Winter intensive redux

I've been teaching at another winter intensive for the Australian Youth Choir this week, of which today is the second day.

It's interesting to see the differences between the groups from last week to this week.  Last week the focus was straight on from the word go, this week it takes a bit more work to retain the choristers' concentration.  There's also more plowing back over worked furrows, fixing up mistakes before they become part of the performance.

The general sound finally came together after lunch today.  Getting over 100 young singers to listen can be challenging at the best of times, but it can be done.  Tomorrow's question of the day will probably run along the lines of asking which of the five senses is the most important when you're singing.  The golden moment came today, when the whole choir finally managed to sing softly without falling through the floor. 

The differences in room arrangements between the two intensives is interesting.  Last week the choir rehearsed in a large drama classroom, so all were on the same floor level.  It wasn't really all that easy to walk around the choristers while they were singing, so a lot of the sound shaping was done from the front of the room.  This week the choir is rehearsing in a theatre, so the big advantage is that the seating is set up in raked rows.  I spent a good deal of today's sessions walking around and listening to each block of choristers.  There's still a bit of work to do on unifying the sound from one side of the room to the other.

Tomorrow's the final day, so it will be interesting to see how the sense of ensemble develops.  Last week we ended up with a really thrilling sound before lunch on the last day: this week it's going to be anyone's game right up to the last second.