Teaching Byzantine Music to a Choir

I’m slowly improving the skills and abilities needed to teach Byzantine Music to the choir. Because the choir members are not yet fluent in Byzantine Notation, we have developed a musical dialogue for learning new melodies during rehearsals.

It starts with listening to the hymn in its entirety. Then the choir listens to short musical phrases of the hymn and repeats. After several repetitions, the choir listens to another musical phrase and repeats several times. Then the choir puts several musical phrases together and repeats several times. This process has proven successful for learning hymns of the Divine Liturgy.

As the director, it’s my primary duty to maintain a steady tempo and ensure everyone is on beat. I was taught early on that individual mistakes in pitch can always be hidden by the blended sound of a Byzantine choir. However, an individual that is off beat cannot be hidden so easily. For example, if the choir is resting for a beat and an individual mistakingly performs an unintentional solo during that rest, even the young children in the narthex can recognize the mistake.

I strongly believe that using a metronome during rehearsal, or simply snapping my fingers on the down beat, is a critical tool for teaching the choir to stay on beat. As the choir gets more confident with a new melody I will stop snapping my fingers and simply conduct the tempo with my hand like I would during a service. I even see choir members tapping their fingers, hands, or feet to maintain a steady tempo.

I am learning to prioritize tempo above pitch. I believe the choir members are also committing to the priority of maintaining tempo. I can hear fewer tempo mistakes each time we chant the Divine Liturgy and that has prompted me to work with the choir on other performance elements like pitch, attractions, and yphos.

I can see and hear their enthusiasm as we make these refinements and they are continuing to ask many questions about the notation and “when do we get to learn another mode?”

The process for teaching Byzantine Music to a choir is achievable. Above all else, I strongly believe the teaching and learning processes need to be enjoyable and repeatable. If rehearsals are planned, deliberate, and consistent, and followed by individual practice, the choir can progress very rapidly.