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Going Without Sheet Music

1/20/2009

Today, I've got a great question from a brother Music Minister.

I want to get our choir to memorizing their music. Do you have a systematic plan as to how to accomplish this? We have done it very few times. But I would like to develop the discipline of internalizing the music. How many times you go over it before you sing it in front of the congregation? In college we did it all the time and I never thought about it being difficult or a challenge, however we were meeting three days a week for an hour. Any suggestions?

When I arrived at our church here in AL, the choir was used to almost always holding their music. I have never had choirs that I direct hold music. I believe that what is gained in communication by faces looking up and a clearer view of facial expression far outweighs what is lost in musical particulars by holding music.

Here are a few tips that you will need to keep in mind to make the transition and continue having your choir sing without holding music.

Keep a marathon mindset. You don’t have to get them there overnight. You might give your choir a target date to plan on going without music. You might have a select few specials that you start with in going without music. Don’t rush too quickly in getting them there. It can be a frightening experience for them at first.

Work on getting the music into long-term memory. When I arrived at my last church (before the one that I’m at now), the choir was used to pulling the music for the up-coming Sunday’s service and spending the entire rehearsal working on that one special. This approach never gets the music into the memory of your choir and they very seldom, if ever, sing it with confidence.

You will get no more that 60-90 minutes of preparation for each special that you begin to teach your choir. Rather than taking one night and try to teach it to them, it works much better to take five or ten minutes at a time over six to ten weeks of rehearsals. This will get the music into their long-range memory.

Have your choir members listening to a new special before you ever rehearse it with them. Every year or so, I order a carefully selected batch of a dozen or so specials. I then record each vocal part individually over the top of the demo provided by the publisher. I then put each song onto a compilation CD that features sectionals on them. In other words, if you are a tenor in our choir, you will have provided for you a compilation CD that has the tenor part played on a keyboard over the top of the demo of each new song. I do the same thing with each vocal part.

This way, the first time we start on a new choir special, it should already be an old friend and their part already somewhat familiar. Very few of your choir members read music. Most learn by rote (by ear, by listening) and this is a great aid to them.

Provide visual aids. Since your choir members won’t be holding music, some sort of TV monitor or computer projector would be a great asset to them. It’s not the same as having the sheet music in front of them, but at least having the words including a few subtle cues (Is it ladies only? Is it a soloist? Is it everyone singing?) helps with confidently presenting the song. Remember, that’s your goal. When I arrived here to GLC, I had a television mounted on our balcony face. We also have monitors in our orchestra pit. We also have televisions and a computer in our choir room so that the choir can get used to each song as it appears in the lyric visual aid. This also helps in the “weaning off of the sheet music” stage.

I’m going long, so I’ll stop here. I might follow up with some additional items in my next entry.

 

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