WWYD?
  • Jani
    Posts: 441
    What would you do? Sometimes when I begin the responsorial psalm (a capella), I start on too high a note. If the psalm and verses are brief I can suffer it out, but there are times when I've gone just too high and its very difficult and uncomfortable to finish. Would you start over, or not?
  • BenBen
    Posts: 3,114
    If you have trouble finding a good pitch for your vocal range, here's what I'd suggest:

    1) Buy a pitch pipe here or somewhere else
    2) rehearse before at a specific pitch, and write it down on the top corner of your sheet music.
    3) use the pitch pipe and make sure you begin on that pitch when you sing it.

    Problem solved. If you are good with intervals, a tuning fork might be easier.
    Thanked by 1Jani
  • Jani
    Posts: 441
    From the ambo? I do have a pitch pipe....
  • BenBen
    Posts: 3,114
    Sure. If you need to. Or, alternatively, do it before going to the ambo, if you can silently remember the pitch.
    Thanked by 2Jani Gavin
  • BenBen
    Posts: 3,114
    But if you need to, I see no reason not to discreetly do it right at the ambo.
    Thanked by 2Jani ClergetKubisz
  • M. Jackson Osborn
    Posts: 8,366
    Before singing, very quietly hum (preferably think!) to yourself at a comfortable range the highest pitch in the respond or verse and judge your beginning pitch from that. This is a not uncommon challenge. Always set the beginning pitch relative to the highest one in your tessitura.
    Thanked by 4Jani Liam Gavin CHGiffen
  • BenBen
    Posts: 3,114
    Yes, this is a better method, if you're able.
    Thanked by 1Jani
  • Jani
    Posts: 441
    Thanks. I'm pretty good at keeping a pitch in my head - my difficulty has more to do with the reality that there is nowhere in the building conducive to discreetly doing anything. :) So, better to use a pipe at the ambo than to stop and then start again?
  • CharlesW
    Posts: 11,933
    If you have an iPhone there is an app for that. I know someone who uses it and she plays it just loudly enough for herself to hear.
    Thanked by 1Jani
  • canadashcanadash
    Posts: 1,499
    Is there accompaniment during this Mass? You could ask the organist to quietly give you the first note or intonation... like he would give the priest for the Gloria.
    Thanked by 1Jani
  • Liam
    Posts: 4,942
    You could even ask a non-instrumentalist to briefly key the note on a keyboard, marked with a post-it strip.... Providing a pitch for the incipit is quite customary.
    Thanked by 2Jani Gavin
  • Jani
    Posts: 441
    There sure isn't. We have a guitar player who plays four songs and I sing "all that stuff in the middle" a capella. No possibility for co-operation there.
  • Jani
    Posts: 441
    That might be a possibility Liam...
  • ClergetKubiszClergetKubisz
    Posts: 1,912
    I do the Communion Proper from the console, unaccompanied. I usually give myself an intonation with the organ right after the Ecce Agnus Dei and then I quietly hum the first three or so pitches to myself, then I'm off!

    In all actuality, it wouldn't be bad form in my opinion to give yourself a quiet pitch from the ambo with a pitch pipe, as long as it isn't too loud. Likely, many will not hear the tone you give yourself, but you will. I would rather the cantor take a pitch and take the time to be ready to sing, whatever that means, and hear a good rendering than have a rushed start and end up with a poor performance. You will be happier with that as well.
    Thanked by 1Jani
  • canadashcanadash
    Posts: 1,499
    There sure isn't. We have a guitar player who plays four songs and I sing "all that stuff in the middle" a capella. No possibility for co-operation there.


    oh my.
  • Jani
    Posts: 441
    oh my.

    Heh- that's what I said....
    Thanked by 1canadash
  • MaryAnn Carr WilsonMaryAnn Carr Wilson
    Posts: 1,738
    What Ben suggested. Work it out ahead of time, write down the starting pitch on, quietly blow the starting note, or first two notes if the interval doesn't come to mind, and sing with prayerful poise.

    If you know that your voice is tired, you may want to drop the starting pitch from what you rehearsed by a half or whole step.
    Thanked by 1Jani
  • melofluentmelofluent
    Posts: 4,160
    This is my "Star Spangled Banner" method.
    Consider the tessitura (range) of the notes of the refrain/antiphon.
    If it is within a sixth, just hear internally (hum if necessary) both the lowest and the starting pitch. (As if you were starting the Nat'l Anthem 5-3-1, how good is the bottom 1?)
    Then internally sing thru the refrain in a low to mid range.
    If, like the N.Anthem, the range is extended to an octave or higher (a 10th such as I am the bread of life and the anthem), then lower the lowest pitch so that when you hum thru the refrain, the highest note doesn't strain reason. C, maybe D above middle C in both treble and tenor ranges. You don't really need tune fork/pitch pipe/smart phone.
    Thanked by 1Jani
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