Choral Administration Procedures Alphabet

A - Audience
The choir must always keep the nature of the audience in mind when planning for a choral program set. "What is the age, interest, education, culture, musical taste, etc. of the audience group?" It is good to have several sets of repertoire that will cater to different types of audiences.

B - Breathing
It is essential that a choir learns the proper breathing techniques in choral singing. During rehearsal, breathing points should be discussed, especially points in staggered breathing, to result in seamless long melodic lines. Sometimes, breathing exercises are necessary to ensure proper vocal attacks.

C - Commitment
This is a very important quality of each choir member, the conductor included. The level of commitment determines what goals will be achieved and how soon these goals will materialize.

D - Dream
It is not wrong to dream. It gives a sense of hope to a choir or a conductor on what they want to achieve. So dream big and take the necessary steps to achieve this.

E - Eye contact
Perfect entrances, cueing, clear conducting intentions are achieved through eye contact. The choir must be trained, from the onset of the rehearsal up to the performance, to always look at the conductor. The conductor on the other hand must maintain good eye contact with the choir to communicate his intentions effectively, thus it is important that the choir is positioned effectively to keep the conductor in view.

F - Facial Expression
Emphatic performance can be achieved more effectively if the faces of the choir help communicate the message of the music. A beautiful piece of music can be deadened by blank facial expression of the singers.

G - Gestures
Conducting gestures should be very clear from rehearsal to performance. Each gesture made by the conductor is important and means something. As the choir and conductor gels through time, gestures may be lessened but intentions are communicated effectively just the same.

H - Heart
The emotional aspect of each piece must not be neglected after the techniques have been mastered. If the choir feels what they sing, the audience will feel it also.

I - Intonation
Training the choir to listen to his or her own voice to maintain good intonation is one of the first things to be established in order to create a good choral sound. Intonation problems must be addressed and corrected during vocalizes and as soon as pitch mistakes are made during rehearsals so that bad intonation habits will not be formed.

J - Jam
As sticky as a jam spread, the choir members must keep a close bond knowing each other both vocally, musically and personally. It helps ease any anxiety or stiffness caused by unfamiliarity. This way, it will be easier to evoke the affects demanded by the pieces when inhibitions are lessened.

K - Knowledge
A good knowledge of the piece is essential most especially to the conductor before teaching the music to the choir. A thorough research on the performance practice of a period music, language, composer's intent, and message of the piece helps bring out a musically accurate rendition.

L - Leadership
Taking control of a group entails good leadership ability from a conductor. It is up to the conductor's style to determine effective ways to help the choir achieve each rehearsal's goals up to the performance. What is important is that the singers follow the conductor like shepherd to the sheep.

M - Maximize
Maximize each member's abilities and talents by knowing each individual. For sure there are other talents that can be used by the choir apart from singing. Some can be good in marketing a concert, some may be artistic - to help design sets, costumes, or programs, some may have good administrative capabilities, etc. These things add substance to a group aside from musical capability.

N - Note-Reading
Note-reading is an essential skill, though not compulsory, to a choral singer, but should be present in a conductor. With note-reading skill, more pieces can be learned in shorter periods of time, and bulk of rehearsal periods will be devoted to shaping and understanding the music rather teaching and learning by rote.

O - Opportunities
Once the conductor is confident of the choir's sound, he or she should be on the look-out for opportunities for performance, choral workshops, and festivals. Opportunities for performances should be the goal for every piece learned, and it keeps both the conductor and the choir on their toes to make each performance better than the last.

P - Posture
Proper posture is important not only because it helps in proper breathing, good intonation, and good vocal production but it also gives positive physical presentabilty of the choir in general. If good posture is emphasized during rehearsals, from the seating up to the stand-by period before alighting the stage, it comes out naturally, and it carries through up to the exit after the performance. Good posture must be second nature to the choir.

Q - Quality vs. Quantity
Sometimes the conductor must decide whether to choose to get lesser good sounding members or a multitude of average singers. This has often been a debatable issue when dealing with amateur singers. It is a challenge to every conductor to decide on whether to keep committed not-so good singers who are willing to be trained and be developed as against maintaining very good , or even professional, singers who can only commit a limited period of time. Perhaps the answer depends on what end result is expected, or on the urgency of the performance.

R - Rehearsal Techniques
A well-organized rehearsal contributes to a better performance. Details like, folders, pencils, good seats, rehearsal room, tuned piano, arranged pieces, good vocal warm-ups and other things pertaining to rehearsal requirements must never beunderestimated. Every aspect regarding the performance of a piece should be well addressed during rehearsal. That's the best time when a conductor can be in full control.

S - Sectionals
Assigning good section leaders can help the choir achieve rehearsal goals faster. This is essential especially during preparations for concerts when a number of pieces have to be studied within a limited time period.

T - Tact
Sometimes, there will be circumstances that may put the conductor's patience to a test. Even if it takes extra effort, one must practice tact at all times in order to maintain professionalism and to keep the choir's morale intact.

U - Understanding
Apart from understanding the music, there should also be a reasonable amount of understanding towards the members of the choir as persons with feelings. Remember that the instrument is the choir and a conductor deals with beings who encounter different situations in life.

V - Variety/ Versatility
The choir must be prepared to perform in any kind of event; thus, there should be a varied mix of pieces in their repertoire to suit any occasion.

W - Wardrobe
A good investment for a regularly performing and/ or touring choir is a wardrobe that is not only functionally but aesthetically designed. The wardrobe must also project a unique and appealing image for the choir.

X - X-Factor
What makes your choir different from the others? What sets you apart? What is that X-factor that makes audience think you're unforgettable and thus long for more of your performances?

Y - Yakkity-yak less
"Sing more, talk less." Although a conductor has control of the choir's rehearsal time, he must not abuse it with very long naggings or even long, senseless anecdotes. Always keep the rehearsal goals in mind.

Z - Zeal
Wake-up each morning with the energy and passion to bring out the best in each situation. A servant of music lives, breathes, emanates music in every aspect of his daily life. Keep the zeal and it will be a great influence to your choir and to those around you.

The secret of becoming a successful student

Regardless of the instutution they attend, successful students use five steps to set goals:

1. Make a scale of your priorities
You have a list of the things you want to achieve. This may depend on the lifestyle you already have or the one yet to be attained. Unconsciously, you have already set priorities and lived them.

You may have been a laid-back person in certain aspects of your life. Now, choose if you want a contrast from that lifestyle or do measures to be able to maintain what you really are, without sacrificing what you intend to achieve. This is the time you have to be aware and set definite goals

2. Set Specific, measurable, and realistic long-term goals
Saying that you want to "do well" is not enough. Everybody wants that. Define what is "well" or what is "great" or what is "satisfactory." You can start by setting on a grade you want to achieve. Is it 95% or 100%. Remember be realistic and reasonable. If you have never received a general grade higher than 85%, grade of 98% may be unrealistic, albeit admirable, but not impossible.

3. Set short term goals
Long-term goals are impossible to achieve without short-term goals.For example, to achieve a long term goal of a A in biology, the student needed short-term goals. They mught have included: * Completeing all assignments * Attending all classes * Finding a study partner * Completing course readings on time * Studying hard for the mid term and final exams Even though you may have trouble meeting all these short term goals, following through on most of them will help you achieve your long-term aspirations.

4. Set social, personal, and academic goals
Aside from academics, you should also set social and personal goals as well.
Some students would set social goals high on their priority list not minding that they only have four or five years preparation before they enter a lifetime of the "real world."
Some of the social ambitions may include dating, getting along with your roommate, becoming more culturally aware, and learning to feel more comfortable in social situations.

5. Continually strive to meet your goals
Think of of how few people ever achieve thei dream of becoming a CEO of a large corporation, a well respected movie director, or an Olympic champion. Obviously, no one is giving away free tickets to success. However, by prioritizing, by setting realistic long-term goals and by acheiving them through short-term goals, you'll be surprised at how much you can accomplish.

As Les Brown said, "Life takes on meaning when you become motivated, set goals and charge after them in an unstoppable manner."So know what you want and go for it!

Quotes of Wisdom From John Legend

His words reveal so much of why he makes a difference in the music industry today. For the budding musicians of the present era, let these words inspire you to be visionaries in your own way. In his pursuit to save R&B he writes and interprets his own style of music that the world would want to sing.

"People rap-singing has led to the separation of melody from R&B, which is really unfortunmate. I'm not in the same lane. I'm trying to create something transcendent, something that inspires people."

"I wasn't worried about how I was received commercially. The only way I would be worried is if I didn't believe in the music."

"I travel around the world. I sing in English, but people who don't speak the same language are able to get it, understand it and love it. I believe that if you do the music right it doesn't have to have the boundaries that we place around it."

"dream and let it happen"

"It's not just in the back of my mind. It's pretty forward."

"You have to understand that when you're in the mode of a new artist, you're just trying to prove to people that you belong, that you should have a deal. You have to go in there with confidence saying, yes, I have music that's important, music that's relevant."

The Influence of Asian Art Noveau to Claude Debussy's Arabesque No. One

"Music is a mysterious kind of mathematics, the elements of which are part of eternity. It lives in the movement of water, in the play of the waves in the changing winds; there is nothing more musical than a sunset! For those who look and listen with their hearts, the best theory of evolution is written in a book that musicians rarely read: the book of nature". -- Claude Debussy



Claude Debussy’s works were composed in the era of Art Nouveau -- a term applied to the commercial art that was a protest against the industrialisation of the early 1870s and against the still very ugly machines; it was a time when people were nostalgically remembering workmanship, artistic skill and craftsmanship. On the other hand, Art Nouveau can also be seen as the movement of a whole epoch which embraced all areas of life and art and attempted to lessen the distance between the harmony of plants and animals and mankind. In the visual arts, commercial art and architecture, plant, animal and human motifs prevailed. Houses, furniture and vases were fashioned in the form of plants, there were sea-shell lamps and anthropomorphic chairs. Many different forms of art emphasised the musical element, numerous paintings bore musical titles, and literature cultivated all that was beautiful and rare - right up to the point of exaggerated aestheticism, to the rejection of the natural portrayal and the cultivation of symbols.
We know that whereas Debussy rejected the word impressionism, he did not reject impressions as is evident from this extract from one of his letters: "Collect impressions. Don’t be in a hurry to note them down, for music has an advantage over painting in that it can combine the variations of colour and light into one aspect."
The combining impressions on Art Nouveau concepts may have inspired Debussy to base his Arabesque composition from the designs found in, for example, Arabic art. The movements and curved lines of the motives dissolve into purposeless lines, into ornaments (arabesques). This two-dimensional, ornamental means of portrayal has its counterpart in Asiatic art.
The repetitive patterns in the picture is synonymous to the repetitive musical idea presented in the first few measures which is present throughout the piece. I used an arabesque pattern in a pottery picture, quadruplicated it, and fit those four together by inverting and rotating the images so that they form one whole piece.
The different line designs indicate the different parts of the piece. The flowing musical lines are like the curvy decorative designs. The freedom of form (not to he mistaken for its dissolution) does not indicate a rhapsodic gliding-over from one bar to another or a loose improvisation on a couple of sounds or scraps of melody. To the contrary, everything is most carefully composed; every detail is minutely indicated. Like the intricacies of the arabesque designs in visual art, melodic form can still be seen or heard.