Not singing spiritually is one of the main rules of the church choir. The role of singing in Sunday worship. "men and tenors sing"

Liturgical singing is nothing more than the joint prayer of all those participating in church service.

Church choral singing since the time of the apostles has been integral part prayer meeting.

A great spiritual and educational mission is contained in Orthodox church singing. This is the means through which the Word of God is preached, forming a special liturgical church language.

Very often people who understand little about church traditions come to the temple. Church choral singing helps to feel the effect of grace-filled prayer, tenderness and insight into its essence, which everyone can learn.

Church singing schools and courses

For any endeavor, desire and further action are important. The most recently developed instruments will help you master church choral singing. choir courses at churches, whose program is built from the very basics:

• chants;
• simple works;
• studying the history of temple singing;
• church voices.

Learning to sing in the choir is limited to simple works consisting of two parts and is free.

In addition to courses, there are entire church schools choral singing . IN big cities, for example, Moscow, St. Petersburg, they can be found at every temple.

In schools, training lasts from one year to three years. For those wishing to undergo training in unison singing art, the School of Byzantine Choral Singing has been opened in Moscow. Her address can be easily found on the Internet.

The school of church choral singing accepts both children and adults. Training begins with:

• musical notation;
• solfeggio and vocals;
• theology;
• texts of church hymns.

But such schools cannot be found everywhere. As a last resort, you can find the temple and contact the regent.

You need:

You must continue learning church singing on your own:

1. To do this, you need to take notes and learn chants accompanied by musical instrument, chanting the names of notes instead of syllables, tracing their durations.
2. The musical part should be taken for the soprano, and the vocal part should be played for the alto.
3. Also useful individual sessions with a teacher who will suggest the direction of study.
4. You should strive for light, peaceful and majestic singing.
5. Don't get carried away with beautiful harmony, effects or complex parts. In choral church singing, words are primary.
6. Diligence and hard work will help you perform fairly well in the choir in a year.

Learning to sing in the choir

The choir is the place in the temple where the singers are. Historically, church singing was reduced to monotony and monotony. Their execution was not difficult. The modern choir is a polyphonic choir that imitates the singing of angels. In large temples it has the right and left side, in one there are amateurs singing, in the other there are professional performers. The choir is located on a raised platform in front of the altar.

To start learning to sing on the choir you need:

• have ear for music;
• beautiful voice in timbre;
• It is desirable to have a musical education.

If music education no, we need to start With self-study musical notation. Singing on the choir involves fast reading sheet music. Repeated repetition and persistence will allow you to master this skill.

Preparation for worship should be devoted to about five hours a week. During rehearsals, singing with other singers takes place, determining the position in the choir, which depends on the pitch of the voice.

Choral performance in the choir should have a strong impact on the listeners. To achieve such a result you need a lot of work. It consists of regular rehearsals, study and nuances of the repertoire, and chanting.

Types of liturgical singing:

• Znamenny or hook singing, in which the choir sings in unison. This type of ancient church chant predates modern musical notation musical works. It is written with special icons “banners” or “hooks”.
• Partes singing, where many voices are included.
• A routine that includes simple everyday liturgical chants.

Church singing school osmoglasie

"Osmoglasiya" or "octagonal" is a fixed asset church music, in which each voice corresponds to a specific day of the week.

Each voice begins on Sunday, continues until Saturday and imparts a gracious mood to the week. Sunday. This voice has a dominant position in worship throughout the week.

The main hymns of the octagon can be found in the two-volume music book “Octoichus,” an ancient church book. It contains musical notation the main chants of eight voices that are used in everyday life.

The Role of Singing in Sunday Worship

Sunday worship is the main function of the Church. Regular attendance and organization of worship on Sunday is the work to which the Church is called.

Sunday worship is a great blessing; it is impossible to overestimate the significance of this action. It is an act of worship of the Holy Principle - God.

How to learn to sing in the choir good and right? First of all, you need to understand that singing in the choir, in principle, presupposes that the singer has a musical education. Many who want to sing in the choir do not understand that it is one thing to sing alone (even if well), and a completely different thing to fit your voice into an ensemble when you have to sing a certain melody, coinciding with other voices.

Singing in a choir is not a very simple process (just pay attention to how often the priests at the beginning of the all-night vigil “bravo” sing “Come, let us worship” - at least cover your ears, despite the fact that each individual can even sing the magnification normally).

This was the preamble...

And now, actually, how to learn

After this, find the notes of the so-called “podobnov” - simple chants to a well-known simple melody. You can read more about similar ones here:

You can use this page to learn how to sing. Download the sheet music, then follow your part, and turn on the sound recording, following the notes with your eyes. If you have hearing and you can, in principle, repeat any sound correctly, you will be able to sing in the choir sooner or later. Of course, this will take time, because your reaction will leave much to be desired, and you will be easily confused by any extraneous sound.

But the one who walks will master the path. Singing in the choir is an extremely noble and worthy cause. So - go for it. And the Lord himself will reward you for your work and singing in the choir.

http://site/

Good day to everyone who is now in touch and reading this post of mine.

The writing of this article was facilitated by my new obedience as a regent - a psalmist on weekdays on weekdays in the monastery church in the village of Bezrukovo, which is not far from my beloved Atamanovo.

I wrote about the fact that I now serve in the monastery on weekdays. Little by little I’m settling into my new parish, there’s a lot of work, of course, but have I ever been afraid of it?! Especially in the choir.

New obedience.

The level of singing at the choir in Bezrukovo, in my opinion, is rather weak, but then I understand why I was there. To with God's help raise it (level). Therefore, I can now boldly declare publicly that I am a practicing regent - an experienced psalmist, and one who practices everyday singing in the choir, and not notated choral singing.

No, we still sing according to the notes, despite the fact that one of the nuns has no musical education. But she understands notes and has a musical ear, so it will definitely be useful. I will try very hard to achieve this or I am not Alena Semyonova.

It’s just that, it seems to me, no one taught the mothers to sing correctly. And where could they study? So, just like they caught it by ear and okay. And I consider this negligence. No, not what was caught by ear. It’s even very good that they can perceive it by ear, and singing from the notes will follow. I consider it negligence in singing to sing a piece of music, even if it is everyday, but with your own variations.

I sing it just as I remember it. But I remembered it wrong. My mothers try very hard, I practice with them, though only once a week, but at least it’s something. The nuns have many obediences of their own; one of the mothers does not attend some evening services because she is busy.

It’s good that the three of us sing the Liturgy together. To learn how to sing correctly, we chose several simple chants that the mothers sang without me, and which, as they said, were familiar to them, and so far we only sing them. There is no point in learning something new, since many mistakes happen in these chants that people seem to know.

Learning to sing in the choir correctly.

I, as a hearing regent, point out shortcomings, and even better, correct them immediately after the Liturgy (we stay for ten minutes each time). Then we take this chant, which we couldn’t cope with or sang with errors, and work through it during the rehearsal. That is, we learn it again, but this time correctly and according to the notes.

And I also sing them with the same chant that came by mail to you, my family, in the singing mailing list and which is here on my blog page. This is where we learn to sing correctly. The position of vowels in singing can be shown at a rehearsal without harm to the service. It is also appropriate to work on diction during singing.

And all the comments and wishes for improving singing in the choir, which arise in the middle of the week during services, are also during the rehearsal.

And learning to sing correctly without rehearsing is almost impossible. I mean correctness not only in vocal and choral methodology, but also spiritual euphony. “One mouth and one heart.” After all, you can sing vocally, but not prayerfully, not churchily.

My nuns help me a lot with singing. They help with the power of their prayer, as the chosen brides of Christ. There is no vanity in their sound, prayerful detachment and at the same time concentration on the word and sound. Their calm euphony is transmitted to me, and sometimes I am carried away to Heaven and with them.

Sometimes I am “brought down to earth” by the fact that one of my singers “goes” to the wrong place. But this happens less and less. And the other day they sang Cherubimskaya very well. I didn't even swear. Kidding. In general, I stopped swearing at the singers, because if the choir (choir) sings poorly, then the regent is to blame. If the choir (choir) sings well, then this is the merit of the choir itself.

This is my opinion, I don’t impose it on anyone, so you can express your point of view on this matter. I don’t often write about how to learn to sing correctly in the choir. I just try to do it, and do it clearly. My chanting is aimed at forming the correct singing sound specifically in the choir in the church.

This is my many years of experience as a choir director, which I have summarized and make available here on my blog for free access to everyone. Please use and apply. Because it’s very embarrassing, sometimes it happens when I go into a church that I don’t know, and the choir there sings weakly.

You should have heard, my dear ones, how the sectarians sing. You will listen. And where do they get so many votes, I was always amazed by this. And I’m offended for our faith, for the Orthodox Church. It’s insulting and unpleasant when you come to church to pray, and there is only one person singing at the service. He sings well, otherwise he actually reads everything...

Therefore, all of you who are learning church hymns and vocal singing on my blog, and those who already know how to sing in the choir and do it well with God’s help, then all of you have already been rewarded by being chosen to glorify God on earth. And God willing, you will be worthy of this fate in Heaven.

And I sincerely wish this for you and myself.

Sincerely yours, Alena Semyonova.

Addition to this post dated 04/12/2013

“She understands notes and has a musical ear, so she will definitely be useful. I will try very hard to achieve this or I am not Alena Semyonova"

I declare publicly that I am not Alena Semyonova, because I cannot teach someone who categorically does not accept this. The rehearsal with one of the nuns ended as soon as it began. She has good musical abilities, but the skill of improving church singing is not at all developed and there is no desire for this very improvement, so I wash my hands of it.

It is impossible to raise the level of singing where there is opposition to it, since they believe that a secular musician cannot teach a nun anything musical or good. I’m not going to convince anyone, and if any of the “great prayer books” are now reading this post on the blog, close the page immediately and run away from the blog. Since Anfir 70 dot ru is led by a secular musician, not at all humble and not spiritual. And also sharp and categorical, strict and soulless towards lazy people and freeloaders, whose name is Alena Semyonova.

And I, unspiritual and non-church, will pay attention only to those who truly deserve it. This statement also applies to teaching church singing online. The second nun comes to the singing and tries in the fall together with other secular singers of this monastery. My secularism and non-ecclesiastical nature does not in the least prevent her from improving her choir skills. And for this I bow deeply. And if you consider that she is already over seventy!!! God bless you, Mother Mary.

Moreover, I could no longer endure the goat-like singing of a mother who was negligent in singing and teaching, and I come to services when she is somewhere in obedience. I prefer to sing together with M. Maria, as it sounds better than the three of us. Because the three of us sound more and more uncoordinated and bad.

When I asked my confessor for a blessing to sing in the choir, he said a phrase that I didn’t pay much attention to at that moment: “The choir is the forefront. The cutting edge. The evil one does not like church singing, so expect temptations.” A month later, in tears, I came to my confessor for a new blessing - to leave the choir: “I can’t, it’s not working, it’s not my thing.” The answer was stern: “You will leave when the regent kicks you out. Consider it your obedience. You must endure and learn.” Now I can’t imagine how I would live without singing. Although I still sometimes ask myself: would I have decided to go to the choir if I knew how many promised temptations there would be?

Recently, on one of the regency singing forums on the Internet, I read: choristers are supposedly the church “elite”: no discipline, no prayer, a lot of arrogance and conceit. I wanted to be indignant, but... I changed my mind. Because, to my great regret, there is a certain amount of truth in this philippic. My goal is not to scare anyone who wants to sing in a church choir - I want a beginner, even if general outline, but he had an idea of ​​what awaited him and what he needed to be prepared for.

When a person who comes to church ends his new beginning period, he understands that being a Christian is not an easy matter at all. A novice singer understands much more quickly that it is difficult for God to sing. It's good when a singer "grows" out of children's choir— he already knows the basic wisdom, and the process of joining the choir itself is painless. The trouble is that only a few make such a “transition”. And not every church is capable of raising a children’s choir.

Usually one gets to the choir in two ways (we do not take into account professional singers). The temple already has a large, strong choir or even two - “right” and “left” (also called amateur, educational or everyday). A parishioner (or more often a parishioner), regularly singing “I Believe” and “Our Father” along with everyone else, finally plucks up courage, approaches the regent and timidly asks: “Can I try to join the choir...?” The second option is that there is no one at all to sing in the church except the mother regent, who listens carefully during the nationwide singing and finally approaches the potential singer: “They say you are three classes music school Did you ever graduate? Maybe you can try singing in the choir?”

The person begins to try. Most often, at the very first rehearsal or service, it turns out that he doesn’t know anything and can’t do anything. And even if he can, it’s somehow not right. While I was bending my fingers so as not to confuse the vowels, it turned out that I sang a stichera or troparion without understanding what it was about. While I was following the notes, the litany ended, but I still didn’t have time to pray. And in general, the service flew by like one minute, leaving a physical feeling of the loading work being completed, especially if the choir is small and you need to sing, and not sing along. But how can we “glorify God with one mouth”? When I prayed in the temple, everything seemed a little different... This was the first temptation of the newcomer.

It would be good if someone immediately explained to a person that prayer on the choir is done more by deeds than by words. Beautiful singing that encourages those present to pray is prayer in itself. And it’s not uncommon for choristers to simultaneously sing a special litany and read a memorial service. Both of them turn out bad...

It happens that they sang poorly, the regent made a remark, and immediately - despondency and “I’m not a singer!” If you sang well, you want to praise yourself: “Wow, how well I’m doing!” In any case, my confessor advised me to thank the Lord. It turned out well - “Thank God!” It’s bad - it’s still “Glory to God!”... On many choirs there is an icon of the patron saint of singers - St. Roman the Sweet Singer. And I would also recommend re-reading his life in moments of despondency. And think: “Do I really want to sing to God, as Saint Roman wished, or am I just flattering my vanity?”

Discipline in the choir is the talk of the town. Especially in large “holiday” choirs, where unchurched professional singers often sing. Few places can get by without being late, talking and arguing with the regent. Not every regent is enough to musical part, and for educational purposes. And not everyone will decide to “educate” a careless prima: she will get offended and leave, then look for someone else with a small salary...

Salary is a special conversation. Leftist choirs usually sing to the glory of God. On some level, it’s easier for them. Although here, too, there is a danger of falling into delusion: “Here they are, self-interested people, singing for money, and I am unmercenary.” The “self-seekers” from the right-wing choir have their own concerns: the wages are low and there are fewer scheduled services than we would like. The rate is really small everywhere, except for large cathedrals in major cities. Once I advertised: “Singers wanted,” and indicated our usual rate. I received advice: for that kind of money, look for a grandmother or grandfather from the parishioners.

By the way, the topic of wages is one of the most pressing. One thing is clear: it is unrealistic to live on the salary of a regent or a singer. However, the Lord does not abandon true devotees of singing by His mercy. But sometimes a person thinks: “A real singer shouldn’t waste his time, I need to feed my family, so it’s better not to sing at all than to be a slob.” Usually, such “former choristers” understand in their hearts that they are wrong, but they get terribly angry with those who combine choir singing with other work (and these are the majority).

However, it seems to me that there are no “former singers” at all. There are people who came to the choir to earn extra money or enjoy the process of singing and beautiful music- like in a choir club. Real singers do not come - the Lord brings them, and sometimes in the most amazing ways. As one of my friends said, a real singer will not leave the choir of his own free will. He will experience failures, pray, study, but he will not be able to live without the choir.

If a singer, as they often say, “has neither voice nor hearing,” but wants to sing and is ready to learn, then it really is impossible to kick him out. Yes, and this is inappropriate. All church choirs they rely on singers who once couldn’t sing, but then learned. The best singer for the choir is the one who gradually learned to sing and reached the top right on this very choir.

But so far such a diamond has not even been cut... It is hidden somewhere in the depths under layers of limestone and clay, called the words “secondation”, “falseness”, “dirt”, etc.

In general, my answer to the question posed... Leading singers should be made from such people!

Each person requires an individual approach. This, however, is obvious.
In words. In fact, regents (and myself first) rarely work individually with choristers. I will give the generally accepted regency method of training novice choristers, who cannot be kicked out, and then we will see how it can be improved.

• First of all, a novice singer is not allowed to sing at all: “like, listen first.”
• Then they begin to connect it to large composition choir, where falsehood is not so noticeable. They put him next to an experienced singer and ask him to sing quietly and blend in.
• Sooner or later, an experienced singer does not come to this or that service, and - since there is nowhere to go - it is sung from beginning to end by one novice singer. After this, they begin to take him seriously, and in an instant he becomes an experienced one from a beginner.

There are at least two disadvantages to this conventional approach. The first is that a beginning singer has to learn on his own. Not everyone will overcome this barrier.

Secondly, a beginner has to solve more difficult problems than experienced singers.

Even a beginning singer may have a natural beautiful voice, which cannot be “adjusted” to the general timbre of the choir. On the contrary, the entire choir should be adjusted to the timbre of such a singer. Moreover, choir “choirs”, as a rule, are not choirs. The choir consists of at least three people per party. And on the choirs there are often no more than eight people. This is no longer a choir, but an ensemble. And ensembles need to adapt to the best, and not average.

How can the method be improved?

First of all, saying “listen” is an understatement. We need to set the task more specifically. How to set the task more specifically? We need to find out what the beginning singer hears. In other words,

“Like, listen first,” the regent should say not to the singer, but... to himself!

And in order to hear what a beginning singer can and cannot do, he needs to sing something. The regent's hearing and intuition should work here. There are practically no specific recipes. But the most general provisions I'll bring it.

The regent set the tone and asked the novice chorister to repeat (not in the service, of course). He hit (or didn’t hit, it doesn’t matter). You must definitely ask: “Did you sing correctly or not, as you hear?” If he hears, right or wrong, that's half the battle. If a novice singer hears that he missed the mark, he should definitely ask: “Was it higher or lower than necessary?” (above is more squeaky, for those who don’t like musical terminology). If a novice singer hears this, it means that he is actually able to learn to intonate purely on his own. You just need to give him the right task.

It's done like this. We explain to the aspiring singer that

"B. When you start singing, immediately determine whether you hit it or not. If you hit it, everything is fine; if not, immediately turn off the “volume” and determine whether you sang higher or lower than necessary. And then make the next attempt, etc. "

But! Beginning singers may also have poor coordination between hearing and voice (like me, for example). Something else needs to be explained here:

“A. Before you start singing, imagine the sound in your head, sing mentally, and only then sing out loud.”

After a certain number of consecutive repetitions of instructions A. And B. Anyone can learn to intonate accurately!
Of course, many will say that this approach does not solve the problem of seconds. Like the singer hears “higher or lower,” but only to a certain limit. With a certain, so to speak, error. What needs to be understood here is that the quality of choral structure is never too good! You can always improve something. Therefore, working with points A. And B. must be constant. Sometimes it would be nice for experienced singers to do it too.
First, the singer must learn to be in unison. What happens next is beyond the scope of the question.
Now let's complicate the task. A beginning singer does not hear “higher or lower.” Especially if the regent is a woman and the choirmaster is a man (or vice versa). Then you can try to repeat what the beginner sang, and then sing again what you should have sung. And again ask to determine whether it is higher or lower. In addition, in our ordinary life There are so many sounds that you can practice determining what sounds higher and what sounds lower even without choir practice.
Let's complicate the task even more. A beginning singer wants to sing, but cannot. This is also being resolved. He does talk, after all. This means there might be some sound. We close the doors more tightly, gather in some narrow circle of singing lovers and begin to sing “Aaaaaaa...” on some convenient note, to which everyone gradually joins in. The technique works almost flawlessly.
Over time, even the most voiceless can independently produce some sound in a narrow range (usually below their real vocal range). The problem arises of how to explain to a beginning singer what it means to sing higher or lower.
To begin with, you can ask him to sing louder. And if he can’t sing, speak louder.

Louder usually means higher

This is the difference he needs to remember.

Of course, such beginning singers need special training. This is not the option when a piece is sung a couple of times at a rehearsal - and it is learned. This is a job for several years. But the results will pay off for you in unheard of percentages!
The regent can always force the chorister to study, and do this delicately and in some cases not even noticeable to the chorister himself. The easiest way is to constantly adjust it. In principle, any singer can be taught something. And if you constantly teach everyone, then those who don’t want to learn will also learn. Simply because it cannot be otherwise.

It can even be treated star fever. You can always kick him out. But sometimes it’s enough just to ask to be silent. An individual approach is required.

Of course, when a singer gets into the choir who “doesn’t fit in” (I mean in this case only musical meaning) into the existing group, and the regent can only either tolerate him or ask him not to sing... In this case, this is not a real regent.

It is in such teams, by the way, that the biggest problems arise. They gathered like several people, musical literacy know, have learned the usage, voices, have learned several complex works, everything sounds clean and beautiful... But alas... Such a choir will quickly be covered with torn galoshes. Sooner or later, someone from the sung cast will not be able to come. There will be a replacement problem. And there is no one to replace it! Of course, there will always be those who want to sing, but they do not fit into the structure-repertoire-composition-...-..., etc. But the regent did not develop the ability to study: it was not needed in that composition. The regent is trying to find a replacement among those with whom, again, there is no need to study and so that the new singer “fits in.” Found. In 3 months. But then another singer from the old lineup moved to another city, and... in short, hello. The regent's ordeal begins again. About maternity leave and qualified alto sopranos with infants, with this approach I simply remain silent. And each such problem forces the regent to struggle with despondency, because he feels that he does not have a stable composition, and nothing is getting through.

Therefore, I advise everyone to study constantly with everyone without exception. So that this is normal practice. Then the composition will always be there, and it will be easier to introduce newcomers, and in general, in this case, the moral climate will be healthier.
Taken from the site