How to choose a repertoire that matches your vocal capabilities. Selection of repertoire for a concert for beginning vocalists

Modern teachers in music schools are often faced with the fact that a teenager does not want to sing this or that song or romance, and all attempts to convince him to change his mind lead to complications and conflicts. Often, a teenager not only refuses to perform a romance that he does not like, but may even stop going to music school altogether. To properly understand this issue, you need to take into account all the age characteristics of adolescents. You will learn about them in this article.

Age characteristics of a teenager

This age is characterized not only by increased vulnerability, but also by the desire to impress. He wants to appear bright, spectacular and beautiful, to be appreciated and approved, and the less love he receives in his environment, the more acute this feeling. He also becomes sensitive to ridicule, so it is important for him that the romance he will sing from the stage favorably emphasizes his strengths as a vocalist and as a person. Therefore, in order to choose the right repertoire for him, you need to take into account such age-related characteristics of the teenager as:

1. Striving for efficiency. When performing a romance, a teenager wants to feel not just a performer, but a star. To do this, his repertoire must be interesting, conveying feelings familiar to the teenager himself and corresponding to his perception.
2. Fear that he will be judged or laughed at. It is also characteristic of adolescence, therefore, if there are places in a vocal work that are incomprehensible to him and cause embarrassment, he can simply refuse to perform it and decide that “he doesn’t need classical vocals, since the works there are uninteresting.” And here you also need to be careful when selecting the repertoire.
3. Having new interests. In adolescence, a boy or girl may decide that no one needs classical music and it would be better for him to study pop vocals or even choose dancing. You can maintain interest only with a bright and understandable repertoire, the content of which will help the teenager open up. Beautiful arrangements will also have a significant effect, allowing the teenager to feel like a popular star on stage.
4. When choosing works about love, you need to consider age characteristics of a teenager, or more precisely, his perception. Much depends on your specific character and temperament. There are boys and girls who perceive light works, without strong drama. And some, on the contrary, can perfectly convey the character of the heroine Carmen at an early age. So a vocal teacher should pay attention to a particular teenager’s ideas about love in order to choose a repertoire that will be understandable to him and will help him open up.
5. A clear manifestation of character. It is when a teenager begins to be stubborn, show character and show himself that one can see what his temperament and perception of the world around him is. Usually at this time an already formed character with its own characteristics begins to appear. Some become bright and flirty, an imp in a skirt, while others turn into a dreamy, glamorous girl, tender and easily vulnerable. Based on these features, it is worth selecting works. You shouldn't make Carmen out of a prude and vice versa. It is better that the character traits of a teenager are manifested in the work, then it will be easy for him to perform it.

How does a teenager’s perception influence the choice of repertoire?

When choosing a romance, it is worth analyzing its content and thinking about whether it will fit into the perception of a teenager. There are romances that sound good sung by a mature man. They contain words about deep dramatic love, about years that flew by unnoticed. They should not be given to a teenager, as they will not be able to convey his mood, emotions and character. But songs and romances about first love, falling in love, tenderness or, on the contrary, betrayal, a teenager will be able to convey if they correspond to his perception. Also, the romance should effectively show the teenager himself. For example, the romance “I loved you” will sound beautiful when performed by a teenager who takes failures lightly and is not inclined to dramatize the situation. For a vulnerable and withdrawn teenager, this romance will evoke melancholy both for himself and for the listeners. Therefore, when choosing a repertoire, it is worth taking into account the teenager’s perception and his formed character.

How to create the image of a teenage vocalist

The main secret of how to create the image of a teenage vocalist is to advantageously present his features to the public. Anything can be played beautifully. Is your teenager short-tempered and impatient? He should choose a repertoire where he can beautifully present his unbridledness. Is he reserved? Lyrical romances that are not too emotional in nature are what you need. Does your teenager have a cheerful disposition? Moving romances or, on the contrary, dramatic works will sound light and beautiful from him. After this, it is worth thinking about his image, costume and message that he will have to convey to the audience during the performance. Acting lessons will help you create a complete image. It’s these little things that make up the image of a teenage vocalist.

How to choose a repertoire for a teenager

1. Be sure to let the future performer listen to the recorded romance or song. Although composers did not write works for this age, romances and songs for boys and girls should be in the arsenal of any teacher.
2. Look and analyze the text. Think about how it might be of interest to a teenager. It is always easier for a teenager to perform an interesting repertoire than to sing something that is not to their liking.
3. How does he show a teenager? Is he really like that? Girls should not sing male romances and vice versa. They don't need to look funny on stage.
4. Romances and songs for girls and boys shouldn't be tragic. Interesting repertoire for teenagers should be positive and, if possible, optimistic.

Examples

“Autumn Leaves” by Makrousov;

"Return to Sorrento"

Caccini "Ave Maria"

Selecting a repertoire for a beginning singer is a difficult but very important task that faces the teacher. The success of individual lessons, the dynamics of identifying and developing the student’s creative potential, and his development of singing skills largely depend on how methodically competent and creatively expedient it is implemented.

The main vocal and pedagogical repertoire for a beginning singer can be vocalises, ancient arias (arioso, arietta, etc.), simple romances, folk songs and works of songwriters (songs from films, musical theater productions, etc.). ).

Work on the repertoire should help identify:

• - creative individuality of the student,
• - to reveal the originality of his unique “I”,
• - to cultivate aesthetic taste and develop a sense of artistic proportion during performance,
• - to form the foundations of vocal and technical skills in a beginning singer.

Classical vocalises by F. Abt, N. Vaccai, G. Seidler, J. Concone, W. Lutgen can provide significant assistance at the first stage of a singer’s training. During their performance, the main attention can be directed to sound formation and sound management, the formation of basic technical elements, without which further work on the work is impossible - the development of singing breathing, sound support, a sense of resonance, singing, cantilena or fluency, etc. When working on vocalizations, control over muscle tension and purity of intonation is of great importance.

Vocalises are a good transition material from exercises to works of art with text for all students. They are written with a specific pedagogical task that must be solved in each individual case (sing a certain interval, grace note, gruppetto, syncopation, etc.). A teacher, when choosing a vocalise for his student, must analyze it from the point of view of the difficulties it contains, and first of all pay attention to the tempo at which it must be sung, the rhythmic difficulties and trace the melodic line.

Performing vocalises will finally help the young singer more easily understand and analyze the musical phrase and musical form, which are the basis for the performance of any work.

Works of art, wisely selected, are the main means of educating a singer. However, such performing genres as aria, romance, folk song, which have their own specific characteristics, contribute in different ways to the formation of a singer in the process of his training. Let's look at them in a little more detail to create a more complete description.

Aria-- this is the most complex solo vocal form. As a rule, it is part of a large vocal-symphonic work and is a complete solo episode that can be performed completely independently. Less common are arias written by composers specifically, in the form of a musical piece for an instrument or the voice of a singer. The aria requires the singer to be especially attentive to the work in which it is included.

The singer-performer of the aria must be able to create the image of the hero, while maintaining all the details, strokes and maintaining a certain dramatic situation of the work. These requirements also apply to other solo genres of operatic literature that perform the functions of an aria, such as arietta, arioso, cavatina (other names for solo operatic aria genres are often found, such as rondo, solo, couplets, romance, monologue, song, letter, dreams, tears, legend, etc.).

Aria, to a greater extent than other vocal genres, contributes to the mastery of the vocal-performing side of learning, as well as vocal-technical techniques of singing.

At the beginning of a singer’s training, as a rule, one should, if possible, avoid including vocal-pedagogical ariatic material in his educational repertoire, with the exception of those works of this genre that are not difficult. Most works of an ariotic nature are difficult to perform and require a certain vocal and performing maturity. In any case, in the vocal pedagogical literature it is almost impossible to find the ariot material for basses, baritones, contraltos and mezzo-sopranos necessary for the initial period of a singer’s training. And only such educational and pedagogical repertoire is available in very limited quantities for soprano and less for tenor.

Romance- This is the most developed vocal-song form. Romance plays a big role in the development and formation of a singer; it contributes mainly to the artistic and expressive side of learning, instilling in the singer specific techniques of chamber style performance.

Romance should be considered as a synthesis of three types of arts: poetry, singing and instrumental music, organically fused with each other. Romance requires the singer to have sufficient musical, artistic, vocal and technical training. This is especially true of the romances of Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov and Rimsky-Korsakov, which are very difficult in vocal and technical terms, since they contain complex intonation and melodic turns and subtle touches of artistic and expressive singing, requiring high skill from the performer. Therefore, the teacher should not start training the singer to include in the repertoire overwhelming and complex works of this genre. During this period of training, it is most advisable to use the romances of Varlamov, Titov, Gurilev, Dargomyzhsky, Alyabyev, Bulakhov, Dubuk. The main thing is that their tessitura, vocal-rhythmic pattern, and dynamic range do not cause difficulties from an aspiring singer.

Song represents the most democratic, widespread and mass genre of vocal literature. It, like the romance and aria, contributes to the development of the singer’s musical performance skills. But the song requires simpler means of expression, accessible to many performers, while preserving all its artistic values. Thanks to this, the song is a very useful genre of vocal and pedagogical repertoire, especially at the beginning of a singer’s training.

There are many songs - classical, ancient, modern - of a heroic, dramatic and lyrical nature, which represent excellent pedagogical material for the education of a novice singer and the development of his voice.

Among the repertoire of this genre, works such as Budashkin’s “Nastenka’s Song” (from the film “The Scarlet Flower”) or Dunaevsky’s “On the Meadows and Glades” can be considered appropriate.

Particularly useful artistic material for training a singer is - folk song. It contains invaluable riches of content, feelings, moods and images. Its value lies in the fact that, firstly, it carries within itself the characteristic features of the musical culture of the people to which it belongs, and, thus, makes the performer imbued with these features. And secondly, being for the most part a simple work accessible to many performers, a folk song is built on natural melodic intonations and turns of music, which in vocal and pedagogical practice contributes to the proper development of the singer’s voice.

Folk songs are of great importance in the process of educating a singer-musician, as they have a highly ideological, wise content, diversity and diversity of melodic structures based on the national characteristics of folk art.

Thus, all genres of vocal pedagogical literature, which have their own specific characteristics, serve one common goal - the goal of educating and training the singer.

The task of selecting repertoire in music schools and universities is made easier to a certain extent by the presence of developed programs for solo singing, including repertoire lists. These lists are compiled for all types of voices by course. It is very important that students do not sing an inflated repertoire, as is often the case in practice. This leads to the fact that young, immature voices lose the freshness of timbre, and a hoarseness and pitching appear in the voice. If a piece is too difficult, the student, as a rule, tries to perform it and begins to force the sound, which is completely unacceptable.

It is useful for a teacher to use a reader of the vocal pedagogical repertoire in his work. Such works, time-tested in practice, exist. For example, anthologies compiled by E. Milkovich, S. Fuki and K. Fortunatova, G. Aden; “Children's Album” by P. Tchaikovsky, “Album for Youth” by Schumann; collections for beginners edited by M. Agin (“Repertoire of a beginning singer”, “Vocal music of old masters” in three volumes).

The situation with the performance of music by contemporary composers is very difficult. Unfortunately, they do not understand that the ear of a beginning singer, or even a university student, is not prepared for new harmonic turns, for the complex language of new music. Being offended that their works are rarely performed is not a way out of the situation. You need to carefully think through the tessitura of a new work, its rhythmic features, and not write, for example, a work where the range is for the baritone at the bottom, and the tenor at the top, etc. Works written without taking into account the characteristics of the singing voice can cause undoubted harm, or, at best, will lie “on the shelf” for a long time.

Once again, I would like to remind you that the pieces that make up a student’s individual plan should be accessible to him from both a vocal-technical and artistic-performing point of view. At the same time, the repertoire performed by the student should contribute to the professional development and creative growth of the student, ensure the disclosure of his creative individuality in the process of developing singing skills. When performing an artistic and didactic analysis of works, it is necessary to evaluate:

• - range of composition;
• - dramaturgy and image of musical intonation, artistic meaning of creative tasks;
• - predominant level of musical tessitura;
• - the degree of dramatic saturation of the musically intoned image
• - the opportunity for the student to implement musically intoned dramaturgy of the composition;
• - interaction of musical and poetic texts;
• - features of the ensemble of instrumental and vocal parts

In the middle of the century before last, at the dawn of domestic conservatory education, A.G. Rubinstein published lists of works recommended for solo singing classes, which served as a guide for choosing a pedagogical repertoire. By providing the student with vocal and technical equipment, these works contributed to the identification and disclosure of his vocal texture and performing talent in the process of developing singing skills. Unfortunately, today a beginning singer can sometimes perform the aria of the Snow Maiden, Carmen, Lensky or even Herman.

In recent years, many wonderful works have appeared by V. Boyashov (“Beauty Maiden”, “Firebird”, the procession of the king from the suite “The Little Hunchbacked End”), B. Kravchenko (“Ding-bom”), V. Kuprevich (“ Journey to Mosalsk”, “Tula Samovar”), V. Pikulya (“Alenkino Lake”, “At Kalinov Bridge”, “Blind Guslyar”), G. Frida (“Melody”, “Czech Polka”), Y. Shishakova ( cycle of adaptations of Russian folk songs of the Krasnoyarsk region). They are written in modern musical language, interesting from the point of view of harmony, and you can hear the pulse of today in them. They also make full use of folk melodies. In most cases, they serve as the source material for the creation of plays with a pronounced national flavor.

A large group of plays in the repertoire of the folk orchestra consists of transcriptions and orchestrations of plays by classical composers Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, Cui, Mussorgsky, Lyadov, Rachmaninov, as well as Shostakovich, Prokofiev, Kabalevsky, Khachaturian, Sviridov and others. Classics is a time-tested, best school for educating amateur performers and listeners. When choosing such pieces, the conductor needs to especially carefully study the nature and quality of the instrumentation. It happens, unfortunately, that after careless or unsatisfactory instrumentation, plays lose their artistic merit, and the music is difficult to recognize by ear. Therefore, the level of instrumentation, its correspondence to the style and character of the original source, the preservation of the peculiarities of its language and vocal performance, rhythmic features in the orchestral presentation are the first condition when choosing these pieces.

The need for careful selection of instrumentation is also due to the fact that these works are well known to a wide audience. Listeners are familiar with them in very different interpretations, performed by different groups and musicians. For example, plays by Tchaikovsky from the cycle “The Seasons” and “Children’s Album”, numbers from operas and ballets (dance of the little ones; swans from the ballet “Swan Lake”, waltz from the opera “Eugene Onegin”), Khachaturian (dance with sabers from the ballet “ Gayane”, dance of Ethiopian boys from the ballet “Spartacus”), Rachmaninov (“Italian Polka”), Shostakovich (romance from the music for the film “Gadfly”) and many others were recorded performed by various ensembles, symphony and folk orchestras, instrumental soloists - balalaika players, domristas, violinists, pianists, cellists, etc. Naturally, each new performance of them arouses not only increased interest among listeners, but also strict exactingness, “pictiness.” Therefore, such plays can be presented to the audience only when they are not only technically well developed, but also indicate an original creative interpretation.
The repertoire of amateur orchestras is of great interest to its participants and listeners in plays written by local composers or the leaders themselves. Such plays, as a rule, are not widely known, but are always listened to: carefully and with interest. The material for the composition is local folklore - ditties, tunes, folk songs that exist in one or another area. Leaders of amateur orchestras do not need to wait for an interesting piece to be performed on stage or on radio and television performed by a professional orchestra, when its score goes on sale. The best amateur groups create their own original repertoire based on the study of folk art, the results of folklore expeditions undertaken in their field." The circle of people who participate not only in the performance, but also in the very process of creating musical works - choral or orchestral - is expanding.

When listening to such works, one evaluates first of all the novelty, originality of the concept, and musical thematics; and its development, preservation and enrichment of local folk performing traditions. Are such essays given special mention? at various competitions, shows, festivals, where the creative originality of the team and its constant search for something new are highly appreciated.
As we have already noted above, one of the signs that determines the artistic value of a group’s performance is the nature of the interpretation of the repertoire it performs.
How to interpret a piece of music so as not to distort the author's intention or change the emphasis? This is problem! complex and multifaceted. The conductor should not allow any distortion of the musical text - changes in tempo, rhythm, dynamics, agogics, etc., indicated in the author's score. Recently, unfortunately, examples of such distortion are especially common in the work of vocal and instrumental ensembles. In the plays of Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin and other masters, rhythm, tempo, harmony are distorted, and the melody is modified. Some leaders of folk orchestras, trying to “modernize” the sound of folk instruments, speed up the tempo of well-known plays, etc. All of the above unacceptable liberties have nothing to do with the genuine creative search of the ensemble and its leader. At the same time, in the interpretation of the play, much is left to the artistic taste, skill, artistry and inspiration of the director.
As for playing with instrumental soloists - accordionists, domristas, balalaika players, the repertoire in this area is growing quite slowly. Mostly time-tested concerts for domra with an orchestra of Russian folk instruments are played by N. Budashkin, Y. Zaritsky, V. Zolotarev, B. Kravchenko, F. Rubtsov, V. Smirnov, Y. Shishakov, concerts for accordion with a folk orchestra by N. Myaskov , N. Chaikin, Y. Shishakov, concert piece for accordion and orchestra by S. Konyaev, concerts for balalaika with orchestra of Russian folk instruments by Y. Blinov, P. Gaidamak, E. Kichanov, E. Sirotkin, F. Smekhnov, T. Shutenko and other authors. With a singer it is good to perform Russian folk songs, ancient romances, Soviet songs, which are always listened to with interest accompanied by a folk orchestra.

However, the repertoire of folk orchestras sometimes includes songs by modern authors, which do not represent great artistic value and are played to please a certain part of the audience or at the request of the management of the clubs and the participants themselves. In addition, many of the modern songs “do not sound” in a folk orchestra; their texture “does not fit” with Russian folk instruments. As a result, the originality of the songs is lost, “even if they are of interest when performed in a pop orchestra. Therefore, when selecting modern songs, one must take into account not only their artistic and aesthetic value, but also the possibility of performance in a folk orchestra.
Summarizing what has been said about the selection of the repertoire, it should be emphasized that in this work it is necessary to take into account the following:
- ideological and artistic-aesthetic orientation and passion of the play;
- the possibility of its artistic and technical performance in a given orchestra;
- is the play interesting for the participants and the leader himself? Each play should contribute to:
- improving technical skills and artistic taste among participants; consolidation and development of ensemble playing skills;
- communist education of participants; development of their aesthetic tastes, understanding of music; enrichment of the spiritual world and moral culture;
- developing interest among orchestra members in folk instrumental music and in group activities;
- expanding concert practice, ensuring the participation of the orchestra in socio-political and cultural work.

Preparation for a performance, in addition to the actual constant and regular training of the vocal apparatus, consists of the competent selection of a repertoire that corresponds to the singer’s vocal level. At the initial stage, as a rule, a repertoire that is not difficult to perform is selected - folk songs, romances of the middle register, which do not require much strain on the ligaments, so that the singer can think not about HOW to sing, but about WHAT to sing, that is, he thinks in images of the work, and did not get distracted by the technical side of the issue. The singer grows as a musician-performer and as a vocalist primarily on a properly selected repertoire.

The piece chosen for the student must always correspond to the level of his musical development, vocal and performing training. Artistic pedagogical material requires special attention to the gradualness and consistency of increasing the difficulties of works. This applies equally to musical difficulties, as well as to vocal and performing difficulties. A repertoire that is vocally and technically overwhelming is especially detrimental to a student’s voice. Irrationally selected works can retard a student’s vocal growth and even cause direct harm.

The use of a repertoire convenient for the voice helps to coordinate the work of sound-producing elements, including those that are not subject to consciousness. Folk songs are especially useful at the first stage of learning. They have many advantages and are primarily comfortable for the voice.

Folk song is the basis in music and singing. Folklore was appreciated by the greatest musicians. Passed on orally from generation to generation, folk melodies are, as it were, filtered by voices and concentrate elements of convenience for singing. They filter out that which contradicts the mass nature of the votes and exceeds their average capabilities. Folk songs are varied in character and, as a rule, are built on a small range, which is very convenient for beginning performers. Their tessitura is very moderate. The intelligibility of words, the verse form of the structure, the ease of memorizing the musical texture allow the student to easily combine the vocal-technical and performing aspects of performing a piece. They are both simple and extremely expressive.

The style of performing Russian songs requires simplicity, naturalness, sincerity, and good delivery of the text. The verse form forces the beginning singer to find his own nuance in each verse, which diversifies the performance.

The great Russian opera singer Maria Petrovna Maksakova found “her own intonation, drawn-out, sometimes perky, but always ennobled by feminine softness... Maksakova conveyed a simple verse song about a sweetheart who brings a gift as a woman’s story about her life, about her personal feelings, coloring everything This is a subtle humor, alien to any pressure. The singer colored each verse with such a unique expression and said “Eh!” with such a unique expression that each time it sounded different, depending on the nuances of the story, but always with the heroine’s attitude towards her lover.”

Lemeshev says about Russian song: “Russian song is full of lyrical depth and poetry. The people polished it for centuries, and therefore there was nothing random, superficial, or cheap left in its melodic and poetic images. The beauty of her melodies crystallizes pure, high human feelings, and she demands from the singer the same purity, scale and sincerity of performance.”

Romances by such authors of the pre-Glinka period as Bulakhov, Varlamov and others, as well as later ones, including the Soviet period, based on poems by famous poets in the performing sense require a very attentive attitude to the verbal text, a well-developed sense of style. They are simple, melodious, and mostly have a verse form, which makes them similar to Russian folk songs, but at the same time they have a more developed musical side. They are written in a convenient tessitura, do not cover a large range of sounds, are easily accessible in their musical language and in the requirements that they place on the vocals of beginning singers. They are simple, they must be performed sincerely, without going beyond the boundaries of naturalness and spontaneity.

According to Sergei Lemeshev, “Beautiful singing presupposes a natural, sincere expression of feelings. The singer should feel as if his whole being is singing. But don’t force the sound, don’t try to show it as greater than what nature gave you.”

Lemeshev wrote that in his work on the image of a particular work, and Stanislavsky worked a lot with the singers of his opera studio on romances, “Stanislavsky proceeded from the principle of internal justification of this or that mise-en-scène, and not the visual effect. He understood that the singer’s correct well-being, his correct psychological attunement, would always lead him on the right path to his stage image, and would help him expressively sing important and vocally difficult parts of the part.” . Thus, we come to the conclusion that when selecting a repertoire for a beginning singer, it is necessary to take into account his temperament and individuality, not only his vocal apparatus and the degree of its development, but also the psychological aspects of his character. For example, a slow person, phlegmatic by nature, will find it difficult at the beginning of his training to correctly perform a perky, clownish song that requires dashing prowess in its performance. For such a student to perform at a concert, it is better to choose a piece that is calm, lyrical, measured in form and content.

When choosing works for a concert, it is better to think through their sequence in the concert program in advance. First, a piece that is easier in vocal terms is staged for development, and then a more difficult one in vocal and performance terms.

Preparing the selected piece of music

“It is recommended to conduct classes on a musical work in two ways: on the one hand, working on the artistic performance of the work, and on the other hand, working on it purely technically, that is, as if reconstructing this work into a vocalise.”

Based on the topic of our research, we would like to focus on the musical and artistic side of the preparation of works and omit the purely technical side of voice production. We want to focus on working on the artistic and performing means of expression of the work. These means include:

Clear diction and correct articulation, and as a result, delivering a legible vocal word to the viewer;

Intonation and phrasing of the work.

Working on diction

Our word, addressed to the audience either in speech or in singing, must be clear in pronunciation, expressive and loud enough to be heard in the last row of the auditorium.

A good singing word, i.e. the ability to naturally pronounce the verbal text of a work, combining this with good vocality of all vowels, is an indispensable condition for professional singing, and for most singers it is a consequence of a lot of work. A good delivery of the word, its correct emotional coloring, and naturalness are necessary for a professional singer.

In order for the text of a vocal phrase in a work to be natural and well heard by the public, every singer must know the patterns that determine the basic qualities of good vocal speech.

Vocal speech must be: intelligible, i.e. have good diction clarity; natural, to the extent that vocality allows; expressive, i.e. contain elements that make up the expressiveness of speech; vocal, i.e. built on equal vocal vowels.

Professional singing requires clear delivery of words. An extremely unpleasant impression is created when words are pronounced unclearly. No matter how talented and musical the performer is, no matter how wonderfully beautiful his voice is, his singing will not make the proper impression if it is not clear in diction. If the listener strains his ears in order to understand the meaning of the words that the singer is singing about, then he no longer fully perceives the beauty of the voice and expression, but concentrates on catching the word. The inability to understand a word irritates the listener, and the impression of the performer decreases sharply. Unclear diction is a big drawback of a singer, a technical flaw in voice training, which can always be eliminated.

“Vocal diction, just like the art of singing, contains two elements: creative and technical. The creative element is the artistic distribution of the semantic content (weight) of a word depending on the artistic tasks assigned to it, on the idea and meaning of the work being performed. The technical element of diction is the ability to sing vowels clearly and fully and clearly pronounce consonants. The flow of vowels should not be disrupted by consonants interjecting into it. All vowels in singing should sound clean, clear, and their “vocal core” should not undergo noticeable changes when they are changed.”

Diction – i.e. The intelligibility of words depends, as in speech, on the clarity and intensity of the pronunciation of consonants. The speed and clarity of pronunciation of consonants must be carefully monitored from the very first lessons, when works with text are given, paying special attention to the consonants that come at the end of words. A very common mistake of inexperienced singers is eating consonants at the end of the word that concludes the phrase. If a consonant sound is at the end of a phrase, then along with the end of the sound the singer weakens the articulation of the consonant, as a result of which it is pronounced sluggishly and does not reach the listener. It is necessary to immediately teach the singer to actively and clearly pronounce the consonants at the end of words.

Lemeshev about diction: “I’ll start with the elementary – with diction. How often do singers, especially opera singers, suffer from unclear, weak diction? It is not uncommon to find artists with voices that are expressive in sound color and convey mood well. But what they sing remains known only to them and the prompter... Sometimes you can justify yourself by saying that the orchestra is drowning out; but some manage to pronounce words so well that they cannot be understood, even when the orchestra is silent... The fact is that by nature not everyone is equally endowed with the ability to pronounce words clearly and clearly. And you need to work specifically on your diction.”

K.S. Stanislavsky perceived the art of speech as an art no less complex than the art of singing. He often said: “A well spoken word is already singing, and a well sung phrase is already speech.”

To achieve good results, you need to work on improving the articulatory apparatus and developing its technical capabilities. The appendix contains several exercises to improve the quality of vocal diction based on the book by E.M. Pekerskaya "Vocal primer".

Holiday repertoire– this is a certain pre-prepared musical program, consisting of the customer’s preferences and can include HIT hits from both domestic and foreign performers.

You, dear reader, are welcomed by Moscow and we, like no one else, know how important a correctly selected repertoire for any event is. Because the mood of all those present, the presence of mutual feedback with the viewer, and therefore an exceptional positive impression, depends on it! Here we will tell you how to choose a holiday repertoire and what you should pay special attention to. 🙂

Fundamental points when choosing a holiday repertoire

We have already found out that the correct musical selection of various works is very important at any celebration. In combination with professional musicians and high-quality vocals, an invited cover band will become a highlight and bring the event 100% success.
By what principle will a competent musical group help you choose a holiday repertoire to suit the tastes and wishes of the customer:

• holiday format - it can be a birthday, wedding, corporate party, and each of these celebrations has its own repertoire;
• the presence of the theme of the event can categorically change the musical direction - it could be the repertoire of the Wild West, motives of the 60-70s, a party for avid rockers, etc.;
• main age category - if it is, for example, a grandmother’s birthday, she is unlikely to dance to Yegor Creed or Green Day;
• who the holiday repertoire is intended for - it can be exclusively compositions selected by the customer, only his favorite songs, or, depending on the event, a professional cover band can create its own playlist based on experience.

There are few people who don't listen to music at all. In transport, at home, at work. When we feel bad or, on the contrary, have fun, we catch melodies that help us achieve the desired moral state, throw out energy, etc. Do you know the most interesting facts about music? For example:

• the heart beats to the beat of the melody that a person is listening to at a certain moment;
• the maximum duration of an organ concert was 639 years;
• favorite musical tunes activate the part of the brain responsible for pleasure;
• if you listen to music during your workout, it will increase your endurance;
• if you include calm motives around the cow, she will give more milk;
• none of the Beatles knew sheet music.

Listen to music and enjoy?!

For any occasion with Elim’s Band

Elim’s Band has been accompanying various events in Moscow and other cities of the Russian Federation for many years. We have everything to ensure that holidays of various formats and themes are held at the following level:

• professional equipment;
• high-quality male and female vocals;
• more than 250 songs in the repertoire.

The most important thing for us is your mood! Many people talk about us as a real concert program, and not just musical accompaniment. Check out our