Magic Choral Trick #186 The Bass Freight Train

Sep 24

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What a wonderful coaching weekend my Women’s Barbershop chorus just had with Barry Towner! And although he’s a primarily a presentation coach, he had some very exciting sound techniques.

The secret to this particular trick is not simply having the Basses let ‘er rip. The big secret is holding them back.

As Barry explained it, in the last few bars, as everyone else is crescendoing, we keep the Basses held back to about a 6 out of 10 (mf). We hit the last chord, and the Basses let out the clutch and come roaring past everyone. (At this point we ditch the car metaphor, because what we now have is a freight train)

Your audience will be gasping from the sheer thrill of the ride!

About janetkidd

I've been waving my arms in front of choirs now for more than 40 years - and these are descriptions of all the very best things I've learned. I direct a women's competitive Barbershop Chorus, a men's competitive Barbershop Chorus, a med school choir, 2 women's choirs, a church choir and for a few weeks each year - Big Choir (about 100 voices) - which performs at an annual fundraising concert. Hope at least some of these Choral Magic Tricks will be useful to you - and thanks for reading. Janet

Posted on September 24, 2012, in Uncategorized and tagged . Bookmark the permalink. 2 Comments.

  1. Cindy | September 24, 2012 at 10:04 am

    Love your play on words Janet….you really captured it…the sound really is thrilling!

    Reply

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