"Make them a CD..."

[APsalmist]

Do you make and distribute CD's of songs that your choir will be learning to assist them in learning the material? I visited a church recently where the CD reproduction ministry had made about 30 copies of a CD that included 10 songs that the choir was expected to learn. A poster on this site recommended this practice to someone who was concerned that their singers had difficulty remembering songs. Is this a practice we should engage in?

[sjonathan02]

I do it. Or, I send mp3s and they can put them on their iPods, BBs, etc.

[betnich]

I have started making part CD's (soprano, alto, tenor/Men). Lots of work...

[under13]

Yeah, do MP3s (its 2010!) If you email them the MP3 they cant say that they lost it, because it will always be in their email inbox. You will also save time and money. I would only do cds if you are giving them a lot of songs at once, and then you may as well burn em to a dvd or mp3 cd so you use less disks.

[under13]

<--needs green stars.....

[PianoClubhouse]

I personally don't expose the choir to the song until after I have finished teaching it. As the director, I like to have the control over how the song taught to them.  Of course nothing is to stop them from going out and researching and finding the song for themselves, but as a whole, i'll teach it first.

And even then, i don't send out CD's, but rather I have a webpage that I have the songs posted and the choir members can simply go to the webpage and play the song directly from the browser. I have the artist/track information on there, and even make the mp3 available for them to download if they choose, but i gave up burning cd's a long time ago, it got rather time consuming and expensive.

My members love the format, they don't have to worry about keeping track of cd's.

But to answer the question at hand, I don't give them the song until AFTER it has been taught. I try to teach every song according to how it was recorded, but if by chance I do get a note or two off, i want us to ALL be off together, and not be arguing with a tenor because he thinks the note should be different than what I showed.

Just my 2 cents....

Tj

[LaylaMonroe]

My choir director e-mails mp3s to the choir members (Praise Team does the same). He always asks us to familiarize ourselves with the song before rehearsal. One thing I love about his style is that we literally can learn a song in like 10 minutes. He breezes through it so quickly (which is great for someone who has ADD).

When I was a choir director, I always taught the song to the letter (exactly as it was originally recorded), so I wouldn't mind them listening to the songs before I taught them; in fact, I encouraged them to listen to the songs first. We didn't have mp3s back then, and I don't even think it was commonplace to record CDs and things...

[blyempowered]

We're trying to do something of this effect at my church. For praise team, I send them youtube clips. Young adult choir, the same. Our other choirs have middle-aged to older members who may not have access to internet so we try to decide songs a month in advance so they can listen to it by whatever means they need to.

Our music ministry is a very big "do it by the CD" ministry.

[sjonathan02]

I personally don't expose the choir to the song until after I have finished teaching it. As the director, I like to have the control over how the song taught to them.  Of course nothing is to stop them from going out and researching and finding the song for themselves, but as a whole, i'll teach it first.

And even then, i don't send out CD's, but rather I have a webpage that I have the songs posted and the choir members can simply go to the webpage and play the song directly from the browser. I have the artist/track information on there, and even make the mp3 available for them to download if they choose, but i gave up burning cd's a long time ago, it got rather time consuming and expensive.

My members love the format, they don't have to worry about keeping track of cd's.

But to answer the question at hand, I don't give them the song until AFTER it has been taught. I try to teach every song according to how it was recorded, but if by chance I do get a note or two off, i want us to ALL be off together, and not be arguing with a tenor because he thinks the note should be different than what I showed.

Just my 2 cents....

Tj

 

[raegenius]

This is a great suggestion (make  them a CD), but where possible try to use mp3 so as to cut costs.  I've thought about it but am not in that position at church to make the decision but will certainly suggest it.

[betnich]

Agree - if it's 10 songs on CD for 20-30 people it's more cost-effective than 1 song...

[LyricTenor]

I have started making part CD's (soprano, alto, tenor/Men). Lots of work...

Could ya 'splain this one, if you don't mind?

[sjonathan02]

Could ya 'splain this one, if you don't mind?

The CD made consists of just the soprano part of the song being taught for example.

[betnich]

The CD made consists of just the soprano part of the song being taught for example.

Sometimes I put on the CD a track with their one part (like Alto), then another w/all the parts singing.
If it's a 2-part Men/Women song, sometimes I do two tracks, one each with the Men or Women part louder than the other...

[PianoClubhouse]

Sometimes I put on the CD a track with their one part (like Alto), then another w/all the parts singing.
If it's a 2-part Men/Women song, sometimes I do two tracks, one each with the Men or Women part louder than the other...

Nice!

[sjonathan02]

Sometimes I put on the CD a track with their one part (like Alto), then another w/all the parts singing.
If it's a 2-part Men/Women song, sometimes I do two tracks, one each with the Men or Women part louder than the other...

How are you creating these track, bruh?

[JoanHall]

How are you creating these track, bruh?

Here's the way I do it, for my own choirs and for my business.  I use Cakewalk recording software.  I make an instrumental track first.  If it's for my own choir, the instrumental track will just be me playing a keyboard.  For tracks I'm going to sell on my website, I make sheet music with all the vocal parts plus piano accompaniment and create a MIDI file from that.  The advantage in that is that you can hear all of the vocal parts as a part of the instrumental track.

Then I record the vocal tracks of myself singing the different parts.  With stuff for my own choirs I just sing each part once (soprano, alto, tenor, and/or bass).  With stuff that's going to be for sale, I sing each part three or four times (sounds more polished).

Then I make the different mixes using the software.  One mix with all the parts combined, one with just the sopranos, one with just altos, one with just tenors.

It is indeed a lot of work.  I only do it for complex songs.  For the usual stuff, I send the choir members emails with YouTube links.  They understand and accept that I might want to teach the song differently from how the recording goes (I love them for that!), so having them hear the recording before I teach it is not a problem.  If I'm going to be doing something significantly different from the recording, I'll mention that in the email.

[JoanHall]

Oh!  I wanted to add that I made a web page that talks in more detail about making CDs: How to make practice CDs for a gospel choir.

[sjonathan02]

Oh!  I wanted to add that I made a web page that talks in more detail about making CDs: How to make practice CDs for a gospel choir.

Your excerpts should be longer. As a consumer, there's no way I can make a good decision on whether or not to purchase something after 17 seconds.

That's just me. 

Concerning the use of MIDI, that's cool for practice and all. I just hate MIDI sounds, they sound so cheesy. But, I noticed that you used Finale for your excerpts and such. Do you have instrumental excerpts?

[betnich]

How are you creating these track, bruh?

I use Logic Express on my Mac, sometimes doing the vocal parts on Finale, then importing the Midi over to Logic...

(PS - Good to see you again, JoanHall...)