minstrel: Re: vocal music discussion

[Jennifer Doherty]

Greetings all,

First:  Whew... honest, I checked my email on Monday and there was nothing, 
today, 98 emails!!!!  Yikes.... :-)

Second:  Big cheer for all the mezzo/alto combos on the list! ;-)

Couple of comments and a few questions.

What exactly are we calling amateur singers?  It would seem to me, that 
unless you are paid to sing you would be a amateur, which to my mind would 
be most of the musicians in the SCA/church/school/other hobbyists circuit.  
Wouldn't the more prudent term be "trained", i.e. taken formal voice 
lessions?  Having sung in a variety of volunteer choirs & choruses, I have 
met a large number of well trained non-professional singers.  Perhaps I'm 
just getting hung up on terminology... any one have some clarification??  
Thanks.

As for sight reading... I've had some horrible flash backs to freshman & 
sophomore theory classes... I hope I don't have nightmares tonight... :-)  
However, I think I'm still a little confused about others experiences with 
sight singing.  With the exception of theory class, (which I think was 
devised as a torturing mechanism by the professor), every choral or solo 
situation I have participated in has included a starting pitch and/or 
accompaniment.  Why would anyone need to pull a pitch "out of the air"?  In 
my experience, sight reading is simply the exercise of going through a piece 
of music that has never been seen before.  Even during various auditions, 
the music was played through once, so you had an auditory starting point.  I 
feel like I'm missing something that was posted, but don't know what it is.  
Are we thinking of the same things???  Thanks.

Somewhere along the line someone asked about how others have "tuned" in 
other choirs using technical language about tuning up and down.  For the 
most part, even in choirs made up of entirely music majors & minors (no pun 
intended! :-) ), we call it blending.  If you can't hear the person in 
front, behind or to either side of you, you are too loud.  If you can't hear 
the other three parts, you are too loud.  If your pitch doesn't blend well 
with any of the above, listen to the others and try to modify your pitch 
until you all match, in an attempt to find that "one voice" sound.  The main 
idea being that even if we all go sharp or flat, at least we all go sharp or 
flat together, and the audience usually can't tell the difference.

I know there was more, but my brain has gone blank.  Thanks for reading.

Cheers,

Anna

Anna MacKenzie
Barony of the Bright Hills
Kingdom of Atlantia
BardofBH at hotmail.com




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