The subject of Brain Before Voice has popped up in a couple of ways recently. When talking to some students about learning from tracks alone (not being strong music readers) it was noted that when a vocal line gets fast and intricate, it can be difficult to get the line accurate and cleanly sung. So we did some vocal ‘brain training’ exercises and voila! Suddenly the line was clear!

I have used visualisation brain work before in teaching intervals, especially for big interval training, but it seems the application of the same philosophy can be much more widely applied. In fact I take it right back to my violin playing days, when my teacher would advise me to “think the note in my head” before placing my fingers when jumping into some uncountably high position – if I tried to find it with my fingers I would always be out to some degree, but if I “sang” the note in my head it was spot on every time!

The same applies to our vocal instrument. Especially if we tend to learn by listening, or singing along, our brain seems to “follow” the ear (or the voice, depending on how you see it), and we end up pushing the notes around to get the vocal line. This method is slow and inaccurate, so we end up with indistinct intervals when we try to sing at speed.

If we turn this around and put our brain before our ear/voice, there is suddenly a dramatic difference in the clarity of intervals and the speed we can accurately sing them. In some ways it ties in with the philosophy of taking the muscle out of the equation – getting out of the way of the music! Like singing quick words: the more you work them, the harder they are to sing – the secret is to let them go! The brain can think much faster than the body can react.

We already know that visualisation of a performance is the most perfect practice you can do – in your mind you can imagine the sound you want to make, can sing without error, always take a big enough breath and think about the story of the words…. So harness this power as you learn and practice your music, to ensure every note and interval is cleanly sung.

This aural “visualisation” is called Audiation - I want to focus this audiation to increase the auditory processing speed of our brains.  The most powerful agent of growth in our brains is – our brains!  Let’s harness that power to improve our musical ear and singing accuracy.

How do we do this? Here are a few ideas you can play with…

Interval training. Ye olde 12131415161718 // 87868584838281. For the purposes of this, best to sing on AH to eliminate consonant and vowel clutter. Pick a decent speed and sing it straight off. Now sing it again, but only in your head! No sound! You may need to practice this brain singing a couple of times before you get the feel of it. Once you have it, breathe and sing it, with brain first, and voice just following. Did you feel how easy it was? Was it more accurate? Try a little faster, making sure you sing with your mind and let the voice tag along for the ride.

Tricky notes passage. Let’s throw an athletic vocal line in… 1358864124578531. Or a 13 note chromatic scale for smaller interval accuracy. Follow the same process (1) sing the notes slowly and accurately on an AH.  (2) Audiate the phrase slowly and accurately in your head. (3) Speed up the audiated version until you can “hear” it clean and clear at speed in your head.  (4) Now put the brain first and let the relaxed voice follow.

I think also that we have difficulty with intricate passages because we perceive them as difficult, and that perception adds tension to our vocal process!  If we can keep the physical effort to a minimum, it’s all to the good!

• Part Ranges
  Probably the most self explanatory.  Find out where each part (section) is comfortable singing, noting upper and lower pitch limits.  Check out the music, looking at whether each part generally stays in the comfortable range, and if they have to reach, how far and how many times!
• Melodic line movement and relationship to other parts
  Look at the lead line.  Does it bounce all over the place? Does the melody move from part to part (not brilliant for contest arrangements) and if so, are all your members going to be able to cope with this?  If the melody is low and the baritone ends up on top of the lead all the time, is this going to suit and balance issues in the chorus?  Is the tenor part under the lead or forever hitting clash chords with the melody?  Personally I love that, but this can be a real challenge for some tenors.  Vertical chord movement vs Patter – contest songs should have little patter as this won’t lock and ring.
• Embellishment / Interpretive promise
  Look for bell chords (can you do these?), slides or swipes, key changes (these build intensity, but can be difficult to do well), echoes, words that can be sung with special character, rhythmic interest (are you good at tempo/rhythm?), fast and wordy, opportunity to break tempo for a verse, possible stomps or tempo changes, chords that move on the last word of a phrase to keep momentum… There are lots of things that can be brought out of an arrangement if you go looking for them.

• Where is the climax?
  If you can’t build your ballad to a high point, then frankly, what’s the point?  By identifying the climax chord (or possibly primary and secondary climax points) you can really give shape to the song as a whole.  It will help you in your story development and therefore give character, dynamic, flow and energy to the whole song.  Generally the climax chord is the highest note in the melody – all the other parts are likely to be high too, or a really big, spread chord.  Other clues are the words.  On an interpretive note, this should also be the loudest chord in the song!  Conversely, when the melody is at its lowest, the chords will be low and you will be singing softly, with suitable emotion…

• Words
  Read the words.  If you don’t think your group can sell them, don’t sing it.  Look at consonants and vowels and figure out if there are going to be any issues for you, or things you need to watch out for as you learn it.
• Strong ending for uptune
  If you can sing the tag, or get an idea of how it sounds, that can be very helpful.  Tempo songs which end with a whimper not a bang can be quite unsatisfying to sing…
• Difficulty rating: Rated by international
  Thankfully, for music published by SAI, there are now generally comments about the level of songs.  This can help, but doesn’t mean you shouldn’t go through the analysis process yourself as every group has its own weaknesses and strengths.  What’s easy for one group might be impossible for another!
• Melody based on the Doh / incidence of accidentals
  Now this is a big one.  It has been demonstrated to me (several times recently in fact) that songs where the melody (and often none of the other parts either) almost never visits the Doh (key note of the song) during the verse/intro then only gets there eventually at the chorus, lose pitch.  Drop like rocks.  Tune badly.  Feel difficult.   And it’s simply because the melody is in a RELATIVE key for all that time and the “sense of Doh” is not established in the group.  You can work this out by having the leads (then each part – it’s an interesting exercise) sing the melody while the others sing the pitch (on OH).  They have to put up their hand when they hit the Doh.  This can be eye opening and painful to the ears!  But at least you’ll know why you can never stay in pitch for that song!  When choosing music, zoom along that melody and count the times it hits doh.  If it’s not there, and not in the bass part either, you’re in trouble!
  Regards the incidence of accidentals, the more sharps, flats, naturals and other wierd things you see on the music, the more difficult it will be to tune accurately.  A good rule of thumb for pythagorean tuning is that anything with a sharp should be sharpened.  Anything with a flat should be flattened (this is for you, baritones – I know you like to sharpen EVERYTHING!).  Naturals are tricky.  If you’re in a flat key and the natural is changing a flat in the key signature, treat it as a sharp as it is RAISING the pitch of the note out of the scale.  If you’re in a sharp key and the natural is changing a sharp in the key signature, treat it as a flat as it is LOWERING the pitch of the note out of the scale.  If a natural is just resetting something that had an accidental earlier in the bar, normal tuning applies.  Phew!

For those who like the ice cream analogy,  it’s the difference between a stubby soft-serve and one where the ice cream has that delicious curl that flips over at the top…

It’s all in the flourish!

Leading breath of the song: breathe in the pitch, breathe in the vowel.

Take Full Body Breaths wherever possible. This means breathing from the feet up, relaxing the diaphragm, springing open the ribcage (from back to front) and releasing all accumulated tension in the body to reset to a poised posture and attitude.

NEVER ‘snatch’ a breath. Personal Breaths are taken mid-note, mid-phrase and involve a PROPER breath. It takes no more time. It gives you 100% air instead of 50% and it releases tension instead of adding it.

NEVER ‘push’ your stomach out as you breathe in. That engages muscles not suitable for singing. The tummy FALLS naturally when you spring the ribcage and relax the diaphragm.

The ‘pregnant pause’ in the middle of a song is too often an excuse for the singers to HOLD their breath till the end of the pause, then breathe relatively quickly (and noisily) to start the new phrase. BREATH IS LIFE. Any time you are NOT breathing either in or out, you are technically DEAD. And this is where the philosophy of breath and energy gets involved…

When we sing, we are breathing out in an unusual way, and producing sound energy. Music also evokes an emotional response when performed well – let’s call that emotional energy. So our instrument is putting out huge amounts of physical, sound and emotional energy. Is that why we’re so drained by the end of the song? The fact is, we SHOULDN’T be drained, we should have MORE energy (be more pumped) at the end than at the beginning.

As a Showmanship tool, we talk about bringing in the emotional message of each phrase on the breath that precedes it. I like to talk about inhalation being our only opportunity to TAKE IN ENERGY while we perform. Breath is life, so each breath we take during a song should come with a rush of energy, which we immediately transfer into the sound and emotional energy delivered in the phrase. So take in that emotional energy (with a spring-relax breath) before every phrase and you will feel your performance energy build and build.

So back to the LONG BREATH (nee pregnant pause)…. it can take a long time, but should be a slow, steady inhale of breath and energy, setting up the next phrase.

Breath also affects our unity. 75% of all synch problems are caused by confused breath plans, and at the higher levels, by lack of unit approach to breath style.

Lastly, without a relaxed body we cannot achieve vocal freedom. We cannot have a relaxed body if we breathe in a way which creates any tension. Remember that when you breathe, it should be a RELEASE, not a GRAB.

Structure of Barbershop Music

Barbershop is essentially tonal, triadic harmony in the major mode. Harmonisation uses the following 11 chords:

· Those based on the major triad:
o Major triad
o Dominant 7th
o Dominant 9th
o Major 6th
o Major 7th
o Major 9th
· Those based on the minor triad:
o Minor triad
o Minor 6th
o Minor 7th
· Symmetrical chords:
o Augmented triad
o Diminished 7th

The melody is carried primarily by the lead voice, while the highest voice sings a harmony part. This structure supports and enhances the overtone-producing characteristics of the major triad, dom 7th and dom 9th chords. These 3 chords provide the predominant harmonic flavor of arrangements.
Some music is just not suited to this style of arrangement, and using non-barbershop harmonization will result in an a cappella arrangement which cannot be used in competition, and cannot be called barbershop. Variety can be fun!

Uptunes

Usually structured: Intro – chorus – tag
Verse – chorus – tag
Intro – chorus – verse – chorus – tag

What tempo is the song? Swing, downbeat, backbeat? Does it have a stomp section?
Intro and tag are usually ad lib. Sometimes an “interlude” or internal verse can be done ad lib with a return to tempo afterwards. Make sure each ad lib section really sets up the tempo starts.
Where a song is repetitive, use dynamic or rhythmic variation to keep the energy flowing.

Ballads

Usually structured: Intro/Verse – “Hook”/Chorus – Climax – Tag

Emphasise the lyric message and melodic structure of the song as you decide your phrasing. Dynamics should be appropriate to the emotional message, should enhance the impact of that message and should be effectively performed by the group.

Selecting Music For Your Group

The characteristics of each voice part, either individual or chorus section, can affect music choice. Individual ranges and blend between parts can affect your choice where there may be large separation between two parts (usually lead-tenor or bass-baritone). The abilities of the group need to be taken into consideration when looking at music. Some of the “features” to note include:

• Part Ranges
• Melodic line movement and relationship to other parts
• Embellishment / Interpretive promise
• Vertical chord movement vs Patter
• End of phrase chord movement / key changes
• Echoes and slides
• Where is the climax?
• Non-lead melody
• Words
• Strong ending for uptune
• Difficulty rating:
  Rated by international
  Fast / wordy tempo song?
  Melody based on the Doh / incidence of accidentals
  Athletic voice leading
  Tempo / rhythmic intricacy

To practice at home and get results:

1. Practice in front of the mirror to correct:

• Postural Faults / Tension in face or body
• Expressive communication – body and face
• Mouth shape
• Choreography

2. Tape yourself to hear:

• Vowel-to-vowel delivery of consonants
• Clear and bright, short vowels, forward and resonated, locked and rung
• Dynamic plan & vocal gems
• Lyric delivery – all parts sing as melody
• Lifted, relaxed, resonant, forward tone throughout range and dynamics

3. If you’re singing for half a page without stopping, you’re not learning anything. Expect to sing a phrase or set of phrases 5-10 times to get it to a higher level before proceeding. EVERYONE has SOMETHING they can improve on.

Speaking as a singer who is always striving to improve, every note and word I sing is on purpose. I’m putting placement, dynamic, character, emotion, tuning and more into every note, every phrase, while striving to achieve an effortless sound. Practice just lets you do it without hard thinking!

This means, of course, that soloist traits such as vibrato, ‘chest’ pressure on the sound, and spontaneous interpretive embellishments (altered timing, vocal inflections, dynamics, breath plan) are not present. The greater the skill of the chorus, the more of these expressive elements they can execute AS A GROUP. The artistry is in the ear of the director, not in the individual singers. Theirs is the skill of unit delivery and 100% commitment to the artistic plan from the director.

Choreo should be relevant, vocally supportive (or at least not detractive) and naturally expressive (not mechanical). Having a visual plan is simply ensuring that what is seen enhances the musical product and is entertaining rather than distracting from the music.

Facial expression is more important than choreo.

Physical freedom during singing is vital for vocal freedom and emotional involvement. The freedom of sound you hear from a true Gospel Choir is due in a large part to the fact that they move freely and constantly throughout their songs.

Showmanship

Showmanship is about identifying with the character of the song’s ‘voice’ and putting across that character and message to the audience. Most people are highly visual in they way they take in information, and visually matching / enhancing the music is an important part of the barbershop artform. As with Opera and Broadway, barbershop is a dramatic musical form – this is why we have choruses not choirs, and directors not conductors.

Involve your Theatre Arts teachers in this process. Older students can contribute on the costuming side (‘character’ or ‘classic’ costuming) especially if you have a textiles programme in your school. Dance teachers may also be helpful to you.