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Correct posture is of vital importance to the performer.  The singer in rehearsal sits at the end of the chair with the shoulders back and the torso lifted up out of the hips.  This frees the diaphram to expand downward from below the rib cage.  Also, lifting the head and neck out of the rib cage allows free air passage.

Use these suggestions also when standing.  In addition, do not lock the knees as this will cut off circulation from the legs.  Rather have a slight bend in the knees, tucking the derriere under the body.  This will help to ensure proper breathing and freedom in breathing.

Have you ever considered that you may have been wasting time at your rehearsals?  Consider the starting time that you have announced to your ensemble.  If you begin one minute late, you are wasting one minute of each of your ensemble’s time.  For instance, one minute times 24 in your ensemble means you have wasted 24 minutes.  One minute times 45 in your ensemble means you have wasted 45 collective minutes.  The same is true when you announce the end of your rehearsals.  Begin and end on time and you won’t waste your time or your ensemble’s time.

I was privileged to direct an undergraduate mixed choir of 40 voices.  Experimenting with various formations, from four rows with sopranos on the first row, altos on the second row, tenors on the third row, followed by basses on the fourth row.  This will probably work well with a choir of 60 or more, but risers are needed which was an inconvenience when traveling  on tour.

What finally developed was an arrangement in the shape of a horseshoe or the capital Greek Omega.  Standing in an open stretched circle with the opening towards the director, the singers found that they could hear each other better.  The sounds had more presence.  The secod row staggered their positions so that they would look between the heads of the singers in front of them.  No risers are needed.  The formation fits almost any platform.  I used it with my group in Europe at Notre Dame in Paris and elsewhere.  The Omega works especially well when standing in mixed quartets.  Feel free to experiment with the Omega formation.  It’s free!

There must be a better way to help singers breathe.  I must have been a slow learner in college and graduate school when it came to conceptualizing the correct breathing technique.  Usually I ended up in upper chest breathing and then finding that the rib cage does not expand very much, if at all.  Maybe the following will help you teach and practice correct breathing.

When I exhaled in singing a line, I found that a vacuum existed in my lungs.  Pinch your nose and close your mouth and try to breath.  It doesn’t happen.  Unstopping your nose pull your belly out with your abs and diaphram.  You will find that air enters your lungs automatically.  Now exhale through your mouth followed by pulling out your belly again gives you a supply of air without consciously thinking about taking a breath.  It works.  It works with me a s a singer and with my choir members.  Try it.  It’s free!

Th choir director who wishes to use choral music based on Scripture texts will be served well by acquiring the DOXAdoxaDOXA  choral music data base of over 8,400 titles.  The titles are indexed according to the individaul Books of the Bible as well as over ten other fields.  It is possible to download this data base for FREE.

From time to time additions will be made to the data list of choral music.  The editor has hundreds of additional titles that he will add to this list.  As these additions are made, those of you requesting that additional information will be sent those additions via email.

For all your choral needs be sure to visit the Links posted on DOXA doxa DOXA.com  You are invited to make Doxa doxa DOXA your one-stop for ordering your choral needs through these Links.  Visit all the other links too!

DOXA doxa DOXA is taken from the choral library of Rev. David W. Krause, Ph.D. in Choral Literature from the University of Iowa.  He was a graduate assistant under Dr. Daniel Moe.  He earned a Master of Music in Church Music from USC in Los Angeles, Dr. Charles Hirt, mentor.  He has over 50 years of choral experience from elementary through college, accompanied and unaccompanied.  He was also active in the Lutheran Church as minister of music and organist, and is a life member of the ACDA.  Presently he is a retired ordained minister of The Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod, living in Arkansas.

Below you will find a listing of the fields used in the database.

Record number:#

Title of work: article last

Composer: last name first

Arranger: last name first

Text: author: last name first

Translator: last name first

Editor: last name first

Publisher: shortened: CPH, GIA, OUP, etc.

Octavo: number

Scripture: retrieval by book and verse

Parts: Soprano, Alto, Tenor, Bass, etc.

Instruments: kybd., hndblls, vln, etc.

Solo: SATBarB etc.

Hymn tune: name ofLiturgical: ordinary of the mass; verse, gradual, offertory, sentence, etc.

Season: Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Easter, Pentecost, Copmmon Time, etc.