The Training Scheme

Training a choir is both a challenge and a joy. The Voice for Life training scheme provides a framework for choral singers to develop their vocal skills, their musical understanding and their knowledge of repertoire. The scheme comes with a range of teaching material and supporting resources and gives plenty of advice on the practicalities of running a choir. It is intended to enable choir trainers and teachers to train their choir or group more effectively, and to help singers grow as people as well as musicians.

Voice for Life involves the choir trainer or teacher, and each member of the choir or group. The scheme is designed to be flexible so it can fit around your choir’s schedule. Much of the training will become part of your usual rehearsal time; for example, the vocal exercises can be incorporated at the beginning of your rehearsal as warm-ups or to break up the rehearsal, and you can provide training on posture, breathing, diction, etc.

The Voice for Life Choir Trainer’s Book contains all the information and advice you need to launch Voice for Life with your choir or group of singers. There are also other support materials available to help you motivate, encourage and assess your singers including Singer’s Workbooks, medals, badges, song collections, and wall-charts. To find out more click on the tabs above. (As you do not have JavaScript enabled, you are unable to see the tabs. Instead you can read the information below.)

How Voice for Life works

There are four levels in the Voice for Life scheme providing training for beginners through to advanced singers. These four levels are designed for use by singers of any age. A child may start at the first level and gradually work through all four levels. An adult singer would work through exactly the same levels.

Starting at the first level (for beginners) the Voice for Life levels are as follows:

• Light Blue
• Dark Blue
• Red
• Yellow

How singers are trained and assessed

Each level of the Voice for Life has graded targets which are assessed informally by the teacher or choir trainer. Once a singer has completed the necessary training for that level, reached the targets and finished their workbook they can be awarded their badge and/or ribbon & medal. The singer then moves onto the next level.

To enable choir trainers and teachers to train and assess their singers with confidence, each level of Voice for Life comes complete with: Teaching material in the Choir Trainer’s book to provide the appropriate training for each level. This includes practical exercises, diagrams, photocopiable worksheets, and sample tests.

Clear targets which state exactly what a singer should have achieved/be able to demonstrate in order to be awarded their next level.

Singer’s workbooks containing questions, exercises and puzzles. There are four workbooks: one for each level of Voice for Life and each workbook is designed for use by singers of any age. At the end of each workbook is a space for the choir trainer or teacher to sign and date each target as it is achieved, showing the progress of the singer through that level.

Ribbons & medals/lapel badges to award singers on completion of each level. For school choirs and other non-robed choirs there are coloured lapel badges: Light Blue, Dark Blue, Red &Yellow. In addition there is a white lapel badge showing that a singer is new to Voice for Life and has begun working for their first level. For church choirs and other robed choirs there are medals that can be worn on the appropriately coloured ribbon.

The skills developed in Voice for Life

Each level of the scheme provides training in the following areas:

Module A: Using the voice well

This module aims to teach singers how to develop good vocal technique. It contains many practical exercises and helpful diagrams enabling you to deliver the training in this Module with confidence. It begins by helping singers get used to the physical sensations of healthy vocal technique, and in the later levels develops their understanding of the physiology of the voice.

Contained in this module:

posture, breathing, tone & range, diction, style & interpretation, blending with the choir

Module B: Musical skills & understanding

Musical skills and musical understanding should grow together; as a singer makes progress with their voice they need to develop the understanding and skills to support them in their singing. Singers need to understand the music they are looking at and develop an ability to read and interpret what they see. Likewise, they need to develop their listening skills. This module develops knowledge of music theory and notation, and then encourages singers to demonstrate this understanding through sight-singing and aural skills.

Contained in this module:

music theory (note values, rests, time signatures, note names, ledger lines, accidentals, double sharps and flats, intervals and degrees of the scale, keys and scales, modes, chords and cadences), sample sight-reading tests, sample aural tests.

Module C: Repertoire

This module aims to develop a good understanding of the musical and historical contexts of the music performed by the choir or individual singer. It also gives singers the opportunity to demonstrate the musical understanding they gain in Module B through some simple musical analysis. Singers are encouraged to find out about the background of the music that they sing: to translate and understand the text of a piece, to look at the historical background, to look at the purpose of a piece, to develop an understanding of the style/genre. Through this research, singers develop the ability to gather information from various sources and to present this in an original form.

Contained in this module:

finding the information, sample questions, sample answers, how to write programme notes, programming for your choir – basic principles.

Module D: Belonging to the choir

If a singer wants to be part of a choir, there is more required than simply being able to sing. There are issues of commitment, punctuality and responsibility. This module considers how a singer can be encouraged in these areas and gives plenty of additional advice for you on recruiting singers into the choir and how to maintain their interest and commitment.

Contained in this module:

recruiting and publicity, new singers, when a singer moves into the adult section, when singers leave the choir, roles for singers within the choir, choir pay, discipline, notes for head choristers/choir captains, copyright issues, child protection, weekly standards, general progress, rehearsal tips, starting a choir.

Module E: Choir in context

A choir does not exist in isolation. Although it is a community in its own right it is also part of a wider community such as a school, church, village or town. This module encourages singers to explore the wider context of its choir’s existence: Why do they sing in that particular choir? Why does the choir exist? For whom does it sing? How does the choir benefit its members and those outside the choir? The material is divided into various sessions, each based on one topic, and these come complete with photocopiable worksheets.

Contained in this module:

For all choirs:
the gift of music, the power of music, what is a community?, the community of our choir, the wider community, the roots of our choir, the changing repertoire of our choir, special project: serving the wider community.

Additional sessions for church and worship choirs:
Christian ministry and music, regular and special services, festivals and seasons in the Christian year, places of worship (church buildings).

Each level of the scheme provides training in the following areas:

Module A: Using the voice well

This module aims to teach singers how to develop good vocal technique. It contains many practical exercises and helpful diagrams enabling you to deliver the training in this Module with confidence. It begins by helping singers get used to the physical sensations of healthy vocal technique, and in the later levels develops their understanding of the physiology of the voice.

Contained in this module:

posture, breathing, tone & range, diction, style & interpretation, blending with the choir

Module B: Musical skills & understanding

Musical skills and musical understanding should grow together; as a singer makes progress with their voice they need to develop the understanding and skills to support them in their singing. Singers need to understand the music they are looking at and develop an ability to read and interpret what they see. Likewise, they need to develop their listening skills. This module develops knowledge of music theory and notation, and then encourages singers to demonstrate this understanding through sight-singing and aural skills.

Contained in this module:

music theory (note values, rests, time signatures, note names, ledger lines, accidentals, double sharps and flats, intervals and degrees of the scale, keys and scales, modes, chords and cadences), sample sight-reading tests, sample aural tests.

Module C: Repertoire

This module aims to develop a good understanding of the musical and historical contexts of the music performed by the choir or individual singer. It also gives singers the opportunity to demonstrate the musical understanding they gain in Module B through some simple musical analysis. Singers are encouraged to find out about the background of the music that they sing: to translate and understand the text of a piece, to look at the historical background, to look at the purpose of a piece, to develop an understanding of the style/genre. Through this research, singers develop the ability to gather information from various sources and to present this in an original form.

Contained in this module:

finding the information, sample questions, sample answers, how to write programme notes, programming for your choir – basic principles.

Module D: Belonging to the choir

If a singer wants to be part of a choir, there is more required than simply being able to sing. There are issues of commitment, punctuality and responsibility. This module considers how a singer can be encouraged in these areas and gives plenty of additional advice for you on recruiting singers into the choir and how to maintain their interest and commitment.

Contained in this module:

recruiting and publicity, new singers, when a singer moves into the adult section, when singers leave the choir, roles for singers within the choir, choir pay, discipline, notes for head choristers/choir captains, copyright issues, child protection, weekly standards, general progress, rehearsal tips, starting a choir.

Module E: Choir in context

A choir does not exist in isolation. Although it is a community in its own right it is also part of a wider community such as a school, church, village or town. This module encourages singers to explore the wider context of its choir’s existence: Why do they sing in that particular choir? Why does the choir exist? For whom does it sing? How does the choir benefit its members and those outside the choir? The material is divided into various sessions, each based on one topic, and these come complete with photocopiable worksheets.

Contained in this module:

For all choirs:
the gift of music, the power of music, what is a community?, the community of our choir, the wider community, the roots of our choir, the changing repertoire of our choir, special project: serving the wider community.

Additional sessions for church and worship choirs:
Christian ministry and music, regular and special services, festivals and seasons in the Christian year, places of worship (church buildings).

Bronze, Silver & Gold awards

In order to support the choir trainer and affirm the levels achieved within the choir while working on the Voice for Life training scheme, the RSCM provides a parallel system of awards designed to be assessed through a formal examination: these are called the Bronze, Silver & Gold awards. (In some local RSCM Areas the Bronze and Silver Awards are called Dean’s and Bishop’s Awards.)

Each award has its own syllabus and regulations. These come complete with guidelines to fully prepare the candidate and the choir trainer for the standard expected during the examination.

Successful candidates are entitled to wear a prestigious medal cast in the appropriately coloured metal (bronze, silver or gold) and these are worn on distinctive ribbons. Bronze awards are worn with a Green ribbon, Silver awards with a Purple ribbon and the Gold award with a Dark Red ribbon.

Where do these awards fit into the Voice for Life scheme?

The Voice for Life scheme and the Bronze, Silver & Gold awards are designed to fit together. They should be attempted in the following order:

• Light Blue
• Dark Blue
  • Bronze
• Red
  • Silver
• Yellow
  • Gold

In effect, the Voice for Life scheme provides training and preparation for the Bronze, Silver & Gold Awards; Light Blue and Dark Blue help a candidate prepare for their Bronze Award, Red level helps a candidate prepare for the Silver award, and Yellow level helps a candidate prepare for the Gold award.

Likewise, the Bronze, Silver and Gold awards affirm each of the Voice for Life levels that have been awarded informally by the choir trainer.

What if I have a singer who does not want to take the external (Bronze, Silver and Gold) awards?

This is no problem. The Voice for Life training scheme can be used on its own to provide training and motivation to singers within a choir. There is no need to take the Bronze, Silver and Gold awards if your singer is unhappy about undertaking such formal assessments.

Where can I obtain the syllabus for the Bronze, Silver or Gold awards?

In the UK, the Bronze and Silver awards are administered and examined on a local basis by a voluntary network of RSCM committees. Every local RSCM committee has its own syllabus for the Bronze and Silver awards. Although the syllabuses differ from area to area, the RSCM has validated all Bronze and Silver award syllabuses to ensure an even standard across the country. All examiners for the Bronze and Silver awards have also been validated by the RSCM to ensure consistency of marking.