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choir arrangements

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(@jonsi)
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Joined: 20 years ago
Posts: 128
Topic starter  

Not exactly a guitar question. But I hope someone can help me anyway!

I've gotten a great opportunity. Suddenly I was invited to a great, great gospel choir by a great singer, without question the best I've ever met. I don't even have to pass a test, the leader of the choir just trust this singer so much. I don't know what happened but sometimes you're just lucky, I guess. I'm a baryton, but they treat me like a tenor...

Well, I need some help. I have no former exprience of singing in a choir and now I'm a little bit confused. I have three questions:

1. When writing music, is the guitar transcribed an octave up? Or down?

2. Does anyone now a good site with information about choir arrangement theory?

3. Where can I find choir arrangements on the net? I want to train to read music.


   
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(@musenfreund)
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Joined: 22 years ago
Posts: 5108
 

Congratulations on the opportunity.

Guitar music sounds an octave lower than written.

I can't answer the other questions, but someone will come along who can.

Well we all shine on--like the moon and the stars and the sun.
-- John Lennon


   
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(@jonsi)
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Joined: 20 years ago
Posts: 128
Topic starter  

Oh! Thank you for the answer! It helps me a lot.


   
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(@noteboat)
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Joined: 21 years ago
Posts: 4921
 

I couldn't find any sites on choral arranging or with arrangements (other than those selling books or courses).

For reading practice, you could actually use popular music in easy arrangements. Choral music is usually written on either three or four staves - if there are four, there's one for each voice, if there are three there's a treble stave for the female voices, then a grand staff for the male - tenor on the treble stave, bass on the bass stave. So it lines up just like a piano/voice arrangement. (Tenor voices are written one octave higher than they sound, exactly the opposite of the guitar)

Vocal arranging can be pretty complicated. Here's a few thoughts:

1. You can approach it as you would guitar, with lead/rhythm - the lead voice (usually the soprano) does the melody line, the other voices form chords to harmonize it.

2. You can write it as counterpoint. In that approach, it's usually the middle voices that carry the tune - just pick one of them to be the main melody. The other middle voice will harmonize at a third or sixth; the top voice then takes a complimentary melody, usually in fifth species (florid) counterpoint; the bass outlines the bass notes of the implied chords.

3. You could do a full-blown four-part harmony, like any other music composition. If you do that, remember the general rules of harmony - parallel fifths are usually bad, etc. - and that voices are usually harmonized at thirds and sixths. Because the tenor voice is actually written an octave higher than it sounds, you want to keep the written voicings close - the top three should all lie within an octave of each other. If they don't, the male voices will sound detached from the female - there'll be a two-octave plus spread to the tenor in performance, and probably three or more to the bass. Think of it like a piano composition with three voices in the right hand and one in the left.

Guitar teacher offering lessons in Plainfield IL


   
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(@ricochet)
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Joined: 21 years ago
Posts: 7833
 

Because the tenor voice is actually written an octave higher than it soundsIn the church choir music I've been singing (Bass/baritone) since 1988, all 4 vocal parts are written right where they sound. There's no octave transposition. The tenor parts follow the upper part of the bass clef with lots of leger lines, the bass parts occupy a lower region of the bass clef with leger lines above or below as necessary.

Unfortunately, if you're singing "contemporary Christian" music, the current trend is to force men to sing like teenage girls. It's difficult and unpleasant to do, and it doesn't sound good. But if you've got a choir director following the fashion of the day, you're stuck with it.

"A cheerful heart is good medicine."


   
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(@dsparling)
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Joined: 19 years ago
Posts: 289
 

One source of choral music, and it's free, is the Choral Public Domain Library:

http://www.cpdl.org/

You also might pick up a hymnal, that will at least have four-part writing you can look at.

http://www.dougsparling.com/
http://www.300monks.com/store/products.php?cat=59
http://www.myspace.com/dougsparling
https://www.guitarnoise.com/author/dougsparling/


   
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(@jonsi)
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Joined: 20 years ago
Posts: 128
Topic starter  

Thanks for all the help! Dsparling, I'll check that site immediately. Thanks again!


   
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(@noteboat)
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Joined: 21 years ago
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In the church choir music I've been singing (Bass/baritone) since 1988, all 4 vocal parts are written right where they sound. There's no octave transposition. The tenor parts follow the upper part of the bass clef with lots of leger lines, the bass parts occupy a lower region of the bass clef with leger lines above or below as necessary.

Might be a peculiarity of the publisher(s) your choir director deals with. The scores I looked at on the site dsparling posted all have the octave transposition for tenor - I'm not a choral guy (or a tenor), but that's how I remembered it from school, and I thought it was standard.

Guitar teacher offering lessons in Plainfield IL


   
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(@paul-donnelly)
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I've seen tenor parts written both ways. I think publishers like to use the same staff for the tenor and bass lines to save space.


   
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