Does the Gesture Matter?


  • Can you effect an accelerando and maintain the ensemble?

    In the Area of Breathing:

    1. Does your preparatory gesture encourage sufficient breath?

    2. Can you indicate internal phrases with the gesture?

    3. Can you indicate internal phrases with the gesture without disrupting the tempo?

    4. Is your gesture large enough to maintain a healthy flow of breath, both intake and output?

    5. Do your cut-offs allow for clean but gentle releases, or do they chop the tone/breath abruptly?

    Hopefully, this guideline will help us to judge ourselves with the scrutiny that we often judge our choirs. And hopefully, the judgement of ourselves will proceed the judgement of our ensembles' performance. Do we hold ourselves accountable to the same standards as we hold our students?

    For more resources on Correct Breathing and Singing

    Back to Basics: Ear Training

    Visual Images for the Vocal Coach

    Ensemble.org lists many websites that are choral related. The Texas Sings articles can be found here. This particular article, though it may not be the best representative of html coding, has some good points to share about sound reinforcement. There is a lot more information that you might find helpful at the other sites listed.

    Musica The International Database of Choral Repertoire. Very nice site, but most of it is in French. However, here is a link to the ChoralNet site and it is in English. They have some great links too, plus some wonderful information on where to audition for choirs and festivals.

    The editor for this article has retired from Suite 101, if you wish to contact her, you may reply here.

    The copyright of the article Does the Gesture Matter? in Music Education is owned by Deborah Jeter. Permission to republish Does the Gesture Matter? in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

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