Teaching Difficult a Cappella Pieces with Noteworthy

Every one loves a cappella music. First Call comes to my mind. and so does Rockafella. And of course, my personal favorite, the Philippine Madrigal Singers. Such a wonderful groups. It is always a great pleasure whenever my choir pulls off a successful rendition of a cappella arrangements.

Through the years, I have taught quite many such pieces to my Salmo Chorale. We even had a major concert in a major venue where we presented thirteen a cappella gospel songs. I even included two local novelty songs (quite funny and outrageous ones) as intermission numbers to the delight of the audience.

We have taken great pains in the preparation of that concert. I tell you, I even lost my cool once or twice. Well, not really due to lack of talent but for the lack of focus resulting to many errors in the rehearsals. Sometimes a conductor's got to do what he had to do; if it may mean blowing his top once in a while. :)

Well, all's well that ends well. We had a well-received presentation in our biggest venue yet-the Abelardo Hall of the University of the Philippines. I plan to post some of our numbers in my blogs one of these days.

For this Christmas, I used the aid of Noteworthy Composer in teaching my choir a cappella Christmas pieces. I notated voices in individual staves, then I saved it four or five times depending on the number of voices with the highlighted vocal part indicated by a forte and with a distinct instrument, while the rest with a mezzoforte and an instrument common to all the rest of staves.

As I saved the song for the sopranos, I placed a forte sign and inserted violin instrument on the beginning of the assigned staff. Then I assigned mezzo forte (at some instances, mezzo piano) to all the rest of staves with a common instrument, grand piano. Thus the soprano section was highlighted and distinct upon playback.

Then as I proceeded to the alto section, I followed the same step all over again. This time, the soprano section was assigned with mezzo forte, grand piano, as is the rest of the voices; excluding the alto, of course, which I saved having a forte marking and violin as instrument. A big help actually, especially in learning the difficult advanced pieces like some songs in our upcoming Christmas repertoire. Others might prefer using Finale with the same result.

Then I converted the resultant midi files to mp3 so my singers could upload them to their iPods or cell phones, or Playstations, or MP4 players or what have you. There are just many options available. Then they can practice even at home, or at school, or at work; as if with a vocal coach is with them 24/7.

One other cool teaching aid I use today is my Creative ZEN Mosaic which the choir kindly furnished me recently. Well, actually I requested for it. I uploaded most of my choir's latest accompaniments in it. Very handy, I don't need to set up the church computer to access our music. I just plug it in our sound system or a portable speaker and I am all set in no time. No more elaborate preps nor computer-related problems to hurdle. Great help for the musicians, aren't they; these players and notation softwares. If only for its being a great timesaver, I say use them.