"Singers work from inner sensation. That's the only way you can. Your whole body is your instrument -- like a basketball player's or a dancer's -- but with the added ingredient of art. We're distinct among musicians because the art is part of our bodies and we can't hear ourselves accurately. We're hearing something inside our bodies going out, so we do hear, but it's different -- like holding your ears while you talk.

“I keep my breathing as relaxed and open as possible and my carriage aligned, much as in bodywork or yoga. My ribs expand, so the air gently fills a vacuum. As I breathe, I drop my jaw a little, and the back of my throat feels horizontal, almost like a yawn or a smile, letting the air come into it rather than dragging the air into it.

"When I release the breath into a vowel, I have the feeling that the vowel is riding on the breath, which is elastic and free and in constant motion. There's a feeling of space in the back of my throat, in the palate, and in the sinuses. But the sound feels focused on a point a few feet in front of me, with the resonance very far forward to carry it farther.

"Over and over my teacher would say, 'Don't think, just sing it.' To get to a point where I could relax and allow a performance to just happen -- to go forward on its own propulsion without micromanaging it -- was an amazing feeling.

"In the end, singing is really all about the expression. The technical apparatus is only a system to produce sounds to express something else -- really the mysteries of art."

Lisa Saffer is a 47-year-old diva. She received her master's degree from Boston's New England Conservatory of Music in 1984, In the great opera houses and concert halls of the world, she sings in many languages, her small frame launching glorious sounds that reach to the farthest balconies.

Choir sound is different. Sound technicians are very knowledgeable about  microphones, amplifiers, equalizers, sound waves and mic patterns. They work, for the most part, with rock bands, soloists and/or vocal jazz singers and have perfected excellent sound capturing techniques that enhance and bring out the best of such groups.  Working with choir sound, however, is quit different.  Singers in a choir create an ambient sound that is the result of and is greater than the single voices from which it is made - a synergy of sound if you will. When amplifying a choir, it is this synergy of sound that needs to be captured - not individual voices or sections of voices. The result is what is generally referred to as "choir sound reinforcement".

Finding the best way to amplify your choir to reflect their true sound is a major challenge. After years of working with audio professionals, and doing my own research I have come up with a rather simple solution:

Use a stereo condenser microphone (one will easily cover a 40 voice choir). Such a microphone looks like a single microphone but actually has 2 separate microphones within a single container. This provides you with three things: 1) two microphones with a perfect XY pattern (some professionals argue that XY is not the best, however, it is an excellent choice), 2) a clean visually (just one mic stand - if possible, hanging the mic is best), 3) a true representation of the sound that is being produced by the choir. 

Placement of the stereo microphone will depend on the venue and how much resonant/acoustical sound is coming from the “stage”. The most desired position occurs when the microphone is behind and above the director’s head. However, this may not result in the best sound in every case. You will have to experiment and judge the distance from the choir that the mic "hears"/picks-up the choir best.  I have used this method in gyms and theatres, venues with good and bad acoustics, large and small rooms to great success. 

For larger choirs and/or for outdoor amplification, in addition to the stereo microphone in the centre, you may need a couple of (mono) condenser microphones - one on the left and one on the right about 6-8 feet from centre. (This arrangement also works well for recording your choir but that is another article.)

In most cases the piano should not have a separate microphone.   Due to the much closer distance from the microphone to the piano than the microphone to the choir, the signal from the piano will be much greater than the signal from the choir. Even when the piano’s volume is set lower than the choir’s volume, the piano will tend to have a greater presence than the choir.  The choir microphone will easily be able to “hear” the piano and pick it up along with the choir resulting in a much more pleasing balance.  If the piano is electric or needs to be “amped”, point the piano monitor/speaker towards the choir so that the singers can hear it and let the choir microphones pick it up along with the choir. For the same reasons as mentioned for not using a separate microphone for the piano, do not put the line from the piano directly into the main speakers.

Although I do not even pretend to be an expert in sound amplification, I do know that this method is easy to set up and works like a charm!

Here are a couple of stereo microphones I use and can easily be rented:

Audio-Technica AT825 (around $550)  

Rode NT4 Stereo Condenser Microphone (around $675)

[Conductor and MCA Webmaster Vic Hooper has had many years of experience setting up amplification systems for choirs - at St James-Assiniboia School Division, with his own choirs Assiniboine Show Choir of Sweet Adelines International and Rainbow Harmony Project and also as past Chair of the board of Prairie Voices.]

If you want to know anything about Pythagorean tuning, all we have to do today is "Google". However great the explanations are, they use language that most singers have a hard time understanding... they've usually lost me by the third word.

Here is my go at a very simplified explanation.

Our pianos tune to what is called the tempered scale. The scale we learn to sing is the same as a scale played on a well tuned piano. For most singing, this is what we want - it would sound quite strange if we sang in a different tuning system than our accompaniment. Occasionally, I've heard choirs (including my own) try notes that vary from the scale the piano is playing, however, in every case this was not successful. I digress.

When we don't use accompaniment, the situation is somewhat different. We are not restricted by the "well tempered" notes of the piano and can sing a more natural scale where the intervals line up in a way that makes them more in tune. Yes more in tune than even an electronic piano. The scale we can use when singing a cappella is known as the Pythagorean scale. In short, all the notes above the root of the scale are sung slightly sharper except for the fifth (soh) of the scale. It is "perfect" the way it is. As a singer the ones that are of particular concern are the third (mi), the sixth (la) and the seventh (ti) - the jam and bread will taste even better if you sharpen these three notes.

How sharp?, you ask. My most frequent responses to this are: "until it feels right", "until the intervals lock", "sharpen it as far as you can without going out of tune", and, if all esle fails, my favourite, "until I say so".

Below is an audio file of a Pythagorean scale (don't be alarmed, the root note is held whilst the other intervals are played) and a chart that shows exactly how far to raise each note.

(may require Quicktime)

Hope this is helpful.

Note:

In looking for a graphic for this section I came across the one I used in the heading at a website for healing companion animals of their health problems... hmmm. The site had this to say about sound waves that is very relevant to what I was saying earlier about sharpening a note "until it feels right":

The Tuning Fork Principle

If one tuning fork is struck, a nearby fork will also vibrate at the same frequency. This is due to the wave motion resonance phenomenon, which is when the same vibration is induced in an isolated object by resonance.

 

The Speaker Effect

If one stands in front of a speaker at, say, a concert, will you not feel something, a pressure and a vibration within your body? The vibration that’s felt is due to wave motion resonance and is there despite it not being visible.