Why do we sing?

This isn't really an up-date to our activities but a reflection on some issues that have been raised by some singers about the nature of gospel music.

To me, gospel music has always been entirely indissociable from the gospel (QED!). I was brought up in a church where the musical element was a very important dimension of our worship, and although it was not 'gospel' music, the outreach element was the same. When I first realised that some people involved in gospel singing here in France didn't even know that they were preaching God's word I was shocked!

I was reluctant to pursue my singing with them as I didn't know if the integrity of the message was getting through. (This was never a judgement on the singers themselves, only about the way the music would be perceived by those listening.) Since, I have come to the conclusion (in fact I have returned to the way I thought about things in my adolescence : is it regression or progress??!!) that people sing for a variety of reasons and that God is working through all of us whether believer or not. The Bible is full of stories where He has used non-believers in His work : think of Pharoah putting Joseph in charge of all his property and inviting his family to live in the region of Egypt during the famine (Genesis 45 : 1-15); or Saul of Damascus who by his persecution of Christians and subsequent conversion was a pretty good advertisement for God! (Acts 8 : 1-3; Acts 9 : 1-22).

The question was raised again when Akwa-Gospel was deciding whether to sing for a wedding. Here are the thoughts of one of our sopranos, who is non-religious :

"If someone is a believer, the least they can do is to appreciate the diversity in the world and the people they encounter. There are so many religions, or so many other ways of perceiving our passage on this earth!
I did some soul-searching before signing up to the summer gospel course. Karen Gibson's words helped me : if you have something you can offer others, do it. You need to be aware of what you can give others (and they will return your gifts).
I think of my presence at the wedding as a gift. Singing is a gift we can offer those who can't sing or who don't dare to and who like it. If I can bring them pleasure that's all that matters...I'll praise the Lord to please them, in the same way I used to sing songs I didn't like to please my grandmother."

Gospella

Shrinking

Hi all!
Another rehearsal is behind us and numbers are already down. I was expecting this as people are always very enthusiastic at the outset of the new school year, but in the event they can't find the time to continue all the activities they sign up to. One face who didn't turn up was the person who won a year's subscription to Akwa-Gospel in a tombola. The first time she came she looked miserable the whole time and said it was too hard, last month she didn't come and this month she checked rehearsal times with me and declared two hours far too long! I guess she's not cut out for the choir.
Others have more courage and continue to turn up from quite far away, and our hero, Ben, arrived direct from Paris where he'd been caught up in traffic! That's dedication.
It was great to see Terry back after an op on his hand. He had a rythm nerve grafted inside to help him with the clapping! LOL

We started a bit late as we were waiting to see who would come. In the end there were eighteen singers with a vast majority in soprano. Our goal was to go over some of the songs for last year as we'll have to sing them in concert on December 2nd. This actually meant learning them for some people. Not too difficult I think as "It's Me" is fairly easy. They managed it quite well.
"Were You There" needed a bit of work but by the end of the evening the nuances were coming back to everyone. I had a bit of trouble with the solo though. It seems to be over the break (passagio) and I'm not very happy with it. I need to practise hard (but right now I have a stinking cold and can't emit a sound!). The altos complained it was too low for them and wondered if it could be transposed, but that would make the tenor part unreachable! It's a real alto part - I manage to sing it so I don't see why they can't?!
They also had a mini mutiny about "This Train" which surprised me as it is a song we've even sung twice in concert before! They said the words were impossible, the rythm too hard yadiyadiya... In the end, Anne said, "Let's just sing it!" and it was fine.
I even made them sing it again without their wordsheets, just looking at me and apart from one or two blanks they managed that very well also. We decided to rehearse in 2 weeks' time (29th Nov) mostly to put minds at ease.
I think they're all a bit nervous about getting up and performing in public but you have to make the leap some time. I am confident that they will do just as good a job as they did last year.

We didn't have time to go on to any of our new projects, which is a shame. I hope they won't have forgotten everything by the time we get round to those songs again. I have sent out MP3 files for practising to so that should help.

Our warmers were about identifying the muscle groups necessary for vocal support. It was quite funny. I asked everyone to clutch a partner under the ribs to see whether their muscles were working or not and they ended up in a conga-style line around the room! I wished I'd have had my camera!

I talked a bit about retracting the vocal folds and twang (but I'm not very proficient at that all the time myself, so I feel a little hypocritical : "Do as I say and not as I do!") and trying to reduce tension in the jaws, neck and throat. I had pinched a couple of interesting exercises from Mark Baxter's website
which involved singing me-ee-me-ee-me up a scale of 5 notes and back down again. Then we did the same rise and fall on "ee-ah-ee-ah-ee..." with a finger on the chin to make sure the notes were only produced by the tongue. This denotes lack of tension in the other facial muscles.
After a bit of cackling (after all Halloween had just passed!) to access twang, we were ready to start.

Not sure what my conclusion of the evening is. People seem to be fairly happy with what they do but it's hard to tell when they're all whacked out after a long day at work. What we really need is for the group to stabilise so that we can move forward each rehearsal instead of always going over the same ground.

We have a summer project for July, which is singing at the wedding of a former choir member's daughter. Everyone was pretty much in favour, although some worried about setting a precedent. That doesn't worry me in the slightest. If we don't want to do a wedding we can always say no! No-one is really sure whether they're free on the date and also we don't know what the bride wants us to sing. If we have to learn new songs it could be complicated (I have written to her and asked but received no reply as yet). We shall have to see how that pans out.

In between rehearsals I have been doing lots of research on my own account about voice technique. I am particularly interested in accessing different voice modes as I have realised I sing a lot in head voice. I think this must have developed as a sort of instinctive way to protect my throat when I was having all those bouts of tonsilitis last year. It is interesting to see the varying opinions about voice, which vary from "do whatever it takes to hit the note", to "head voice is ugly". I think the main thing is to be comfortable with what you produce and not expect to sound like someone else.
From the reading I have done on voicelesson.com I have decided to try being less tense in the throat (hence my warm-ups last Thursday :-)) and to lessen the amount of air used on high notes (as this can bring tension). I'll see if it makes any difference once my cold has gone!

God bless!
Gospella