text should be mastered by the singer. “Mutual Intelligibility” should be the main thing at the back of the singer’s mind before blindly following laid down phonetic and linguistic laws (probably misinterpreted), as it doesn't make sense to apply this phonetic and linguistic laws if it will defy the very essence of phonetic and linguistic which is mutual Intelligibility. I personally, am always on the opinion that a common ground should be established rather, when pronouncing words. Your words should be intelligible to me and mine to you (if we are speaking the same language) irrespective of our cultural differences. Hope you understood that. The effectiveness of choral compositions partly depends on the clearness through which the musical text (lyric) is expressed.

INTONATION

Good and proper intonation is a vital virtue of proper choral singing. Poor intonation (out of tune singing) is annoying to both the listeners and the choir. Intonation in this case has to do with singing in or out of tune. The common causes of poor intonation are:

• Unevenness (caused by poor breathing)
• Note sharpening (caused by poor aural perception, forcing of breath and undue excitement)
• Flattening (caused by physical weakness, bad ear, following bad singers who are sitting closely).

MUSICAL INTERPRETATION

Theoretical knowledge of music is vital for a flawless musical interpretation. It is the duty of the choir or band leader to transform and interpret adequately what is on the printed pages of music without compromising the main message intended by the composer. The goal of choir rehearsals is to interpret the musical composition
which may include tempo, dynamics, phrasing, text, diction and intonation.

BALANCE AND BLEND

These are the two most essential elements for a satisfying ensemble or choir effect. Balance in this case is the equalization or leveling of tone quality from each voice section. As I said earlier, no voice part should be heard outstandingly from the other as the goal here is to have a group of singers singing together and not a group of soloist coming together. Blend refers to the uniformity in tone quality from each section. The difference between this two is that balance has to do with the uniformity of volume or proper volume adjustment while blend has to do with tone quality uniformity. It is not possible to achieve good balance without proper blend and vice versa. When a singer sings in the extreme vocal register, distortion is very much likely to occur, so it is always advised that voices with greater power and brilliance in the extreme register should try as much as possible to level with the entire group. In this case it is always advised to sing only upto 75% of the maximum vocal effort while concentrating on improved tone quality.

THE HOURGLASS TRICK

The simple trick or hack rather, that I'm about to suggest is not only limited to the choir but can also be applied in both small and large instrumental ensembles (provided it makes use of different voices/parts). The sound engineers trying out to balance audio mixes can also tap into this trick, the hornsman trying to blend and balance the horn section can still try out this hack/trick. Just as the name suggests, the hourglass trick entails that a well balanced choir should have the shape of an hourglass. The first and most important parts/voices are the outer parts/voices (soprano and bass). These voices are very important because the listeners get to really hear this voices as they act like a fence, fencing the inner voices (alto and tenor). The inner voices play a supporting role and thus should not receive much priority as the outer voices. A well balanced choir should have more sopranos, followed by the bass (a little fewer than the sopranos but more than the altos), followed by the altos and the least in number which is the tenor.

A twenty eight member choir would look like this:

• Soprano (ten singers)
• Alto (six singers)
• Tenor (four singers)
• Bass (eight or seven singers)

And this numbers would give you the hour glass shape. Further explanations in this short video I did for this post:

_{Explaining the Hour Glass}

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Added tips on introducing new music to the choir:

• Rehearse new music in separate parts before coming together as a choir.
• For straightforward and simple music, the choir can try reading all the parts with the piano aiding out.
• Map out the complex sections of the piece and rehearse them separately before trying out the simpler sections.

BREATHING FOR CHORISTERS

Breathing should be done through the mouth because that is how we breath while singing. Breath deeply around the waistline without the stomach walls falling. Proper breath support relies greatly on good posture. Sound notes with an open throat as this results in correct breath action and balance.
There are various tips and guidelines on training and developing a balanced choir. Some yield results faster than the other. But I'm sure the hourglass trick will go a long way in bringing balance to your choir or ensemble. The concept is simple, Just remember the shape of the hourglass.

Thanks for reading.