To kick off 2022 and to celebrate the official start of show choir season I’m sharing 22 ideas you can use in rehearsal to help as you put shows together with your band and take them on the road. Break a leg!
- Make your first rehearsal with the band all about dynamics. Avoid the temptation to just run everything and figure out how to get the sound right first.
- Take videos in rehearsal so your band can hear what everything sounds like from the audience perspective.
- Cut out anything and everything in the horn parts that competes with the vocals. There should be very little, if any, overlap between the two groups.
- Make sure that horn angles are uniform and pointed up over the risers toward the audience. This will help prevent your brass players from getting worn out and give you a balanced, consistent sound at every show.
- Getting the band to play loud is part of balancing the music too! Using a highlighter to mark passages that should be brought out can be a useful reminder
- Keep band parts up to date as you add new dynamics and phrasing in vocal rehearsals.
- Have someone at the sound board at every performance to communicate balance issues with the conductor. (Do this in rehearsal too!)
- It’s not always the band’s fault you can’t hear the choir. Sometimes vocal parts are written too low and simply changing the direction of a line or inverting a chord will magically fix everything.
- Use tape to mark volume settings on amps and keyboards. Starting from the same place every time will help you know if you need to change something in a particular venue.
- Like a choir, the horn section is expected to blend with each other and play as one unit. They should listen up to the lead trumpet to match articulation and down to the bass trombone / bari sax to match intonation.
- Getting a balanced rhythm section is tricky because the roles of each instrument change often. Break down every song and decide what parts in the band are most important to hear in each section (verse, chorus, etc.)
- The faster a rhythm is, the harder you will have to work to sing / play it loud. If there’s an important moment that’s not as strong as it needs to be, try simplifying the rhythm.
- Band members should always tune on stage during set up. If possible, they should also play a little bit on their own to get used to the room. Some bands even have a “pre-show” song they play as a sound check.
- Everyone on stage should know where floor / hanging microphones are located and take care not to sing / play / point their amp directly at one.
- Sometimes it can be helpful to think of dynamics in terms of numbers (1-10) rather than Italian words. Especially for gradual dynamic changes that happen over several measures.
- Watch out for “overlapping” transition moments like a position change or band pick up notes that happen at the end of a phrase. Inserting a few extra beats will let the choir finish their line before going on to the next thing.
- Choir members will sing more confidently if the choreography fits with the vocals. Don’t be afraid to move a cutoff, change a rhythm, or simplify a move to help things fit together.
- Err on the bright side when adjusting EQ, especially for the bass guitar. Too much low end will result in a muddy sound and in a show choir band, clarity is more important than power.
- Unless the tempo is actively falling apart the main focus of the conductor should be on cueing dynamics and balancing musical id
- #20: Make sure the band knows not only when the choir is singing, but how they are singing. Is it unison, divisi, or layered? (Make sure the choir knows it too.)
- When choosing patches for the synth or effects for the guitar, test them in different octaves. Sometimes a sound will be out of control in one register but blend perfectly in another.
- There should always be someone at the sound board to make sure solo mics are on when needed. They should also ask the engineer to adjust volume when needed. For example, if a solo is covering up choral vocals.
**If you’re interested in more resources for show band, check out the band scoresheet I created for Carmen Scoring as well as this video on Arranging and Show Choir Bands.**
