Methodological manual for vocal teachers. Methods of working with a vocal ensemble Working with a children's vocal ensemble

1. Transformation of methodological techniques of solo pedagogy.

Peculiarities of educating the vocal hearing of choristers.

Formation of connections between the auditory perception of collective sound, internal ideas about the corresponding sound of one’s voice, muscle actions and specific singing sensations of the vocal apparatus. The dependence of all components of vocal technique - singing breathing, attack of sound, dynamics, register adaptability and timbre coloring of singing - on the requirements of the choral ensemble.

The predominance of methods of holistic and indirect regulation of voice formation. Widespread use of the phonetic method. Using specially selected phonemes, influence the collective sound in order to effectively control the voice formation of each choir member. Using the method of emotional tuning of the choir, which ensures reflexive coordination of the vocal apparatus.

2. Specifically choral techniques of vocal work.

Methods of targeted influence of specially formed choral sonority on individual singing. Acoustic-physiological effect of attunement of voices in a choir.

Formation of ensemble techniques among choristers in order to create a colorful choral ensemble. Teaching them techniques for effective control over timbre formation. Activation of resonator vibrational self-control, which is not subject to masking in a choir. The use of exercises that concentrate the choristers’ attention on these sensations and enhance them. The use of tactile techniques, specially selected phonemes and emotional-figurative terms.

3. Modern directions of vocal work with children.

Traditional approach to training the singing voice. Original author's methods.

Many years of choirmaster experience and our own scientific and pedagogical research prompted us to develop a method of teaching singing in a choir, based on the activation of resonator vibration sensations. It was created on the basis of the concept of Professor V.P. Morozov, the author of the resonance theory of the art of singing (Morozov, 1977, 2002).

The merit of the scientist, first of all, is that he created his concept not speculatively, but as a result of many years of scrupulous research into the art of outstanding singers and the methods of the best teachers. The author's conclusions undoubtedly have great practical significance for all specialists involved in the education of singing voices.

We have developed exercises that focus the student’s attention on these sensations and enhance them (Safonova, 1988). The exercises are arranged in a certain sequence.

First, it is advisable to teach choristers to perceive clearly localized resonator sensations that enhance vibrations in the area of either the head or chest resonators.

The first stage of working with a boys choir is especially difficult and responsible. In essence, the choirmaster creates a performing group of young musicians who do not master their instrument - the singing voice. Indeed, despite the fact that a person has been using his voice since birth, singing in an academic manner differs significantly from speech in the acoustic characteristics of the sound and the method of voice formation.

By nature, boys are characterized by sound production in pure registers - chest and head (Popov, 1999). Mixed is extremely rare. Nowadays, largely due to the unhealthy sound environment, they speak and try to sing exclusively in chest mode (hence the increased number of “honkers”). At the same time, the conversational manner of sound production is “pulled” into a high tessitura that is unusual for it. The result is a false, annoying cry “at the throat” instead of singing. The guys simply lose their voices.

When switching from speech to singing, young vocalists must learn to change the mode of operation of the vocal organs from the chest to the head (let us repeat that the head sound is natural for boys, but since now they practically do not hear it, they do not use it). It is also advisable to instill the skills of pure head singing at the initial stage because it differs sharply from speech. Boys are immediately convinced of the peculiarities of singing sound production.

In the future, they should be taught to maintain, when singing in different tessitura, the sensation of simultaneous sounding of the chest and head resonators, using the mechanisms of mixed voice formation.

Control of the vocal apparatus based on vibrational resonator sensations is extremely promising in choir settings, where singers are constantly faced with changes and impairments in auditory self-control. Vibration sensations (hereinafter referred to as VO), as practice shows, are not masked in different acoustic conditions.

Exercises to enhance resonant sensations in the head:

Exercise 1. Singing on one sound.

Exercise 2. Singing big seconds up and down.

Exercise 3. Singing in parallel thirds up and down the seconds. Tessitura is medium and high. Dynamics R And tr. The attack is soft. Exercises are performed on the vowels “u”, “yu” and the syllable “ku”. Emotional mood: sing lightly, serenely, with joyful surprise. Control the evenness, economy and duration of phonation exhalation, maintaining the “inhalation” setting. The purpose of the exercises is to achieve a light, heady sound and fix the VO in the middle part of the palatine vault and in the area of the soft palate. The vertical projection of vibrations will create a sensation of sound directionality in the “dome” and in the “crown”. These sensations will be most clearly localized on the “mi” of the second octave (one of the speech formants “y” is 650 Hz, the absolute height of the “mi” of the second octave is 660 Hz. The coincidence of the speech formant “y” with the frequency “mi” of the second octave will cause a resonance, which will strengthen VO). Intermittent, “sharp” sound contributes to the activation of VO. For the same purpose, the exercises use the iotated vowel sound “yu” and the syllable “ku”.

Exercise 4. Singing with a closed mouth on the consonants “m”, “n”, “hn” of one and two adjacent sounds.

Exercise 5. Singing rapidly alternating adjacent sounds, alternating the syllables “ri”, “li”, “ni” with the vowel “ya”.

Exercise 6. Singing rapidly alternating adjacent sounds up the degrees of a major triad and returning to the original sound. Tessitura is medium and high. The attack is mostly soft, sometimes hard. Dynamics R And tr(in exercise 4), mf(in exercises 5 and 6). Emotional mood: in exercise 4 - joyful surprise, for “hn” - slight annoyance; in exercises 5 and 6 - joy, triumph, delight. You should sing with a richer sound than in previous exercises, actively “supplying” your breath. Monitor the uniformity of vowels, evenness and fullness of sound. The purpose of exercises 5 and 6 is to achieve a bright, brilliant sound and record vibrational resonator sensations in the area of the anterior part of the hard palate, as well as in the nasal cavity and its paranasal sinuses, in the “mask”. This is facilitated by the sonorant consonants “m” and “n”, in which sound waves are emitted through the nose and increase vibrations in it and its accessory cavities. For the same purpose, it is recommended to sing in a “silent” sound. When singing with “khn” (“whining”), the air comes out in a jerky manner, the accented sound enhances the VO (exercise 4). The combination of the sonorant consonants “r”, “l”, “n” with the vowel “i” enhances the resonator sensations in the anterior part of the hard palate and causes intense resounding of the resonators in the “mask” area. The brightness of sensations increases in high tessitura.

Exercises to enhance vibrational resonator sensations in the chest area:

Exercise 7. Singing one sound per syllable “mi – me – ma – mo – mu.” Strokes legato And pop legato.

Exercise 8. Singing one or two adjacent sounds. The syllables are the same. Hatch pop legato. First perform each sound separately, then combine legato two sounds each.

Exercise 9. Singing a major triad up and down on the syllables “mi – ma”. Hatch pop legato. Should be combined legato two sounds each. Tessitura is medium and low. Dynamics – mf And f. The attack is solid. Emotional mood: perform exercise 7 calmly and majestically. Exercises 8, 9 – with annoyance, with a feeling of “groaning”, dramatically. Breathing must be “supplied” very actively. When singing pop legato attack each syllable with a quick contraction of the lower abdominal muscles and their subsequent relaxation. The purpose of the exercises is to develop a rich sound and fix the VO in the area of the chest resonator. The most vivid sensations will arise when singing in a low tessitura on “A” of the small octave, on syllables with the vowel “i” (one of the speech formants “i” - 240 Hz almost coincides with the absolute height of “A” of the small octave - 220 Hz). These low tessitura exercises can be spoken first and then sung.

To focus the attention of choristers on VO and activate their perception, I use auxiliary techniques.

Tactile. We recommend touching the resonators with your hand and singing so that you can feel their vibration. Even if choristers do not actually feel these vibrations, for example by touching the crown of the head, this technique helps to concentrate attention on the necessary sensations. In individual lessons, it is possible to model a VO in the area of the palatine vault on the palm folded in the form of a dome. I first recommend that singers feel for the corresponding resonance point on the palatine vault with the tip of their tongue.

Conductor's. The conductor's palm is dome-shaped. It imitates the position of a choir singer's upper jaw. Using this model, you can show at what point in the palatine vault you should feel the vibrations corresponding to a particular sound. We remind choristers of the necessary sensations by touching our own resonators with our hands; We advise you to focus as much attention as possible on the VO, even at the expense of the auditory ones.

Emotional. We use the method of emotional mood, emotional-figurative terminology. We form stable associative connections between the singing sound, terminology and the corresponding resonator VOs.

Exercises that help preserve the sensations of simultaneous sounding of the chest and head resonators in different tessitura:

Exercise 10. Singing a major pentachord from top to bottom and returning to the original sound on the syllables “ku-ma-mi” and “ya”. Range: “C” of the first – “E” of the second octave. Dynamics R And tr. The attack is soft. Hatch legato Emotional mood: perform lightly and serenely. Sing with a rounded and covered sound, using your breath sparingly. As the melody moves downwards, it is necessary to maintain the positional pitch of the first sound. The purpose of the exercise is soft, rounded sound and preservation of the sensations of head resonance as the melody moves from top to bottom. The syllable “ku” helps to fix sensations in the soft palate.

Exercise 11. Singing a major pentachord from top to bottom with the words: “My Motherland!” Range: “C” of the first – “E” of the second octave. Dynamics mf And f. The attack is soft. Hatch legato Emotional mood: perform joyfully, with enthusiasm. Sing with active and full sound. The purpose of the exercise is to achieve mixed sound and mixed VOs. On the syllable “ro” it is convenient to fix VO simultaneously at the anterior point of the hard palate and chest. On “r” the tip of the tongue vibrates near the upper teeth, and one of the speech formants of the vowel “o” - 535 Hz is close to the low singing formant. The most clearly mixed sensations will arise on C sharp second octave, the absolute height of which is 550 Hz.

Exercise 12. Singing from the first to the third degree of major and returning to the original sound on the consonant “m” and the syllables “mi”, “re”, “da”. Tessitura is medium and low. Dynamics tr And mf The attack is soft. Hatch legato Emotional mood: sing calmly and confidently. It is necessary to maintain evenness of sound, monitor the active but soft flow of breathing. The purpose of the exercise is to preserve the sensations of chest resonance (when the melody moves from bottom to top) and the sensations of mixed resonance. This is facilitated by the selection of phonetic material. On “m”, even in a low tessitura, vibrations occur in the nasal cavity and its paranasal sinuses. The syllables “mi” and “da” contribute to the strengthening of VO in the “mask” and the anterior part of the hard palate.

Exercise 13. Sing the top tetrachord of the major scale down, returning to the original sound, and the major triad up. The second part of the exercise is performed in three voices. At the end of the exercise, all voices move down a semitone and return to their original sounds. We recommend performing it on the syllables “tra - lala”. Range: “C” of the first – “F” of the second octave. Dynamics mf And f. The attack is soft. Hatch marcato. Emotional mood: you should sing joyfully and cheerfully. The sound is bright and full. Breathing is active. The purpose of the exercise is uniformity of sound and VO. When moving the melody down, you should not lose the VO in the front part of the hard palate (behind the upper teeth). The activation of these sensations is facilitated by the syllable “tra”, when pronounced, the tip of the tongue closes and vibrates at the alveoli of the upper teeth. The syllable “la” helps to maintain these sensations.

Exercise 14. We recommend performing the major scale from top to bottom in two ways: with a stroke legato with the name of the notes and pop legato, to the syllables “ri”, “ro”, “ra” or “mi”, “mo”, “ma”. When singing pop legato Each syllable should be attacked with a quick contraction followed by relaxation of the lower abdominal muscles. Range: “A” minor – “E flat” of the second octave for altos and “C” of the first – “G” of the second octave for sopranos. Starting from “F” of the second octave, sopranos sing legato to the vowels “ya-e-e-yu”. Dynamics mf And f. The attack is soft. Emotional mood: sing confidently, persistently and cheerfully. The purpose of the exercise is a rich sound and a feeling of full operation of all resonators. Hatch pop legato promotes singing with good support and enhances VO in the chest. The phonetic material of the exercise helps to fix the VO in the anterior part of the hard palate and in the “mask”.

Exercise 15. Singing the major scale from bottom to top and back, with a constant return to the original sound, on the syllables “mima”. Range: “A” minor – “E flat” of the second octave for altos, “C” first – “G” of the second octave for sopranos. Dynamics mf And f The attack is soft. Emotional mood: sing solemnly, widely, freely. Perform with an active full sound. Jump an octave from top to bottom in the middle of the exercise, sing as follows: top sound - f concentrating on the VO in the chest; lower sound - R, directing attention to the VO in the area of the head resonators. The goal is the same as in the previous exercise. It is necessary to maintain a feeling of resonance in the chest when moving the melody up, and in the “mask” when moving down. This is facilitated by a constant return to the original sounds, on which the necessary sensations were originally recorded.

Exercise 16. Singing a major pentachord from bottom to top, stopping at the sounds of a major triad, singing the fifth degree and returning to the original sound on the vowels “I”, “a”. Range: “A” minor – “E flat” of the second octave for altos, “C” first – “B flat” of the second octave for the first sopranos (second sopranos – to “G” of the second octave). Dynamics mf And f crescendo to the top sound. Strokes staccato And legato Emotional mood: sing cheerfully, playfully, “sharply.” Monitor the active work of the abdominal muscles. The goal of the exercise is a bright, brilliant sound with a predominance of VO in the “mask”.

Exercise 17. Singing the major scale from bottom to top and back, at a fast tempo, in one breath, with the vowels “i-a”. Range: “A” minor – “F” of the second octave for altos (second altos – to “E flat” second); “C” of the first – “B flat” of the second octave for the first sopranos (second sopranos, if possible, – to “G” of the second octave). Dynamics from p to f, crescendo to the top sound. The attack is soft. Hatch legato Emotional mood: sing cheerfully, as if laughing. Perform confidently, without focusing on every sound. When switching from the vowel “i” to “a”, do not change the localization of VO. The goal of the exercise is a bright, brilliant sound throughout the entire range of the voice and maintaining VO in the chest and in the “mask”.

Exercise 18. A combination of arpeggio movements on the sounds of a major triad up and a gamma-like movement down on the vowels “i” and “a”.

Exercise 19. A slightly more complicated version of the previous one. Before the scale-like downward movement, the tonic is sung several times. Range: “B flat” minor – “E flat” of the second octave for altos, “C” first – “B flat” of the second octave for sopranos. Dynamics mf And f. The attack is soft and hard. Strokes pop legato And legato Emotional mood: sing joyfully, jubilantly. Before the upper sound, be sure to take your breath and attack it confidently and actively. The purpose of the exercise is to fully use the properties of the voice and develop bright voicings with the simultaneous operation of all resonators.

It is possible to include fragments of the studied works with certain technical tasks in the choir’s singing.

Many years of pedagogical experience have convinced us that the resonance technique ensures optimal development of voices in collective learning conditions and has a very positive effect on the aesthetic properties of choral sound.

Methodological techniques used during work

with vocal ensemble

Korniychuk Elena Georgievna

additional education teacher

GBOU Lyceum No. 384 of St. Petersburg

The history of pop music as an independently formed trend goes back about a hundred years, although its origins in Russia appeared in buffoon amusements.

Modern popular music is based on the “three pillars” - jazz, rock and ethnic component (for Russia, in addition to folk songs and ditties, this is also romance, including gypsy).

If we turn to the history of Russian singing culture, we can see a clear predominance ensemble polyphonic singing with elements of improvisation.

The highest culture of choral performance should be noted in the African-American folk style - spirituals.

Ensemble - this is balance, unity and consistency of all expressive elements of the ensemble sound.

It is difficult to give an unambiguous definition to modern varieties of ensembles in pop and jazz, this is due both to the emergence of new directions, styles and genres, and to the lack of rules regulating the authoring and performing activities of musicians.

The most common ones today are the following: types of vocal ensembles:

unison ensemble (one-voice singing ensemble);
solo voice ensemble with backing vocals;
ensemble of several solo voices;
polyphonic ensemble (balance of voices depending on thematic material);
an ensemble of a solo voice and an instrument (for example, a saxophone) - characteristic of the styles of jazz music.

Ensemble singing involves organic fusion individualities, the ability of each singer to hear his part and the ensemble as a whole. Singing in an ensemble feels very different from singing solo. If solo singing is mainly “horizontal thinking,” then ensemble singing is “volumetric, vertical thinking.” And, as a result, one of the most difficult tasks becomes the problem intonation.

During vocal ensemble classes, there is always work on voice training and singing breathing, as well as work directly on the repertoire. However, a significant part of the lesson (30%) should be devoted to exercises that develop modal hearing and give polyphonic singing skills. This is necessary so that students do not mechanically reproduce their parts, but hear and feel the beauty of harmony, feel like builders of a musical work. Only then will the vocal ensemble have access to a complex, interesting repertoire.

The next step is singing chord formations, which are obtained improvisedly at the direction of the teacher to change either the upper, then the middle, or the lower voice by a tone or semitone up or down.

Using seventh chords(singing them, for example, in a parallel movement for a major or minor second up or down) prepares the ensemble for the perception and performance of jazz exercises.

Particular attention should be paid to working on dynamic balance in the ensemble. The ability to hear the sound of the ensemble as a whole and the sound of one’s own part and that of a partner presents a significant difficulty when singing into a microphone. It is useful to work here without instrumental accompaniment (a’capella).

It is necessary to develop among ensemble members the ability to analyze thematic material and distribute the power of sound in the overall texture. Recording on a tape recorder with subsequent analysis and identification of the “strengths and weaknesses” of the performance brings enormous benefits.

Creative tasks are very effective for developing initiative, courage and creative thinking. Students can be invited to compose subvoices themselves, taking into account the nature (melodic and rhythmic) of the main tune.

Without exception, all music teachers note that cultivating metro-rhythmic sensations in students is very difficult. But unity of rhythmic performance is one of the main components of the ensemble.

Currently, many interesting, useful and unique methods have been created for developing a metro-rhythmic sense. From a large number of different exercises, you can choose those that are suitable specifically for one or another. ensemble.

Ex. 1

We divide the children into groups. With one group we practice the three-beat meter (top-clap-clap), with the other - the four-beat meter (top-clap-clap-clap).
We work with two groups at the same time (it turns out a kind of “polyrhythm”).
We complicate the task by removing the claps (counting silently), leaving only steps.
We are working on more complex combinations of rhythms, including syncopation.

Ex. 2

Each group (voice) is given its own intonation, motive or melody, which must be repeated in various combinations (in turn, simultaneously) according to the teacher’s hand. Based on this game, students practice not only the purity of intonation, “auftact”, and simultaneous “removal” of sound, but also cultivate dynamic balance and rhythmic unity of performance.

The vocalist must be able to sing in such a way that even without musical accompaniment the basic rhythmic pulsation can be clearly felt, so it is necessary to work on improving the sense of rhythm.

To do this, it is necessary to develop a strong and free sense of time. At the same time, in any musical situation you need to internally feel the smallest pulsations of a specific “time”, that is, depending on the tempo, you need to feel the pulsation in “eighths” or “sixteenths”, and this pulsation must be perfectly smooth.

Each exercise should be performed longer, achieving evenness and ease of execution, achieving "drive", "jumpa" And "swing".

"Drive" - the effect of emphasizing rhythmic pulsation, creating a feeling of uniform movement.

"Jump" (from English - frog) - the effect of elasticity, jumping ability, danceability of performance.

"Swing" - highlighting, emphasizing weak beats of a bar and small durations within a beat, delaying or advancing some durations without going beyond a certain time.

Exercise 3 Ex. 4

Ex. 5 Ex. 6

Ex. 7

Ex. 8

Another problem of the ensemble in singing is the problem of the identity of the voice-forming movements of the singers at all levels. If children sing with different articulatory movements or, in phonetic terminology, with vowels of different volumes and different shapes (openness-closedness), “broad” diction, then ensemble will not be.

That's why phonetics identity should be given special attention. Then the sound, preserving the individuality of each unique vocal apparatus, will acquire a certain timbral quality common to all singers, and which will give an ensemble total timbre.

When singing, you should pay great attention to the poetic text. To do this, it is necessary to identify the musical syllabic rhythm of the song, which should be the same for all singers of the ensemble. In addition to the main melody, it is necessary to take into account the tessitura comfort of the voices (choosing the best tonality for all voices), chain breathing techniques, and stylistic features of polyphony; achieve smooth vocal performance.

Based on musical and auditory perceptions, it is necessary to develop auditory-vocal coordination among ensemble members, achieving naturalness, meaningfulness and beauty in the melodic lines and their combination while varying.

Examples of vocal exercises

Working on diction and lip mobility:

Working on diction:

For bright sound:

Introduction

Relevance and social significance of the thesis.

It's no secret that Russian society is going through a crisis in educating the younger generation. A spiritual crisis manifests itself in a disruption of education, in a severance of ties and traditions between the older and younger generations. Therefore, in order to preserve national identity, it is important to revive the continuity of generations, to pass on to the younger generation those moral foundations and patriotic sentiments that are still alive in people of the older generation. Ruthless cutting off of one's roots, rejection of national and folk traditions in the educational process leads to lack of spirituality.

Overcoming the spiritual crisis is facilitated by involving children in artistic and aesthetic creativity, familiarization with the values of musical culture, including folk culture, folklore, starting from a very early age, when the active formation of personality is underway.

Folklore has always been an effective means of nurturing national self-awareness and patriotism. Its great social and artistic significance in the spiritual development of socialist society is evidenced by the growing interest in the rich cultural heritage on the part of all social strata of the population. The need and desire of many people to master works of folklore, which, for various reasons, has today found itself on the periphery of the school’s attention or completely out of its sight.

Folklore as an artistic form of reflection of the moral and aesthetic ideals of the people was actively used in folk pedagogy. Folk songs, fairy tales, games, proverbs, sayings - the entire rich stock of artistic folk art provided fertile soil for the moral and aesthetic development of children.

Folklore is an extremely valuable material in aesthetic education. Vivid images of good and evil in songs, fairy tales, and choruses are accessible and understandable to children. A young child lives more by feelings than by reason. He takes everything emotionally. This fact is a powerful incentive for the development of a child’s aesthetic senses.

For us teachers, folk singing traditions are the foundation on which the spiritual life of every person is built and universal human values are acquired.

The relevance of the study at present is due to the increase in the number of children's singing groups and the expansion of their concert and performing activities. The need to turn to the origins of folk art is not accidental; Russia is now experiencing a crisis in educating the younger generation. Traditions have been broken, the threads that connected generations to generations have been broken, so it is important to revive the continuity of generations.

At this stage, wide opportunities open up for pedagogical creativity and a bold search for new methods of teaching the younger generation. Today, the main task of the artistic and aesthetic education of the younger generation is to turn to folk music, starting from a very early age, when the child’s basic concepts are still being formed, speech and thinking are being formed, skills, abilities, and abilities are developing. A folk song cannot be replaced by anything, especially at the initial stage of raising a child.

Learning to sing is not only about acquiring certain skills. In the process of learning to sing, a child’s voice develops, and educational tasks related to the formation of the child’s personality are also solved.

Currently, the vocal education of children in our country is carried out mainly through choral singing in secondary schools, in choral studios, vocal ensembles, in the choir class of children's musical schools, aesthetic education centers, etc. Not all singing contributes to the development of a child's voice. Native speech and folk songs should be present in the upbringing of young children until their adolescence. Only in this case will the child grow up morally healthy.

The topic of research in this work is most relevant in our time. Since instilling in children folk traditions and culture of the past is one of the main aspects of modern pedagogy. Preservation and study of folk culture cultivates morality and a humane perception of the world in children. Artistic training and education is the basis for the elevation of a person as a harmoniously developed creative personality.

An integrated, systematic approach to the problem of the comprehensive development of all abilities of each individual requires an active search for qualitatively new methods and means of teaching that make it possible to reveal the socio-psychological mechanisms of personality formation. In this aspect, musical development, in particular singing, becomes important, which is one of the effective means allowing a child to reveal the qualities of a creative personality capable of cultural self-development. The problem of improving theory and teaching methods is always relevant. It is constantly in the focus of attention of educators - practitioners and researchers.

This problem also includes the search for new ways of aesthetic education of children through music, introducing them to the art of music through singing, which is the most accessible active type of musical activity for children of secondary school age. This accessibility is due to the fact that regardless of whether a child has the makings or not, whether he has developed musical abilities or not, his singing instrument is always “with him.” But in order to become an active listener and performer, to correctly use his natural instrument - the voice, not only in singing, but also in speech, a child needs to master a certain system of musical knowledge and skills, the assimilation of which can only occur under the condition of systematic, systematic vocal training in process of individual work.

These circumstances determined the choice of our diploma research - “Organization and methodology of vocal work in the children's ensemble “Sibirskaya Zadorinka” (at the Children's School of the Oktyabrsky district of Ulan-Ude).

The degree of development of the diploma research in domestic theory and practice. Children's singing is the subject of study not only of special pedagogy, but also of aesthetics, methodology, psychology, physiology, acoustics, art history, medicine, etc. Each of these sciences considers only one aspect of singing activity. Most scientists have long been inclined to think that the creation of a theory and system of vocal education of children is impossible without the creative collaboration of various sciences. Otherwise, it will be reduced only to unsystematic activities.

The psychology of children's creativity was considered in their works by such scientists as L.F. Obukhov, L.S. Vygotsky, L.L. Kupriyanova, P.S. Sorokin, N.N. Gilyarova, E.A. Krasnopevtseva, E.I. Melnik, E.V. Nikolskaya, V.N. Medvedeva, T.K. Belokoneva. Methods of vocal and choral work with children's groups: L.V. Shamina, G.M. Naumenko, N.K. Meshko, V. Morozov, N. Orlova, N.V. Kalugina, V.S. Popov and others.

The object of the thesis research is the organization and management of a children's folk group. Vocal and choral art.

The subject of the research is the pedagogical leadership of a children's folk group (folk singing), techniques and aspects of vocal and choral work with the children's folk ensemble "Sibirskaya Zadorinka".

Purpose of the study.

To develop the most effective pedagogical methods in organizing and working with children's folk art group. Give an overview of the process of managing a children's folk art group. Learn the basic techniques and principles of vocal and choral work with children.

Based on the goal, the following tasks are defined:

analyze the psychophysical characteristics of children,

consider a set of vocal and choral exercises for staging the folk voice, its development and training in children.

The formulated object, subject, goals and objectives allowed us to put forward the following scientific research hypothesis: in order to successfully organize a children's group and implement the musical and singing development of children in the process of vocal training, it is necessary to solve the following problems:

) determine the social significance of the process of organizing a children's team;

) provide pedagogical conditions conducive to the musical and singing development of children;

) take into account the age-related physiological and psychological characteristics of children (10-12 years old);

) to develop a method of vocal training aimed at the musical and singing development of children.

Research methods - during the study, to solve the set problems, a complex of theoretical (literature analysis, synthesis) and empirical (pedagogical observations; study of pedagogical, ethnographic, methodological literature on the research problem; collection of information, conversations with students; analysis of curricula; programs) methods were used .

Research base.

Methods of work, exercises reflected in this thesis work with the children's folk ensemble “Siberian Zadorinka”, Ulan-Ude, Oktyabrsky House of Children's Creativity of Schoolchildren.

The practical significance of the study lies in the fact that the materials of the thesis can be used to help the leaders of children's groups, as well as teachers of schools and secondary educational institutions.

1. Creation and organization of a children's artistic and creative group

.1 Creation of the children's ensemble "Siberian Zadorinka"

Folklore and folk art is an effective and efficient means of awakening in children respect for the cultural heritage of their country. And this is possible only in the case of systematic, targeted training from a very early age in the basics of folk culture, with a subsequent expansion of the cognizable material.

Folklore traditions, in their content, have great potential for actively influencing children.

Acquaintance, mastery, familiarization with folk experience, folk traditions, folklore in the lives of schoolchildren is a lot of painstaking work. It includes the preservation and transmission of folk customs, traditions, familiarity with the genres of oral and musical folk art and their practical development.

The director of the ensemble is not only a teacher-choirmaster, but also a good organizer, a resourceful and proactive person. These qualities are especially necessary at the time of creating a team.

The situations in which a leader begins his creative activity may be different. In one case, a choirmaster who, for some reason, lost his previous leader. In this case, the choirmaster must thoroughly comprehend and understand the old traditions of the group, and take as a basis the positive experience accumulated by amateur singers [author, year, p.].

Another case is when the choirmaster is the creator of a new choral group. It was in this situation that we began our creative activity. We independently resolved the issues of staffing the children’s group “Sibirskaya Zadorinka” and determined its artistic and creative direction. In other words, all the organizational and creative tasks that arise at the moment of creating a team fell on our shoulders - the most responsible, labor-intensive and troublesome moment in the life of any creative team, and especially an amateur one, since amateur creativity is built exclusively on a voluntary basis. Getting children interested in amateur activities requires a lot of patience and perseverance.

The main stages of creating a team.

Preparation period. Before organizing a children's team, we tried to create a favorable atmosphere for this. For this purpose, a certain arsenal of means of propaganda for choral art was used: local and wall printing, advertisements, leaflets. Personal conversations with potential participants were extremely effective; we mostly visited entire classrooms in schools. As a result, a group of enthusiasts was discovered and formed - the core of the future team. The initial task, as a rule, was to attract as many interested participants as possible to the amateur activity. In this regard, we organized a specific event that helped to arouse interest in choral singing; we gathered all the children of the age we were interested in in the assembly hall and told us that we were planning to create a children's folk song and dance group “Siberian Zadorinka”. We showed the children videos of various folk groups. In a word, it took a lot of imagination and initiative from us in organizing a children's group. The creation process lasted about 2 months. We tried not to prolong this period, attracted the public to the choral work and mobilized its influence.

It is necessary to conduct a psychological and pedagogical study of each individual individually and in terms of communication in a team, caring attitude towards each child.

Recruiting a children's team. We did not limit the composition of the choir circle to any boundaries or requirements for participants. All interested children were included in it. Our goal was to get everyone interested in the activities. This is not an easy matter; its success depends on the ability to captivate children, who most often have no idea how interesting and exciting singing in a choir is. The motives for participation were also of a non-artistic nature: many came out of curiosity, simply to have an interesting time.

We did not lure participants into the choir with promises of successful concert activities or tours. Firstly, there was no guarantee that the team would be able to grow to high creative heights and earn the right to broad artistic activity. Secondly, we took into account local conditions and the work capabilities of the children's team. We understood that a categorical focus on a high artistic result, which often turns out to be unattainable, could disappoint the participants, and the team would disintegrate. The only correct method is the method of persuading children to take part in the work of the children's team. We explained to the management of the October House of Children's Creativity of schoolchildren, on the basis of which the group was organized, that participation in the group takes a lot of time for children (regular rehearsals, then concerts) and, due to its social significance, participation in amateur performances should be considered as an important social work that deserves collective encouragement and all kinds of support.

If the task of a choral circle is initially limited to the tasks of mass singing, then its activities will be of a corresponding nature: in this case, the circle is organized without taking into account the musical and vocal abilities of those wishing to sing in it. Then the division of voices, if this is done by the leader, will be sufficient only into high and low voices, or everyone will sing in one voice, in unison, with possible simplest echoes.

However, if there are at least small prerequisites for creating a more or less stable choir (for example, good musical abilities of the participants, support and interest of local leadership, availability of premises for classes, musical instruments, etc.), the choirmaster needs to use them, attracting them to the choir the work of everyone with an ear for music and a voice.

From the mass of participants, who at first are all accepted into the choir, we have identified the most gifted singing core. It subsequently determined the face of the beginning team.

The total number of participants in the children's team was 24 people. Of which, 14 children attended a Russian folk choreography club, and 10 children attended folk vocal classes.

There are known cases when amateur groups are recruited using a competitive system. They accept children with good musical and singing abilities, often with a musical education. The activities of such groups are approaching a professional level. However, in amateur performances, mass choral groups of primary forms of work are much more common. [Shamina]

Before creating a children's team, we first studied local conditions, especially the socio-demographic composition of the educational team of school No. 32 in Ulan-Ude, on the basis of which it was planned to create a children's team "Siberian Zadorinka".

Checking the musical abilities and singing abilities of choir participants. Bright singing voices with beautiful timbre and wide range are rare in nature. In most cases, the voices of those who want to sing are in an undeveloped state, as is their ear for music. Initially, we identified potentially promising singers, determined that they had a voice, established its characteristics (timbre, strength, range, manner of sound production and other individual qualities), as well as basic musical data - ear for music, memory, sense of rhythm.

In order to remove the natural shyness and constraint from the participants, the first classes were devoted to getting to know the team, thus we gave the participants the opportunity to get to know each other better.

The creation of an atmosphere of trust and goodwill was facilitated by a casual conversation with children on various topics: what music do they like to listen to, what performers do they know and love, have they ever sung in a choir before? All these and similar questions helped to identify the artistic orientation of those who wanted to sing, understand the motives for their participation in the choir, and establish closer contacts with them.

Once a favorable environment had been created, we proceeded directly to individual auditions for each participant, which were conducted in the presence of the entire choir. The children were asked to repeat in a or la the sound played on the instrument or sung by the teacher. If the participant sang the given sounds freely and clearly, then in this case we asked him to sing a major triad from bottom to top and back. We started with a C major triad, and moved up semitones, listening to how freely and easily the voice sounded, and determined the upper limit of its range. Then the same exercise was asked to be performed downwards by semitones, while the teacher recorded the lower limit of the voice range. Afterwards, we asked the participant to intone a minor triad (from the leader’s voice or using an instrument). Based on the results of the answers, the purity of intonation determined whether the singer had an ear for music.

The manager must know the reasons for some possible cases of false singing. It may be associated with underdeveloped hearing, improper breathing, auditory inattention, poor memory, or lack of coordination skills between hearing and vocal cords. [Shamina]

Some guys were unable to reproduce the sound specified on the instrument. In this case, the sound was shown by voice. But, as a rule, the instrument helps to tune your hearing.

We tested musical memory by asking the child to repeat a simple melody, played once on an instrument or sung by a teacher. If difficulties arose in performing this task, the teacher reminded the motive one, two or three times. Then the motive changed somewhat and it was traced during its intonation whether the performer noticed the changes. Examples for checking intonation and memory in Appendix No. 1.

By how accurately the child was able to repeat the tune, we judged the presence and quality of his musical memory.

Based on the completion of all given exercises, a preliminary opinion was formed about the musical and vocal abilities of each child individually.

If an auditionee wants to perform a solo song, he should be given this opportunity.

When starting to work with a specific choir composition, the teacher first studied the singing characteristics of the voices with which he would work.

You should never express your opinion to an auditionee regarding his poor voice and weak musical abilities. This can offend the child and push him away from music forever. The director is obliged to show maximum care and tact towards everyone entering the choir. Extreme measures - refusal to participate in the choir - should be resorted to in exceptional cases, since every normally developed child has a minimal voice and hearing. If one of the participants refuses to be auditioned in the presence of everyone, he can be auditioned, as an exception, separately. [Shamina]

So, when accepting children into the choir, we did not require them to have musical knowledge and the ability to sing from notes, but revealed their creativity. The manager needs to know what each participant is capable of, to catch his creative “spark” in performance, and to help him express himself in the most versatile way possible. In the process of work, the leader must take care of the development of the individual abilities of team members.

Since there is turnover in amateur groups, the question of regular replenishment of the composition naturally arises. To do this, it is necessary to organize an annual reception and audition for newcomers.

1.2 Organization of folk art work of the ensemble

Choosing an artistic and creative direction and defining the tasks of the ensemble. Choosing the direction of the ensemble's work is an extremely crucial moment. The prospects for all subsequent work depend on how accurately it is determined. The choice of direction is due to a number of objective reasons, among which the main ones are local conditions and real opportunities for organizing a team. When starting to create the choir, we correlated our creative plans and calculations with our local conditions and capabilities.

You can plan the specific composition of the choir in advance. However, do not be upset if few people come to the classes. You should start working with a small vocal ensemble. If the work is successful, the ensemble will be replenished and grow into a choir.

Organization of classes. For full-fledged work, we have compiled a lesson schedule that would be convenient for children. So that nothing would distract them, they were not in a hurry, so that they would not attend classes on an empty stomach. Over time, the days and hours of classes were fixed and did not change throughout the year. Strict order helped organize clear rhythmic work, discipline of the participants and set them in a serious mood.

As a rule, participants work two to three times a week, two to three hours per rehearsal with a ten to fifteen minute break. The most active season is from September to June. Some groups do not interrupt classes even in the summer. During this period, the leader has more opportunities to strengthen individual lessons, lessons with small groups, and ensembles. At the same time, it is good to consolidate theoretical knowledge. The most developed groups organize tours in the summer.

In matters of organization and leadership, the choirmaster should avoid a mentoring tone. A hard style is just as bad as a liberal, overly soft one. It is best to strive for a democratic leadership style that combines rigor and kindness towards participants.

We tried to ensure a clear rhythm and good pace of rehearsals, take care of everything in advance and think through everything: from the rehearsal plan to preparing the room for classes.

In classes based on play, all children took an active part, and the use of various folklore forms made it possible to attract even the most passive ones to participate.

Based on such activities, children receive cognitive, speech, artistic, aesthetic, moral and emotional development. Children develop a strong interest in folk art and an understanding of its value.

Creating conditions for singing work. The director must monitor the sanitary rules of the choir. Children should know that they cannot sing in the choir during and in the coming days after an infectious disease, in a state of severe fatigue, or on an empty stomach.

Organization of educational work. Educational work is an integral part and an indispensable condition for the creative activity of a non-professional team.

The very concept of educational work reveals two sides of it - educational and educational, which are inextricably interconnected and represent a single pedagogical process. We can only conditionally differentiate this concept in order to better imagine the structure of the two complementary sides. The first of them performs a teaching function, and the second - an educational function.

Education is carried out in the process of training participants in professional skills and their acquisition of special knowledge necessary for choral performing activities.

Since education is possible only on specific material, in specific forms of work aimed at mastering professional and technical performance skills, the teaching function in the general content of the educational process is leading and the task of ideological and aesthetic education of choir participants is realized directly in the course of training.

Another task of the director is related to the general aesthetic development of the choir members, with the expansion of their knowledge in the field of music, folk music and composition. This requires the erudition of a leader and his mastery of methods of propaganda, cultural and educational work.

The correct combination of educational and educational tasks, the unity of educational and creative processes in an amateur choir will ensure interesting, serious work in it.

The systematic and systematic work of choral groups is an integral pedagogical process, built according to a specific program, designed for the consistent and regular education and training of group members. Thus, the program for a beginning choir provides for the development of initial skills in singing, listening to music, and mastering musical theoretical concepts.

As the choir grows creatively, the requirements for various sections of classes increase.

The success and effectiveness of educational work in an amateur choir largely depends on the leader’s mastery of the methods of vocal-choral and music-educational teaching.

2. Methods of vocal training for ensemble members

.1 Features of vocal work in a children's artistic and creative group

The singing voice is an extremely complex, multifaceted, mysterious and contradictory concept. On the one hand, it is the most perfect and flexible performing instrument, since it is directly connected with the performer, with his thoughts, feelings and emotions, being both a means and an instrument of communication, communication, and influence. In addition, this is the only instrument that can significantly change the sound quality and timbre characteristics depending on the genre, style, figurative and emotional sphere of the musical work.

Work on singing skills is the core around which the remaining elements of educational choral work unfold. Therefore, the choirmaster must know and feel the singing process very well, control his voice himself, be in singing form, constantly improve his vocal skills in order to be ready at any moment to show this or that technique, touch, nuance. If you want to teach singing to others, you yourself must be a good singer and a vocal specialist. [Zhirov V.L. "Choral Performance", p. 32]

Initial stage of work. At first, we were faced with the most important priority task - to unite the team. How to do this? A choir group is a complex concept, because it consists of different personalities, individually unique, different upbringings, different cultures, different characters and temperaments, not to mention different vocal abilities and musical abilities. There are few performing opportunities; it is too early to focus on concert activities right away. This means that it is necessary to look for methods and forms of work that, on the one hand, would enrich the members of the collective artistically and aesthetically, instill in them special knowledge, develop their choral performance skills, and on the other hand, interest them. To awaken interest, create an atmosphere of artistic discovery in the choir and then, on the basis of deep interest, develop systematic study - this is the task of the leader at the first stage of the formation of the collective. During this period, his unity was facilitated by joint visits to concerts, exhibitions, their discussion, and qualified analysis.

You should not release a choir “raw” onto the public performance stage. Some managers are in a hurry to show their work and declare the existence of the created team. And the heads of Houses, Palaces of Culture, and clubs sometimes rush them to give public concerts, although the team is not yet ready for this. As a result of such haste and unsuccessful performance, choir members may become disappointed, lose faith in their abilities, and the group will disintegrate. Therefore, there is no need to rush into the first concert; it is important to prepare very carefully for it, so that the very fact of performing will contribute to the consolidation of the choir, its unity and further creative growth.

Vocal and choral work in a children's choir is carried out in accordance with the psychophysiological characteristics of children of different age groups, each of which has its own distinctive features in the mechanism of voice formation. When organizing the children's choir, we took these features into account, adhering to the uniformity of the age composition of the group - 10-12 years.

Singing education. Folk vocal skill was created by long-term creative mastery, the work of many generations of folk performers. First of all, we must strive for children to consciously master vocal skills. Therefore, folk groups use two methods of singing education. The first involves adopting experience and individual vocal and performing techniques from the best folk singers. The second is systematic training in the formation of singing skills under the supervision of a leader. Singing education of a folk choir requires a particularly careful and skillful approach. If the choir director himself is a skilled craftsman, then the process of raising children is simple and natural. If the leader himself is not a folk singer, he must seriously and thoughtfully study the art of folk singers and listen to their style of singing. Naturally, a leader who does not know the folk style of singing cannot teach singers the folk vocal art. And it is not only unnecessary for such a leader to engage in “staging his voice,” but even harmful. Only long-term and comprehensive study of the local style of singing and speaking develops the “vocal ear” of the leader, which allows him to control the sound of a choir or individual voice and demonstrate this or that sound himself. Practice shows that an experienced, sensitive choirmaster can, to a certain extent, master the singing style of his choir and truly be a teacher - a vocalist for folk performers.

The basis of choral singing is the correct vocal and technical culture of performance. Therefore, it is the work on singing skills that is the core around which all other elements of educational and choral work unfold. The pedagogical tasks of a choir director are in many ways similar to the work of a solo singing teacher, but are complicated by the fact that the choirmaster deals with a group of singers. To teach singing to others, you need to have a singing voice yourself, constantly improve your skills, be in singing form, and be able to use your voice at any moment to use one or another stroke, nuance, or technique.

Working with a child's voice imposes a special responsibility on the teacher, since he is dealing with a still fragile, growing organism. A very fragile and delicate vocal apparatus. During the learning period, the child's voice continuously changes in all its basic qualities: pitch, strength, timbre, range, duration of sound and registers. All this does not occur evenly, but in jumps.

Due to the small size of the vocal apparatus, children's voices differ significantly from the voices of adults. Typical properties of a child's voice (regardless of the age of the children) are a soft, silvery sound, falsetto (head) sound production and limited sound strength. But since, unlike an adult, a child’s body develops and forms, which also affects the formation of the voice, the characteristics

To teach children solo, ensemble and choral folk singing, to develop their vocal capabilities, to teach them to overcome difficulties in performance, systematic vocal education is mandatory.

To teach singing to others, you need to have a singing voice yourself, constantly improve your skills, be in singing form, and be able to show this or that touch, nuance, technique with your voice at any time.

Much attention should be paid primarily to sound production; it should be the same for all participants.

In amateur groups, two types of shortcomings in the method of sound production are most common - some choirs overly force the sound, others, on the contrary, do not actively present it enough. The last drawback is typical for many beginning groups that do not have singing skills. Participants in such choirs are often embarrassed and do not know that real singing should be full-voiced, bright, and free. Here the leader is faced with the task of “pulling out” their voice and developing it. To do this, there are many different techniques and exercises with the help of which the voice gradually becomes stronger, acquires strength and beauty.

The methods and principles of vocal education of children are complex and diverse. They combine cognitive processes with practical skills. The methodology associated with vocal performance is based on thinking processes, although it relates mainly to automated activities.

There are a large number of methods and techniques of vocal education, which are the result of many years of theoretical and practical experience of teachers. Work that is based on any one method seems ineffective. The teacher must be proficient in various methods and techniques of vocal and choral work, and apply them in accordance with the situation in the lesson.

By the name of the method one can judge its essence.

Concentric. The founder of this method is vocal teacher M.I. Glinka.

This method can be called universal, since it underlies the methodological systems of different authors and is used to work with children's voices.

M.I. Glinka recommended “... first improve natural tones, that is, without any effort... Exercises develop from natural tones, the center of the voice, on which a person’s calm speech rests, to the tones surrounding the center of the voice.”

The center of the voice is located in the range of quiet speech. To determine the pitch of the primary tones of a child’s voice, you need to listen carefully to his speech and establish the zone of its sound, i.e., determine the speech range.

The center of the speech range in children is usually located within the range of si (small octave) - re (first octave). Apparently, from these sounds one should start singing the voice up and down in concentric circles.

Sound formation in a calm speech voice is carried out according to the chest register type in a low tessitura. The middle of the speech range lies at the junction of the minor and first octaves. If a child uses a falsetto style in speech, then the primary tones of his voice will be located much higher.

Each voice register has its own primary sound zone. These zones do not coincide in height, which must be taken into account when choosing the sound range of training exercises, depending on the teacher’s intention to tune children’s voices to a particular sound character.

The concentric method is based on a number of provisions:

smooth singing without aspiration,

when vocalizing on a vowel, for example a, a pure phoneme should sound,

when singing, open your mouth moderately,

do not make any grimaces or efforts,

sing neither loudly nor quietly,

be able to stretch out a note for a long time with an even sound,

without ugly “rises”, hit the note straight,

follow the sequence of tasks when constructing vocal exercises: first, the exercises are built on one sound within the primary zone, then on two adjacent ones, which must be smoothly connected, the next stage is tetrachords as preparation for jumps, then gradually expanding jumps, followed by gradual filling.

Children should not be allowed to get tired. Singing for a quarter of an hour with attention is much more effective than singing for four hours without it.

The essence of the method is the gradual expansion of the sound range of the voice in concentric circles around its center. It is not suitable for working with “buzzers” or children with unidentified vocal abilities.

The concentric method can be used when coordination between hearing and voice has been established, and skills have been formed to control the registers of your voice and the resonance of sound. At subsequent stages of work, this method is necessary for smoothing register transitions, equalizing timbre across the entire range of the voice and developing other vocal skills.

Phonetic

All teachers use this method, but in different ways. The phonetic method in working with children is one of the ways to tune the voice to one or another type of timbre sound.

Each phoneme, syllable or word organizes the work of the entire vocal apparatus in a certain direction. Changes in articulatory structure create new acoustic conditions for the functioning of the vocal apparatus, which affects the timbre of the voice.

It is difficult to create a general plan of exercises needed to develop all voices due to the individual characteristics of students. However, it has been noted that the vowel sound u is distinguished by the least variety of ways of articulation; this has led to its frequent use in collective teaching of singing in a choir.

With individual training, options are possible: if the vowel a sounds good, then you should start with it; for a deep sound, it is better to use i, and for a flat sound, o or u.

In exercises performed with the aim of aligning vowels, one vowel sound must be poured into another - without a push or break in sound. It is necessary to develop the skill of singing vowels in one position. Singing a series of vowels in one or another sequence always pursues the goal of achieving a certain timbre sound of the voice based on the model of the first phoneme.

When singing various phonemes, it is recommended to constantly maintain the feeling of a hidden yawn. But do not strain, this can lead to deepening of the vocal position. Yawning when singing various phonemes should be moderate and light, especially in young children.

Achieving a sonorous timbre sound in children's voices is associated with the full voicing of vocal resonators. The resonant sound of the voice is characterized as singing in a close vocal position. A number of factors contribute to its presence:

students' assessment of qualitative differences in the sound of the singing voice with and without resonance;

pronunciation of words in singing with a single articulation of the lips: “on a smile”;

singing with a closed mouth on the consonants m or n;

vocal training exercises for syllable combinations with sonorant consonants l, r, m, n, and z, where the voice dominates the noise;

keeping your nostrils flared while singing,

self-monitoring of resonance in the mask area;

articulation in singing with rounded lips is possible, but subject to constant monitoring of the full activation of the resonators.

The phonetic method is necessary to tune the singing voice to the correct sound production, and to correct various deficiencies, for which certain combinations of phonemes are used. In this case, it is necessary to take into account the degree of difficulty of pronunciation of consonants, which depends on the place of their formation. Consonants can be voiced or unvoiced. Voiceless consonants require attention. They pull the vocal apparatus towards a speech rather than a singing attitude. It is recommended to pronounce them especially quickly when singing. With sluggish articulation, the pronunciation of voiceless consonants slows down.

The phonetic method is used not only in exercises, but also at the stages of learning and further work on song material. To do this, vocalization of the song melody is used on different vowels, most often u, o, a, in order to develop a cantilena and equalize the timbre sound of the voice.

Explanatory and illustrative combined with reproductive.

A significant place in working with children is occupied by the method of vocal illustration of the teacher’s voice, and the reproduction of what children hear according to the principle of imitation. Both methods complement each other. In order to develop in children the ability to comparatively analyze the sound quality of a singing voice, you can use not only positive, but also negative demonstrations. Children can consciously choose the desired option and justify its advantages. The specificity of vocal-choral work, based on auditory-motor coordination, requires that the illustrated method be used in the lesson as often as possible, otherwise the imitation will not be conscious, but blind.

The demonstration of the melody in the teacher’s voice should be combined with an explanation of the technology of sound production, involving children in a discussion of the nature of the sound. Singing according to the principle of imitation should not be allowed to be reduced to simple external repetitions, but to be a conscious process.

The imitation mechanism is formed subconsciously. Imitation holistically organizes the vocal function and makes it possible to consciously consolidate what arises involuntarily. When repeating successful moments, children’s attention is directed to awareness and memorization of the emerging muscle, vibration and auditory sensations, who will then use them independently.

At the first stage of vocal work, the illustrative method should prevail, and in the future it should be used minimally.

In vocal-technical work, the reproductive method is inevitable, although moderately necessary. Its use will not harm if the voices of the teacher and student are homogeneous. Otherwise, it is unacceptable to abuse vocal display. For example, a teacher with a low voice, that is, using predominantly the chest register, if this method is abused, can contribute to the heaviness and overload of the timbres of children's voices, which naturally have a light and high sound. In this case, the teacher must skillfully use other vocal registers, imitating the sound of a child's voice. You should not be particularly carried away by the method of showing artistic and performing moments, methods of expressive singing. It is more expedient to influence the emotional sphere of children, to let them feel the artistic image, to experience it as a result of the perception and analysis of music and text. Leading questions will help students find appropriate performing techniques and take initiative. This will create conditions for the development of thinking, independence and creativity of children.

The explanatory and illustrative method in combination with the reproductive method is the path to the creative development of students. Their vocal thinking will gradually transform: from imitation, at the subconscious level, to understanding the artistic image and method of performance.

Mental singing

The principle of mental singing (based on intra-auditory representation) is one of the most effective in working with children.

The physiological mechanism of internal singing has been little studied. Internal singing should be accompanied by micro-oscillations of the vocal folds, just as internal speech is reflected in micro-movements of the articulatory apparatus. This conclusion was made by scientists, but it should be considered unfounded. Children starting to learn to sing, as a rule, have no vocal experience. Therefore, such children cannot have any micromovements of the vocal apparatus during the process of mental singing.

However, the use of mental singing makes sense even at the first stage of learning, since it activates auditory attention aimed at perceiving and remembering a sound standard to follow. Mental singing prepares the ground for successful learning, as it activates auditory attention aimed at perceiving and remembering a sound standard to follow. Mental singing prepares the ground for successful learning, but does not replace vocal training. Intonation can improve by trying to reproduce the sound of a certain pitch that the child hears externally.

The use of the principle of internal singing is associated with such types of mental activity as musical and auditory performances, which relate not only to pitch, but cover all vocal and performing components.

Mental singing teaches inner concentration, protects the voice from overwork when it is necessary to repeat the same musical phrase many times for the purpose of memorization and training, and develops creative imagination.

The method of mental singing is aimed precisely at the development of vocal and auditory ideas. It is especially effective in combination with reproductive. During the lesson it is used in various situations: when singing, listening to musical material in order to better memorize it, when learning new songs and repeating old songs.

When listening to a difficult passage, children should sing mentally in order to achieve quality in the subsequent performance. Children's auditory perception is especially activated when mental singing is combined with visuals, when children observe the teacher's facial expressions, method of articulation and breathing movements.

In the classroom, it is necessary to introduce a rule: when the teacher demonstrates a performance example with his voice or on a musical instrument, the children must look at it, listen and mentally sing at the same time.

Mental singing is carried out with active, albeit silent articulation; this activates the entire vocal complex of muscles, including the respiratory muscles.

Mental singing is an effective method of forming vocal-auditory ideas that underlie vocal reproduction, a learning method that accelerates the process of learning a new repertoire, mastering vocal skills, as well as a form of independent work with the least amount of vocal effort.

Comparative analysis

This method should be introduced from the first lessons; the teacher demonstrates two images of the same sound, asks the children to compare and say which one they liked better.

Gradually, by comparing different images of the sound of the voice, children learn to differentially perceive individual components of vocal technique, to distinguish correct sound production from incorrect ones.

The comparative analysis method can also be used when evaluating and analyzing the singing of other students, or discussing various recordings.

With the help of comparative analysis, children learn not only to listen to different singers, but also to evaluate their own performance, which develops the self-control skill necessary for successful learning.

2.2 Work on elements of choral sonority

artistic creative children's choir

Singing installation. Sound production is a physiological process, therefore the action of the entire voice-forming system is subject to certain patterns, which the choirmaster must have an idea about and be able to “feel” the singing process from his own experience.

The main condition for singing is the internal complete physical freedom of the performers. It is achieved by the singer’s natural posture: straight and free body, straightened shoulders, straight head position, straightened knees, legs resting on the heels, arms hanging calmly. The muscles of the face, neck, shoulders are also in a calm state. The ideal position is a standing position. Some choirmasters vary the position of the body. For example, they sing in a choir while standing, and learn new pieces while sitting. The finished repertoire is also sung while standing.

When singing, you should not throw your head back, grimace, or clamp your lower jaw. Everything should be fast and natural, free and easy. It is necessary to ensure that the singing process is as natural and organic as the speaking process. “Sing freely and naturally, without doing anything unnecessary. Sing because you want to sing, because the process of singing itself gives pleasure” - this is how the basic singing rule can be formulated. Its compliance should be constantly monitored by the leader, especially in the early stages of vocal work. It is the feeling of physical freedom that guarantees the development of the voice in natural conditions.

Some directors of amateur choirs believe that since singers master folk style and dialect from childhood, and naturally sing in their natural range, since there is no need to specifically engage in vocal education of singers in a group, this is an erroneous point of view. A singer can sing in a folk manner, but have certain vocal defects: loud, deep or dull sound, short breathing, sluggish diction. In singing education, the leader starts from the general characteristic features of the sound of the people's voice:

natural “close” sound,

diction close to colloquial speech,

natural head resonance, without bright covering of the voice,

bad chest sound. A good folk voice is distinguished by a bright, ringing, light sound. All sound seems to be concentrated close to the oral cavity, “on the lips.” Characterized by very slight vibration, which gives the sound only timbre.

First of all, we work on the basic breathing exercise. Otherwise, liberation from excessive voice overload will not give the desired result - a natural sounding voice, the voice will simply weaken. Breathing technique - silent short inhalation, support of breathing and calm, gradual expenditure of it. The main thing is to be conscious of your breathing. It is necessary to systematically train breathing through exercises and singing. Thus, by singing on one, two or three sounds, the skill of slow breathing is achieved.

Breath. When mastering the art of singing, children, like adults, have to relearn the automatic breathing and speaking habits developed from birth. Vital breathing is “trained” on rhythmic, uniform inhalation and exhalation. If in speech it is spent “flowing out” and the stomach is retracted, in singing the process occurs in the opposite direction.

The most important factor in voice formation is breathing. The well-known aphorism - “the school of singing is the school of breathing” - very correctly notes the enormous role of breathing as the foundation on which the singing voice is formed. Singing breathing differs from normal breathing, as it serves for sound production. “Singing breathing is a special adaptive activity of the respiratory system during singing. It requires constant development, systematic training, because developed, prolonged, flexibly controlled breathing is a great advantage of a singer.”

The quality of sound, its strength, timbre, duration, intonation purity, and in collective singing - tuning, choral sonority, depend on singing breathing skills.

Correct singing breathing depends on correct inhalation. When you inhale, the diaphragm lowers and presses on the insides of the abdominal cavity, causing the stomach to protrude forward. The inhalation should be deep, quick, silent, with the expansion of the lower ribs and without raising the shoulders. Exhalation is regulated by the abdominal press, which helps to “hold” the breath, i.e., maintain the inhalation state as you exhale. Exhalation should be economical, at the first stages of training - visualization, demonstration of correct and incorrect breathing techniques.

Teaching children singing breathing depends on the growth of the whole organism - the chest, respiratory muscles, lung capacity. Shallow breathing, often observed in young children, is a consequence of poor development of the diaphragm, as well as the intercostal and pectoral muscles. The airways at this age are narrow compared to the capacity of the lungs. Normal breathing in young children coincides with singing breathing. The stimulus is gymnastics, vocal exercises that develop the duration of exhalation, the ability to inhale correctly, etc.

The nature of breathing depends on the physical and neuropsychic organization. Children who are balanced and nervously stable usually have good singing and non-singing breathing, while children with a relaxed nervous system have unstable, nervous breathing. What affects the quality of singing. A typical disadvantage in children who have not learned to sing is shallow, shallow breathing with a predominant involvement of the clavicular part of the chest.

Vocally unprepared children breathe unevenly when singing; they seem to be choking on their breath, raising their shoulders. Such breathing has an adverse effect on the sound and the child’s body. To eliminate this deficiency, children need to focus their attention on the diaphragm, that is, take their breath into the “belt” or “inflate a balloon in their tummy.” Inhale through your nose and mouth at the same time, keeping your shoulders relaxed.

At the initial stage, we often paid attention to calm, silent breathing, without raising our shoulders.

Imitating adults, children often try to sing loudly. It is necessary to explain that voice quality consists of different concepts: timbre, range, evenness of sound. The process of singing should proceed meaningfully. Children should not be allowed to scream; they must be taught to sing “on support” with an even, continuous sound.

Strengthening breathing skills is one of the main tasks in children's vocal performance, for which special exercises can be used.

The technique of using breathing is a short, silent breath, support for breathing and a calm, gradual expenditure of it. You need to take your breath before it is used up. Children often “sort out” their breath and “lock” it, thereby suppressing the sound. This leads to a tense sound and interferes with the accuracy of intonation. Therefore, one should strive for evenness and freedom in the use of breathing.

There are different types of singing breathing: clavicular (the shoulders are involved in the act of breathing); chest (muscles of the upper chest are involved); lower costal (lower ribs expand); diaphragmatic or abdominal (the diaphragm descends). Let's consider the diaphragmatic (also called abdominal) type as the most acceptable option for singing breathing. This type of breathing is the deepest and is the basis “on which the further formation of an already mixed type of breathing takes place, giving each singer the opportunity to adapt to a state of inhalation that is convenient for him, using all types of breathing except clavicular.”

The diaphragmatic type of breathing is naturally found in few people, and mastering it presents significant difficulties, which can be overcome thanks to the perseverance of the leader and the patience of the students, as well as under the obligatory condition that the choirmaster himself has a good understanding of the technique of this method of breathing and has mastered it in his own singing.

What is the technique of diaphragmatic breathing? Inhalation is carried out through the descending diaphragm, the thoraco-abdominal muscular septum that separates the chest cavity from the abdominal cavity. At the same time, the abdomen seems to move forward, and exhalation is regulated by the abdominal press. For purposes of clarity, you can explain to students the technique of diaphragmatic breathing by resorting to “comparing the human torso (in its respiratory function) with a pump tube..., the purpose of which is to draw in and expel liquid or air through the same hole.” Air is drawn in by the downward movement of the piston, and when contracted, the diaphragm lowers and pushes down the abdominal organs lying underneath it; at the same time, the volume of the thoracic cavity increases in depth. To feel the depth of breathing, vocal teachers and choirmasters often use figurative expressions: “lower the piston to the end,” “reach the bottom.” Here you need to try to physically feel exactly the depth of the “air column”. Sometimes it helps to ask to “sing with your belly”, to take your breath “into the belt”, “in the stomach”, “in the back”.

“After this, the walls of the abdominal cavity, consisting of a complex system of rectus, oblique and transverse muscles that make up the so-called abdominal press, with combined contractions... lift back up the entire mass of abdominal organs that dropped during inhalation. With their pressure they bring the gradually yielding diaphragm to its original high position and, pressing through it on the lungs, displace from them that part of the air that they gained due to the lowering of the diaphragm. Air rushes out through the windpipe and larynx. This moment of exhalation completely and exactly corresponds to the movement of the piston...up."

If at first the children’s attention was drawn to where to take their breath, then at the next moment their attention was fixed on how to hold their breath, using it sparingly, ensuring a long and smooth sound.

At first, it is useful for children to keep their hands on their belts and, taking in air simultaneously through their mouth and nose, try to feel, when inhaling, how an imaginary air piston goes down, the arms along with the ribs move apart to the sides, the abdominal press moves slightly forward. It is very effective when the leader himself clearly demonstrates the correct way of breathing, checking the breathing process of individual singers.

Exhalation is carried out with the feeling of singing “to oneself”, and not “from oneself”, that is, at the exit the singer should strive to maintain the state of inhalation. This physical sensation of singing “to yourself” helps you hold your breath longer. In other words, singers need to develop a constant feeling of inhalation, even at the moment of sound formation itself, which, as is known, is carried out thanks to exhaled air.

Singing breathing can be trained in two ways: by developing the respiratory muscles with special exercises outside of singing and by developing breathing during vocal exercises.

“To develop the skill of inhalation and exhalation, old experienced masters recommended breathing exercises without sound. It should be noted that such exercises bring certain benefits, but only if they are not an end in themselves, but are used as physical exercises before singing. Literally every lesson should be started with such exercises during the first half of the year. Their meaning, on the one hand, is to give the muscles involved in the respiratory singing process a certain physical elasticity and endurance; on the other hand, such exercises help to understand the organization of the process of inhalation and exhalation, without being distracted by the moment of sound formation.”

When working with children on the skills of proper singing breathing, we used exercises (in Appendix No. 2).

Over time, singing breathing skills become more complex. Based on them, they are taught to sing the phrase in one breath. Only in the process of such singing will the child develop correct breathing skills and strengthen the respiratory muscles. At first, you need to select such musical material in which you can see a clear and distinct division into small phrases.

We get children to consciously sing each individual phrase in one breath, paying attention to the execution of the last sound. Please stop there. This will force children to focus on exhaling.

Expressiveness of performance. We achieve melodious sound production coming from figurative content. Understanding the task and striving to achieve expressiveness in performance will help children use their breath sparingly.

Working on the initial phrase of breathing - moments of inhalation. The singer must take a breath before each phrase.

After mastering phrase-by-phrase singing, you should select songs with longer phrases, and then move on to developing “chain breathing” skills. Usually round dance, drawn out. And sometimes dance songs are performed according to the principle of such breathing.

The process of singing breathing needs to be brought to the consciousness of the choir participants and its mechanism must be consistently worked out, at each lesson, everyone should be reminded of the principles of singing breathing, and monitored to ensure that it is performed correctly. The main requirement for breathing is that it should not be constrained, but should be free, elastic, resilient... Correct breathing corresponds to a feeling of freedom, a free “passage of breath to the resonator.” When the breath is pressed, the sound becomes harsh and loses resonance. Breathing in singing is, as it were, the opposite of speech. In speech it is spent, naturally flows out, and the stomach is drawn in at the same time. In singing, breathing is the opposite of natural: the stomach goes slightly forward, and does not retract, as during speech. In singing, you can’t let it go away, fail. There must be a desire to hold him and push him forward.

Sound attack. Experienced vocal teachers advise “not to get carried away with particularly “brilliant” sounds, remembering that the main thing is not the brilliance or strength of the sound, but its breadth, roundness, softness, nobility and emotional expressiveness. And that the voice acquires and retains these qualities not with a hard, but with a soft attack, as a constant manner of starting a sound.” Only in special cases, for example, when it is necessary to express indignation, despair, passion, fear or suffering through singing, then a firm attack is resorted to, but even in these cases great care must be taken not to bring the vocal cords to the point of closing. To express powerlessness, cowardice, exhaustion, etc., an aspirated note is appropriate

So, a soft attack of the sound should be a consistent way to start the sound. That is, start it extremely carefully. Figuratively speaking, starting a sound is like “stepping on thin ice”...

The singing sound arises from vibrations of the vocal cords, and is amplified and timbre-colored with the help of resonators. The vocal apparatus consists of three sections: the respiratory organs, which supply air to the glottis, the larynx and the articulatory apparatus. The most important singing skill should be considered the skill of a slight “yawn.” To form full-sounding, beautiful vowels, it is necessary to change the shape and size not of the entire oral cavity, but only of its very rear part, the yawn. This causes a loose, somewhat dilated state of the pharynx and a raised position of the soft palate. A slight “yawn” should be felt when inhaling and, having fixed this position of the throat, maintain it throughout the entire process of singing.

Chain breathing. In some choral works there are long musical phrases that are difficult or completely impossible to sing in one breath. In these cases, they use the so-called chain breathing technique, which consists of the singers taking turns renewing their breathing. At the same time, it is necessary to develop in each participant the skill of carefully connecting to the general ensemble, imperceptibly “entering” without disturbing the harmony of the overall sound.

Since most folk songs are performed using chain breathing, it is very important that it be learned by the choir.

In order to develop chain breathing skills among choir participants, you can use exercises on sustained sound, monitor its purity of intonation, and keep it at a given height. It is especially important to teach each singer, after a pause and taking a breath, to quietly and imperceptibly merge into the overall sound.

When working on “chain” breathing with children, it is important:

Learn to inhale in the middle of a sustained sound.

When singing resumes, unnoticeably join the overall sound.

Preliminarily outline where it is better to take the breath. Let's direct the children's attention to sustained sounds.

Work out the connection between the end and beginning of the verse in one breath.

Sing the entire song using “chain” breathing.

Use a gaming technique: everyone dances in a circle, without interrupting the movement pattern anywhere, following the melody performed with “chain” breathing.

So, we can highlight the basic rules of chain breathing:

do not inhale at the same time as a neighbor standing next to you,

do not inhale at the junction of musical phrases, but, if possible, inside long notes,

take breath imperceptibly and quickly,

merge into the overall sound of the choir without a push, with a soft attack of sound, intonationally accurate, i.e. without “entry”, and in accordance with the nuances of a given place in the score,

listen sensitively to the singing of your neighbors and the general sound of the choir.

To develop and strengthen singing breathing, you can offer several more exercises. Appendix No. 3.

Strengthening and developing breathing skills is one of the main tasks in the vocal education of children. A natural, beautiful sound without tension, without loudness depends on the ability to control breathing correctly. Proper use of breathing gives the singer the opportunity to perform various vowels smoothly and positionally, to freely and easily lead a melodic line, without losing the sonority and flight of the voice, showing the best qualities of his timbre.

A single manner of sound production. In mastering the technique of singing, the development of a unified manner of sound production plays an important role. After all, the voice of a singer who has a unified style of sound formation is distinguished by a special evenness of timbre coloring and a uniform color of sound. If the singer does not have a unified style of sound production, his voice sounds varied, all vowels, from a singing point of view, are formed differently. The unity of sound and the choral ensemble depend on a single manner. Therefore, the technique of a single style of sound production must be taught to each choir member.

Folk singing is characterized by the so-called open manner. But here, as in the academic manner, there must be an element of rounding of vowels. Otherwise, the singing will be flat, harsh, and unpleasant in timbre. Such singing has nothing in common with truly folk performance.

In order for the sound to always be smooth and uniform, one must strive to sing at the connection of the registers - chest and head. Chest resonance gives the voice power, strength, compactness, and head resonance gives shine, brightness, and flight. By combining both registers in singing, the voice acquires all the listed qualities. So, for example, in high notes, which by their nature easily sound in the head register, chest overtones must always be present, otherwise the singing will resemble “head” unfinished humming. To achieve a compact, full sound in the upper register, you need to ask the participants to sing “basically”, “angrily”. And vice versa, sounds of the lower register are easy to sing, feeling a high “head” position; then a flight and silveriness will appear in the powerful chest sound.

A singing attitude towards a single manner of sound production, which implies a single coloring of vowels, a certain degree of their roundness, as well as singing to connect registers will ensure the right direction in the vocal work of the choir.

Diction is the correct pronunciation of vowels and consonants.

Diction is distinguished from a number of actions (everyday pronunciation, stage speech, singing pronunciation).

Everyday speech is usually the omission of words, fast or slow speech. Sometimes an outsider may not understand what is being said.

Stage speech is speech that is logical in its construction. Not everyone has stage speech. This is communication with people, with the choir. Every letter, every word is pronounced to the end.

Singing speech - vowels expand, consonants contract. Vowels are intonated at a certain height.

Diction rules.

Unified articulation. Common principles, pronunciation. A single style of singing.

Clear pronunciation of endings. Endings are often added to the next word.

In musical speech there is an exaggerated sound (“p”, “p”).

In a high tessitura the word is more difficult to pronounce.

At a fast pace, the word is pronounced in a reduced manner.

Large articulation should be present in ceremonial works.

Dependence of diction on accompaniment (the choir must “break through” the accompaniment).

Vowels in choral performance.

The active apparatus includes the jaw, tongue, lips, and soft palate. To inactive - hard palate, teeth.

There are 10 vowels in the Russian language, six of which are original (a; e; i; o; u; y), all of these vowels are formed simply by the voice, and have their own rules for the operation of the articulatory apparatus.

“a” - the tongue lies flat with a longitudinal depression in the back, touching the tip of the lower teeth, the lips in an oval position.

“e” - the lips are stretched, the tongue has a slightly convex shape, lies on the lower teeth and moves down.

“and” - the mouth is open, slightly stretched lips touch the teeth, the tip of the tongue touches the lower teeth.

“o” - the lips are extended slightly forward, have a rounded shape, the tongue is slightly raised at the root.

“s” - the lips are slightly stretched, the tongue is pulled back, the lower jaw moves forward slightly.

Yotated vowels.

They are formed from a combination of two sounds: a soft consonant “th” and the following vowel: e = й+е; i = th+a; e = d+o; yu = y+y.

When vowels are unstressed, then “u” and “y” are pronounced the same; "uh"

pronounced deeply; “and” sounds the same - regardless of stress; after “zh”, “s”, “ts” - “i” sounds like “y” (life); "o" sounds like "a"; “a” after “zh”, “s”, “ts” - pronounced midway between “e”, “y” (to regret), after “ch”, “sh” between “i”, “e” (hours); "yu" is pronounced the same; “I” in unstressed consonants sounds between “i”, “e” (rowan); “e” without stress like “i” and “e” (forester, arrow), “e” after “zh”, “sh”, “ts” like “e”, “y” (iron, wool).

Consonants in singing

Consonants are “noises” that are produced by exhaled air, resting against the organ of speech that blocks it (tongue, lips, teeth). Consonants are voiced, in the formation of which ligaments and voiceless consonants are involved. Voiced and voiceless mostly form pairs (b - p; v-f; g - k; d - t; z - s; g - w). The work of the speech organs of pronunciation of each pair is the same. The voiced ones involve a voice, but the deaf ones do not. The sounds “m”, “l”, “r” and partly “th” are sonorant, that is, they can intonate at any pitch. Sonorants help vowels.

Consonant sounds are the framework of the word and play a decisive role in conveying the content.

Exceptions.

.Voiced consonants at the end of words are pronounced as their corresponding voiceless consonants (forward - forward; rain - rain).

.Dental “d”, “z”, “s”, “t” before soft consonants are softened (guest, branches - branches).

.“N” and “NN” before soft consonants are pronounced softly (wanderer).

.The doubling of "w" is softened (creepy).

.“Zh” and “Sh” before soft consonants are pronounced firmly (spring, before).

.The reflexive particles “sya” and “sya” are pronounced as “SA” (walked around (SA), got tired (SA).

.In a number of words, “CHN” and “CHT” are pronounced as “shn” and “pcs.” (which, of course, is boring).

.The combination of “stn” and “zdn” - “t” and “z” are omitted (sad, late).

.“g” as “v” (who, what, today, loved one).

.“tsya” as “tsa” (circling - circling).

Clear diction is a means of conveying the textual content of a work and one of the most important means of artistic expression in revealing the musical image. Therefore, in the choir we paid great attention to the development of correct and clear singing diction.

Depending on the cause of the lack of diction, such a typical lack of diction is selected as slurred pronunciation of words, extremely sluggish work of the articulatory apparatus. This deficiency is reflected in the sound quality, which becomes dull and flabby. The cause may be lethargy and immobility of the tongue, lips, tightness of the lower jaw, insufficient or incorrect opening of the mouth, stiffness of the muscles of the neck and face. We identified the defects, if any, in each child and individually worked to eliminate them.

Depending on the reason for the lack of diction, the appropriate exercise is selected. The main rule for all cases is the complete physical release of the articulatory apparatus from tension. To loosen the lower jaw, we can recommend exercises on the syllables ba, ma, yes. In this case, the labial consonants b and m will contribute to the activity of the lips. The labial vowels o and u are used for the same purpose.

When developing a feeling of free movement of the lower jaw, the leader must remember that the degree of mouth opening for singers can be different, since this depends on the individual physical structure of the speech apparatus. Deliberate lowering of the lower jaw and senseless opening of the mouth deprives the sound of timbre and expressiveness, making it harsh.

When working to overcome lethargy and immobility of the tongue, an exercise on the syllable A is recommended. Here you need to pay attention to the work of the tip of the tongue, which actively hits the roots of the front incisors.

If the work requires special emphasis on diction, but this does not work, you can sing the melody on the syllables la, le, li, bra, bre, bri, dra, dre, dri, etc.

Many choirmasters resort to the following example: not only special chants, but individual phrases, fragments and entire works are sung many times on one or several syllables. The choice of vowels and consonants of letters and syllables depends on the specific tasks that the director sets for the choir, using the phonetic features of the selected sounds.

If the choir's timbre is dull, exercises on the syllables la, li, zi, yes are recommended; if the singing is sharp, forced, it is better to use the syllables du, ku, mo, lo. Singing the syllables yes, dea is recommended to strengthen breathing. It is very useful to sing the syllables ne, me, re, which help to properly tune the upper resonators.

When working on vocal diction, we avoided exaggerated pronunciation of consonants. We used this technique only for expressive purposes, when it was necessary to specifically emphasize and highlight the text. The principle of work was the calm pronunciation of consonants. Here a lot depends on how correctly the voice is tuned in terms of resonators. If the vowel has flight, the consonant will “fly” after it.

Combinations of several consonants nearby (rises, rises) are practiced separately. In this case, the last consonant is pronounced more actively than the previous ones, which are pronounced softer.

In singing, there is a rule for transferring consonants from the end of a syllable to the beginning of the next syllable (for example, the phrase “My distant friend, your joyful light” should be sung like this: “Da - le - ki - ymo - ydru - gtvo - yra - do - stny - ysvet ", etc.) Transferring consonants from the end of a syllable to the beginning makes it possible to draw out the vowels as long as possible, that is, to achieve drawn-out singing. When learning new works, it is recommended to sing choral parts slowly, making sure that the singers move to the next syllable exactly according to the leader’s hand, and stretch the vowels to the end. In this case, the pronunciation of consonants for everyone should be simultaneous, synchronous.

The main goal of the teacher’s work on vocal diction was to teach children to sing meaningfully and artistically expressively.

We tried to ensure that the word in singing was always pronounced with the lively intonations of the native language, hence the necessity, the obligatory nature of combining intonational expressiveness when singing with phonetic purity and correctness of the language. Particularly indicative in this sense is Russian folk song, which does not tolerate spiritual falsehood. A word spoken inexpressively, formally, will destroy her.

The key to good diction is clarity of articulation. When singing, the articulatory apparatus must be free and elastic; the singer must be able to quickly, clearly and naturally pronounce various sound combinations. The proposed exercises help activate the lip muscles and develop tongue mobility. The clarity of pronunciation extends not only to the initial consonants, but also to the vowels at the end of the word, while the lips are actively closed. All movements of the articulatory apparatus and facial expressions should be natural.

The child needs to understand the properties of his tongue; for this, some exercises are recommended. Appendix No. 4.

Perform exercises primarily using the natural movements of the lower jaw. Improvise, coming up with new sound combinations. Using a song phrase, a number of exercises are proposed with which you can achieve clear and clear diction:

Pronounce a song phrase in a conversational manner, pronouncing the words naturally, freely, without tension in the muscles, face and larynx.

Pronounce the phrase into a chant two to three times slower, watching the articulation of the mouth, according to the conversational type of pronunciation.

Pronounce the same phrase into a chant on one note in the rhythm of the song, following the conversational message of sound coming from the word.

Sing the melody of the song, keeping the conversational message of the sound.

To achieve clear diction in a choir, you can use the way words and individual syllables are pronounced the way they are sung. This method involves moving consonants from the end of a syllable to the next syllable. As, for example, in the song “Varenka”:

OH, VA - REN - KA, VA - REN - KA

HO - RO - SHAYA, BRA - VEN - KA

This exercise - reading a text in chorus, divided into special singing syllables, helps to develop the simultaneous pronunciation of consonants by all singers.

The style of folk singing arose from live speech. From speech intonation come characteristic performance techniques: glides, “slopes”, grace notes, colorful play on words: stretching a word into additional vowels, repetition of syllables, breaking words, inserted interjections, etc. Not only in ancient, but also in modern songs it is necessary preserve the main features of the local dialect. For example, in the north, speech is melodious with stretching of stressed vowels and preservation of unstressed ones with a slight okan and clatter. Speech is delicate and quiet. Steppe songs, on the contrary, are sweeping and booming.

Each region has its own style of sound production, which is influenced by the musical composition of the song and the peculiarities of the local dialect. Each region, each region has its own characteristics - bright, unique.

The Russian folk style of sound production is characterized by a natural, open sound of the voice. In folk singers, the ligaments close more tightly than in academic singers, and the chest resonator is used to a much greater extent. Folk singing is predominantly chest singing.

The main methodological principle in teaching folk singing is the “conversational” style of singing, that is, the attitude: “sing as you speak.” What is this connected with? The fact is that our colloquial speech is full of various semantic intonations, and the “conversational” style of singing implies the preservation and transmission of these intonations. Intonation expressiveness forms the basis of the art of folk singing.

From here follows the first methodological guideline: the articulatory mechanism of pronunciation of words in folk singing remains the same as in colloquial speech, that is, while singing it is necessary to maintain a strictly conversational position of the mouth and not do anything unnecessary. To achieve this, you should practice, for example:

a) pronounce a specific phrase in a conversational manner (for self-control, it is fashionable to check yourself in the mirror);

b) pronounce the same phrase in a sing-song manner more slowly, watching the articulation and position of the mouth according to the spoken one;

c) recite the same phrase in a chant on one sound in the rhythm of the song. At the same time, make sure that the message of the sound is again conversational, coming from the word, and that there are no attempts to push the sound out with the throat;

d) finally, sing the melody of the song, but at the same time maintaining the conversational message of the sound.

In spoken language, as well as in singing, we distinguish between timbre, rising and falling tones, that is, pitch, registers and range of the voice. Speech, like singing, is carried out only on the basis of breathing.

Well-delivered speech is always melodious, sonorous, soft, it has that element of melodiousness that, with training and systematic development, can help a singer easily switch to natural singing. Folk singing is based on the same freedom and ease that characterizes the process of spoken language. When speaking, breathing is taken, held, and spent exactly as much as is needed for a certain phrase. Speech carries not only information, but also a certain intonation meaning. The same word or phrase can be pronounced with different intonations, which will change the meaning of this word or phrase.

An important feature of folk singing: voicing, “voicing” of consonants. The point is that “sliding” inserted vowels appear between consonants. For example, the word “deceived” when voiced will be pronounced: ob(s) manula. It is important to learn not to stick out the inserted vowel(s), otherwise the sound will be vulgar. The technique of performing “vocalization” comes down to giving a consonant only a slight or subtle overtone of an inserted vowel, then the consonant will sound comfortably and naturally. The consonants must first be voiced at a slow pace so that the singer becomes aware of this technique and the tongue gets used to it. Only then can you move on to the tongue-twister way of pronouncing them.

."White", flat sound. Voiceless, inexpressive. It occurs in the absence of skills in using resonators. In this case, the velum palatine remains motionless, the small uvula hangs low over the root of the tongue. Training the “yawn”, rounding the sound, developing singing initiative, finding a breathing support, a point of natural resonance and a high position will help correct the situation.

.Pharyngeal sound. Heavy, dull, as if squeezed out of the chest. It is unpleasant in timbre and completely unpromising from the point of view of voice development. This is a chesty open sound, directed by the singer into the depths of the widened throat and devoid of head overtones. With this method of sound production, the voice cannot find a way to them. The pharyngeal sound is most often used by singers who have not previously mastered the folk style and, in search of a chesty open sound, “found” a sound that seems very bright and strong to them. It is not difficult to sing with such a sound, since only the chest resonator “works”. The pharyngeal sound is very intrusive and contagious. If at least one singer in a choir sings with such a sound, all the others involuntarily switch to it. It is very difficult to correct it, but it is impossible to allow the continuation of singing with such a sound.

.Hoarse, weak sounding voice. Most often it depends on the lack of singing skills, lethargy of the singing apparatus. This deficiency can be corrected by developing mainly the “support”, activating the singing tone. As an exercise, it is useful to repeatedly pronounce a dance-like phrase in a sing-song tongue twister, for example: “you’re a spinner, my little nut, let me go and take you out into the street, let me spin and spin, and walk around the pavilions, yes,” “I turned up, my heel broke, yes.” the girl fell on her right side, yes.” At the same time, continuously enhance the energy of the delivery of words and sound through breathing and feel the emotional tone inherent in the content of the intoned tongue twister.

.The voice is hoarse and weak in the low and mid range, more sonorous and bright in the high range. Depends on the inability to use the chest resonator or on insufficient support on the diaphragm. To correct it, you need to “look for” the chest timbre in the voices of singers when talking, then when singing. When searching for a chest sound, the high position is lost, the upper register “disappears”. This absolutely cannot be allowed.

.Shrill sound of the voice on the upper sounds with a sonorous and rich sound on the lower ones. Depends on the singers' inability to smooth out register transitions. The main challenge here comes down to finding a high position throughout the choir's range. As you move upward, the sound of the head overtones should increase.

These typical shortcomings do not exhaust all possible shortcomings and difficulties in the vocal work of folk choirs. However, knowing the most typical defects and ways to overcome them, you can navigate the conditions of a specific work, if you remember the “conversational” style of folk singing, its main principle: look for your natural voice, do not sing artificially.

Chanting and vocal-choral exercises.

Purposes of chanting:

.A means of psychological influence on the team.

.Vocal-auditory tuning.

.Organization of vocal style.

.Range extension.

.Development of sound science breathing.

.Organization of a single timbre.

Chain breathing.

The mastery of vocal and choral performance techniques by choir participants occurs not only in the course of learning the repertoire, but also in the process of special exercises.

The purpose of these exercises is to improve the vocal and choral technique of the group. Chanting is the exercises that the choir performs before the start of rehearsals or a concert in order to prepare the vocal apparatus for work and develop all the necessary vocal skills. The main thing here is tuning the choir, preparing it for the best performing form.

Chanting is regularly carried out at the beginning of classes and helps the rapid auditory organization of the group, concentration of the singers’ attention, prepares and “warms up” the vocal apparatus. For this purpose, special exercises and song material are used.

During classes, singing skills are taught to children gradually, according to a well-known principle - from simple to complex.

Our classes began not just with chanting, but with vocal and choral exercises, each of which has a specific technical task. The time for singing and vocal-choral exercises was determined depending on the educational and creative goals and immediate rehearsal plans. In the first lessons, the exercises naturally took a considerable amount of time. Sometimes we devoted not 10 - 15 minutes to them, as is customary in practice, but much more, since the choir that is more vocally developed will technically master the repertoire faster, and will perform it with more intonation accuracy and artistically more completeness.

Singing exercises corresponded to the vocal capabilities of singing activity. The goals were achieved gradually, moving from simple to complex. Gradual load on the vocal apparatus protects it from damage and helps to increase its possible use. The initial exercises were of a small range. In the middle register of voices with moderate dynamics and timbre.

There are two ways of chanting: with an instrument (allows continuous sound control) and without an instrument (improves hearing).

Exercises should be carefully selected so that they are varied in musical material and technical tasks; work on them should bring not only technical benefit to the singers, but also awaken their interest in choral singing.

Exercises can be very different and pursue diverse goals: to develop the voice, its mobility, flexibility, purity of intonation, to develop harmonic hearing, clarity of diction, a unified manner of sound production, etc., in a word, they should help singers master the technical techniques of expressive performance.

The main vowels “a” “o” “u” are rounded and can lead away from the folk style to the academic one. Chanting with iotated vowels makes the sound denser, more concentrated (i, e, e). Singing with your mouth closed on "m" (moo) helps to find vocal resonance.

We started with the simplest exercises, developing elementary singing skills, the range of which is small (in the volume of thirds, fourths), the tessitura is comfortable (sounds of the working range, primary zone), the tempo is moderate, the dynamics are average. Gradually, the technical tasks of the exercises became more complicated, one-voice tasks alternated with two-voice ones.

You should never start exercises by singing loudly. It is much more useful to practice the correct mechanism of voice formation using small sounds and free, elastic breathing. You should sing softly, easily, without force, giving internal freedom to breathe.

The leader must have a stock of vocal and choral exercises, replenish it with new interesting examples (from specific works, borrow from colleagues, draw from published methodological literature, compose his own exercises - tasks). Exercises should not be used haphazardly, but in a certain order, suggesting gradual and diversified development of the singers’ voice and vocal technique. Chants based on the phrases of their folk songs of various genres represent the best educational material in vocal work.

In working on individual singing skills - breathing, sound control, diction, singing style - we used both collective and individual methods. Only after mastering vocal skills, the singer receives the characteristic features of the sound of a folk voice - this is a natural, “close” sound, diction close to colloquial speech, a dense chest sound and natural head resonance, without strong covering of the voice. A good folk voice is always distinguished by its bright, sonorous and light sound.

All vocal skills - breathing, diction, style of singing, worked out in classes on singing education for children, will ultimately give results that allow you to master solo, ensemble and choral folk singing.

From the practice of our work with the children’s group “Sibirskaya Zadorinka”, in the first minutes of the lesson we have a clear goal of “chanting”.

The meaning of chanting is ambiguous. From a physiological point of view, this is like a warm-up. Build-up of the vocal apparatus, bringing it into a state of movement and the ability for purposeful and long-term vocal work. Chanting increases the overall tone of the singer’s body, causes a state of creative excitement and stimulates creative activity.

When working according to the principle from simple to complex, the children's attention became more active, and little by little they got used to controlling the sound of their own voices. The piano or button accordion was used as little as possible: for tuning, to clarify a difficult place in the score.

At the initial stage, chanting has the goal of children mastering basic singing skills: correct singing breathing, chanting, and unified sound production. Chanting was not a formal matter, but was always analyzed and improved. We tried to achieve a lively, meaningful attitude towards the performance of even the simplest exercises, not to separate the technical side from the artistic side - this develops figurative ideas in children. We attach great importance to facial expressions and gestures that accompany each of the vocal exercises.

Taking into account the psychology of children, we try to build all the work in a playful way. Here, for example, is one of the exercises with which you can start chanting: children jump on the spot and perform actions, pronouncing the text:

Let's do some charging now.

Left, right turn,

And then vice versa!

I squat - rising,

I bend down and straighten up,

I reach the floor with my hands,

This is an exercise to strengthen your breathing. The main exercises are aimed at developing in children the ability to clearly intonate unison and maintain it for quite a long time, which simultaneously helps them master chain breathing. This is singing simultaneously by all participants of the same sound, first with a closed mouth, and then with different vowels: i-e-e-yu-ya-i.

Singing with a closed mouth sets the guys up for a high position; crescendo and diminuendo allow them to master the technique of thinning out sound. The following expressions are used: “Let’s hum like stubborn bulls,” “sing high,” “pick one point on the ceiling and try to sing at it.”

The children are asked to sing the next chant, sometimes angrily, sometimes smiling, sometimes pitifully (in order to remove the emotional pressure).

Often, even an exercise performed on one sound causes some difficulty for some children. To overcome the intonation “dirt”, individual work with each of them is necessary. In this case, the teacher can adjust his voice to the “horns” and, depending on where the student sings, invite him to “ride” with his voice either up or down to stop at the desired sound (the rest of the guys at this moment sing the tonic). Experience has shown that the use of this technique helps children easily master the skills of unison singing.

According to the observations of teacher-researcher L.L. Kupriyanova, singing various exclamations and interjections with different emotional colors (necessarily in the primary zone), in addition to developing unison, allows you to emotionally liberate the children.

Typically, such exercises are supported by small tasks that involve using words. For example: we scold a student who is late, we complain as if we had accidentally pricked our finger, we yell at you like hunters lost in the forest. All these settings are aimed at developing the creative imagination of children. These exercises are effective if they are performed according to the principle of playing “Echo”, that is, the alternate inclusion of different groups of the choir, and such roll calls between the leaders and individual participants (individually).

The mobility of the articulatory apparatus is developed by tongue twisters and teasers, performed with great pleasure by children. They promote good diction. Appendix No. 5.

These exercises are first pronounced in one sound, then in a chant, and then sung with the obligatory preservation of the speech message.

An exercise called “Up and Down” helps a lot in developing the working range of the voice. We ask the children to “ride their voices” from the lowest sound to the highest one they can perform and vice versa. At the same time, children must help themselves with gestures. During classes, children are asked to reinforce their voice work with hand movements: either this is a demonstration of pitch, or an attempt to convey some kind of emotional sensation. Tactile and motor sensations coordinate the functioning of the vocal apparatus.

We explain to the children that all sounds must be sung very close, on the teeth. We ask them to “put” the sound on their palms, which they hold in front of them, and at the same time imagine that all the sounds are pouring into one another like water.

The process of chanting is lively and creative. The teacher needs to monitor the general condition of the child, feel and unravel everything that is happening inside his body. Based on this, find the necessary recommendations, techniques, tone and form of address. It is necessary to enliven chanting with figurative comparisons, examples, and jokes. Capture children's attention. Stimulate their creative will, directing it towards achieving the goal.

Features of pure intonation skills. Vocal and choral performance technique is possible only on the basis of hearing development. Sound production and hearing are two interrelated components. Sound production will never be intonationally pure if singing is carried out without auditory control. The stricter this control, the more impeccable the intonation. Therefore, when starting vocal and choral work, from the very first lessons we drew the participants’ attention to the subordination of voice and hearing. If the singing was out of tune, we first found out the reason.

This may occur from a lack of hearing or performance technique, as well as from a lack of understanding of the rules of intonation. To establish or clarify the reason, it is sometimes necessary to reduce the strength of the sound, to invite the child to sing a difficult-to-intonate passage in a more convenient register or without text (sometimes the text gets in the way!).

Falsity may occur if the child did not listen carefully enough or did not hear the pitch tone of the tuning or accompaniment well; if the singer’s hearing is generally poorly developed; due to sluggish breathing (in this case, low intonation); when breathing is forced (intonation in this case increases); with insufficient use of the chest resonator (the sound becomes superficial and increased); in case of a painful or tired state of the vocal apparatus. It is also possible that the required pitch tone is heard by the singer correctly, but the vocal cords are not able to intonate it correctly.

The technique of working with participants singing out of tune comes down to the following basic principles: 1) it is necessary to achieve a conscious sensation of pure intonation. To do this, you need to find one or more tones in the vocal range that the singer constantly and clearly reproduces (usually these are the sounds of the primary zone). At the first moment, it is very important that the participant feels the fusion of his voice with the tone set on the instrument and believes in his ability to correctly intonate; 2) nearby sounds are gradually added to the found primary tone. The student tries to sontonize them correctly, accurately reproduce them in his voice and feel the unison, the merging of his own voice with the given tone. In this way, the participant’s range will gradually expand, the skills of pure singing and coordination of hearing and voice will be strengthened.

If the melody is moving downward, you need to ask the choir to sing with the feeling of the melody moving upward, that is, to go from the opposite direction. Then the intonation will not decrease by inertia. And vice versa.

The following techniques help develop pure intonation: singing piano, singing with your mouth closed, singing without accompaniment, unison singing.

First, we train our hearing on the intonation of intervals that are easier to perceive, through exercises in the volume of thirds, fourths and fifths. These intervals seem to form the intonation “frame” of the exercise. Later we move on to exercises that include all the sounds of the full scale of the scale.

When working on the repertoire, we identified the most difficult passages in terms of intonation and found effective ways to intonate them cleanly and freely.

2.3 Methods of working on a song

When learning a new piece, to begin with, our accompanist A.V. Medvedev. played it on the accordion. Such familiarity with the score helps to understand the peculiarities of its musical language, and therefore to master it faster.

The first acquaintance with the work is a very important moment, on which the participants’ interest in the upcoming work and the success of subsequent rehearsals depend. First of all, we introduce the choir members to the musical and poetic content of the song. At the same time, we provide additional information from Russian history, painting, and folk art.

We said a few words about the nature of the work, the mood, the main images; about the composer and author of the text (if any).

While conducting such a conversation, we did not lose sight of its main goal - to arouse interest in the composition, which, accordingly, required passion, emotionality, and artistry from us.

After the choir’s general familiarization with the work, we began to analyze its musical text. As practice has shown us, in all cases, at the initial stage of work there should be no sloppiness or a careless attitude towards errors encountered.

We analyzed the work in small parts and spent longer on the more difficult ones. At the first stage of learning, special attention is required to intonation and metro-rhythmic accuracy of performance. However, other points should not be overlooked from the very beginning. In particular, it is necessary for children to feel and understand the direction of musical speech, phrasing, and reference points towards which the melodic movement rushes. Otherwise singing will be a mechanical act, formal singing.

While working on individual parts, we tried not to lose a sense of the whole throughout the learning process. Having worked on some phrase, some complex fragment, we then included them in the general context.

Methods of working on a song depend on its content, character and form. Lingering, heroic, and some majestic songs are performed without elements of movement or theatricality. They are associated exclusively with singing as a manifestation of vocal performing skills. And the songs are dance, round dance, game and partly lyrical with elements of stage movement. These songs introduce the performing style of the features of genuine nationality, dynamics, and genre diversity. The role of gesture in folk singing is very great. Many songs are accompanied by peculiar movements of the hands and head, which helps to express the character and emotional pulse of the song. [Sokolov V.G. “Choral studies”, 1971, p. 23]

The position of the hands, head, leg movements and all facial expressions can become a truly artistic means of performance. Work on songs with movement elements is based on the study of living folk performing traditions. Here we took into account those movements and those mise-en-scenes that could naturally arise when performing these songs in everyday life, at a walk and in a folk game. In round dances and play songs, movement is subordinated to the content of the action and often illustrates it. Round dance songs are accompanied by movement in a circle with various formations. Movement in game songs is associated with the content of the text. In dance songs, the elements of movement and dance do not illustrate the text; the general rhythm and character are important here. In ditties, dances, or “walks,” are used to emphasize its meaning. They originate from the folk methods of performing ditties, when one by one the singers of the ditties are separated from a large round dance, and after the ditties they necessarily dance with fractions. Appendix No. 6.

When staging a particular song, much is determined by the taste and creative imagination of the choir director.

Work on choral works is the main aspect of the choral group's activities. Developing vocal and choral technique skills in singers, studying musical literacy and solfeggio, expanding knowledge of the history and theory of music - everything is aimed at ultimately learning and performing a specific program. The process of learning choral scores includes two interrelated aspects: technical mastery of the musical and poetic language of the works and their artistic embodiment. Both are needed to convey musical images.

The inner emotional activity of singers must be achieved already at the first rehearsals and each time forced to experience the song anew. Actually, the process of learning a song is based on this.

When thinking about and drawing up a plan for the performance of a particular song, we relied not only on our understanding of artistic images, but on the feelings and creative initiative of the singers themselves. It was important for us to awaken in the performers a sincere feeling, a correct inner action caused by creative imagination.

Lead singers play a big role. Therefore, you should especially work on solo phrases that determine the sound of each verse.

In the scores of folk songs, as a rule, nuances are not exposed. It is a product of collective performance. In a folk song, one basic level of sonority is established. Its dynamics depend, first of all, on the content of the text, as well as on the genre of the song and the environment in which this song is performed in everyday life. The nature of the performance and the sound, dynamic image are always determined by the content of the song. The word is one of the most important expressive means of folk songcraft; Based on it, singers find dynamic colors.

Singing in slow motion.

The prerequisite for the pedagogical feasibility of this technique is that a slow tempo gives singers more time to listen to a particular sound, to control it and, to some extent, even to analyze it. Controlling your voice is extremely difficult. In essence, the entire process of sound production and intonation is carried out and regulated in singing with the help of listening skills and a qualitative assessment of the sound by the singer himself. In this regard, it is clear that singing at a slow tempo better promotes awareness of performing tasks and free mastery of the necessary skills. All of the above applies mainly to works that are characterized by lively or fast movement.

Stops on sounds.

If singing at a slow tempo does not give the desired effect, you can resort to completely stopping the movement on sounds that make up a complex intonation turn, that is, introducing a fermata. The prerequisite for the action of this technique is the same as when singing at a slow tempo. However, due to the fact that it makes it possible to concentrate attention on a particular intonation, its effectiveness is much higher.

Rhythmic fragmentation.

A necessary condition for any full performance is its rhythm. The most typical rhythm disturbances are not singing long durations when short ones appear, and vice versa, accelerating small durations and slowing down large ones. To avoid these shortcomings, it is useful to use the method of conditional rhythmic fragmentation of large durations into smaller ones. An effective technique for overcoming this kind of difficulty is to pronounce a literary text in one sound. In this case, the singers’ attention is focused on the rhythmic side of the performance, which contributes to faster mastery of one or another complex turn. The biggest mistake in the process of working on a piece is inattention to pauses.

Use of auxiliary material.

When working on technically difficult passages, it is useful to turn to exercises, both based on the material of the piece being learned, and not related to it.

We also used additional exercises to work on diction. Most often, these are exercises on various syllables, the purpose of which is to promote the activation of the articulatory apparatus. For example: dy, well, zy, ta, ry, le - exercises for activating the language; ba, pa, vo, ma - to activate the lips. We also used tongue twisters as exercises. Appendix No. 6.

There is nothing more frustrating for choir members than singing difficult passages over and over again without any specific instructions. We explained each repetition for what purpose it was being carried out.

At different times of work on a work, the role of the elements of artistic and technical principles is ambiguous: at the learning stage, technical aspects naturally prevail, at the artistic finishing stage more attention is paid to expressive means of performance.

The problem of repertoire - the main aesthetic problem of performing art - has always been fundamental in artistic creativity. The repertoire, as a set of works performed by one or another choir, forms the basis of all its activities and contributes to the development of the creative activity of the participants. The repertoire influences the entire educational process, on its basis musical and theoretical knowledge is accumulated, vocal and choral skills are developed, and the artistic and performing direction of the choir is formed. Therefore, the question of what to sing and what to include in the repertoire is the main and determining one for the activities of any choir.

The skillful selection of the repertoire determines the growth of the collective’s skill, the prospects for its development, and everything related to performing tasks, that is, how to sing. The repertoire of amateur groups is as diverse in terms of the sources of its formation, in genres, style, theme, artistic level, as the concept of “amateur artistic activity” itself is multifaceted and homogeneous.

The task of the repertoire is to steadily develop and improve the musical-imaginative thinking of the choir members, their creative activity, as well as enrich the intonation listening experience, public “musical memory”! This is only possible through updating and expanding the musical material. Bright melody, rhythmic flexibility, richness of intonation and dynamic shades, vocal convenience - these qualities make folk song an indispensable material for the school of choral singing. Propaganda of folk songs, both in original and processed form, is of fundamental importance for the creativity of amateur choirs.

For circles and groups that do not have a high performing culture, are still creatively undecided, have a small number of members, with a limited range of voices and tessitura capabilities, it is advisable to start with singing simple mass folk songs. Amateur choral performances draw a lot from the repertoire of professional choirs. But not all songs are available; they are selected according to their repertoire interests, creative and technical capabilities. A promising line in the repertoire of amateur choral performances can be considered the appeal of groups to a local theme. “Our own” songs are increasingly appearing on stage, telling about local events and facts.

Often, in order for an old song to become a “repertoire”, some rethinking of it in accordance with the new time is required. Each folk choir is interesting, first of all, by showing its local folk song creativity. In order to correctly and interestingly display the culture of folk singing of a given area, the leader must study folk art, dialect, and performing traditions of folk art. By observing folk singing in everyday life, one can determine what and how people in a given area currently sing.

The basis of the repertoire of each choir should be what exists in the given area, what is most typical and characteristic of this choir.

In the repertoire of folk choirs, a special place belongs to the ditty - the most active genre of modern folk creativity.

The manager must remember that when forming a repertoire, a strict, high-quality selection is necessary, especially of amateur compositions, which often have serious artistic and technical shortcomings; the installation of performing such amateur songs hinders the creative advancement of the group.

Basic principles in choosing repertoire:

.The completeness of ideological and artistic content.

.Correspondence of the repertoire to the performing style.

.Availability for the group (comprehension of the text, vocal technique).

.Gradual increase in performance difficulties.

.Possibility of using the studied works in a concert.

.Select works for educational purposes, but the number of such works should be limited.

.Variety of repertoire.

The main task of the choir is to promote the best examples of folk song creativity. The objectives of the repertoire are to develop the musical-imaginative thinking of choir members and to enrich the intonation listening experience.

When compiling the repertoire, we followed the principle “from simple to complex.” Works that help solve specific educational problems in a group were included in the repertoire plan.

Over time, each choral group develops a certain repertoire direction, accumulating repertoire baggage corresponding to the composition of the participants, singing style, and creative tasks. Having reached certain peaks, the creative team is looking for ground for its development in a more complex repertoire. In this sense, the repertoire should always be, as it were, aimed at the future; it must always be “overcome” in a certain sense.

The repertoire determines the artistic and performing direction of the choir.

The repertoire of the folklore ensemble also includes theatrical forms of folk art. These include rituals, games, performance games. Also fairy tales, riddles, sentences, jokes. The concert repertoire of the group is formed and determined mainly in the process of rehearsal work, depending on the intended form and theme of the future concert program.

There comes a time in the life of every choir when they need to think about a concert performance. You can’t rush into your first concert performance; you need to prepare for it especially carefully. Since the future fate of the team depends on its success. Don't get carried away with too many speeches. This can tire participants and reduce their sense of responsibility. What, above all, captivates in the performance of folk singers? Sincerity, spontaneity, emotionality of singing.

The external form of the speech is of great importance. It’s nice when singers, neatly dressed and well-combed, enter the stage with discipline, calm and confidence (it’s better to come out from two side curtains at the same time). It is necessary to explain to the singers that concentration helps to better fulfill the intended plan, so their eyes should not “wander” around the hall, looking for familiar faces. All attention is subordinated to execution. Each choir performance must be analyzed. It is necessary that the participants themselves can analyze and critically evaluate their performance. The leader, summarizing the discussion, makes sure to note the positive and negative aspects of the concert, and makes recommendations for the future so that the team grows from concert to concert.

An extremely important moment is drawing up a program for the speech. It is necessary to take into account the stylistic unity and tonal consistency of the works. The choirmaster must carefully consider the system for setting the tone when performing a piece without accompaniment, either it will be tuned to the tuning fork, or to the instrument.

The greatest results come from working with a children's choir that develops through regular classes over many years, covering all periods of children's growth, from a young age to an older age group. Children who have gone through such a school of choral singing retain their love for it throughout their lives and often continue their singing studies in adult amateur performances.

In general, children's voices are distinguished by lightness, transparency, sonority and tenderness of sound. They are divided into trebles and violas. Treble is a high child's voice, its range is up to (I) - G (II). Alto is a low child's voice, its range is G (small) - E (II). There are three stages of child voice development, each of which corresponds to a specific age group.

Seven - ten years. The voices of boys and girls are generally homogeneous and almost all are treble. The division into first and second voices is conditional. The sound of the voice is characterized by head resonance, a slight falsetto, in which only the edges of the vocal cords vibrate (incomplete closure of the glottis). The range is limited to the sounds D (I) - D (II). The most convenient sounds are mi (I) - la (I). The timbre is very uneven, the vowels sound motley. The leader’s task is to achieve, perhaps, a more even sound of vowels on all sounds of a small range.

Eleven to thirteen years, pre-mutation period. By the age of eleven, shades of chest sound appear in the voices of children, especially boys. Due to the development of the chest, deeper breathing, the voice begins to sound denser, with a metallic tint and has a range of B (small) - to (II).

At this age, in the range of children's voices, as in adults, three registers are distinguished: head, mixed (mixed) and chest. In girls, the sound of the head register predominates and there are no obvious differences in the timbres of sopranos and altos. The main part of the range is made up of the central register, which naturally has a mixed type of sound production. Boys use one register, usually the chest register.

During the pre-mutation period, voices acquire timbre definition and characteristic individual features characteristic of each voice. Some boys lose the desire to sing, a tendency to sing in a lower tessitura appears, the voice sounds unstable, and intonation is difficult. The treble's flight and mobility disappear. Altos sound more massive.

The entire singing process in a children's choir is adjusted by the physical capabilities of the children and the characteristics of the child's psyche.

Here are some common shortcomings in children's choral singing.

.Vocally unprepared guys breathe unevenly when singing, they seem to be choking on their breath, raising their shoulders at the same time. Such shallow, clavicular breathing adversely affects both the sound and the child’s body. To eliminate this deficiency, you need to focus the children’s attention on the diaphragm, ask them to take their breath “into their belts,” breathing calmly through their mouth and nose at the same time, while keeping their shoulders calmly lowered. In a word, shift your attention to the work of your abdominal muscles.

.Imitating adults, children often try to sing loudly. They believe that loud singing equals beautiful singing. We need to explain to them that voice quality is made up of different concepts: timbre, range, evenness of sound, voice technique. The process of singing should proceed meaningfully. Children should not be allowed to scream; they must be taught to sing “on support” with an even, continuous sound, and to continue it as long as possible, without overstraining the body. Children should be trained in vocal exercises, the purpose of which is to develop their voice and singing skills.

The main qualities of a child's voice - lightness and sonority, associated with the age characteristics of the human body, are natural in nature. It is always necessary to remember this and strive to preserve this specific feature of the sound of a child’s voice.

Quite a long time ago, children's choral singing was enriched with a new unique direction - children's folk choirs and folk ensembles, which develop children's choral performance on a folk song basis. The promise of this direction is obvious: firstly, the extensive repertoire itself, due to its melody, ease of range, etc., constitutes the most unfavorable soil for the natural development of children's voices; secondly, folk song material contributes to the singing growth of children based on such a creative element as improvisation. The basis of singing work with children's folk choirs and folk ensembles is the natural “conversational” manner inherent in folk singing. In children's choral singing, the boundaries of folk rounding of sound are less pronounced than in adult singers, and in younger age groups who sing in a natural voice, the concept of rounding is generally conditional.

Psychological and physiological characteristics of children.

The psychological characteristics of schoolchildren are responsiveness, a special disposition to learn new things, a willingness to accept everything that the teacher gives, and active acquisition of knowledge.

In the system of skills necessary for vocal art, there is one general area related to the psychophysiology of the singing process as such, without knowledge of which no vocal work is possible.

For children aged 10 to 16 years, the most important psychological characteristic is the intensive moral formation of personality, the formation of moral consciousness, and the mastery of moral and ethical standards of behavior. In adolescence, not only physical maturation occurs, but also a noticeable maturation of the personality, which is carried out under the influence of the surrounding reality, in the process of educational work, under the ideological leadership of the teacher and the team. Adolescence is the age of intensive formation of a worldview, moral beliefs, principles and ideals, a system of value judgments that a teenager begins to guide his behavior.

Basic methods of psychological and pedagogical influence on students:

creative tasks and questions that stimulate the mental activity of students and create search situations for them;

recording the basic rules of singing on posters;

constantly encouraging children to exercise self-control and self-esteem in the process of singing;

organizing competitions in the lesson between individual children, groups or classes as a game moment that increases interest in classes;

humor as a way to evoke positive emotions, increasing students’ performance in the classroom;

various individual lessons and drawings on the themes of the songs being performed to enhance children’s emotional responsiveness to music;

teacher’s approval and encouragement of students’ successes in order to stimulate their interest in classes;

the use of breathing exercises and light physical exercises during rehearsals, which relieves static muscle tension, improves blood circulation, and restores performance;

formation of personal and social meaning of singing activity.

The use of a set of these methods and techniques should be focused on the development of the basic qualities of children’s singing voice by stimulating, first of all, auditory attention and activity, consciousness and independence.

Schoolchildren are unanimous in their opinion: when learning is interesting, learning is easy, you want to learn. The arousal and development of interest are facilitated by conditions that provide the child with success in academic work, a feeling of joy along the path of progress from ignorance to knowledge, from inability to skill, i.e., awareness of the meaning and results of his efforts.

Interest is the desire to understand an object or phenomenon, to master one or another type of activity. Interests are emotional manifestations of a person’s cognitive needs. Interest is direct and indirect. Direct is an interest in the process of activity itself. Indirect is an interest in the results of activities: a) simply in performances; b) what we learned.

Cognitive interest is of particular importance in the development of children. Upon entering school, the child’s interest gradually switches from play activities to learning. Already at primary school age, interest in the process of activity begins to give way to interest in its content; interest in facts. Interest in the creative side of work increases.

The presence of interest is one of the most important conditions for the successful completion of the educational process and evidence of its proper organization. Lack of interest among schoolchildren is an indicator of serious shortcomings in the organization of education.

The problem of interest is not only a question of the good emotional state of children in the classroom and in extracurricular activities. Its decision determines whether in the future the accumulated knowledge will be dead weight or become the active property of schoolchildren.

We tried to awaken children's interest in the culture of their people, because they are the successors of our Russian folk traditions.

Differentiation of the quality of voice sound and elements of musical expressiveness, as well as vocal performance itself, are based on the use of all types of mental activity of students. Even the mental representation of a sound before it is reproduced by voice is a complex mental process that requires analysis and generalization, attention, muscle memory, etc.

The implementation of this approach to the development of a child’s voice is ensured by the teacher’s knowledge of the vocal capabilities of children from birth to the onset of mutation age and an understanding of the tasks of vocal work for each stage of education.

The mechanisms of voice formation and the physiology of the child’s voice are of great importance for children’s creativity and their musical thinking. The vocal, performing abilities and abilities of each child, his talent, depend on them. Both the child’s vocal and repertoire capabilities depend on the singing register and range of the voice. Without knowledge of the physiological and vocal characteristics of a child’s voice, it is difficult for a teacher to identify the correct registers and primary zones of children’s voices; it is difficult to select a repertoire for performance in a range corresponding to the age capabilities of children; it is not easy to “set” singing breathing, to achieve clear diction of smooth and easy sound control, to achieve vocal mastery .

Children's voices have a high pitched sound. In terms of the content of overtones, they are poorer than the voices of adults, but they have a silveriness and lightness. Although the voices of children are inferior in strength to the voices of adults, they are distinguished by greater sonority and “flight”.

Qualitative differences in children's voices are associated with the anatomical and physiological characteristics of the vocal apparatus and the entire growing child's body. The larynx in children is located high. It is approximately 2-2.5 times smaller than the larynx of adults. The cartilages of the larynx are flexible. Soft, not fully formed. The larynx is elastic and more mobile. The muscles of the larynx are poorly developed. The vocal cords are short, narrow and thin. In the thickness of the vocal folds in a child under 5 years of age there are no vocal muscles; their place is taken by loose connective tissue and glands; there are only muscles that bring the vocal folds together. By the age of 5, individual muscle bundles of the vocal muscles are noticeable. From this time their gradual development begins.

From about 10 years of age, children's voices are differentiated into two types: high and low. Girls' high voices are called sopranos, and boys' high voices are called trebles. Their ranges are almost identical. The low voices of girls and boys are called altos. Their range is also the same.

By the age of 11-12 years, the vocal folds noticeably increase in size. The respiratory muscles become stronger and the lung capacity increases. The power of sound increases. Three registers are clearly visible: chest, mixed, and head. The chest register in children, compared to adults, is less full, sounds soft, and has a “velvety” timbre. And the notes of the head register have a clearly expressed falsetto character. Girls' voices are different from boys' voices, they are usually stronger.

Before mutation:

a) up to 9-10 years - falsetto sound production,

b) 9-10 years - full identification of all possibilities (grades 1-3),

Mutation period (grades 6-8),

The post-mutation period, where residual phenomena may persist (incomplete range, falsetto sound of the head register in girls, uneven sound).

We distribute the age groups of children as follows:

Junior school age (7-8 years).

The main distinguishing feature in children of this age is head resonance. The voices of boys and girls have a slight falsetto sound. During this period, work is carried out mainly in the primary zone of voices, close to natural spoken speech.

Operating range: C (first octave) - B (first octave).

The main task at this stage is to level out the sound of the voice, identify its timbre, relying on a conversational manner, freely flowing sound production. By the age of 9, when children’s vocal muscles are formed and strengthened, a chesty voice appears. But there are children who sing with support in chest resonance. L.V. Shamina writes in her works that children should be taught chest resonance from the age of seven.

Middle school age (9-12 years).

The so-called pre-mutation period. The boys' voices have a clear, open sound. This is facilitated by further strengthening of the vocal muscle, abdominal wall, and activation of the respiratory organs. Children at this age are able to master a fairly complex repertoire. Their voices reveal different timbre colors, and there is a clear division into altos and sopranos.

Range: low A (small octave) - A (first octave),

high si (small octave) - re (second octave).

Older age (children 13-16 years old).

Mutation period. It has been noticed that children who systematically and methodically practice singing from an early age do not experience pain when singing during puberty. However, during this period the teacher must be especially attentive, observe a gentle regime, and also take an individual approach to each member of the team.

The study of the acoustic properties of children's voices indicates certain limitations that age imposes on the vocal function. The vocal muscle of the larynx is formed by the age of 11-12 and continues to develop until the age of 20. At the age of 11-12 years, the mechanism of voice formation in boys and girls is absolutely identical. Due to the immaturity of the vocal cords, there is no vibrato, which leads to certain vibrations of the voice and false intonation.

Children experience several stages of physiological changes in the pitch range of their voice. A few months after the birth of the child, the range of the child's voice reaches its maximum volume. In children 4-8 months old, register differences are clearly audible: the chest register on the lower sounds, and the falsetto register on the upper ones. This range lasts up to about a year, then sharply drops, only then gradually increases as the child grows older.

The second decline and narrowing of the range occurs from 12-13 years. In the post-mutation period, the range is restored and gradually enters the framework of natural data.

To accurately determine the ranges and registers of children's voices, it is best to consider the sound-pitch parameters that arise when children intonate works of folklore songs. After all, when performing a song, a child intones only those tones that are comfortable for his voice and does not exceed the sound range given to him by nature. The child's voice has three register areas: low, high and intermediate, within which musical works are intoned.

11 years old - low: A (small octave) - A (first octave)

high: si (small octave) - re (second octave)

13 years old - low: G (small octave) - B (first octave)

high: si (small octave - mi (second octave)

When teaching children folk singing, it is of great importance for the teacher to know the basic psychology of children’s musical thinking. This knowledge helps determine the criteria for a child’s musical talent. Already from the age of four, precursors of certain musical abilities begin to emerge. Later they can either fade away or develop rapidly.

In the practice of selecting children for singing lessons, we assessed the child not by his musical abilities, but by his inclinations for these abilities. Musical thinking is a spiritual, sensory perception and sensation of sound melodic information, its evaluation, expression of one’s inner musical world.

Conclusion

So, we have examined the basic principles and methods of organizing and vocal-choral work of a children's group, the main task of which is to organize a cohesive group and develop vocal skills among singers, the main of which should be considered the skills of proper singing breathing, sound production and articulation.

Based on this, it is important that the process of learning to sing is creative in nature, children would enjoy performing folk songs, grow as a singer unnoticed by themselves, expand their repertoire, ideas about the depth and colorfulness of Russian folk songs and, as a result, form value orientations in a huge way flow of modern musical information.

Having become acquainted with folklore, having acquired certain skills, abilities and knowledge in an educational institution, the child will not lose touch with them.

A folk song cannot be replaced by anything, especially at the initial stage of raising a child. Native speech and folk songs should be present in the upbringing of young children until their adolescence and youth. Mastering your native speech should occur simultaneously with learning your native musical language.

Folklore, being an original area of folk art, absorbing all the richness and diversity of its musical and poetic genres, has great educational and developmental potential.

Musical folk culture is the pure source from which the younger generation, taking the best from the past, will make the future better

List of used literature

1. Alekseev E. “Folklore in the context of modern culture.” M.: Soviet composer 1988

Antipova L.A. “concert and performing practice and stage embodiment of folklore.” Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation, State Russian House of Folk Art. Moscow, 1993

Belozertsev E.G., Ganichev V.N. Russian school (collection of articles) 1993

Davkletov K.S. “Folklore as an art form” M.: Nauka, 1966.

Zhirov V.L. "Choral Performance" Theory. Methodology. Practice. Textbook for Universities. M.: Humanitarian Publishing Center “Vlados” - 2003

Zaitseva N.Z. “Fundamentals of Folk Art” U-U, 1997

Kalugina N. “Methods of working with the Russian folk choir” second edition. State Musical Pedagogical Institute named after the Gnessins. Department of Choral Conducting. Publishing house "Music", Moscow 1977

Knyazeva O.L. “Introducing children to Russian folk culture” S-P, Aktsident 1996

Melnikov M.N. “Russian children's folklore” M.: Enlightenment 1987

Popov V. “Russian folk song in children's folklore”, Moscow “Music”, 1985.

Rytov D.A. “Traditions of folk culture in the musical education of children.” M.: Humanitarian Publishing Center "Vlados" - 2001

Sokolov V.G. "Chorus" A manual for independent and distance learning for directors of amateur choirs. Publishing house "Soviet Russia", Moscow, 1971

Solodukhina T.K. “Introducing junior schoolchildren to folk music” BSU 1995

Solodukhina T.K. “Folklore in secondary schools”, Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation. East Siberian State Academy of Culture and Arts. Issue 1. Ulan-Ude. Publishing and printing complex VSGAKI, 1997.

Struve G.A. "School Choir" Book for teachers. M.: Education, 1981

Shamina L.V. “Working with an amateur choir”, Moscow “Music”, 1981.

Shamina L. V., “School of Russian Folk Singing”, State Financial Center “Russian Song” VNO. M., 1997

Eliasov L.E. “Aesthetic features of folklore”, U-U, 1969

. “Musical folklore”, an experimental program for in-depth study of the subject “Music” in grades 1-3 of a secondary school. Kemerovo Regional Department of Public Education. State Musical Pedagogical Institute named after. Gnesins. Kemerovo State Institute of Culture. Editorial and publishing department Kemerovo, 1989.

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8. Fundamentals of vocal pedagogical work in a vocal ensemble

Pop vocal ensemble: content aspect.

The concept of “ensemble” comes from the French “ensemble” - a set, a harmonious whole, together with multiplicity. In the art of music, an ensemble refers to several performers who are a single artistic group, realizing a common goal - the creation of an artistic product, as well as the coordinated performance of a musical work by several musicians. In the meaning of “joint creative work,” the word “ensemble” is used when talking about a theatrical ensemble, an instrumental ensemble, or a vocal ensemble. They also talk about an ensemble in fine art: it is a collection, a harmonious unity of artistic components, as well as a combination of several works of fine art.

The concept of “musical ensemble” is defined by researchers as “a joint performance of a musical work by several participants and the musical work itself for a small group of performers” 1 , while also noting the specificity of this joint musical and performing activity, in which, through the use of music, “dramatic situations are generalized; similar or contrasting images are compared; contradictions of interests, clashes or convergence of characters and passions are revealed.” 2

Thus, we can note that already the content of the concept “musical ensemble” is multidimensional, accordingly it can be assumed that means and methods of pedagogical ensemble work will be multidimensional and complex.

Extrapolation of these features of the multidimensional nature of the content of the concept “musical ensemble” to the category “vocal ensemble”, as one of the varieties of musical ensemble, also allows us to assume its original versatility.

So, considering this concept, A.I. Rudneva initially interprets it as a “creative team” - “an organized group of singers, whose performing activities are subordinated to common goals and objectives,” the basis of which is “passion and spiritual community that determine the activities of the creative team.” That is why “work with a creative team, vocal ensemble is based on the achievements of many sciences: musicology and aesthetics, psychology and pedagogy. 3

The holistic content of educational work in a vocal ensemble is still not widely disclosed in domestic vocal pedagogy. The issues of ensemble performance in instrumental music have been developed in more depth and in more detail in the scientific and pedagogical literature, where ensemble skills became the subject of special study already at the turn of the 60-70s. XX century. In this direction of musical and creative activity today, the ensemble technique of a musician-performer (musician-instrumentalist) is considered as holistic artistic and educational process, which includes a set of pedagogical actions, measures, principles and methods aimed at developing multi-level ensemble skills. A concept has been developed for the development and improvement of synchronous elements of the ensemble technique of a performing musician, functioning at the motor-motor, auditory, mental and aesthetic levels. New definitions “ensemble technique of a musician-performer”, “ensemble synchronicity”, “ensemble articulation” have been formulated and introduced into musical pedagogical use.

As for vocal ensemble performance, here we can observe a situation where vocal ensemble music-making in the system of scientific knowledge acts, first of all, as a means of solving a number of pedagogical problems that are not always directly related to vocal pedagogy. For example, the tolerant attitude of adolescents towards their peers (O.S. Izyurova), tolerance among students - participants in amateur vocal groups (N.V. Sukhonina), the formation of moral convictions of adolescents in the process of vocal and choral training (T.A. Maltseva), musical -emotional attitude of ensemble vocalists to the works performed (I.Kh. Stulov), etc.

At the same time, consideration of the specifics of pop vocal ensemble performance is given a rather modest role. Thus, in a number of programs for working with vocal ensembles, any special specific features of pop vocal ensemble performance are not specifically covered. A.I. Rudneva in the approximate program of the Scientific and Methodological Center for Art Education for the specialties “Variety Musical Art” of the middle professional level, the entire process of training and education in a creative team - a vocal pop ensemble is built on the traditions of academic vocal ensemble performance. The author of this manual, developing an integrated course “Voice production and vocal ensemble” for pop music specialists, considers it as the next professional stage of training for a pop performer.

Based on a number of works on the features of pop musical art (I.A. Bogdanov, A.D. Zharkov, L.M. Kadtsyn, S.S. Klitin, etc.) as well as a musical ensemble (R.G. Laptev, E. P. Lukyanova, S.G. Chaikin, etc.), O.S. Izyurova, formulates the definition of the concept of “vocal pop ensemble” as “a single creative team of individuals included in the process of creative collaboration to perform vocal pop music of different styles: pop, pop-rock, jazz, etc., to their own accompaniment (VIA) or to a pre-recorded phonogram." 1

However, the activities of a modern pop vocal group are not limited to performing music to a phonogram or to their own accompaniment: the aʼcapella form of performance is also relevant today, which, on the one hand, makes ensemble pop music making similar to the academic vocal, including ensemble tradition, and with the other points to the jazz tradition of black gospel music.

A jazz vocal ensemble, as one of the forms of pop vocal ensemble music-making, also primarily involves joint creativity in the process of performing a musical work, most often co-creation in the process of joint improvisation, the nature of which, according to most studies, is dialogical, that is, it involves a kind of musical communication. This kind of communication is not possible without an attentive, tolerant approach to the interlocutor, without an emotional response to what is being performed by another singer-ensemble.

This dialogism, according to researchers, is generally inherent in pop music, the main features of which are openness, accessibility and a direct focus on dialogue with the listener, revealing themes that are close and understandable to a wide range of the public involved in the process of pop performance.

However, in general, according to the majority of researchers who study the specifics of pop musical art, pop vocal ensemble performance is based on the same aesthetic principles as academic:

the desire for a unified ensemble sound, based on the attentive and sensitive attitude of ensemble players to the sound of neighboring voices, a single metro-rhythmic pulse, and flexible vocal breathing;

the desire for a unified aesthetic concept and dramaturgy of the performed work;

passion and spiritual community in the process of joint activities.

Thus, pop vocal ensemble can be defined as a creative team of ensemble singers, whose joint activities are subordinated to common goals and objectives, while this activity is based on the passion and spiritual community of the entire team, and artistic and creative principles are based both on the academic traditions of ensemble performance and are determined by the specifics of this directions of musical art.

Basic principles of vocal and pedagogical education of singers in a pop ensemble: analysis of the theory and practice of vocal teachers.

Based on some theoretical and practical principles of modern vocal ensemble performance, covered in scientific and scientific-methodological literature, as well as based on the above definition of a pop vocal ensemble, we can highlight a number of fundamental pedagogical principles for training and educating singers in a pop ensemble.

So A.I. Rudneva, considering the basic principles of the functioning of a pop vocal creative group, first of all draws attention to the meaning in this team manager (leader), thereby emphasizing social educational significance this area of pedagogical work with musicians.

Further, considering the work of the leader with the ensemble members, the researcher notes that it is multifaceted in nature: “During rehearsals, concerts, studio recordings, on radio, television and in the process of preparing for them, the ensemble members must follow all the instructions of the leader, strictly following the established regime work. In interpersonal communication, the experience of emotional and creative contacts is acquired on the basis of mutual interest and a friendly attitude towards each other.” 1

At the same time, one of the main tasks of such thoughtful educational work, according to A.I. Rudneva performs development of creative initiative of each ensemble member, And prospects for the creative development of the team.

The researcher considers the correct selection of the repertoire to be no less important in this area of work, which “must meet the tasks of the musical and artistic education of the ensemble and, at the same time, must be accessible in terms of vocal, technical and performing levels. The repertoire must include works that are diverse in form, genre, and content.” 2

O.A. Izyurova, considering the form of ensemble pop vocal music-making, first of all also highlights its socially significant functions, in particular, she draws attention to the fact that this type of musical activity activates the socialization process, which is ensured by such methods and forms of work, which are also used in the process of organizing collective creative work (I.P. Ivanov, A.S. Makarenko). This is stage-by-stage planning, preparation for work, direct implementation of creative work and collective analysis of the event. The “imitation modeling” method (I.P. Ivanov), used in collective creative work, can be successfully used in vocal pop ensemble classes.” 3

In addition, the researcher notes that the vocal pop ensemble develops the musical culture of the ensemble player: in the process of mastering vocal skills, skills of working with a microphone, singing in an ensemble, as well as in the process of becoming familiar with the standards of pop musical art. However, the main thing in the study of O.S. Izyurova is proof that education of general culture in a vocal pop ensemble, of course, must also assume development of a tolerant attitude of ensemble members towards each other, since tolerance is an element of the culture of communication, which forms the basis for the socialization of the younger generation.

In the studies of O.V. Daletsky also attaches great importance to the upbringing of a singer in an ensemble: “Ensemble singing teaches you not to force the sound. It helps you to recognize your part as part of an artistic whole, to hear yourself and your partners at the same time, to feel and maintain intonation, and to be able to “adjust” to each other vocally.” 1 The researcher also attaches great importance to the principle of correct selection of the repertoire, recognizing not only its artistic and educational function, but also the enormous vocal developmental significance of the selected works for the vocal growth and improvement of the ensemble members.

However, O.V. Daletsky, in our opinion, mistakenly believes that “Singers deprived of bright solo voices are more willing to practice and perform in an ensemble, which is more interesting in terms of voice than in solo singing.” 2 Ensemble singing, both academic and pop, primarily develops the musicality of the soloist singer, cultivates the flexibility of the voice, as for vocal support, both in the technique of strong impedance (in the academic manner) and in the technique of weak impedance (in the pop manner) , then its absence is a disadvantage of both the soloist and the ensemble singer and is one of the tasks of vocal education, including in a pop ensemble.

According to most researchers of the principles of vocal phonation and methods of pop vocal training, almost all modern vocal schools are based on common methodological principles, determined by a single psychophysiological plan for the structure of the human vocal apparatus. That is why, in terms of vocal work with members of a pop vocal ensemble, the basic principles of vocal training and education, set out in the works of the masters of domestic and foreign vocal pedagogy, including L.B., are applicable. Dmitrieva, A.G. Menabeni, V.P. Morozova, G.P. Stulova and others.

So A.I. Rudneva believes that “the musical-performing process in an ensemble presupposes the mastery by its participants of a system of special musical-theoretical vocal-ensemble knowledge, skills and abilities, the use of which is inextricably linked with the theory and practice of musical performance,” while “in the methodology of vocal-ensemble work knowledge of acoustic patterns and the mechanism of operation of the vocal apparatus is necessary for a future leader.” 3

At the same time, the specificity of vocal work is determined by the style of the pop direction in musical art, its multi-genre and variety of forms, and, accordingly, the means and methods of vocal and pedagogical influence on the participants of the pop vocal ensemble. Moreover, in the conditions of modern Russian pop music, this specificity is defined as a synthesis of the traditions of domestic musical pop music and pop-jazz education and the features of modern Western pop music, which is increasingly penetrating into Russian musical art. That is why many Russian researchers do not consider pop vocal ensemble performance as an isolated variety of pop vocal music-making, the means and techniques of which are very diversely intertwined in the structural diversity of modern show programs, where often within the framework of this number the pop singer acts both as a soloist and as a soloist. the role of an instrumentalist. Even more specific is jazz ensemble singing, which is instrumental in nature, where not vocal, but rather instrumental performance means and expressive techniques come to the fore.

In this regard, the main principles of the vocal and pedagogical education of singers of pop ensembles are the principles used in the education of instrumental musicians: development of harmonic and modal hearing and thinking, training in various principles of vocal sound production, etc.

Some methodological principles of vocal education of singers in a pop ensemble: analysis of programs and teaching aids

A.I. Rudneva, reflecting in her methodological development the basic principles of vocal ensemble work of the State School of Pop and Jazz Arts, identifies the following stages of work with a pop vocal ensemble:

vocal ensemble as a creative team,

ensemble, general concept,

formation in the ensemble,

means of performing expression,

pronunciation of poetic text in ensemble performance,

some questions of arrangement for a vocal ensemble,

learning pieces with an ensemble.

From our point of view, such identification of stages of vocal pedagogical work in the process of educating pop ensemble singers is natural and meets all the above principles.

In our opinion, it is also interesting to highlight the sections of the main stages of working with a pop vocal group, which are given further in this methodological development. Thus, considering the first stage “Vocal ensemble as a creative team,” the teacher identifies two main sections, which he also divides into several smaller parts-subsections:

Goals and objectives of the vocal ensemble as a creative team (creative team as a vocal organization; creation of a creative atmosphere, spiritual community, responsibility of everyone in the ensemble; musical and educational work as an important factor in nurturing the taste and artistic culture of people).

At the second stage of working with the pop vocal ensemble “Ensemble, General Concept” A.I. Rudneva also distinguishes two sections:

Several meanings of the word “ensemble” (an ensemble as a group of musicians performing together and the “art” of ensemble singing; the conditionality of the ensemble by genre characteristics, stylistics, composition of performers; the ability of one musician to balance his artistic individuality with other musicians in the ensemble).

Rhythm in an ensemble (rhythm - pulse; achieving metro-rhythmic unity of movement in a complex of performing tasks; “sounding” pause; development of a rhythmic sense as work on diction, orthoepy, dynamics, the nature of sound management, phrasing).

In the third section, “Structure in an ensemble,” there are also two sections and several subsections:

Equal-tempered and zone tuning (natural deviation from equal-tempered tuning in a vocal ensemble is the result of an individual intonation style; laws of intonation; dependence of intonation on the rhythm and tempo of the piece being performed).

Harmonic and melodic structure (vertical and horizontal structure; formation of pure intonation - a system of purposeful lessons).

The fourth section, “Means of Performing Expression,” contains seven subsections:

Tempo (the ambiguity of the artistic image of a work and the multivariance of its reading; the connection of tempo with the artistic image, harmony, mode, rhythm).

Dynamics (relative level of volume gradation (“quiet”, “moderate”, “loud”); change in tempo depending on the content of the text).

Timbre (direct impact on the listener; timbre as the color of the voice and singing style).

Strokes (close connection with other means of performing expressiveness; “legato”, “non legato”, “staccato”).

Phrasing (musical phrase, general concept; dependence on a literary text; pronunciation of a poetic text in ensemble performance).

The relationship between musical and literary speech (different interactions of literary musical structure in works; interpretation of an artistic image).

Orthoepy in singing (basic norms of literary pronunciation, rules of orthoepy).

At the fifth stage, “Some issues of arrangement for a vocal ensemble,” two sections are distinguished:

Analysis of the work (determination of genre origins and stylistic features of the work; creative approach to poetic text; relationship between speech and musical rhythm intonation).

Vocal arrangement (real possibilities of the ensemble; range, tessitura, choice of a convenient key; logic and smoothness of vocal performance).

At the last sixth stage “Learning a piece with an ensemble” A.I. Rudneva distinguishes two main sections:

Three periods of learning a work (technical; artistic; general (according to P. Chesnokov).

Some ways of learning a piece with a vocal ensemble (singing to the notes, adapting to the ensemble score of each singer in the ensemble; working on unison, melodic “recitation”; individual questioning of the singers; performing a piece without a conductor).

The educational and methodological manual “Voice production and vocal ensemble” (I.V. Sakhnova) is intended for correspondence students, therefore it is primarily focused on independent work of students. The manual provides methodological recommendations of a practical nature, aimed at developing a general ensemble sound, a united resonant sound, a general metro-rhythmic pulse and breathing, using the method of voice self-tuning.

This manual uses modern knowledge about the human vocal apparatus, corresponding to the specifics of pop vocal performance using the low-impedance technique (singing in a speech position), the general instrumental nature of the sound of the vocal voice in a jazz ensemble and the principles of improvisational development of the musical material of the performed works.

The manual provides a detailed plan for work in this direction: it is recommended to begin work with general chanting, during which one begins to tune the voices and develop a unified vocal-ensemble position, a coherent sound and strict auditory control by each member of the ensemble of the product of common creative activity. Much attention in methodological development is paid to singing in unison, which is not considered only as the initial level of ensemble singing, but as a guarantee of a solid auditory foundation for a single ensemble sound; It is noted that singing in unison in an ensemble is one of the most difficult vocal techniques. To develop vocal and performing ensemble skills, a number of specially selected exercises are given, which has a certain practical significance in the educational work of pop ensemble vocalists.

O.V. Daletsky attaches great importance to the vocal ensemble training of solo singers, specifically highlighting its significance and defining its specifics. The teacher also calls for the development of a “common denominator”: “without suppressing the individual characteristics of voices, the teacher must still cultivate<…>originality of timbre." 1 In this case, special attention is paid to ensuring that when developing this “original timbre” in an ensemble sound, one does not lose the energy of the sound, does not end up with a muffled and sluggish sound, and does not allow ensemble members to sing without breathing support. Attention is drawn to the non-identity of piano singing and sluggish singing, some blame in the development of such a sound by O.V. Daletsky sees in the habit of ensemble singers to sing at rehearsals, sitting and in connection with stops and long pauses, during which some parts are silent while others work: “At rehearsals, when they alternately work with one or the other voices, nervous and the singers' muscle tone relaxes. In ordinary classes, participants seem to be lazy to support themselves and get used to it.” 2 In this case, the role of individual classes, connection and continuity, which is also noted by the researcher, is important.

Another important point, according to O.V. Daletsky, is the correspondence of the vocal register and timbre qualities of the ensemble singer to the part being performed. It is noted that only in this case is its further development and professional improvement possible: “The systematic imposition of those timbres and sound formations that are not characteristic of them will have a bad effect on the voices. It would be more correct to avoid works for which there are no suitable performers.” 3

Thus, the considered methodological manuals, compiled by authors adhering to different stylistic guidelines, have one common tendency towards the vocal and pedagogical education of singers in a pop ensemble - development of a unified ensemble sound of ensemble players due to the development of their vocal-vocal and psychophysiological qualities (auditory control and control of the singer’s muscle sensations during singing), the correct selection of the repertoire and the development of the general musical culture of the pop performer.

At the same time, a characteristic feature of pop vocal ensemble training is the reliance on the traditions of academic vocal ensemble art while maintaining certain stylistic guidelines, which is dictated by the unity of the physiological structure of the human vocal apparatus and the set of means of artistic expression of the pop singer.

Having carried out a theoretical analysis of scientific and scientific-methodological work, as well as having carried out a series of observations of the work of vocal teachers working with pop vocal ensembles in the classroom, it is possible to formulate a number of methodological recommendations for the vocal pedagogical education of singers in a pop ensemble.

The process of educating singers in a pop vocal ensemble cannot be spontaneous: the rehearsal process must be strictly regulated and have a detailed work plan. The very content of pedagogical educational work is determined by the concept of the creative team, which is subsequently also reflected in the repertoire plan of the team.

The concept of a creative pop group cannot be imposed from the outside: it is determined by the general musical level of the participants, their natural vocal abilities, as well as the level of professional vocal training.

Any creative team is a small social group, which is why this organization needs a leader. The role of leader can be played by the teacher-director, as well as any more proactive member of the ensemble who has an inclination towards organizational and pedagogical activities.

Vocal and pedagogical work with members of a vocal pop ensemble is generally aimed at developing the overall ensemble sound of the creative team, acquiring a unique timbre recognizable to the listener.

Methods for developing a unified ensemble sound of a creative team should be based on a number of vocal and pedagogical requirements for the development of the voices of ensemble members - members of the ensemble, develop their vocal, psycho-emotional and psychophysical qualities necessary for the process of voice formation.

In this area of work, according to the generally accepted opinion, the method of voice self-tuning is considered more appropriate, allowing to configure all systems of the singer’s vocal apparatus, meeting the requirements of modern pedagogical science, relying on the fundamental traditions of the academic vocal school, taking into account the specifics of pop vocal performance.

The selection of the repertoire and the distribution of voices between singers - participants in a pop vocal ensemble should not only be of an ideological conceptual nature, but also be expedient in the process of vocal and general musical development of ensemble members.

It is advisable to supplement group rehearsal classes with individual vocal classes with participants, as well as independent home training for ensemble players. This type of activity should also be of a gradual developmental nature. Independent classes must take place strictly according to the plan outlined by the director (leader) of the ensemble, leading to the goal defined by the overall development plan of the ensemble.

Questions and tasks

Define a vocal pop ensemble; what, in your opinion, is the fundamental difference between this musical group and an instrumental ensemble, an academic vocal ensemble?

Reveal the basic vocal pedagogical principles of educating a singer in a pop ensemble. What is the fundamental difference between this pedagogical approach and the education of instrumentalists of an instrumental ensemble or singers of an academic vocal ensemble?

Based on the material in this section and independent study of sources, analyze several teaching aids on the vocal and pedagogical education of singers in a pop ensemble.

Main

Emelyanov, V.V.. Practical method of voice education / V.V. Emelyanov. – M., 2006. – 342 p.

Voice production and vocal ensemble: Methodological instructions and recommendations for independent work of part-time students of specialty 051300 “Variety Musical Art” qualification “Orchestra artist, ensemble artist, teacher” / Comp. I.V. Sakhnova. – M.: MGUKI, 2007. 26 p.

Stepurko, O.M. Scat improvisation: Joni Mitchell School (be-bop and Latin). Bob Stolov's Scat Drums Method. Solo on jazz standards / O.M. Stepurko. – M.: Kamerton, 2006. – 76 p.: ill.

Additional

Daletsky, O.V. Singing training. Ed. 3rd, revised and additional / O.V. Daletsky.

Dmitriev, L.B. Basics of vocal technique/ L.B. Dmitriev. - M.: Muzyka, 2004. – 366 p. : ill., notes.

Izyurova, O.S. Vocal pop ensemble as a form of development of the tolerant attitude of adolescent pupils of an orphanage towards their peers: dis. ... candidate of pedagogical sciences: 13.00.02 / O.S. Izyurova. – Ekaterinburg, 2009. – 194 p.

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1 It is possible to identify other sublevels.

1 Impressing- imprinting on a person, occurring at special (“critical”) moments of his individual development under the influence of the external environment, and for a very long period (sometimes for life) determining many motives of a person’s activity, his goals, his value scale. [Explanatory Dictionary of Social Science Terms, ed. NOT. Yatsenko].

2 Dostoevsky, F.M. Complete works in thirty volumes. T. XIX / Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky. – Leningrad: Science, 1972. – From 518.

3 Spirkin, A.G. Philosophy: Textbook for technical universities / Alexander Georgievich Spirkin. – M.: Gardariki, 2000. – P. 258

1 Basal ganglia- a complex of subcortical (located under the cerebral cortex) nodes (nerve centers - clusters of neuron bodies), located in the thickness of the white matter of the cerebral hemispheres.

Cerebellum(Latin cerebellum - literally “small brain”) - a part of the brain responsible for coordination of movements, regulation of balance and muscle tone; located in the posterior cranial fossa.

Thalamus(from the Greek - “hillock”) is a paired, ovoid-shaped structure of the diencephalon (the central part of the human brain), responsible for the redistribution of information from the senses, with the exception of smell, to the cerebral cortex.

1 Cognitive brain(from lat. cognitio – knowledge, literally – knower) – set of brain structures(zones of the cerebral cortex) responsible for the formation of mental functions: cognitive brain analyzes incoming sensory information, thanks to his activity, a person is able cognize andrealize the reality surrounding him.

Emotional Brain– a set of brain structures – the subcortical substrate of emotions (the so-called Peipetz circle): a system of three interconnected links (the limbic system of the forebrain, the hypothalamus, the limbic system of the midbrain) that coordinate the various brain systems involved in the system emotional response of the body to environmental changes.

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1 Daletsky, O.V. Singing training. Ed. 3rd, revised and additional / O.V. Daletsky. – M.: Muzyka, 2003. – P.33.

Every choirmaster who has studied a course in choral studies knows that the elements of choral sonority are the main components, without which, according to the instructions of P. G. Chesnokov, the existence of a choir as an artistic group is impossible. In this chapter we will consider the features of working on the three main elements of choral sonority: ensemble, structure and diction.

An ensemble (French ensemble - together) in the science of choir is understood as consistency of performance, balance, consistency in sonority. The theoretical and methodological aspects of the choral ensemble are most fully revealed in the works of P. G. Chesnokov and A. G. Dmitrevsky.

It is in the ensemble performance that the collective nature of the creativity of the choir singers is revealed. They must be able to subordinate their individuality to the vocal and performing requirements of the choir in solving common, collective problems.

Already at the stage of recruiting a singing group, the conductor-choirmaster should pay attention to the quantitative and qualitative correspondence between the composition of the choral parts, to the timbre unity of related voices within the party. And although this is not always easy to achieve, it is necessary to strive for this, since the disproportion in the number of singers, their disparity in sound, strength, timbre, and the presence of singers with serious defects will greatly complicate the work on the ensemble in the choir.

The general choral ensemble depends on the formation in choral parts (private ensembles) of such elements as intonation, metrhythmic, tempo-agogical, dynamic, tessitura, timbre, texture. The listed elements of the ensemble are very interconnected and interdependent, but all of them can be developed in the choir only if there is a unison sound in each part.

A good intonation ensemble of choral parts is the foundation for a general choral structure. In an intonation ensemble, an important role is played by a unified manner of voice formation and intonation, and the alignment of voices. To achieve and improve the intonation ensemble, S. A. Kazachkov recommends using the following methods: “matching to the leading, most experienced singers, to the tone set by the conductor, to the accompaniment system.”

When working on a meter-rhythmic ensemble in a beginning choir, you should pay attention to the formation in singers of a feeling of metric pulsation, that is, the alternation of strong and weak beats. To do this, you can invite them to highlight strong

and relatively strong beats, which usually contain grammatical stress in words and logical stress in musical phrases.

An important condition for choral performance is the rhythmic organization of the group. “Orientation in rhythmic structures, comparison and distinction of durations of different durations - a skill organically inherent in every musician - plays a special role in choral performance, based on the coordinated, synchronized “pronunciation” of the melody by all singers. It creates a basis for them to develop a sense of a semantic unit in the rhythmic organization of music, as relatively completed elements in the holistic metro-rhythmic ornament of the work.” When working on a rhythmic ensemble in a choir, the following techniques can be recommended: intonation of musical material using rhythmic syllables at the stage of learning an exercise or piece, solmization of a poetic text in the tempo of the piece; singing based on intralobar pulsation; inclusion of special metrorhythmic exercises in chanting, etc.

Work on a tempo ensemble (Latin tempus - time) in an untrained choir should begin at a moderate pace. Singers should be required to accurately “enter” the tempo, keep it in stationary and especially in moving nuances (do not speed up when singing at a crescendo and do not slow down when singing at a diminuendo). It must be remembered that the process of forming a tempo and metro-rhythmic ensemble is closely related to the development by singers of the skill of simultaneously taking breath, singing attack, removing sound, and therefore the ability to sing at the signal of the conductor’s gesture.

As you know, there are three groups of tempos in music: slow, moderate, fast.

Slow Tempo Group(40–60 beats per minute according to Menzel’s metronome (M.M.):

Largo	largo	wide
Lento	lento	drawlingly
Adagio	adagio	slowly
Grave	grave	hard
Moderate tempo group (60–100 beats per metronome)
Andante	andante	leisurely
Sostenuto	sostenuto	reservedly
Commodo	commodo	comfortable
Andantino	andantino	more agile than andante
moderato	moderato	moderately
Allegretto	allegretto	lively
Fast tempo group (100–140 beats on the metronome):
Allegro	allegro	soon
Vivo	vivo	lively
Presto	presto	fast
Animato	animato	enthusiastically
Prestissimo	prestissimo	very fast

When building a tempo ensemble in a work, the choir conductor needs to find the required speed of performance so as not to distort the figurative sphere and mood of the work. The choice of tempo is influenced by the intonational and rhythmic complexity of the choral parts, unstable harmony and tonal plan, the style of presentation of the work, etc. If

In the work, the composer does not specify the tempo with a metronomic indication, but only with remarks con moto (agile), maestoso (solemnly, majestically), ad libitum (at his own discretion), then a certain

match the speed of performance based on the holistic perception of the work: character, textural complexities, genre originality, traditions of performance, etc. For example, the tempo of marching works for the choir should correspond to the step of the step, the tempo of dance works - to the tempo traditions of the dance genre ( polka - fast, lonaz - moderate, majestic, etc.). It is known that in marching and dance choral works agogic changes (deceleration and acceleration) are used very rarely, mainly in the final cadences. Agogy is typical mainly for the genres of song and choral miniature. Practical experience has shown that mastering agogics (more on pp. 85–87) can be started only when the choir singers learn to sing “according to the conductor’s hand” (clearly entering and ending a musical phrase without shortening or lengthening the indicated note durations).

Work on dynamics in the choir begins with stationary nuances (mf, mp), with the help of which voices of different strength and volume are leveled out, and the initial dynamic ensemble is built. Expansion of dynamic capabilities is closely related to the formation of a beautiful piano and sonorous forte in a singing group. Moving nuances are included in the work a little later, when the choir masters the technique of regulating breathing and sound volume. Crescendo is first mastered, and then diminuendo. This is due to the fact that it is easier for inexperienced singers to control breathing when sonority increases than when it decreases.

Working on a dynamic ensemble is greatly simplified when the music being performed uses nuances that correspond to the natural nature of the sound of the parts at a given pitch. Therefore, it is extremely important that at the stage of planning the rehearsal work, the conductor provides nuances that correspond to the dynamic capabilities of the choral voices. This reveals the relationship between the dynamic and tessitura ensemble.

The main method of working on a tessitura ensemble (natural, artificial, mixed) is the dynamic correction method. It helps either to align the dynamic line of the musical material of the score, or to dissect it by introducing new nuances that correspond to the dynamic zones of the singing voices, as well as the emotional and figurative sphere of the work. Using the method of dynamic correction, performance difficulties are overcome in works where the nuances proposed by the composer exceed the performance.

body capabilities of choral parts. This method is also used

in the practice of choirs with limited technical capabilities.

In a beginning choir, the problem of timbre ensemble (French timbre - sound coloring) is usually very acute. In such a group, work on the ensemble is aimed at eliminating timbre diversity in the choral parts, at creating holistic timbre combinations in the choir. The brightness of timbre colors, as is known, depends not only on the natural abilities of singing voices, but also on the vocal work carried out in a group. The choir director needs to constantly monitor the correct manner of sound production of the singers, the natural process of sound production, which would exclude forced or some amorphous and sluggish phonation.

It has long been noted that the timbre qualities of the voice are significantly enriched when vibrato is present in it (Italian: vibrato - vibration). The presence of natural vibrato in a singing voice indicates correct sound production and muscular freedom of the vocal apparatus. Vibrato, on the one hand, gives choral voices flight and emotional fullness, and on the other hand, helps to withstand significant singing loads.

Work on a timbre ensemble is closely related to education

singers have timbre hearing. As practice has shown, the associative method can provide some assistance in this regard. If the conductor draws parallels between musical and emotional perception, auditory and visual images, and uses verbal commentary on the works being learned, then he can help singers quickly understand the artistic essence of the music being performed and find the corresponding colors in the singing sound. Work on the formation of a timbre ensemble should take place both in the process of learning the repertoire and during exercises. To do this, while chanting, you can invite singers to perform exercises with different moods (dramatic, humorous, joyful, sad). You can use elements of play and theatricality in the exercises, giving the singers the opportunity to choose the necessary facial expressions, timbre, and articulation in accordance with the image and the nature of the performance. The richer the palette of emotional states, the more colorful the timbre palette, and therefore the more active the impact on the emotional state of listeners.

The following points play an important role in achieving timbre expressiveness and timbre ensemble: the way the ensemble is arranged at the rehearsal and on the concert stage; emotional mood of singers

and the manner of vowel articulation they use (sombre, open, half-open); singers’ understanding of style, figurative sphere, the nature of the works performed and the use of conscious coloring of the voice in the desired “color”.

To the conductor-choirmaster when building a textured ensemble

in the choir it should be remembered that it largely depends on the textural features of the work. In a broad sense, texture is a set of expressive means of presenting musical material. In a narrower sense, texture is a type of writing: monodic (one-voice), harmonic, homophonic-harmonic, polyphonic, mixed.

Choral science identifies the following types of textured ensemble:

1. The ensemble as a complete and relatively complete dynamic balance in sonority between the choral parts.

This type of ensemble is typical for works of a harmonic and homophonic-harmonic nature.

There are good ensemble qualities in the choir not only from the point of view of unity technique, but also from the point of view of expressiveness and compliance with the emotional-figurative sphere of the musical and poetic text.

2. Ensemble when comparing musical thematic elements of different meanings.

This type of choral ensemble is typical for polyphonic works. In works that have an imitative-polyphonic, subvocal, contrasting-polyphonic style of presentation, the main tasks of the performers should be aimed at clearly demonstrating and comparing musical thematic elements of different meanings. The main difficulty for choir singers when performing polyphonic works is the ability to switch from a brighter, more prominent presentation of thematic material to background musical material. In polyphonic works, the conductor must teach the singers to hear the entire texture of the composition, follow the motivic and thematic developments, and find intonation, rhythmic, modulation guidelines for the introduction together with his part.

In the fragment of the composition by A. Davidenko given below, the main theme, carried out in the bass, should sound quite brightly in the first, second, third, fifth and sixth bars. In the fourth, seventh and eighth measures, the imitative implementation of the theme in the parts of female voices and tenors comes to the fore. The relief presentation of the main thematic material visually creates a picture of a raging sea and heaving waves. This is facilitated by the comfortable tessitura of the bass line and the rather low presentation of the imitating voices, creating a certain theme-brow-emotional flavor.

3. Ensemble in sonority between the solo voice and the choir accompaniment.

Singing of the soloist and choir is one of the most common types of ensembles in the performing practice of choirs. The choir accompanying the soloist should sound dynamically quieter, as if shading the solo part. The choral part, which is related to the soloist's voice type, must control its emotions and dynamics so that the choir does not drown out the soloist's voice.

4. Ensemble in sonority between choir and instrumental accompaniment.

When building a choir ensemble and instrumental accompaniment, the conductor must first understand the expressiveness of the texture and the relationship between the musical material of the choir and the accompaniment. Instrumental accompaniment can support the choir as a harmonic background and sound dynamically quieter, or it can have an independent presentation and be performed in equal dynamics with the choir, and sometimes dominate the overall ensemble.

The choir ensemble is a multifaceted phenomenon that requires the conductor to

and choir singers have certain theoretical knowledge, as well as practical skills.

Work on choral structure

Without good tuning and clear intonation, it is difficult to imagine any musical performance, including choral performance. In the practice of choral singing, two types of tuning are used: zone (when performing music

a cappella) and tempered (when performing choral music accompanied by an instrument). In tempered tuning (Latin temperatio - proportionality), the pitch of the tone is determined by the musical accompaniment of the instrument and the choir must intonationally ensemble with it. While acquiring new colors of instrumental sound, the choir loses its timbre and intonation originality, which is fully manifested in a cappella singing. In a cappella performance conditions, when the choir sounds like an independent musical instrument, the singers sing based on their auditory sensations and ideas of pitch relationships in melody and harmony. That’s why the following become so important in a cappella sound:

only the tuning of the choir as a whole, but especially the ability of each singer to maintain and, if necessary, adjust intonation in different modes, tempos, rhythms, nuances, etc.

The theoretical and methodological aspects of a cappella choral structure were first summarized by P. G. Chesnokov in the book “The Choir and Its Management.” Chesnokov referred to choral structure as “the correct toning of intervals (horizontal structure) and the correct sound of the chord (vertical structure).” Subsequent scientific and methodological works retain the definition of structure as the correct intonation of sounds, as the purity of intonation in singing. The development of choral science has shown that

in singing without the accompaniment of an instrument, as well as when playing musical instruments with an unfixed pitch, performers use a zone system. This type of tuning differs from tempered tuning in that within the intonation zone, musicians can vary the intonation shades of sound. With the advent of the theory of zone structure, some adjustments were made to the understanding of the structure of an a cappella choir; it began to be considered as a process of intonation in choral singing associated with the absence of temperament.

Singing in a zone system is carried out according to certain rules that singers learn in rehearsal and concert practice. Choir members must be educated and trained in such a way that they can clearly and accurately tune in to the tone set by the choirmaster; be sensitive to the need to increase or “dull” the intonation, or to sing it steadily

at the required tempo, rhythm, nuance, etc. To do this, it is necessary to consistently and systematically develop the choir singers’ ear for music in all its manifestations: melodic, harmonic, timbre, internal, etc.

Inner hearing is extremely important when working on tuning, as it helps singers hear in advance what needs to be performed. The ability to anticipate the sound of individual scale degrees, intervals and chords allows singers to sing with intonation clarity.

An ear for music is fruitfully developed by solfeggio. Choirmasters know about this and try to use some methods and techniques of solfege when working with a beginning choir (more details on pp. 37–39). Develops an ear for music and singing according to musical parts or scores. Visual control of melody movement, originality

rhythm, intervals and tessitura of the choral part develops the singer’s ear for music and develops the ability to anticipate intonation. It is useful to use arrows in the musical text of parts to remind you of the most difficult episodes of musical material and control them. In the process of working on learning a piece, you can use techniques such as singing out loud and “to yourself,” “connecting” choral parts to the general sound and “disconnecting” from it, etc.

The most important condition for melodic (horizontal) and harmonic (vertical) tunings is unison. According to N.V. Romanovsky’s definition, unison is “the merging of the singers of a separate part into a single choral voice.” Good unison in a choir depends not only on the natural musical abilities and hearing development of the singers, but also on serious vocal work in the group, on the ability of the choir members to coordinate auditory perceptions and singing phonation.

In the methodology of working on melodic structure, the rules of intonation of melodic intervals by P. G. Chesnokov remain relevant to this day. In accordance with Chesnokov’s rules, large intervals are intoned with one-sided expansion, and small ones with one-sided narrowing. But at the same time, modern choral methodology recommends

When working on the melodic structure, pay attention to the mode-tonal foundations (constants), with which other intonation complexes are interconnected. Constants are those “more intonationally stable sounds, in relation to which the intonation of other, less stable steps is regulated.” In this regard, in major scale, steps I and V should be intonated steadily, step III – high, and the remaining steps should be performed in accordance with Chesnokov’s rules.

When performing minor sequences, it is recommended to slightly increase the I and V steps and steadily intonate the III step (like the nick of a parallel major), performing the remaining steps according to Chesnokov’s rules, i.e. expanding large intervals and narrowing small ones.

After mastering diatonic sequences, you can gradually begin to study and perform chromatic ones. It is advisable to first do this with simple exercises based on singing small and large seconds, and then gradually expand the volume of chromatic movement to an octave. The chromatic scale is acquired according to the following rules: diatonic intervals (for example, E - F, G sharp - A)

intonation is narrow, close, and chromatic ones (D - D flat, F - F sharp) - more widely; in an ascending movement, chromatic semitones are intonated with a tendency to increase, and diatonic ones - to decrease;

in a descending movement, diatonic intervals are increased, and chromatic intervals are decreased.

It has been experimentally proven that the intonation of melodic intervals occurs in a wider zone than the intonation of harmonic ones. Due to the fact that in harmonic intervals and consonances choir singers feel dissonance more acutely, the horizontal choral structure is usually corrected by the vertical one. It has been noticed that in consonances, under the influence of the harmonic vertical, large intervals can narrow, and small ones can expand.

Research has shown that when building harmonic intervals, it is necessary to achieve the greatest unity of pure intervals, as they are the most sensitive to tuning accuracy. Harmonic intervals, in relation to the accuracy of intonation, are divided into stable (pure fourths, fifths, octaves), which have a narrow zone of intonation, and variational (seconds, thirds, sixths, sevenths), allowing some freedom in intonation options. When building harmonies, the choirmaster must understand their relationship with the modal-harmonic environment and pay attention, on the one hand, to the dynamics of the intonation of chords tending to resolution, and on the other hand, to the stability of the intonation of the tonic chords that complete the musical construction.

Reflecting on the role of choral theory in the practice of working on choral structure, S. A. Kazachkov advised young conductors: “The rules of choral structure indicate only the main, typical tendency found in the practice of singing, which does not exclude individual deviations and paradoxical cases, take into account which is not possible in advance. Therefore, hearing, musical taste, sense of style, attention, intelligence and patience in all cases remain the conductor’s most reliable and faithful assistants in his work on the order.”

Tuning defects are often associated with sound production in singers. Problems in tuning can be caused by: instability of singing breathing, incorrect sound attack, uneven registers of choir voices, low

singing position, etc. Vocal education, as well as the education of musical ear, are the most important factors in choral structure.

Among the techniques for working on structure in a choir, we will highlight some:

Singing with notes, using various syllables, with the mouth closed to build a timbre-intonation ensemble;

Intonation “according to the conductor’s hand” of melodic and harmonic structures that are difficult for the choir singers to perceive at an arbitrary tempo and rhythm, using fermatas;

Singing out loud and “to oneself”, arbitrary “connection” and “disconnection” of a part from the general sound of the choir “according to the conductor’s hand” for the formation of internal hearing;

Using transposition at the stage of learning a piece with an uncomfortable (very high or low) tessitura;

Inclusion of melodic and harmonic fragments of the compositions being learned into the choir’s singing for the purpose of polishing and combining with all the necessary means of expressiveness.

According to the observations of researchers N. Garbuzov, Y. Rags, O. Agarkov and others, intonation and structure are influenced by “the degree of emotional perception of music by the performer, the nature of musical images, the sound-pitch pattern of the melody, its mode-harmonic and metro-rhythmic structure, the thematic development of the work , tonal plan, dynamic shades, tempo, rhythm, as well as syntactic elements of musical form" [cit. from: 3, p. 144].

The structure is difficult to classify as a purely technical category. Choral structure is closely related to the creative process of learning and concert performance of the repertoire, in which the intonation colors of sound interact with other means of expressiveness and sometimes depend on them.