Re: Always going sharp

I find that, all other factors being equal, a tired, unmotivated
and/or pissed off group goes flat, and an excited, happy and/or
energetic group -- as well as an anxious or nervous one -- goes sharp.
Same goes for dragging and rushing respectively. Maybe they're just
too into it, in which case congrats! :) But maybe you want to conduct
a deep breath before performances of your more intense numbers or the
ones that seem to drift the worst.

Mike

[EMAIL PROTECTED] (gymell) wrote in message news:<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>...
> I'm in an a cappella quintet, SSATB. We sing a variety of music from
> medieval to 21st century. We're all decent sight readers and blend
> together fairly well. However as a group we have a consistent tendency
> to go sharp, usually about a half step. Doesn't seem to matter what
> key it is.
> 
> I've tried leading the group in some solfegg (movable 'do') exercises
> to help us get the mode/key in our head and hopefully keep a stronger
> sense of where the tonic is. The others in the group aren't so
> familiar with it so I've only done a little of that with them. Also
> I've pushed for always giving the tonic as a starting pitch rather
> than whatever the first note happens to be. For myself, I like to do a
> quick arpeggio to solidify the key (or mode), as in
> 'do-mi-sol-la-sol-fa-re-ti-do', or 'do-me-sol-le-sol-fa-re-ti-do'. It
> seems to me that solfegg should be helpful not only for sight reading,
> but also for intonation. But I don't know if I should push on that, or
> if other approaches might be more successful. Any comments would be
> appreciated, and I'm particularly interested in specific exercises
> anyone could suggest.