Sing In the Present - Look to the Future

SING IN THE PRESENT - LOOK TO THE FUTURE

This Choir Bite comes to us as a suggestion from Alexis Paxton, who teaches at Louisville Male HS in KY, and also teaches adjunct at the University of Louisville.

Alexis dropped this phrase on my head in a Voxer (highly recommend Voxer if you haven’t tried it): “Sing in the present; look to the future.” She uses this phrase in relation to the common difficulty singers have with looking ahead in their music. Many singers look at what they are singing, but they fail to look ahead at what’s coming next, and that can cause problems. After explaining the statement, Alexis says that simply shouting “FUTURE!” during rehearsal can snap singers out of a stare and back into looking ahead.

It makes sense. When driving, you don’t look at where your car IS, you look ahead to where your car WILL BE. Otherwise, accidents ensue. 

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My version of this is to reference YouTube videos (those kids sure love The YouTubes, ya know?). When watching a YouTube video, there is a DOT that shows where you are in the video. To the left, there is a red bar, showing what has already been viewed. To the right of the dot is a dark grey line. Video is loaded into a BUFFER, indicated by a light grey line. If the dot catches up to the end of the light grey line, the buffer is gone and the video stops. I tell my students they have to look ahead like a buffer. Having heard Alexis’ statement, though, I like it better. It is more easily understood and it’s far more easily understood to yell “FUTURE!” than it is to yell “BUFFER!” in a rehearsal.

‘Tis the season for sight-reading and contest and all that jazz... so make sure your singers know: SING IN THE PRESENT - LOOK TO THE FUTURE