Tip of the Month

Where's the melody?

Directors, have you harped on not hearing the melody? Ringers, have you thought "how would I know what the melody is?" Here are two hints!

Directors, make sure you know exactly where the melody notes lie, checking one, two, or even three octaves lower than the top note. Then ask your choir to ring ONLY the melody. You'll be in for a surprise! We cannot sing more than one note at a time, we can't sing in harmony with ourselves. A melody is a single note at a time ~ but you'll most likely hear lots of other notes being rung at the same time. Most ringers don't know how to separate the melody from everything else! Keep asking them to ring just those melody notes, giving them hints, as a good object lesson for them. It also helps for ringers to write in the words, if there are any, in their scores.

Ringers ~ find the melody wherever it appears, and highlight those notes. When your note is highlighted, ring it out with full arm motion - damp in mid-air with your fingers if you like. That's faster and more graceful than rushing the bell back to shoulder damp. If the note is not highlighted, ring it closer to your body, and a bit softer than the melody. It gets tricky when the same bell rings both melody and harmony with no break between - but even then that bell should ring each note differently.

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