To increase volume, make sure you have sufficient air in your lungs before you sing each phrase. But the MOST IMPORTANT THING is to sing from your diaphram instead from you throat as firstly, it will sound weak and unsupported, and more importantly it will spoil your throat if you constantly strain your throat. Your diaphragm is a flap of tissue below your lungs. Breathe fully into your lungs till your chest visibly expends, then try to push the air down to your solar plexus and sing/exhale.
To increase resonance, you require a very focused sound. when you sing, choose a point far away and sing to that point, mentally picturing that you are focusng all of your voice to that point. This does not necessarily mean that it's loud. you can have a soft (piano/ pianissimo) focused sound that travels as far as an unfocused loud (forte/ fortissimo) sound.
Also, conciously make the space in your mouth bigger by raising the upper palate (the soft part in between your upper teeth)
For pronounciation, depeding on the choir, the terminal sound of each word is important, be it ';t';, ';s';, ';k';, ';p';, ';ed';. firstly they shound not be over emphasized, as if everyone in the choir over emphasizes, it will hardly be in time and will sound very messy. it will also (most of the time) throw the song temporarily off beat. most importantly, it sounds bad. Secondly, it should not be missed out as without them, the words will definately not be clear. over emphasis and completely missing terinal sounds are the two most common mistakes that you should avoid. one way to avoid this is to say out the phrases to be sung in a normal speaking voice first. followed by saying ou those phrases in a speeded up tempo to match the tempo of the song before proceeding to singing them. keep in mind the terminal sounds; not to miss them or over emphasize them.
my conductor used to make us sing this as a warm-up to improve diction, particularly with ';t'; sounds; ';Diction is done with the tip of the toungue and the teeth.'; toungue twisters would also be good practice.
Another thing to take note is the mouth shape. when you enunciate the words, shape your mouth according to the vowel sounds - A = Ah, E = Eh, I = Ee, O = Oh, U = Wu.
but the most important in a choir, is that everyone pronounces the words the same way. you may have the most accurate diction, but if everyone sings differently, you would be the one sticking out, not themI need advice to help with my choral singing?
For making your words clearer, You NEED to to pronounce and annunciate your words correctly, and if needed, it sometimes helps to even over-pronounce the words, that way, the word will be clearly understood. And to make your voice louder, Take a HUGE deep breath, and practice breathing for it. Practice with large breaths, and soon you will \be able to sing much louder, just get the right breathing pattern down, Sing from your dispragm, and if you would like, put your hands/arms behind your back, this will open up your chest a ton more when you sing so your singing will be a bit louder and clearer, and much easier for you as well.
Hope this helps!!
~*~Acey~*~
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