Your Choir Should Always Sing Loud

"When in doubt, sing loud."
                                   -Robert Merrill

This fall, both of us began new choral positions in Massachusetts- Krishan at Stonehill College, and Kirsten at Ahern Middle School. As we get to know our new ensembles, we've been reminded once again of the importance of having our choruses sing LOUD. We've also noticed that this is a revolutionary concept for many choral singers. With other directors, they've been chastised for ignoring dynamics (even during the first read-through), for not "blending", or for not listening. Many choristers experience a sense of liberation when a conductor invites them to consistently sing loud.

Singing is a full-body experience. Like any other physical activity, repetition precedes accuracy. Singing out fully and making loud mistakes is a necessary step in a chorister's growth, and an important one at every level: student, amateur, and professional. Just as a basketball player has to practice free throws, just as a weightlifter has to work up to a goal, so too do choristers need to engage with their entire body as they work toward accuracy in singing. Doing it half-heartedly may actually do more harm than good in the long run.

By singing loud, we're not advocating singing poorly. Quite the opposite: choristers should be fully connected to their breath and sing with their whole bodies at all times. But they shouldn't worry about dynamics, or even necessarily vowel shape during the initial stages of learning a piece. In fact, focusing on these things early on can inhibit your choristers, and may lead to them singing with poor technique.

Across the board, we believe that choruses should sing loud. Of course, there are times when the repertoire calls for dynamic nuance, and maybe even a dramatic pianissimo- but if your chorus habitually sings full out, those places will be all the more exceptional.

Here, then, are some applications for this concept in a variety of settings.

SCHOOL

We have both worked with children in various settings, and have found that being encouraged to sing loud is incredibly important for their development. When given a direction such as "please ensure to sing this the first time through with your fullest, most beautiful voice" students learn good singing habits, and feel comfortable to try new techniques. In a social world where we are consistently asking children to be calm and quiet, they feel liberated when given focused direction on using their full voice. If a conductor immediately instructs children to sing quietly, or to "blend" with the student next to them, that conductor risks losing the strong voices of confident students, and allowing shy students to fall into the piano dynamic without ever learning to sing supported and with a full breath. Students excel when they learn notes and rhythms first by singing loud, and then can be instructed as a whole to sign a particular dynamic when the time is right.

AMATEUR

We recently gave this direction to one of our volunteer church choirs: sing loud, all the time. They're a relatively small group (12-16 singers most Sundays), and their primary function is to reinforce the congregation's singing of hymns. One of our new choristers (a gentleman whose previous experience is limited to what he learned in school some four decades ago) was pleasantly shocked when told that he should always sing out. He had learned to sing under his breath until he was confident about how the notes go. His problems matching pitch went away once he began to consistently sing out.

PROFESSIONAL

When we worked regularly with SACRA/PROFANA in California (Krishan as conductor, Kirsten as an alto), we always got a kick out of the audience's reaction at the beginning of our concerts. Whenever we performed in an intimate venue (50-100 seats), we'd see all the folks in the front row turning down their hearing aids during the first number. They weren't expecting a chamber choir of 20 singers to blow the hair off their heads.

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A word about "blend": we generally avoid using this word in choral rehearsals, because it's too vague in its application to be of any real use. When conductors instruct singers to "blend" with each other, they're not giving the choristers any useful information. What the conductor is usually looking for is a unified vowel- one that probably needs to be demonstrated, and then tweaked with each individual chorister. It can be a laborious process (although it gets easier over time as the ensemble begins to gel). Telling an ensemble to "blend" just doesn't cut it, and this instruction can send the wrong message to younger students; eventually it can result in individual voices not learning to support their instrument. Matching vowels and encouraging group dynamics (after notes and rhythms are learned) is an alternate way to achieve the sought-after "blended" sound without risking poor individual vocal technique.

We've said it before, and we'll say it again: singing is a full-body experience. A chorus singing a piano section loudly while they're learning the notes isn't "practicing wrong", any more than a basketball player missing a free-throw is "practicing wrong". Have your chorus sing out with their full instruments and get sound in the room- then you have something to work with. You can't begin to refine the nuances until you can hear your singers confidently singing the correct notes and rhythms.