[nabs-l] community choir question

[Joshua Lester]

Hi, Kelsey!
As a chorale singer myself, (I've sung in school choirs all my life,) I can help you.
What you need to do is listen to classicly trained singers.
What part do you sing?
With vowel shapes, annunciation is very important!
Think auditoraly!
When you sing a Christmas favorite, (I'll use this for an example,) here's how you should sing it!
"Oh come, oh come Emmanuel."
"Emmanuel, should be sung this way!
E-Mon-U-El!
Anytime there's a short A, it's kind of like how the British talk!
Of, and words that sound like that are annunciated, like "OV."
"Israel, shouldn't be sung "Is-ri-el."
It's, "Is-Ray-El," (thanks to Sarah Alawami for telling me this!)
Listen to how Charlotte Church annunciates her words on the "Voice of an Angel," album.
Blessings, Joshua
________________________________________
From: nabs-l [nabs-l-bounces at nfbnet.org] on behalf of Kelsey Nicolay [piano.girl0299 at gmail.com]
Sent: Monday, November 11, 2013 9:44 PM
To: nabs-l at nfbnet.org
Subject: [nabs-l] community choir question

Hello,
I currently sing in a community choir in my city.  I like it a
lot and have really become good friends with people in my
section.  However, I've been in choirs since fourth grade, but I
still have trouble understanding vowel shapes.  I guess it's
because my directors really didn't know how to explain that in a
way that made sense.  Anyway, the director will tell the group
something like: "Oo should look like ah." But if I don't know
what that looks like, how am I supposed conform it? So my
question to you guys is: Since this is a community choir, do I
need to tell someone about this? They put me next to two very
strong singers, one of which is a board member.  I feel
comfortable talking to both of them and they do their best to
help me out, but I just feel very uncomfortable bringing this up
with anyone.  I think this is kind of a silly question to ask
your director considering I've been in choir for this long, but I
also don't want to stick out either.  Should the board know about
this so they can figure out how they can help me understand what
he's talking about? How can my neighbors unobtrusively show me
this during rehearsal? Is there a good tactile clue that I could
establish with them to let me know that the director wants the
vowels to be more round? If it is at all helpful, I'm a tactile
learner as well as an audio learner, so I need someone to
actually show me how to do something.  Someone who has been in
this situation before, please share your thoughts.
Thanks in advance,
Kelsey Nicolay

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