The Harmonious Path: Developing from Unison to Harmony Singing

Is there anything more delightful than the sound of children singing? The developmental path from unison to harmony singing takes time. The skills that lead to successful part independence develop gradually, and if singers are given the opportunity to grow these skills in the right sequence, the process can unfold in a confidence-building way. When teachers and singers find themselves frustrated with learning harmony, it’s usually because they need more time to develop and internalize the underlying skills that provide the foundations of harmony singing.

I typically think of these skills as existing in a pyramid; beginning skills form the bottom and gradually progress upward, like this:

Skills toward the bottom need time to develop and must be solid before singers move up the pyramid. The time spent creating a beautiful unison will pay dividends when it comes to echo singing, where sections learn independence for the first time. Time spent learning to blend, match vowels, and work through different areas of the voice is never wasted! Similarly, the way singers learn to manage entrances and cutoffs in echo singing leads to them being able to handle the staggered entrances required in a round, while still maintaining a good vocal sound through their own musical line. Each new step calls upon the lessons learned from the last.

If you choose your repertoire with an understanding of this gradual skill progression, your choir will react to each new challenge with anticipation and joy rather than fear or trepidation—and the excitement from singers easily translates into productive rehearsals and solid teaching moments. That’s why I program unison songs and rounds for virtually every group I conduct, even my advanced groups: because I believe that fundamental skills should be revisited and refreshed frequently.

Setting the Choir Up for Success

Before your first rehearsal of any piece, identify any areas where your singers may need additional support in order to be successful. I like to look for the top three to five challenges and develop several ways of addressing each of them in rehearsal.

In some cases, I create a warm-up that addresses the challenge, so the choir begins building the necessary skill before they ever learn the piece. In other cases, I go right to that spot in the music and identify a particular concept to introduce that section, so the choir has an understanding of that concept to support their learning. Either way, the idea is to anticipate challenges, and set the choir up for success.

The Importance of Vocal Modeling

Your singers will learn a great deal from the way you sing to them. Don’t let that statement intimidate you. You don’t need to be Pavarotti, but you should be able to produce a clear, in-tune, pleasant sound for singers to emulate. There’s no use telling them to use pure vowels if you sing with a heavy twang. Rather than use too many words, demonstrate what you want, or even model the right way versus the wrong way. This activity will also teach singers to listen critically.

Music Literacy at Every Stage

I often hear from teachers that, while taking the time to teach music reading is a goal, it is often unachievable due to time constraints. I really, truly believe that taking small amounts of time in every rehearsal or class to work on literacy in some small capacity ultimately builds a better choir with smarter musicians. While singers can and do learn amazingly complicated pieces entirely by rote, strengthening literacy ultimately gives them the power to “hear with their eyes and see with their ears.” Whether you work with reading pitch and rhythm in isolation, use a method book, or go straight to reading parts right out of the score, try to do a little every day in your rehearsals. With time, it will pay off!

In Harmony Handbook you will find skill-building repertoire, rehearsal techniques, and warm-ups that will enhance and enrich your rehearsals, and make the process of mastering harmony singing rewarding and affirming. While each of the exercises has been developed with the particular pieces selected for the book in mind, know that many of these techniques can be successfully adapted to any similar literature you choose.

Wherever you and your choir currently are on the harmonious path, may every step forward be a joyous one.