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Tips from Aled Jones
Top tips from Aled Jones, former chorister and presenter
of Radio 3's The Choir: secrets to winning Britain's greatest
choral competition. The following tips are taken from
an article in BBC Music Magazine. Please note that Aled
Jones will not be judging in the 2008 BBC Radio 3 Choir
of the Year.
The nation's top two dozen choirs are set to compete on
8th and 9th November 2008 to determine four category winners
and four wildcard choices, all of whom will return on
7 December for the Grand Final (final dates to be confirmed)
to decide the champion of champions. With the finals broadcast
on Radio 3 and televised on BBC Four, expect vocal fireworks
and a seriously tough job for the ten expert judges. With
so much at stake, we asked last year's BBC Choir of the
Year competition presenter Aled Jones to tell us what
he thinks the panel will want to hear and see. He draws
deep on his experiences as a chorister at Bangor Cathedral,
as chart-topping superstar treble and adult soloist, and
presenter of Radio 3's The Choir to give his top tips
for success...
GET IN TUNE
That's the first thing to sort out, always. It's more
difficult to get tuning right chorally than as a soloist.
The whole tuning thing is about more than individual intonation.
When you're in a choir, you have to blend as one, which
means you, the person next to you, and so on, have to
be aware of what is going on all around. I'm talking here
about the pitch being totally accurate. There's no room
for faulty tuning. Many choirs are now singing very difficult
modern pieces without being sure of the tuning, and I
think that is a big mistake.
FEEL THE RHYTHM
If one voice is out rhythmically, it's definitely going
to be noticed. I always found it the hardest thing when
I used to sing in a choir, but you really have to get
it right. If not, then the egg is on your face. There's
not much point in warming up before a performance without
thinking about rhythm and concentrating on singing in
time. You don't see an Olympic runner walking to the blocks
and then just blasting away without thinking about the
pace. So look at those tricky rhythms when you're warming
up together, and make sure you prepare as a group.
LISTEN CAREFULLY
This is obviously related to tuning. But it's about much
more than that. For example, if each singer manages to
produce slightly different colours for particular vowel
sounds, then the result will be very 'flat'. Of course,
some of the responsibility for that rests with the choir
trainer or conductor in the rehearsal room. Even so, there's
no substitute for using your ears and checking that you're
not modifying vowel sounds or making a harsh tone. These
days, the technical bar is set so incredibly high and
that means there's an even greater need for singers to
use their ears.
GET THE WORDS OUT
Words are so important:
without a doubt up there with tuning and
rhythm. You have to be able to enunciate
words and not in that way that looks like
you're about to give birth. It always has to
be natural. I don't like seeing singers with
massive veins bulging from their necks - it's
not healthy! But it's absolutely vital that you're
able to hear what they're singing about. The
words are there to be heard and understood.
It's really not as difficult as people make it out
to be, and you can always tell when people
know what the words mean.
SING THE RIGHT THING
One of the biggest pitfalls comes with the
choice of repertoire. So many choirs, or at
least their conductors, opt to tackle pieces
that challenge their technical skills. Others
become obsessed with performing works that
mentally, before singing it and
know how much breath you need to
support each phrase. Perhaps this is
another responsibility for the choir
trainer to carry and pass on to each choir
member. If it takes a minute for the group to
settle down in competition, then that's that
- chance blown! Just breathing in tempo and
preparing upbeats together as a group will
help get the performance in the groove right
away. That will also make sure the basic pulse
doesn't slow up within a few bars.
LIMBER UP GENTLY
All too often, choirs go over the top when it comes to
warming up. As a soloist, you wouldn't consider warming
up for hours on end, but it seems that some choirs are
unsure when to stop. I don't want to name names, but one
of the choirs we heard in the first round of this year's
Choir of the World competition at the Llangollen Eisteddfod
warmed up for about an hour and a half! No way could their
voices be fresh and have that spark of energy after that.
They might be world champion marathon singers, but that
was crazy!'
RELAX...
The closer you can make the experience of competition
feel like a concert performance the better. Someone told
me a fantastic way of combating nerves that really works:
wriggle your toes in your shoes! It takes your mind off
the little things that come together when you're under
pressure to create nervousness.
...AND ENJOY IT
No matter what type of singing you're doing, you have
to enjoy it. One of the highlights of last year's Choir
of the Year for me came from a barbershop group, The White
Rosettes (see above), who were placed as runners-up. These
wonderful ladies enjoyed every second of the music. That
just lifts the soul. They were bang in tune, their rhythm
was spot-on, and they nailed the diction. What stuck in
my mind, though, was how much fun they were having.
BE TRUE TO YOURSELVES
Forget about copying the style of other
groups. The most difficult thing in
competition, if you're performing down the
running order, is not to be influenced by
the choir or choirs before you. You've got to
have the courage of your convictions and say,
'We've done the hard work in rehearsal -
now let's go out there and give a performance'.
Give it your best shot.
PERFORM!
Last year, when I was a television pundit
for the final, I went against what most of
the judges were looking for. They went
for technical brilliance, while I went for a
mix of solid technical quality and genuine
performance excitement. At the end of the
day, I'm not going to go out of my way to
hear a finely polished choir that only
produces saccharine performances. You
want to hear something that is going to
affect you emotionally.
HOW DO YOU LOOK?
Who decided that all choirs should wear
the same thing: male voice choirs with their
blazers and mixed groups in dinner jackets
and long black dresses? What really gets me
is these choirs of youngsters who dress like
Victorian women! That's bizarre and doesn't
appeal to me at all. I understand why choirs
opt for uniforms, to present a blended visual
as well as tonal package. But out with the
tweed, please, unless you're singing 'Come
into the Garden, Maud'.
WINNING ISN'T EVERYTHING
Perhaps I shouldn't say this, but a competition is a competition.
If you don't make it, so what? When I was a kid, just
after my first album had been released in Wales, I decided
to enter the National Eisteddfod and didn't even make
it to the platform. How's that for a leveller?
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