Singing Out Is Inspected

Like many of you dear readers, I struggle with trying to get my less-experienced singers to SING OUT. So many of them sing like they talk, without engaging any of the many muscles that must work in coordination to create a vibrant, healthy tone.

Today was another day of "that's good, but could you please sing louder?" Desperate to try another angle, I realized: "I am directing from an iPad. I'm going to hit the app store and get a decibel meter."

I downloaded a free decibel meter app, and as soon as it loaded, it was air-played to the smart board for all to see. "This is a decibel meter," I said. "A decibel is a measurement of loudness. This app will show us how loudly we are singing."

In order to get everyone to understand the baseline of sound, I let the meter run and we explored the following sound levels:

-A quiet room 
-Me singing alone 
-Me singing loudly 
-The choir singing a scale together with piano
-The choir singing a scale together without piano
-The choir singing a scale together loudly without piano
-The sopranos, boys, altos each singing a scale individually without piano

As they saw the decibel meter in action, they started tracking numbers, and soon a sense of competition filled the room. Who wants to be the section that is "last" on the decibel meter ranking? No one.

The result was that the singers WERE singing out, WERE singing louder. We all know that louder does not equal better, but I believe that singers must sing out before they can sing better. It's like shooting a basketball - it has to get above the rim before we can worry about aiming the ball through the hoop!

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Using a decibel meter isn't the answer to all undersinging problems, but it's one tool I found to be very effective in my rehearsal today. The saying holds true: Improvement doesn't come from what's EXPECTED, but what's INSPECTED. 

Here's a link to several decibel meter apps, both iOS and android, free and paid: https://www.healthyhearing.com/report/47805-The-best-phone-apps-to-measure-noise-levels