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One of the things I have learned through singing the alto part for the last 20+ years is to tune out the other parts (mostly the soprano melody). I learned to focus on what my part was and listen for those who were singing my part as well. For the majority of church songs I actually wound up learning the “melody” line as the alto line instead of the soprano line for me because that was the easiest way for me to sing my part. Some soprano melody lines I actually no longer have the upper register for (if I ever did) so I actually can’t sing those high notes the way other sisters can. I could learn to squeak not too horribly I guess – but yeah, that has never worked. I was thinking about this today, and how we are here in part because we don’t “hear” or “see” spiritual things the same way that traditional members do.
For the spiritual application, we have to tune out the voices of others in order to follow our path sometimes. We need to learn to focus on what part we have (determined by what we “hear” principle-wise, what we can “sing” (due to spiritual/mental/physical/emotional/ ability and developmental stage), learn to read the music of life well enough to make a few choices to continue the song, and finally learn to identify those who are “singing our part” – whose words resonate with us. This also means that there are going to be parts of the song where clashes between parts are inevitable, and working to resolve them beautifully.
My husband used to mention how he hated standing next to me to sing because I refused to sing the melody and would drag him off-part because he would follow me (eventually he got over it, got a stronger grasp of his part, or stopped telling me about it because I wasn’t going to change). I think that sometimes we encounter others who are used to “singing” the melody line all the time and haven’t developed the capacity to hear or sing other parts – so those who are not singing the melody appear to be heading in the “wrong” direction – so they tell us about how we are “singing” a different spiritual song that they do not recognize.
And sometimes we do have step back in the chorus and just listen to what is going on – and enjoy the song we hear.
AmyJ wrote:
One of the things I have learned through singing the alto part for the last 20+ years is to tune out the other parts (mostly the soprano melody). I learned to focus on what my part was and listen for those who were singing my part as well. For the majority of church songs I actually wound up learning the “melody” line as the alto line instead of the soprano line for me because that was the easiest way for me to sing my part.
And I’ve been singing the bass part for the last 20+ years because for any given song they’ve only got the same three notes that they alternate between.
Funny, alto is the only part I can’t sing. I can’t pick those notes out from the other three parts, they get lost in there.
To extend your analogy. Learning parts takes time and it takes practice. I didn’t immediately jump into singing bass. I started with the melody because that’s what most sing and that’s what we hear every Sunday. I eventually went to choir to learn to sing parts and found that bass was a more natural fit for me. After some years I was able to pick out the bass line in the hymns that were played and learn to tune out the other parts.
A choir would be pretty boring if it were all melody… even more boring if it were all bass. The magic truly starts when all the parts come together to create harmonies.
Dropping the analogy… that’s the trick at church. Creating an environment where we allow people to harmonize. Our culture of correlation likes to insist that everyone sing the melody.
Hi AmyJ, I really like this post and it could be the subject of a fun talk… It sounds like you’re a music person and have made a cool comparison between singing parts – vs unison – and how that applies to us here at StayLDS. I’m also a music person and want to share my observations in case you find them interesting. Thanks for starting this post.
I have an average voice but I hear all 4 parts well because I’m a trained organist and I’ve played at stake conferences and ward meetings for years. Currently I rarely play because I sit on the stand every week and I miss my organist calling. I sing pretty loudly and sometimes I’ll jump between bass, tenor, and baritone (singing the alto part an octave lower). I generally dislike singing the melody because it’s boring in my mind. The other men around me are either tone deaf (which is entirely possibly) or get confused by my confident singing and switching between parts.
The only time I enjoy singing melody happens in two circumstance a) when the hymn is written for everyone to sing melody b) when the organist plays an alternative harmony which means everyone is supposed to sing melody.
As you likely know, the organ is meant to sound like an orchestra. The newest LDS organs in typical chapels have 50+ sounds and the MOTAB Tabernacle organ has 206 sounds. Also, the way an organ is “supposed” to be played, the bass part is played by the feet on the pedals, the tenor played by the left hand, the alto played by the right hand (or the right and left hand trading off), and the melody played by the right hand. An organist often must practice each part separately and must know and understand each part. So not only does each singing part have a different note, but they are intended to have a different registration or sound. A skilled organist can turn the bass, tenor, or alto part into a “solo” by making that part have a louder or more noticeable sound. For example a tenor might be played with a trumpet sound and the other parts played with a flute sound to highlight a particularly lovely tenor part.
What this means to me is that a skilled organist not only has the option of highlighting different parts, but rather he/she has the obligation to highlight different parts. And sometimes the organist can really stir things up and change all the harmony and make everyone sing together, but only for a short time. Forcing a melody on everyone for more than single verse will cause everyone to stop singing. Leaders ideally would understand all the different parts. Confident singers can influence other singers, sometimes to the weaker singers detriment.
I gave a talk based around this theme a few years ago. Hope you enjoy. http://forum.staylds.com/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=2542&p=31432&hilit=harmony#p31432 Elder Wirthlin’s “grand orchestra” analogy in “Concern for the One” is a favorite – and Elder Uchtdorf has referenced it, in one way or another, multiple times in his GC talks. I have sung bass and tenor, as the primary part, at different times in my life, and I like to sing soprano and alto (an octave or two lower), as well. My standard approach now is to sing the tenor part for the first verse, the alto part for the second verse, the bass part for the last verse (3rd or 4th), and the soprano part for the third verse of a song with four verses. It keeps things fresh for me, and, as a bonus, it embarrassed(s) my children.
I play my instrument regularly, but I make sure I am playing in the same key, volume, and manner as the piccolos around me. I have learned how to blend into the overall orchestral score, so I can play a lot of notes others might not be able to try.
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