Tag: practice

How To Practice Choral Music By Yourself

Practicing your choir music at home by yourself can feel counterproductive, especially since choir is inherently a group activity. Still, practicing at home will help you to learn your music faster, feel more confident in your line, and let you enjoy your choir rehearsals even more! Here are 3 tips to help you practice your choral music by yourself:

#1. Acapella:

For those choristers who don’t feel fully confident reading music yet, practicing by yourself at home can feel much more difficult. If you don’t have a piano, it can be hard to pick the notes out on another instrument as well. This is why acapella practice can be so helpful, and it’s why learning solfege is so helpful. By singing your line by yourself without the aid of another instrument, you can begin to feel more confident about the way the note relate to one another, instead of trying to pick them out from the accompaniment.

#2. Singing with a recording:

There are so many apps and websites now that feature recordings that it can quite easy to find a version of the piece you’re trying to practice. Singing your line against a full choir recording can be an excellent way to improve your musicianship as well! Here’s a tip – if you lose your line, don’t stop the recording and start again. Instead, try and follow along in the music, until you can pick out your line again – this way you’ll get in some ear training too!

If you can’t find a recording online, you can always ask your choir conductor if you could record at rehearsal so that you can take it home for practice. Many choirs create such recordings to aid in at-home practice as well!

#3. Memorization:

This is one of the easier aspects of practicing by yourself at home, since it can be completely silent. Many choirs want choristers to memorize their music, so that the performers can be more responsive, and musical at a concert. There are many different techniques to help you memorize your music more effectively. You can read more here.

What are some other tips for practicing choral music by yourself? Tell us in the comments below!

November 6, 2017
Math and Science In Music: Muscle Memory

$Math and Science In Music - Muscle Memory$

Music is such a wonderful pursuit for mind and body because it is not just an art form, but combines a myriad of other disciplines, including mathematics, biology, and physics. This series, Math and Science in Music will explore the many ways in which music incorporates a variety of these disciplines.

MUSCLE MEMORY

Our bodies are amazing at doing so many things. The physiological makeup of our bodies allows us to make music by playing instruments, or by using our voices. One of the most amazing aspects of these bodies is what is commonly referred to as ‘muscle memory’. This term can be a misnomer, because it does not actually mean that memories reside in your muscles.

Instead, our brain has the ability to develop what are known as ‘procedural memories’, an ability which is developed through repetition. By practicing something over and over again, our brain develops synaptic pathways that allow our bodies to perform these tasks without conscious thought.

For musicians, muscle memory can be a tremendous boon. Instrumentalists develop the ability to play scales and other technical aspects of music without conscious thought. Making the technical aspects of musicianship a ‘procedural memory’, allows musicians to focus on the artistic expression of their music. It is also what allows them to learn and remember massive amounts of musical data; so much so that a professional musician can sit down at a piano years later and still play a piece they haven’t performed for many years.

One caveat about muscle memory is that the synaptic pathways do not distinguish between good playing, and poor playing. If you repeatedly practice a scale or a piece incorrectly your brain with put those errors into your procedural memory, and it can be very difficult to ‘un-learn’ those mistakes.

What other effect does physiology have on music? Tell us in the comments below!

November 16, 2015
Organization In Choir – Perfecting the Music

Preparing music is not just about learning words, and notes, and rhythms, it is about how all of those elements come together to make a piece of music. Here are three things to think about when it is time to fine-tune our music:

#1. How the sound blends together:
Choral singing is not just about singing your part, and hoping it sounds good with the other voices around you. Choristers need to make a conscious effort to listen to the other voices around them, and ensure that their voice blends into the rest of the sound. This can be a difficult skill to learn, but it ensures that good choral sound is uniform. When there is one blended sound, the nuance of the musical piece can be communicated more effectively.

#2. How the accompaniment adds to the piece:
Often, choral music is accompanied; by piano, or other instruments. This additional instrumentation is another important element of the music, and choristers need to be sure that they are considering what the accompanying instrumentation adds to the piece. There are many functions that accompaniment performs; setting the mood of the piece, adding layers to the meaning of the piece, and assisting with intonation, to name just a few.

#3. How the text informs the music:
Vocal music is unique, in that it has an added layer of texture in the music – text. Choristers should be thinking about the text, and how it contributes to the piece. This is especially important if the piece is in another language. Here is a post with some additional information on the importance of analysing text.

What is your favourite part of fine-tuning music? Tell us in the comments below!

November 10, 2014