Choral Leader Empowerment in Vocal Management and Basic Vocal

Techniques for Church Choir Leaders

Mauly Purba, Frida Deliana

Lecturer of Ethnomusicology Program, Faculty of Culture Science, Universitas Sumatera Utara, Jln. Universitas No. 19,

Kampus USU Medan 20155.

Keywords: Empowerment, choir leader, vocal management, conducting

Abstarct: Singing in choir format is an inseparable part of the ecclesiastical worship service in the Christian community

in Medan, including among members of the Protestant Christian Church of Indonesia, Gereja Kristen

Protestan Indonesia (GKPI) Padang Bulan and GKPI Sidorame. For members of the church, singing is a

spiritual need. There are six to eight kinds of choirs that are always present in turns in the worship of the two

churches. There are youth choirs, adult female choirs and or adult male choirs, as well as elderly choirs. Each

choir has a coach, usually an amateur. In terms of chorus he is referred to as the leader of a choir or

conductor.The problem in this context is that the quality of the choir shown in the two churches is often

low. Low, in a sense that there are always technical errors that occur during the process of training or

preparing, and at the time the choir presentation is taking place in the worship service. Some of the errors

that tend to occur are mostly on the choral sound aspect as a result of improper vocal techniques,

inconsistent intonation, inappropriate phrasering, and breathing that is incompatible with song sentences.

Continous conditions of this will certainly produce low quality music and ultimately interfere with the quality

and solemness of the service. This condition is correlated with the fact that almost all the conductors in both

churches are individuals with limited musical abilities. Their management skills as well as the technical

skills of choir teaching are also very low. They have no formal musical education background, despite

having to handle musical products (musical compositions) that require both technical and theoretical

understanding. The conductors, who may have been conductors for a relatively long period of time, are only

forged by limited field experience, therefore their choir management knowledge, especially the basic

techniques in choir training including vocal chorus techniques, as well as knowledge and insight about the

repertoire is also limited. This condition is reflected in the choir groups that they train. The low technical

ability, as well as the lack of insight and knowledge of the conductor on choir certainly will contribute

immensely to the poor quality of a choir produced. Therefore the devotion team will improve their choir

management abilities, particularly their vocal skills, so that they are able to minimize the technical

difficulties encountered in the preparation and presentation of the choir. The empowerment of choir

leadersin vocal management and vocal skills performed by the community service team succeeded in

improving the knowledge and ability of singing in the church choir, thereforeproducing a quality choir.

INTRODUCTION

This article is a report of a workshop done as part of

a community services funded by the Community

Service Institution of University of Sumatera Utara,

known as LPPM USU. The workshop took place at

the church of GKPI Sidorame, Medan. The

workshop is about empowering choral leaders in two

churches, concentrating on the vocal managemen

and vocal basic techniques for church choir leaders.

Singing, either individually or as a group among the

Christian community, is integrated in the worship

and praises of God inevery church service. Singing

is also a medium for church members to express

sociocultural values in their daily social life.

Likewise, among members of the Protestant

Christian Church of Indonesia (GKPI) Padang Bulan

and GKPI Sidorame in Medan, they too also use a

chorus format in the activity of praising and

glorifying God. For those members of the GKPI

congregation, singing is a spiritual need; through

singing activities, they express their gratitude to the

creator.

1506

Purba, M. and Deliana, F.

Choral Leader Empowerment in Vocal Management and Basic Vocal Techniques for Church Choir Leaders.

DOI: 10.5220/0010085515061510

In Proceedings of the International Conference of Science, Technology, Engineering, Environmental and Ramiﬁcation Researches (ICOSTEERR 2018) - Research in Industry 4.0, pages

1506-1510

ISBN: 978-989-758-449-7

In both churches, there are various categories / types

of choirs. There are youth choirs, and choir of adult

women and men. There is also a mix choirof adult

women and men. The choir sings at every Sunday

service as an integral part of the worship liturgy. In

addition, the congregational choir groups also

commonly appear in social celebrations associated

with daily life. Each chorus has an amateur coach

who also acts as a choral leader called a conductor.

The existence of today’s choir conductors /

coaches is in need of serious handling to grow,

flourish and be able to 'give birth' to choirs of quality

and is useful in the activities of church choirs routine.

Its quality can show the quality of the church choir,

and has good choral sound.

The problem is that often the quality of the choirs

performed both in church and in social events has a

low quality. Low quality means that the choir is not

well prepared, so the results presented are always not

maximal. This means a lot of technical errors that

occur during the presentation of the choir.

The two partners, GKPI Padang Bulan and GKPI

Sidorame, further explained that almost all of the

existing conductors in the congregations they lead are

people who have very limited musical abilities, and

who are not really motivated by formal music

education. Their managerial abilities as well as

technical skills for choir teaching are very poor and

weak. They are trainers trained by limited experience

in the field, so knowledge of choir management, basic

techniques in choir training, especially basic vocal

techniques and their knowledge of repertoires

(vocabulary genres of choir music relevant) is very

limited and they do not master it well. This condition

is reflected from within the choir group that they

train, which is always performed every Sunday at

regular service meetings.

It is a logical consequence that low technical

capacity, as well as a lack of insight and knowledge

of the conductor on choir and vocal, will of course

contribute greatly to the poor quality of a choir

produced. It is undeniable that the importance of

singing in Christianity, whether in the context of

worship involving large groups (such as churches) or

small group worship (in homes), becomes crucial to

the worshipers. It is therefore quite common among

church congregations that have sufficient resources

and human resources to carry out the necessary

technical and practical supplies for the choir leaders,

especially those congregations who are in urban

areas. Such opportunities are rarely obtained by choir

conductors in which have very limited financial

resources.

Based on this, the community service team will

improve the conductor’s ability in choir

management and vocal ability, so that the various

technical problems they face so far, both in

preparation and in the presentation of choir can be

minimized or better yet, be improved.

The

objectives of this study is to improve the ability of

choir management and vocal engineering skills, so

that the various technical problems they face so far,

both in preparation and in the presentation of choir

can be minimized or even improved.

ADVANTAGE

Improvement of choir leaders’ knowledge of

musical concepts and terminologies.

Improvement of choir leaders’skills in

performing the correct vocal techniques while

training the choir and vocal placement.

Improvement of choir leaders in forming a

good choral sound.

Improved skills in interpreting musical

compositions according to the scores written by

the composer.

Improvement in the quality of choir in

producing a good and harmonious song

METHOD OF APPLICATION

OF SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY

3.1 Method of Approach Used in

Community Service Program

The method of approach taken during the dedication

to partners is by training, guiding and improving the

knowledge and skills of choir leaders as well as

choirs on choir management, musical concepts and

counseling the choir leaders and participants.

The forms of activities undertaken for problem

solving include:

Socialization of service activities which is the

explanation about the empowerment of choir

leaders in vocal / vocal management to produce

good quality singing in Medan. The

socialization of dedication activities is given to

the leaders of GKPI and the choir leaders in two

churches who are partners with the aim that

partners understand about the meaning and

purpose of the service activities. In addition, this

socialization will also form an attitude and

desire to want to be fully involved in the

Choral Leader Empowerment in Vocal Management and Basic Vocal Techniques for Church Choir Leaders

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activities of dedication. Based on this case, the

implementation of the activity goes well

Recruitment of choral leaders who participate in

the training as participants of the activity.

Recruitment is done after the socialization of

activities. Some choral leaders who are

motivated to follow the community service

activities will be asked for their willingness and

commitment by the community service team.

Phase of debriefing or learning basic music

theory.

Participants' basic learning or musictheory

learning is conducted in discussion and

question and answer format. The participants

were given materials to improve their skills in

solfegio and sight singing (listening ability and

reading rhythm and melody). For this will be

provideddiscussion materials in the form of

working papers that will be distributed to the

participants. In enriching their insights about

the choir, they will be presented with

recordings of various kinds of choirs in cassette,

audio-video or CD and DVD formats. To get

the essence of this material, these materials will

be aired by tape- recorder, television, LCD,

video player or loud- speakers. In this listening

context, a discussion of sound processing

techniques will be developed so that

participants can express opinions and technical

and unwritten questions, but appear in audio

perspective only.

Training on choir management and basic vocal

techniques

At this stage of the workshop, matters relating

to basic technical matters of how to process

vocals and develop the ability of choirs in

producing individual sounds or groups (choirs)

are priorities for transformation to the conductor

/ trainer. For some, by reading references to

being a conductor alone can improve managerial

ability in handling technical and practical choirs

especially if the activity is followed by a real

example.

Training on vocals and music composition.

At this stage, the participants will introduce the

basic concepts that must be known either

descriptively or in audio, for example the

concept of sound balance, sound blend, stable

sound (intonation), and so forth. To the

workshop participants will also be taught how to

technically process the vocals. Processing

vocals here means how a coach / conductor can

dig a person's potential to produce a good and

right voice, that is not wrong according to the

rules, and be able to recognize the characters of

the color of sound (timbre), so that ability

enables it to process / organize so many different

sounds to get a balanced sound of choral sound

or in other words get a 'coherent' sound; for that

reason also the singing group is called the

'choir'. But it is not possible to be a condcutor if

a conductor is not able to process his own voice.

Therefore, this will be done manually against

the participants. That is, with the direction of the

community service team, the participant will be

asked to sing and dig his or her own ability to

produce the sound that is requested to him. In

this workshop stage, the participants will be

taught how the techniques of organizing /

coaching the choir are related to technical stuff

singing in groups, so that a conductor / trainer

can produce the maximum shape and quality of

choir in accordance with existing capability.

Evaluation

Evaluation is the final stage of the

implementation of this community service. At

this stage, the participant (or some of the

participants appointed to represent all the

participants) is asked to present the choir he or

she has trained during the training process.

(This exercise is not included in this

community service schedule, but is separate.)

For the purposes of this evaluation, the

community service team will choose some

choir song compositions, to be given to the

designated participants, to be trained to the

choir member. The choir is then asked to

perform the composition in front of the

participants, community service team, and other

relevant reviewers.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Community Service Preparation

The implementation of this community service

in accordance with the proposal is done in GKPI

Padang Bulan church and GKPI Sidorame

church in Medan. Based on that, on May 9,

2018, the community service team conducted a

survey to GKPI Padang Bulan and GKPI

Sidorame Medan with the aim of preparing for

the implementation of community service

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activities. In the survey, the service team

delivered the purpose and objectives of the

activity as well as the socialization of the

activities. Then, plan the time of the activity and

discuss the things that are needed for the

implementation of the activity.

Participant Recruitments of the Community

Service Activities

On August 11, 2017, the community service

team went to GKPI Padang Bulan and GKPI

Sidorame churches to recruit the participants of

the community service activity ie the choir

leader who will be trained on vocal management

in a choir. The choir leader which will be

recruited is at least 15 people from each church,

so 30 people were recruited from 2 churches.

Socialization of Activities of Choir Leaders

(Conductor)

After the recruitment of participants was done,

the community service team then carried out

the socialization of the activities. This

socialization conveyed about the things that the

choir leaders were obliged to understand.

Furthermore, the training plan was to enhance

the participants' knowledge about vocal

management and vocal techniques. In addition,

other goals were to achieve the enhenacement

of the conductor's knowledge and their ability

to read musical notations and listen to the tone

and interval, both melodic and harmonics. The

implementation of vocal management

counseling and basic vocal technique activities

was conducted on June 13, 2018. In this

counseling, the participants were not only from

the choir leaders but also joined by the church

officials and choir members.

Training on Vocal Management and Basic

Vocal Technique

After the socialization, the next activity was to

conduct training on vocal management and

basic vocal techniques. In this training, the

participants were not only choir leaders, but

also some members of the choir and the daily

board of the church. This was because they also

had a great deal of curiosity about how to

produce good singing in a choir and the

application of good and correct vocal

techniques in choir management. The materials

of the training were as follows : an

understanding of choir management, basic

vocal techniques, singing techniques, and the

benefits of producing a good quality of choir.

The training was conducted through lectures and

discussion methods while singing directly.

There were also brochures about vocal

management given out to the participants. In

the lecture session it was seen that the

participants were very serious and enthusiastic

on listening to the materials explained by the

team, and they were actively inquiring about

things that they have understood. Moreover, the

participants also gave comments based on their

own experiences and phenomenons that exist in

the community. This lecture was very satisfying

as could be known from the participants’ own

testimonials which many of them openly said

this training really enhanced their knowledge.

Furthermore, this activity helped them improve

my ability in singing well in the choir.

The lecture materials include:

Vocal management, understanding and

benefits

The basic technique of processing the

vocal ability of individuals and groups and

their benefits

The correct technique of singing

The importance of vocal management in

choral singing. Besides lectures and

discussions, the training materials were

also provided in the form of brochures and

textbooks that can be a reference for

choral

leaders and also to improve the

knowledge of the choir members in

general.

Vocal Management Practice in Singing

After the participants get counseled, the

community service team then performed vocal

management practice in singing. This practice

was done repeatedly for 2 hours every meeting

between the leader and the choir members with

the community service team. The practice of

vocal management was not only done by the

choir leader but also the entire members of the

choir. The community service team also

provided tools to support the implementation of

vocal management such as musical scores,

tuning fork, keyboard and white board for

writing music notation. Implementation of this

activity was also monitored by the the daily

congregates leaders and evaluated by the

community service team.

Choral Leader Empowerment in Vocal Management and Basic Vocal Techniques for Church Choir Leaders

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ConductingAbility in Leading a Choir

In addition to counseling and vocal

management practices, this community service

activity also conducted the practice of

conducting skills. The choir leaders practiced

conducting in leading the choir and the

community service team analyzed it. If any

conducting techniques that was not in

accordance with the rules are found, the team

would then directly show the correct way and

gave example on how to conduct a choir. Of the

few choir leaders who practice conducting, it

appeared that some of their conducting skills

were relatively good and some were still

lacking. In general, the leaders of the choir with

relatively good conducting ability were those

who were relatively young in age, while the rest

who were sort of lacking were the older ones.

The practice of conducting skills was done for 2

hours in 2 meetings at each church

Evaluation of Choir Leader Empowerment

Activity

The results of the team's evaluation of the

empowerment of choir leaders in vocal

management and basic vocal techniques found

that there was an increase in knowledge of the

vocal management and basic vocal techniques,

so it was expected that the choir leaders would

be able to coordinate the choir better.

Furthermore, the knowledge of the choir

participants in singing through vocal

arrangements also increased with the existence

of this community service activities.

Based on the evaluation of the community

service team as well as the discussion of the

team with the pastor, the choir and the choir

leaders stated that the activities performed by

the community service team were very

satisfactory and had provided such huge and

significant benefits to them. The apparent

change was that the choir leaders increased their

knowledge in vocal management and vocal

ability. The songs sung in the choir sounded

better in terms of quality than before this

community service activity. If this can take

place continuously it will create a choir with

better song quality so it will greatly support the

improvement of the quality of the choir.

CONCLUSIONS

The empowerment of choir leaders about vocal

management and basic vocal technique skills

undertaken by the community service team has

improved the knowledge and ability to sing in choirs

in churches to produce a good quality choir. The

empowerment of the choir leaders in the church

should be held continuously because it strongly

supports the efforts of improving the knowledge of

the choir leaders and choirs so they would be able to

sing better in choirs at church worship services.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The authors gratefully acknowledge that the present

workshop is funded by LPPM USU.

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