The choir at St Peter and St Paul (SSPP) church in Wilmington, CA had on Monday the first chant-reading workshop. We will have two more on July 21st and 28th, before a break, and will resume on August 18th. These workshops are independent of the repertoire sung by the SSPP choir, so if singers in the Long Beach-San Pedro area are wanting to learn to read chant, please join us!

This past Monday, we went over:

• the difference between rehearsing under time pressure, and learning to read chant. No singer is left behind in this workshop. Our pace is that of the slowest learner.
• Some definitions: Movable do, Do clef, Fa clef, Intervals, Major and Minor triads…
• We started to explain the difference between the cue-method (ex: repeating after a piano) and reading chant. The latter requires to organize a “library of sound” most singers already have. Solfege is the most proven way to organize that library.

On Monday 7/21st (week 2), we will start by answering last week’s questions about:

• Vocal support,
• Choosing a DO with the “Movable DO” method,

We will then define AUDIATION, explain why it is important, and practice AUDIATION with the first level of exercises from the FSSP seminary (Image below, click to link to exercise page).

We will then identify triads in well-known chants and notice whether they are MINOR triads or MAJOR triads. This will help us learn to recognize MINOR thirds from MAJOR thirds. The homework ahead of Week 3 will be to be able and sing a minor triad, a minor third, a major third and a minor third, either ascending or descending from a single note.

Handouts for Week 2:

Call or Text Hervé at 626 278 0786, or email longbeachchant@live.com, if you have any question.

CLICK HERE FOR WEEK 2 LESSON