Page 68 - Voice for Life Songbook 1

18. I will sing a song of love
Information
‘I will sing a song of love’ considers why we sing praise to God and ends with a reminder that through song we can join in with the music of heaven.
Teaching the song
Young or inexperienced singers will find it difficult to sightread words, rhythm and pitch at the same time.You could use this song as sightreading practice, isolating these different elements and then putting them together. First ask singers to clap or speak the text of the first phrase in rhythm. Next ask them to read the pitches in free rhythm. Lastly, ask them to sing the phrase in rhythm (this could be to ‘ah’ at first, with the text added at the final stage).
Using the voice well
For the words of the chorus to make sense, you need to sing four bars to one breath.Your singers will need to keep the sound travelling on the longer notes (e.g.‘love’ in bar 6) in order to keep it alive. It may help to make a small crescendo on these notes to maintain a sense of momentum.
In bars 21–22 the melody covers a wide range of notes. Make sure that it is still sung with a sense of line rather than chopped up into single notes.To enable this, first practice this phrase on a single vowel, e.g. ‘ah’ or ‘oo’. Ask singers to slide between the notes to connect them. Gradually speed up the slides so that they can’t be heard but the sound stays connected.When you add the text back in, try to keep a legato sound by making the vowels as long as possible.
Musical skills and understanding
The rhythm in bar 5 occurs in several other places in the song. Can anyone see where?
This song is in D major. Can anyone identify any notes that are not usually found it this key (e.g. F natural in bar 27 etc.)?
What does D.S. al Fine mean (written above the last bar of the verse)?
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Track 18
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