Singing A's Tool Chest Forum

[JimD]

Use this peel-off exercise at the beginning of each rehearsal to tune up the quartet. Use this exclusively as a tuning exercise. As you become more proficient with the exercise, it will help you with breath management.

Here are the parts for your reference:

Tenor - DO RE MI MI FA SOL FA FA MI
Lead - DO RE DO DO DO DO DO TI DO
Bari - DO TI LA LA# LA SOL LA SOL SOL
Bass - DO TI LA SOL FA MI RE RE DO

Start by tuning the unison. Keep the voice as far forward as you can get it and adjust to the leads vocal position.

Once you tune the unison, keep the same vocal placement and move to the second chord, the duet. Same deal, make it tune. This is not as easy as it appears. The lead and tenor go up a full step from Do to Re. The bass and bari go down a half step to Ti.

Then to the trio, looking to lock the sound in the same vocal position. The key to locking here is for the tenor to sing the third high enough. The bass and bari are doubling on the fifth so must compensate.

Finally, to the barbershop seventh. The normal balance rules apply here. The root and fifth are in the lead and bass. The bari gets the seventh and usually knows what to do with it. The key to locking remains having the tenor maintain the high enough third he established in the trio.

Lock it and try to stay in the same position all the way through the exercise. Not as easy as it sounds.

Chord #5 has the bass and tenor doubling on the root.

Chord #6 has the bari and tenor doubling on the fifth.

Chord #7 is a bass-bari chord with the bass on the root and the bari on the fifth. The lead gets an uncharacteristic 7th and the tenor maintains the high third.

Chord #8 is a another bass-bari chord but this time the lead is on the third.

Chord #9 is major triad. PHEW!

Use the vowels OOH, EEE, OOO, AWW, and AHH. They represent around 85% of the vowels we sing in each song.

Be sure to keep the articulators (lips, tongue) working while doing the exercise. Shape everything consistently across the quartet. Your synchronization of word sounds will depend on these mouth shapes so practice them all the time.

Your ultimate goal is to make every chord of every song lock and ring and they must be done immediately. If you can do it in this exercise it increases the chances of doing it in a song.

Submitted by Jim Dodge