Elena Sharkova Workshop

On Saturday, March 15th, the Squalicum High School Concert Choir had a workshop with Dr. Elena Sharkova. We worked on three pieces - Witness, Os Justi, and Two Japanese Proverbs. She was impressed with the choir on many levels from our attention to detail and focus on warm-ups, to the repertoire choices, to our vocal maturity, and the balance of men in the choir. She talked to the choir on a very sophisticated level which is a testament to the advanced level the choir is at.

At the beginning of the workshop, Dr. Sharkova spoke to the choir on three points that help a choir get to a destination in their journey. The three "D's" as she called them - Direction, Discipline, and Devotion. The first point is that you need good instruction. The second point is two-fold in that you have to have discipline (non-chaotic environment) in the classroom, but you also have to have integrity in how you sing each song. To do something one day musically does not mean that you now "get it" and it will continue to be there. It means you need to have the discipline to continue to sing in the style you just learned everyday. Just as the saying goes, "The proof is in the pudding." Witness needs a darker tone, Two Japanese Proverbs needs non-legato and more of an edgy tone, and Os Justi is in the middle with a legato and warm tone. The last of the three "D's," devotion, means you put your entire self into every rehearsal and performance. Dr. Sharkova made some interesting points about going to the "University of Google" and doing research on your own. She asked the choir about Bruckner and the choir couldn't respond. I told her, "I haven't told them about him at all." She said that I didn't have too. I know that a lot of choir members already do a lot of research by going to youtube and/or downloading songs off of the internet. This is another aspect you can start thinking about if you really want to invest a little time. I got some good ideas from her about teaching about the composer that choir members will start seeing in the near future.

The next point is a great one about the roles of each section in the choir. The sopranos are the color of the choir, the altos are the soul of the choir, the tenors are the passion of the choir, and the basses are the success of the choir.

The last point I'll make in this blog is on diction. I thought her explanation of vowels and consonants was great. Vowels are the emotion of singing. They provide the color, and color speaks louder than words. She made the dog analogy for an audience member. That sounds kind of funny, but the audience, who often are amateur listeners and haven't spent day in and day out listening to you rehearse music, are going to judge a piece immediately on the color of the sound. What kind of message are we sending with our tone colors? By the way, this is the dog analogy: you could scold a dog with a exciting tone and the dog would be excited wagging it's tail and looking for attention. Or you could praise a dog with a scolding tone and the dog would hang it's head. It's all in the color and tone of your voice, not in the words. Consonants are the information. She wrote the following consonants on a piece of paper, "TBRNTB," then asked what it meant. She could've also written "OEOOOE," which would be the vowels that correlate with the consonants written. The saying is "To Be Or Not To Be." Many students got it. She also mentioned license plates, you see personalized license plates use consonants and skip out vowels. Anyways, this is a very good point that I think we need to be more attentive to when rehearsing. How do we want to sing consonants? It will vary from song to song.

Here are some other ideas that came from the workshop:

Os Justi
We live in a time of text messaging...Don't let that happen in our phrasing. Think micro phrasing (i.e. first 3 notes os JU sti), but also MACRO phrasing (first page = 1 long phrase).

How to start singing: 1. Get excited, 2. Hear the note in your head (audiate), 3. Shape the Note, and 4. Take a beautiful breath in.

"Squeeze the 'm' like a Californian Avacado"

Don't get cheap with the [e] vowel, "make it at least Nordstroms, or maybe Saks 5th Ave." We need to work on the depth of the ee and eh vowels.

Keep an open throat (yawn space) for resonance and shape your articulator (mouth). More pucker in ee and eh will give you a warmer sound and more sending power.

Two Japanese Proverbs - Tenor 1's need a warmer, slightly darker sound on the higher "ga daiji"
-we need to work tuning on ending 3 part men phrases at the beginning
-Symbols in Eastern languages versus letters in Western languages. This is represented in the song with the phrases, especially in the 2nd proverb.
-The "wailing" or "crying" of the soprano and alto parts on their entrances to show the adversity.
-More accents throughout
-Never sing a repeated idea or phrase the same, make louder or softer
-The spirit will not move you unless you open up
-Less reliance on the conductor
-Let's explore movement to help get through the 2nd proverb

Witness
-"Music is the vehicle for the text"
-Tell more of the story, more diction (especially on the pick ups)
-Control the tempo, we tend to rush (Os Justi tends to drag)
-You are the narrarator
-Accuracy of voiced consonants, get them to line up

It's difficult to switch characters from song to song, Dr. Sharkova has a sign - hand on the heart, I think I'll steal that idea! Look for it in an upcoming rehearsal.

Great job choir! There are so many good things going on. Let's keep the focus and continue to grow.