The Choir Room Podcast
This podcast exists to promote and encourage two long-time traditions in our society that seem to be dwindling…The Choir and Corporate Singing. We hope to revive the excitement and joy experienced with singing in a choir, as well as inform and educate the listener on all things singing, and all things choir related.
A weekly podcast featuring discussion and interviews with choir directors, choir members, and other guests representing church choirs, college and university choirs, community choirs, show and theatre choirs, composer of choir music, and other.
Segments include tips and instruction from skilled and professional disciplines within the choir community covering topics such as choir culture and community, choir directing, vocal training, ear training, sight reading, and more. A monthly virtual live audience episode allows the listener to engage with hosts and guests during instructional and Q&A segments via the live recording, chat, email, on various social media platforms.
A production of Metromusic & Arts, Inc.
- www.metromusic-arts.com
- thechoirroom@metromusic-arts.com
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The Choir Room Podcast
Part 2: Proper Hydration, Good Vocal Health, Choir Directing, and Vocal Training 102: Dr. Catherine Hall, Coach Tara Simon, and The Hosts continue with Great Insights and LIVE Participation from Virtual Audience. Listen and Learn.
Ever wondered how weather can impact your vocal cords or what qualifies and makes a successful choir director? Don't miss out this episode as Catherine Hall continues to discuss the benefits of hydration to the effects of temperature changes on your voice, and much more. If you're a choir director or a singer, you’ll glean a lot from our conversation on the critical qualities and the need for education among choir directors.
Then we're joined by Tara Simon, the phenomenal vocal coach, and YouTube sensation, who unravels some important aspects about maintaining vocal strength and longevity. Tara also explains her unique approach to finding and honing your voice, and why imitation is not the best flattery in singing. Along with a fun segment where brave audience members have a go at live singing, we also dive into the technicalities of a glissando and Tara demonstrates her stunning vocal range.
On a deeper note, the episode takes a spiritual turn as we revisit the Garden of Eden to reflect on the promise of Christmas and the fulfilled promise of Christ. This thoughtful discourse on sin, salvation, and grace provides a meaningful context to our musical exploration. So, tune in for a blend of practical tips, expert advice, and profound insights that are sure to rekindle your passion for singing and choir.
Part 1:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-choir-room/id1681950053?i=1000631762932
tarasimonstudios.com
metromusic-arts.com
#hydration
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#thechoirroom
Perpetuating and Promoting the Christian and Positive Idea Through the Medium of Music and Other Arts.
Welcome to the choir room.
Speaker 2:Season 1, episode 27 of the Choir Room podcast.
Speaker 3:Welcome to the choir room.
Speaker 2:I'm Greg Tomas, your host, and I'll soon be joined by my co-host, dorian Johnson. Welcome to the choir room, be it a Stanso Pharrar and who we like to call the fourth wheel, coleman Smart. This podcast exists to promote and encourage to longtime traditions in our society that seem to be dwindling away, and that is choir and corporate singing. We hope to revive the excitement and joy experienced with singing in a choir, as well as inform and educate the listener on all things singing and all things choir related. So if you love singing and you love choir, we encourage you to subscribe to this podcast anywhere you get your podcast downloads. You can also subscribe by sending the word subscribe in the subject field of an email to the choir room at metro music dash arts dot com. And when you subscribe, be sure to give us a five star review, as your review helps us keep this podcast alive and share it with a friend. And now you can also engage with us on the choir room podcast Facebook page.
Speaker 2:Today's episode, part two, with vocal coach and YouTube sensation Tara Simon of Tara Simon Studios. This time around we'll get into some of the questions that came through from our virtual audience, and then we will have some practical application, as some of our brave audience members dare to sing live for Tara right here on the podcast and win prizes as a result of that bravery. But before we do that, dorian is going to have our hymn of the week and then Catherine Hall is going to come back and give us a little bit more on hydration.
Speaker 4:Sure. Thanks, greg. This week's hymn of the week is a not so well known hymn entitled Not what my Hands have Done. It's by Horatius Bonner and was written in 1861, and Titus three versus four through seven says this. But when the goodness and loving kindness of God, our savior, appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit whom we poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ, our savior, so that, being justified by his grace, we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
Speaker 4:Listen to the words of this first verse Not what my hands have done can save my guilty soul, not what my toiling flesh has borne can make my spirit whole, not what I feel or do can give me peace with God. Not all my prayers and sighs and tears can bear my awful load. This first verse reminds us of the hopeless state that each person finds themselves in. There is no way that we can bear the awful load of sin, the awful load that requires God's judgment, for he is a just and a righteous God. He is a just and a righteous judge, but we also know of the mercy of God. Ephesians one, seven says in him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our sins according to the riches of his grace. Through the blood of Christ, ephesians two, eight, nine says for by grace you have been saved through faith. This is not your own doing, it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. Verse two says thy work alone, o Christ, can ease this weight of sin. Thy blood alone, o Lamb of God, can give me peace within. Thy love to me, o God, not mine, o Lord to thee, can rid me of this dark unrest and set my spirit free.
Speaker 4:First, john four ten says in this is love, not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. That word propitiations means to act to satisfy the wrath of a deity. To satisfy God's wrath, christ was sent for us. And verse three says thy grace alone, o God, to me can part and speak. Thy power alone, o Son of God, can this sore bondage break. No other work save thine, no other blood will do, no strength save that which is divine can bear me safely. Through and after these three verses have declared the work of Christ and the grace of God. The final two verses are our response to this incredible work of God, this incredible grace of God.
Speaker 4:Verse four says I bless the Christ of God. I rest on love divine, and with unfaltering lip and heart I call this Savior mine. His cross dispels each doubt. I bury in his tomb my unbelief and all my fear. Each lingering shade of gloom, I praise the God of grace. I trust his truth and might. He calls me his. I call him mine, my God, my joy, my light Tis he who saveth me and, freely parting, gives I love because he loveth me. I live because he lives.
Speaker 4:These two verses declare the glorious truth that we read in Galatians 2, 20 through 21. The apostle Paul says and each one who is a Christian can say I've been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me, in the life I now live, in the flesh. I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not nullify the grace of God For a righteousness were through the law and Christ died for no purpose. We don't seek to justify ourselves before God because we cannot. But instead, as this hymn says, we we rest on the divine love of God. We call the Savior ours, we see his death as our death and his resurrection as our resurrection, and we truly know that there is no work except the work of Christ that will make us acceptable before our great and mighty God.
Speaker 2:Welcome to the world. These questions may seem a little out of context to our listening audience, but they'll make sense in the end. So, catherine, your personal preference Pasta or chicken, chicken, chicken okay. Running or weightlifting.
Speaker 5:Weightlifting Summer or winter?
Speaker 2:Winter Soup or salad Soup, coffee or milk Coffee, coffee, juice or soda Juice Okay, last one. Sparkling or flat, flat, okay why coffee over milk?
Speaker 5:I'm not a big drinker of milk. A lot of people are actually allergic to dairy and I know that lots of people do better without it. So and I happen to drink the most alkaline organic coffee there is on the planet, so I have I treat myself to a cup of coffee in the morning.
Speaker 2:And I imagine it treats your body different and better than milk. Yes, it does. No question about it. No question, all right, you said juice over soda.
Speaker 5:Yes, why? Because soda, if you put a bobby pin in it or you know a pear pin, it actually rusts the hairpin.
Speaker 2:Bunch of other stuff in there.
Speaker 5:Yes, it has high fructose corn syrup. It's addictive. Even if people are drinking diet sodas, you notice that they're really overweight Because the chemicals make the liver work hard and they're not detoxifying. So if you're, I don't. I'm not a firm believer of even drinking juice. I don't think you should eat your calories, drink your calories, but I think that juice is much better option without sugar, but the soda is a hundred percent no, we're hearing you.
Speaker 2:Okay, sparkling over flat. I think you said sparkling. Well, no, I actually said flat.
Speaker 5:I love sparkling, but I'll tell you why I say flat. Because as time goes on, people who drink too much sparkling water actually start to get more acidic blood and what happens is the blood is a very specific pH and it needs to maintain that pH. So it takes, sometimes it eats away at the bone a little bit and buffers the blood and makes it more alkaline. So people, especially women over their 40s, you know, more osteoporosis is created. So that's my school of thought.
Speaker 2:Interesting we're hearing from a professional. You know the average singer doesn't always equate the intake of all of these things into their bodies as having an effect on their ability to breathe properly, digest the effect that it may have on their vocal cords and their ability to sing.
Speaker 5:Yes, yes, even with water, the elasticity of the vessels in the lungs there people get emphysema which is the very end of the bronchials, at very end of the vessels in the lungs, get very, very hardened. So we want to keep elasticity. And when you think about elasticity, that means being able to bend and lift and do all these things through the years and joints and knee pains and things like that. So the more hydrated you are, the less you get of that. I'm not saying that it's 100%, that it's a miracle thing that no one gets sick if they drink enough water, but I'm saying it's a major contributor to being a more elastic body. Therefore more fluid lungs, more easily breathing and better singing.
Speaker 2:And when you consider the fact that choir requires you to stand, sing sometimes stand, sing, sway, lift your hands and all of that good stuff, love that All of this can be hindered if we don't monitor our intake and make sure that we're hydrated. You may get through a few of the songs and blow through some of the notes, but in the long run, as you said earlier, the ability to stand, sing, sway and just lift our hands can all be negatively impacted if we don't monitor what we're taking?
Speaker 5:Yeah, absolutely, people don't. Always it's so logical. But people sometimes want to really separate those thoughts of how your body functions and what you actually do. And there was an interesting I was in Denmark in year 2000 on a pig farm. Believe it or not, this is a going concern. Pig farm, 1,000 pigs.
Speaker 5:And I always say to my patients these are pigs that are sold for slaughter to big companies that make big money from this. This is big business. And they don't go to the fridge and say, hmm, what are they going to eat today? You know they have a scientifically worked out diet, so these pigs will be not too big, not too small, not too marbled, marbled enough and therefore they know exactly what health that pig will have, mostly because the diet is very scientific. And yet we're supposed to be so bright as humans but we just eat whatever we want and not thinking that it has any implication to the body at all. I find that you know it's very common, most educated and the most uneducated. I mean it's a very common misconception to not link together what you do and how you perform there.
Speaker 2:you have it there it is. It's always good to have you here with us in the choir room, catherine. Thanks again, thank you.
Speaker 8:Welcome to the choir room.
Speaker 7:So the CRQ tonight would be this what qualifies one to be a choir director? What qualifies one to be a choir director? Pretty simple for me, and then I will throw it right to you, gentlemen. I got three things that that would qualify a pretty decent I would say choir director. Well, you know, I think we need to get it right.
Speaker 2:Well, you know, I think we need to be asking ourselves what qualifies us to answer this.
Speaker 7:It's a better question, right? I don't know how qualified I am but I'm a friend, let's go for it.
Speaker 2:We have an opinion, yeah we have an opinion Right.
Speaker 7:Well, our opinion is well, well, you should have a really strong prayer life. Let's start with that. Yeah, start there. A really really strong prayer life. Than the other qualifications would be the ability to teach parts and harmonies that that's one. The ability to command a choir, be able to get the most optimum sound out of that choir, able to direct them into excellence, because there are some choir directors who kind of leave the choir out there to just kind of fend for themselves. I promise you it's a scary sight. Yeah, I can. You can only imagine what it would sound like, but it's even frightening to see the face, the fear the choir members faces when the when the choir director just pretty much abandons them in the middle of a song, and that's. That's scary.
Speaker 7:My last point would be should have a strong interest in music. Probably should have been the number one. There are some choir directors that I have run into recently who like the fact of being in front of people. They love that part but don't really have the commitment to the music. You know, they just want to be out front and get the glory of it all, but don't really have an interest in sitting down and going through a process of learning music, getting the best music for the congregation in which you serve, the house in which you serve. They don't really have a whole lot of. They take from the top 40 and we'll learn those songs and that'll keep the crowd going, that'll bring the height, but don't really commit to. The work entails to be a choir director. There are some sleepless nights when it comes to a choir director. There's some work involved that I don't know if the generation's coming really see it that way. They just like the fanfare, if you will, of all. So I'm hoping that you gentlemen will shed a little more light on this. What's?
Speaker 3:at you.
Speaker 7:Daria.
Speaker 4:This was an interesting question and it was interesting to me because I would say, outside of a church context, I would not be qualified to be a choir director because, I don't play an instrument.
Speaker 4:I mean I can teach parts, but it takes me a long time, and so I began to think about some of the things even before you get to the choir. And I would say one you have to be able to love people. That's one qualification, because you are leading people, yes, you're leading them in song, but they are sometimes going to do their own thing. Sometimes they're not going to follow your direction, sometimes they're going to sing the wrong notes, sometimes they're going to give you attitude, and you have to be able to work through all of that and still pull everyone together to produce one sound. So loving people. What comes with all of that? It comes with patience. Patience comes with that, long suffering comes with that, I would say.
Speaker 4:Another quality of a choir director is that they are able to follow. I find that I'm learning that if I'm going to be effective leading other people in singing, I have to learn how to follow others as well, and in following others, I then learn those things that I could be doing better, but also those things I should not be doing as well, and so I think, first, it really does focus on the people that you're leading. The music is. We can talk about all the musical portions of it. No, having rhythm. Yes, you have to have rhythm.
Speaker 4:As a choir director, you have to be able to know the music inside and out in some ways to be able to lead people to where the song is going. All of those other things follow. But I really started with thinking about the people aspects of it, because they're looking at you and sometimes they're, sometimes you're not in the right place and they're just going to follow you there, and sometimes you are in the right place and they aren't going to follow you there. But ultimately you got to love them and continue to lead them and ultimately to pour into them, pour your life into them from the word of God, and pray for them, as you said already, and pray for those that you're ministering to as well and pray that it not become just about a show, but it truly is a ministry unto the Lord and unto those who will hear the choir that you're directing.
Speaker 9:Yeah.
Speaker 7:That's good.
Speaker 9:My take was pretty practical. My first thoughts are you know a lot of people when they ask this question. I imagine that someone asking this question was thinking like do I need to have a degree to be a choir director or something like that? And if you've been listening to the choir room podcast for long, it's not going to surprise you to hear me say it depends on your context.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because I was going to say it. But I was going to say it too, but I love it. I beat you too.
Speaker 9:So it's. In some places it's, yeah, it would be necessary because that's what people are asking for. For instance, a lot of our friends in the bigger Baptist world or bigger Methodist and Presbyterian world. They tend to prefer someone that has a high level degree or a master's degree in music for a lot of not all, but some Whereas in some smaller churches that's not necessarily a requirement. They're not looking for that, but they're looking for more of the qualities like Dorian and Mi'eta were just talking about leadership and love for music and willingness.
Speaker 9:Some people are just looking for someone's whose willing, but I'm not saying that's good. But but again, it's all about the context. For instance, you've got one of the biggest choir programs in modern history, you know, not too far away from you guys, in Brooklyn, at Brooklyn Tab, and Carol Simbola is famous for not having a lot of musical training behind her, but she has an incredible music program. So there's a lot to be said about all the qualities that do make her a great choir director and all of that. So again, it just depends on your context. But I echo, dorian, that leadership skills and and a good understanding of the music that you are, that you are working with and all of that. It doesn't necessarily always require an intense knowledge of theory and that kind of thing, but you got to know your music and know how to teach it to people. Yeah, know your music, know how to teach it to people and then be a good leader. Those are the things that I think are most important.
Speaker 2:Very good, because context is everything. I'm going to piggyback on something Coleman said earlier, and that is I strongly suggest that if you are a choir director, you should get the education, all of the education, that you can get. You may not need it in your context, but in some other ones you may need it, and so get it when you can get it, wherever you can get it.
Speaker 9:And Greg, while you're. While you're talking about that, I need to make a clarification of something I said. I was talking about a degree and how some people prefer that. So my preference is, if you can go on to get some education, do it Absolutely. I did. I mean, a lot of my colleagues have done that. So if you can do it. But I just needed to make that clarification.
Speaker 2:I understood you. You just beat me to it. Okay, sorry, but I think we have access to more information than we've ever had with the, you know, with the internet. So get all of the education that you can get. And again, your context may not require you to have a music degree, but it may require you to at least be able to. Well, it will require you to be able to hear and play a little bit and certainly teach music if you're directing, and sometimes choir directors don't always teach the music. That's one of the other things I think we have to point out here is that not all choir directors teach. Some actually just direct. They learn the music from the person who's teaching it to the choir and they do the directing. Perhaps the person who does the teaching is also one of the musicians and therefore, is we prefer to have a choir director out front.
Speaker 2:Now, having said that, I'll add my quarter note to the rest of this measure. I think a good choir director is going to surround him or herself with good people, people that can assist him or her. They may help teaching parts, they may help with finding music, they may help as an accompanist in rehearsal, but a good choir director is going to have a good team of people around him or her so that they don't have the sole responsibility of finding new music, learning new music, teaching new music, playing new music. I mean it's all of the above If they can get good people around them good section leaders, good administrative help, a good librarian who can help maintain the catalog of music. I mean that all helps to maximizing the time and the energy and the strength, the potential, if you will, of your choir director. But I think another qualification of a good choir director is that he or she has to have the ability, the courage, the strength to acknowledge when they need help, because it's never all about the choir director.
Speaker 2:And then my last point would speak to something Mietta mentioned earlier, and that's about putting in the work the choir director. Putting in the work the choir director should never come to rehearsal learning the music. They should have put that work in long before rehearsal, because you can lose a choir coming to rehearsal unprepared, having not learned the entire song, but yet you want to try to finagle your way through it and pretend your interest, trying to get it into their heads. That doesn't work. They'll catch on to the fact that you don't know what you're doing and you might want to go sit down somewhere.
Speaker 2:No, but in all seriousness, you definitely want to come prepared, and a good choir director is going to be prepared. That helps qualify one, because the people will see that and they'll respect your leadership, they'll respect your authority and they'll acknowledge the fact that you have a command in that choir. They'll trust you for an entire rehearsal and they'll trust you live when they're out singing or performing somewhere. So I think those are two additional qualifications that qualify one to be a choir director. That's my two cents on the matter, and they were great cents too.
Speaker 7:I tell you.
Speaker 2:Let's continue with our guest contributor, Tara Simon. Now here's another question from our audience how does hot temperature versus cold temperature affect Tara's voice and how does she think it affects the voice in general? Now, my thought even though they didn't ask is that it affects everybody's voice differently and everybody's body is different, so how does it affect you?
Speaker 10:I personally have just made myself push through and have chords of steel under any circumstance. But that's the nature. I'm a Broadway singer and when I did Broadway I didn't do eight shows a week, I did nine, because they added a show, because we were so sold out. So I can't even tell you how many hours a week and how many hours a day, on top of dancing and being winded. So I'm not really a fair comparison because I was just. I essentially went to war vocally for a while.
Speaker 10:And so I'm not a sensitive person and I know that some people they got it down the honey or squeezed the lemon or whatever before singing. I finally kind of came to the end of myself when I saw my castmates doing that and I was like I want to do that because it looks cool, like I need all these things. But I'm just not that way and I actually think that that's a placebo effect for you. But whatever works for you.
Speaker 10:So I think that, in regards to hot and cold water, look, when you're coming into a lesson, I'm not trying to get you to drink ice water, because it's the same thing as going into a gym and trying to warm up and then plunging yourself into an ice bath. That's completely counterproductive. Do that after you're done, right, it just makes sense Like hot, warm up, ice, cool down. That's like a life thing, it's not just a singer thing. So I think it's kind of a common sense, like yeah, maybe don't drink ice water while I'm warming up my voice and maybe, when I'm done singing, maybe drink cool water when I cool down my voice.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, you know, I think when you think about what cold water does to the body it stiffens, it constricts it's going to do the same thing to the vocal cords when you drink cold water. So it's common sense, but it's not so common. So to each his own, but I think it's an honest question, probably coming from someone who wants to improve their vocal skills, and they've probably tried hot and cold and are wondering if there's a pro or con with either.
Speaker 10:And I would say I wouldn't go to any extreme. Like you know, I am an extreme personality and person and so I would do that, and so I'm just putting that out there, like, if you're the person asking that question, don't do either, like do room temperature, unless you really feel like, no matter what I'm doing I'm not warming up my voice because there I have news for you when you drink, anything is not touching your larynx anyway. Right, it's not it's not going in there.
Speaker 10:Yeah, the only thing touches your larynx is actual steam, like particles from steam. So when people are like, oh, I'm like drinking this, this, um, this special elixir from my voice, well, and until it absorbs in your cells and it goes through your whole body, it ain't touching your larynx, unless it's in steam form, you know. So I would say room temperature, anything is good.
Speaker 2:You know, catherine Hall shared the same thing about it getting into your blood system and attaching itself to those cells before it can actually do that, before it can actually do anything to your vocal cords. So good point. Dorian has a question.
Speaker 4:As you were sharing how often you sang in the past. I mean, I don't think there's anyone on this call that did that, but what would be your one piece of advice for how to be a choir singer, a worship leader, over a long period of time, so that you so when you're in your 50s and your 60s, you're still able to keep all of those elements of being a good singer that you talked about? What's sort of your one single piece of advice to do that?
Speaker 10:I love that question, and so I have a couple of terrorisms in my vocal methodology and one of them is vocal dollars, the concept of vocal dollars and how you know, just like a kid is given an allowance each day, we, by the Lord, are given a certain amount of vocal dollars a day before we just don't have any more left, and that's when we lose our voices. So I've got some really big power singers, like some singers who are doing some amazing things and in front of a lot of people, and one of them, her name's Lauren Lott and she's been in movies, she's done Broadway, she's been on American Idol, she's doing all of the things right. Amazing power singer. Grew up in church singing classically, trained and then it's been with me for over a decade now, and when I trained, started training Lauren, I said I'm gonna make sure you can sing till you're 70. And because she was singing great, but some of the ways that she was producing that great sound and it was great it was costing her a lot of vocal dollars. And so there are some specific ways to be stingy, and I'm talking about like clipping coupons and saving nickels and dime tier that add up to a lot of money at the end of the day, in the long run.
Speaker 10:We like to be frugal, so one of the ways I do that is by taking someone's song, how they sing it, and I will. I'll listen to them, I'll see how they sing, I'll listen to how they're singing and I know intrinsically this is what's costing you a lot in this song, and it's most of the time the high notes or notes that are on closed mouth vowels or that have a lot of consonants, and so all I do is I say, all right, based on what I know about the singer, like Lauren's a big belter, so I'll use her voice for an example. I'm like I'm not gonna try to get you to change registers here. We're not gonna save the vocal dollars that way, but what I am gonna do is I'm gonna manipulate the integrity of that vowel that's on an IH or an E and I'm gonna have you think that vowel, but I'm gonna have you sing something totally different with your mouth because you need more space, because another terrorism is that any extreme note, high or low, needs more space and support.
Speaker 10:Space and support are the two S's in which all sound stands upon Space for your mouth, support for your abs. So if we have one without the other, it's like a kink in a hose a lot of pressure on one side, limp on the other, strain, and this is where the kink is. So in order to alleviate that, you have to create equal amounts of both of the S's, and usually on those notes it's a lack of one, and if, for instance, it's on a bad vowel, it's a lack of space, because in order to say the word, you think you have to close your mouth, but you don't. So changing the integrity of vowels. Saving those vocal dollars buy nickels and dimes and pennies. Sometimes you get a good dollar in there, but over time, just like a savings account, you have put away so much money for vocal dollars and that is literally your savings bank for longevity. When you sing, you're using those dollars that you never used in your younger years to carry you through to the end, because you're singing smarter, not harder.
Speaker 2:Smarter, not harder.
Speaker 2:That is so key, and the more you know your body, the more you know what you can and cannot do. I was reminded, as you guys were speaking, of a choir that I've worked with in the past, many years ago, and then later was called back to do a reunion choir and to meet some of those people and to hear them say, hey well, we're not what we used to be, or I'm not the vocalist I used to be. What I discovered is, as they sat between other people, muscle memory began to kick in and they start tuning into the people around them who were vocally depositing, if you will, vocal dollars, and they were learning new methods which to sing some of the same notes that they used to sing and thought they were just too old to sing. Now, confidence was beginning to build up as they sang more. So confidence is another significant piece in all of your singing ability, especially for longevity or doing things perhaps that you once used to do when you were younger and you feel like you can't do any more. Confidence is everything 100%, 100%.
Speaker 10:It's conditioning. You don't use it the right way. You do see the where, but it's just like a body. I mean, our voice is a muscle, so you think about it, you don't work out, you get what you get. You know what I mean, and the way you take care of yourself is a direct correlation with how you look, how you feel later. And the voice is a muscle not different than any other muscle in our bodies. And it in relation to its care will also show it's where.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, All right, our next question is gonna require a little demonstration from you. Yeah, this person is asking can you demonstrate?
Speaker 10:a glissando, A glissando well, yeah, yeah, I mean Piana would do it better. I can't go all the way up but yeah, I mean okay, Well, you know what?
Speaker 2:My guess is that they're asking because they're not sure what it is, or they're not sure how to do it effectively.
Speaker 10:Well, okay, I mean that's yeah. I mean it's not like the prettiest question to answer Vocally. A glissando is simply like if I took my finger on the keys and I went like all the way up and then went all the way down, that's a glissando, I think. I mean I can do that, but I think like something better would be probably a little more impressive.
Speaker 5:But a glissando well please.
Speaker 7:Did you hear that?
Speaker 2:Yep, we got it. The microphone does this little thing at the top.
Speaker 10:It compresses it, but it does that on Zoom and I don't do Zoom anymore because of that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it compresses the audio, but we got the gliss of it. Now demonstrate for our listeners a Z-Zall Z practice in a glissando. Can you do that? Yes, because she did mention one, five one.
Speaker 3:So yeah, for sure.
Speaker 10:Just like what the gentleman was asking. Like I would probably slide up and down to it. That is exact. Like it's a layman's terminology, for I would glissando up and down to it. It's just a slide and the context of the slide starts and ends with parameters of one, five and one.
Speaker 2:Great, there you go. Now for our listeners who don't know what we mean by one, five, one, we're referring to the major scale. There are eight notes in a major scale. Do we mean Falsa Latido, or one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight? And she just did the Z-Zall practice, singing the one through the five in a glissando. Okay, so that's a one, that's a five.
Speaker 10:Or if it's solfege, then it's do so do. If you know solfege it would be do so, do Right right.
Speaker 2:All right, let's get to the next question. Tara, you have a pretty wide range. What is the highest note you can sing and the lowest note you can sing?
Speaker 10:If I demonstrate, I most certainly will blip out Zoom, but I might have to stand outside my highest these days. So I have a whistle register which is an extension of head voice. For those of you who don't know, I'm a classically trained coloratura, which is the chick who sings the. She sings that in Queen of the Night and that's like my favorite song to sing. Did I clip out there or did you hear it so annoying Anyway. So if I demonstrate, you certainly won't hear it because it's higher than that.
Speaker 10:But I'd say I've gotten up to a C above high C before, like ish, it's not cute, but it's kind of there, and I'd say my sing-. When I say singable notes, though, I mean a note that I would be comfortable singing in front of people, not an exercise. So there's one thing to exercise up to a note, and what I do is I take that note that I'm like screeching and making sound at, and I back it down by at least a semitone, which is one half step or two, which would be a whole step. So let's say that you know, today my singable note is an A. That means that I'm up to, you know, a B above high C that day. So that's kind of how I always gauge it, Like what's one kind of one half step or one whole step below the highest exercise note that I'm doing. Sometimes it changes Like sometimes they get up to see them again, Awesome day. And then sometimes I'm like, yeah, that A is about what we got today.
Speaker 2:Let's listen to this demonstration from your YouTube page.
Speaker 10:Oh, let me show you right now, without warming up this morning. Oh, I would say B3 is my low, I'm just tongue and note, except for that one. And now let's see, um, that is C7. Wait, let's see C7. So I got one, two, four octaves.
Speaker 3:Well, the video gives you a pretty good idea of her range.
Speaker 2:Vocal range is about four octaves. Next question is from someone here in our virtual audience.
Speaker 8:I have a quick question. Winter is coming, the air is getting drier. Yes, suggestions Taking care of our voice.
Speaker 10:Yes, well, the water thing is a big deal, especially in the winter, because when we turn on the heat in our homes it's extremely dehydrated. I mean you can feel it in your skin, even like your lips when you wake up, you know. So I would add 50% to your water and take during the wintertime For sure. And I also really like humidifiers in the house. If you like, um, if you're like an essential oil girl like me, you can also do those in different rooms. But humidifiers are really like my go to in the winter for adding moisture, because it it's like the silent killer. No one really. They're like oh, I'm so dry Like my voice. Is this not what it used to be? Or I'm sick and it's just the winter? But really it has so much to do with dehydration that you don't even know, Cause it's a slow growth.
Speaker 10:It's a slow, slow, slow, slow, slow, slow, slow, slow, slow. It's a slow growth. It's a slow growth into how much heat you have in your house, for how long and how much dryness comes. So that would be one Um, I, if I'm in like cold, like when I lived in New York city, you would not catch me in the winter without a scarf around my neck. There's something about keeping your neck warm. I swear it must be scientific. If it's not, it should be, because when I wear a scarf around, is it okay?
Speaker 3:When I wear a scarf around my neck.
Speaker 10:Um, it keeps. It keeps me from really getting sick, like I think it's because there's just so much blood passing through your neck and your carotid arteries are not, you know. It's just such a big epicenter of flow that when you keep that warm I really feel like it's literally protecting my larynx when I wear a scarf. So those two things that like the easiest things you can do. But I would say the most important is increasing your water and take by 50%. And if you still feel dry out of humidifier because the voice needs moisture, think about it. You're rubbing two tiny little folds together at the speed of a hummingbird's wings and that's friction, and if it's dry it's like sandpaper. There's no lubrication there whatsoever. So the more lubricated you can keep your folds, the healthier they'll be during the winter.
Speaker 2:So once again, you're hearing the importance and the value of proper hydration, particularly during the winter months when the heat is up. You heard that also from Dr Catherine Hall previously on this podcast and in previous episodes as well, so take heed to that information. All right, here's another question from our virtual audience. I think this is David.
Speaker 6:Can I ask one question? Yes, sir, I feel like we're in a real age of imitation, where people, especially young singers, teenagers even. You know they're idolizing a particular sound and they tried to reproduce that rather than you know learn what their own voice sounds like and they're kind of afraid, maybe even of what their own voice sounds like. I just wondered about your thoughts on that.
Speaker 10:You're a good question asker.
Speaker 6:I'm married to a choir director and a singer. I love that.
Speaker 10:No, I'm so here for it. So actually, that is the topic that I'm extremely passionate about, so much so that I created a four week course called Voice On. That is. Its only purpose in the four weeks is to help you find your own unique sound, and I developed this mechanism within the course, called a unique sound blueprint, and it's basically a series of questions and answers that forces you to categorize how you feel your voice sounds, how you would like it to sound, in tangible ways that are written on paper, and the reason why people imitate is because they cannot put their finger on what their capabilities of sounding like are and what they want them to become. So they end up saying, well, I just want to sound like Mariah Kerry. No, you don't.
Speaker 10:What you really want to be able to do is riff and run. You want to be able to do vocal cries and you want to be able to belt and growl. Those are the four things that you really want to do. So when you stop saying I want to sound like this person, which is an overall, generalized classification, and when you go through this vocal blueprint that forces you to characterize, in specific ways and attributes, the way you want your voice to be capable of producing sound, then I can work with that. You want to be able to riff and run Okay, sure, let's do that.
Speaker 10:You want to be able to learn vocal cries and vocal growls. You want to be able to belt. Now, you are not Mariah Kerry and God did not make you Mariah Kerry. There's only one of you. So you're going to do those things that you love hearing her do in the context of your voice and that, my friend, is your unique sound, and you're not then following or chasing after a name or an image or a sound that you think is awesome because it's been made famous. You're chasing after the vocal attributes that you respect, admire and want to emulate out of that singer and you're putting those into your voice.
Speaker 2:Such a good question and answer, and a pivotal one when you consider the music time in which we live. The history of music is just so different. I think we need to also point out the fact that we're all originals. We're all born originals, but so many die copycats and they spend a lot of time emulating, like you said, tara, sounds that they've heard, and I don't think we're all guilty of it to some extent. But when it's an intentional act and you're not trying to find your own voice, then you are just a carbon Copy of something else, and I don't think we have a lot of room for carbon copies today. I don't either.
Speaker 2:All right, now we're going to get into some live demonstration and you're going to give some tips to some brave singers who are on the call Now. I say this often that I don't believe you have to have the greatest voice in order to make a joyful noise. Scripture says to make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands to serve them with gladness, and the primary way that we do that is through our voices. So we're going to transition now and we've got some brave people in our virtual audience who are going to sing for you and allow you to give them some tips, some pointers and critique. Now, I didn't mention this earlier, but we've got some cool prizes to those who participate.
Speaker 2:Motivation, ha ha, motivation. But before I give it to Tara, let me point out one thing, and that is that the platform that we're using may not be conducive to singing live or singing loud. So if you hear some dropouts doing the singing, just know that it's because the platform is not necessarily conducive to singing live or singing loud. For that matter, we're going to be switching platforms in a few weeks and that's going to make playing and singing live here in the choir room a lot more pleasant. All right, so let's go to. Actually, I'm going to give it to you, tara, okay.
Speaker 10:Well, okay, so I kind of had it. Because this is noon, right, and everybody is staying muted, I figured we would. We would do a little, a little, a little bit of a singing. What would be your opinion on that? And if I had a chance to do that, I would do a little amazing grace thing off, because I figured everybody knows that song and it would be an easy way for me to help, like, fix any problems that anybody comes on and wants to work on.
Speaker 3:So I really literally just need the first line In any key. You want it to be Amazing grace, all right, like me.
Speaker 10:So hopefully you heard that If you could just do that much, anybody who wants to come on you can. I'm going to call this the Sing Better In Second. So I have this little episode, this original series, on my YouTube channel called Sing Better In Seconds, and I've literally gone all over the world and I go to random places and talk to random people on the streets who usually turn me down at first and I say, hey, I'm going to teach you how to sing better in seconds.
Speaker 10:I know you can, I'm going to prove it. And they sing a line. I give them a few tips and tricks and then they sing it again and the audience on YouTube decides that they sing it better in seconds. They always sing better in seconds. So I can do the same thing for you guys here and anybody that wants to start. Just put your hand up or unmute yourself. You sing it first. You sing the one phrase as you are, give you a few tips and tricks, and then you sing it again.
Speaker 3:Welcome to the choir room.
Speaker 10:I'm going to call Alan. I'm calling you out. I see that face. Look at your face. I see I'm calling you out, Alan. Unmute yourself, sir. Show yourself OK.
Speaker 3:All right, so let me take another sip of water. We're talking about hydration.
Speaker 10:There you go. We've been talking about it a lot. Any key you want.
Speaker 3:Amazing grace. How sweet the sound that sings Orange like me, yes.
Speaker 10:Give him a hand, everybody. Good job, alan. Very good, first of all, super courageous, and I know I'm super scary, so I know you're nervous and you did a really good job. So, alan, you've got a really nice vibrato. By the way, really love the sound and the speed of your vibrato. It's really beautiful, very relaxing, and I like this. I like the tone of your voice too. You've got really good pitch. You didn't go off pitch or anything like that.
Speaker 10:I want to work with you on your space, because your sound is being a little bit inhibited and going back into yourself, because you're not capitalizing on your moments that you could be opening up. For example, if you're saying I'm going to go on off to fire because I'm a girl, amazing grace, how sweet. The sound. Very close Also, by the way. So I know if you have an accent, that's something else to get through. If you've got a southern accent and you kind of go wide instead of go long high, coleman, yeah, that's something you've got to keep off when you're singing, because that's not the move. You've got an Emmy country. That's a different story, but we're not doing that right now. So, alan, can I make a blanket statement to you that if you sing the song and you're looking in your mind's eye at the lyrics, like you're doing karaoke across the screen, can you see those lyrics in your mind's eye? I want you to see this. Ok, as you sing it this time, I want you to see the lyrics and I want you to either change the color or make capitalized the vowels as the lyrics scroll, so, like amazing grace, any vowel that you see. I want you to drop your jaw, like at least 50% more for me, and maybe even 100% more.
Speaker 10:If you're that person who sort of dips their toe in the water and is apprehensive to do big things, and go for it, because I want the sound T-H-A-H, the sound that saved S-A-H-V-E-D, ah, wretch, not wretch, wretch like me. Yeah, OK, so it's the vowel openness for me. And then there's one other thing At the top, at the last note, remember an extreme no higher loonies, more space, and this is what I was talking about. By the way, you're singing E. I hate E On the closed mouth, so we need to think E in our mind, but I really want you to say E.
Speaker 10:So if I can give you an analogy of an egg, this is my favorite analogy for E think of the egg as the yolk and the white right. The E is the yolk right, it's the yellow part, but there is a U that's wrapping around as the egg white of that E and instead of it's me, it's me. So watch what happens with my mouth when I change from straight E to E with a U wrapped around it. Be yes, ok, there's that U in it and it allows more space, it allows more forward of a sound, it takes away that nasality and that tinny brightness and it gives it more character, it gives it more depth. So I'd like you to two things. You're not even needing three tips. All right, two tips Big mouth, long on the vowels, and you're changing that E for E when you sing the me.
Speaker 3:Ok, OK, more pressure, all right.
Speaker 10:No pressure.
Speaker 3:OK.
Speaker 10:Just do your best. Think of those vowels, drop the jaw any chance you get for space. That's your goal. And then A at the end.
Speaker 3:Amazing grace Got that jaw. How sweet the sound.
Speaker 10:Stop right there, Alan. First of all, I love that you have more vibrato, but I'm not letting you get away with the the again.
Speaker 7:The sound.
Speaker 3:The, the, the sound, the sound. Give me the sound.
Speaker 10:Yes, that one.
Speaker 3:Start from the top, stop from the top. Don't forget my the. You're going to stop again. Amazing grace, how sweet the sound. Better, that's it. Oh, rich, we got you Like me. Oh yeah. Yes.
Speaker 10:That's it. Yes, that E was beautiful, beautiful. Good job, alan Guys. Did he sing better in seconds? He did Good job, alan, thank you.
Speaker 8:Oh Carol, hi Carol, I'm nervous, let's go. Carol, you got this Amazing grace.
Speaker 3:How sweet the sound that's it oh rich Love.
Speaker 10:Oh, good job. So I lost you on that last note because of zoom, but that just tells me that your placement was really beautiful. I heard every other note. Carol is the perfect example of someone who knows exactly how to sing. I love that. I love that.
Speaker 8:It was beautiful, it was intentional. You have great vibrato. Carol Huh. Thank you, Elizabeth. Elizabeth, who's Elizabeth You're?
Speaker 1:my vocal teacher. I don't see her there she is. Hi, hello, carol didn't know she could sing and we were in her living room one day and she was doing day care for our and this voice came out of her, seeing how great they are. And ever since then that was 30 something years ago and we saw that she had this annoying thing on her voice. It was amazing.
Speaker 10:I love that story, thank you for sharing.
Speaker 8:Oh, it's nice to see you. I love that. What a great moment. Okay, let's stop from scratch now.
Speaker 10:Okay, Carol, we're going to, we're going to take a really big risk with you, and it's only because I know now that you've been coached. So he just made your life a lot harder, but it's going to be good. So you're a head voice singer. That's where you want to go, that's where you want to be, it's where you're comfortable, right? Do you sing in your chest voice at all?
Speaker 8:Um, I try, because I am in the choir and we sing a lot of those beltie songs which I'm careful on. So I don't go horse Sure. So I yeah, I don't want to strain my voice, but I'm more comfortable in the upper totally.
Speaker 10:And I'm not. I'm not saying that that's bad. I love singing in my head voice. In fact, I find it way easier, like it's a lot less heavy lifting for me. Um, however, I, just just for the fun and the sake, this exercise I would like to challenge you at, because your head voice is already so lovely and you have great vibrato, and I just want to tell you I'm going to sing a little bit of the song, I'm going to stand up a little bit and to stretch out our rubber band a little bit. Um, why don't we change the key a little lower? And I'd like you to see what it feels like in your chest voice, and I'd like it. I'm okay, um, okay, you don't have anything with you and I don't either.
Speaker 10:But let's pretend that you are a ball player, and when you sing Every downbeat, I want you to just pretend like you're chucking a ball Okay, as far as you can away from you, like a next door neighbor across the street type of thing and I want you to use your abs and your force forward to chuck that ball forward, okay, especially when you go up to the me Big, big Chuck, okay. And and I want you to start low, like it doesn't have to be a show off of range here, cause we already know you can sing high or singing in your head voice, so that's okay. So if you're not that high, you can hear this somewhere low that you're comfortably in your chest voice with like maybe, yeah, oh yeah.
Speaker 8:Yeah, let's try there. Oh, oh Me Stingra, how sweet, yes, the sound that, the sound that's here, oh, real, like me, yeah.
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 10:Carol, you know what you did so beautifully that I'm so proud of you. And Nate Lee did what I was talking about by changing the integrity of those vowels. You've been trained by a good woman over there to change that E to an A when you're singing up in chest Exactly what I would have done if you wouldn't have already done it yourself. So good.
Speaker 8:Yes, thank you for your help. Thank you, I'm so proud of you.
Speaker 10:Yeah, you've done that, yeah, don't be scared of your chest, but also to not hurt yourself. You're scared of straining and hurting yourself. Yeah, if you engage your abs like you're doing a crunch or like you're doing a plank on the floor, or even like a Pilates lead, like you're making a V with your body on the floor and you hold that, or even like when you're lifting up something and you're trying to lift something heavy and you lift with your legs and not your back, it's that abdominal crunch that makes it really almost 99.9% impossible for you to hurt your voice. When you're supporting that much, I sense a little bit of like ab fatigue in the middle part of it, and it's because it's a different need for ab support when you're singing in head voice versus chest. There is no forgiveness in chest voice range for that. There is grace in head voice. So when you practice chest, just make sure you're really engaging your abs, because that's when, if you feel tired, it will occur.
Speaker 8:Okay, thank you so much. You're welcome. Good job, dude very brave.
Speaker 2:Brave indeed. All right, we have another Veronica, go for it.
Speaker 10:I'll try. I'm very nervous, I know it's the worst. The hardest is the first note, right, it's just like ripping that bandaid off. But you've got this, you're in a safe place. We're all rooting for you.
Speaker 3:Amazing grace. How sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me.
Speaker 10:Okay, give her a hand, give Veronica a hand. Okay, veronica, you have really nice vibrato and I can tell you're really nervous. I also feel like maybe, just maybe, you picked a key or a spot in your voice that was maybe on a break, because I heard your voice trying to decide, as you were singing through that melodic line, where it's going to be. I heard a little bit of chest, I heard a little bit ahead, I heard a little bit of mix and then, as you went up top, your voice finally decided because it got high enough for it to be able to definitively decide. I also see a lot of jaw tension.
Speaker 1:It's a little bit yeah, I have lupus and stuff. I have a lot of lupus and stuff going on.
Speaker 10:I don't know what inflammation and whatever yes, an inflammation with lupus. It can really happen anywhere, right? Yes, and it can affect in different places. So when you feel like inflamed or there's a flare up, be aware of that. When you're singing in your jaw and if you feel inflamed there, there is actually a free video that I made in a tutorial on my channel. It's a singing through sickness tutorial and I do this facial massage that you can walk through and it can, as you work through massaging the sides of your musculature on your mandible right here.
Speaker 10:It can help get any of that lactic acid that can sometimes cause that inflammation and massage it away and out and down into your lymphatic drainage system and help you in that way, because I don't think you have a big like large, huge case of TMJ. I have a slight case on my right actually, or my right, this side, so I'm a little sensitive to that, but I felt like there was a little bit of resistance on that one side. So if you feel that clicking, I want you to use it as a safe spot. I want you to go to and past it, because what I'm seeing is a lot of amazing great, a lot of jaw tension here. So if we can just take out the words and not even do them at all and just sing on an ah ah all the way through to the top, and if we can start either lower or higher, I'll give you the choice.
Speaker 10:But I'd like to get out of this key and choose one that's more definitive in one register or the other. Can we do those two things? Do you want to go lower or higher?
Speaker 3:I guess it's a low. It'll be low, I guess it might be low, OK.
Speaker 10:So let's go low and let's go long with that on no moving. So I want you to put your fingers right here and when you drop your jaw they should fit into a hole right here, and I don't want them to get kicked out of that hole at all. Hold on.
Speaker 1:I'm holding my phone, so it's going to be kind of hard.
Speaker 3:OK, one finger stop.
Speaker 10:It'll do. One finger is good.
Speaker 3:Ah you.
Speaker 10:Okay, I lost you at the top. I lost you at the top because of Zoom. So I liked the beginning of that. You sounded a lot more locked into a register and I could hear the pretty tone in your voice a lot better because there was more space and your voice was able to just kind of develop as it spun, okay. But then you started to get a little again and you wanted to close off some. So we're going to do one more time, we're going to go a little lower, okay, still with the awe, but I want on the sound on. Ha, you went in the head voice and you don't need to there. You should be totally in chest and I know that you have a really nice rich tone in chest. I can hear it, just not really hear it again. So, ha, can you just do that for me? Ha, nice and big Ha, yeah, now. Now squeeze your abs, support the sound and don't let the vibrato be sputtery. Make it even waves.
Speaker 3:Ha Ha.
Speaker 10:That at the end, at the end. Okay, make the start just like the end. Put your hands on your stomach and put one hand here and actually you can't do both. Put one hand here and do this. I want you to self-conduct the vibrato waves evenly, not like this, but just ha and watch your finger. Ha, yes, good, now plug that back into the song. Start on that same pitch, ha.
Speaker 3:Hands, ha, ha Ha.
Speaker 10:Ha Chest voice.
Speaker 8:Ha.
Speaker 3:No zoom. Ha, Ha, ha Ha.
Speaker 2:Ha, it's starting to compress her again.
Speaker 10:I cannot hear your last note, ha.
Speaker 2:Well, I can tell you this much it's there. It's definitely there, and I can say that because I know her voice. It's been a long time since I've heard her sing, but that's good. I do believe that maybe a half step lower would have been fine A little bit lower. I feel the same way. I think she's right at that break.
Speaker 10:Right. Yeah, we certainly need to get it done, and then we make a quick video. We're still kind of riding a break. Veronica, what I usually say when people clip on zoom is that they're doing it right because you know it means that there's more tone and zoom can handle it. So you were clipping more and more as we went on.
Speaker 2:So I want to say that was very good job, veronica, thank you. Thank you. Great job and very brave of all of you to allow us to put you on the national spotlight, as it is somebody like Tara to critique and then give you some tips. So big round of applause to our guests and to Tara for being with us. All right, we have some gifts that we want to give away, courtesy of one of our sponsors, who desires to remain anonymous at the moment. I think they all deserve something.
Speaker 2:I think they do too, and we're going to arrange for each of them to have one of these two options A Sure SM58 microphone, one of the industry standards, or Time with Tara, and that time will be determined by Tara at a future date. So to Alan, carol and Veronica, thanks so much for participating. Be sure to let Angel know which of those two options you're choosing the microphone or Time with Tara. You can let Angel know that in the chat To the rest of you who've joined us in the virtual audience. We trust that you've learned a lot today from Catherine Hall.
Speaker 2:And as we do each week, from Dorian Johnson, mieta Stansel-Fararra and, of course, the fourth wheel, who'll be closing us out shortly with the front of the week? Coleman Smart, and what can I say? Tara Simon, thanks so much for joining us right here in the Choir Room.
Speaker 9:Coleman. Thanks so much, greg. It is October and I am already in the middle of Christmas. So that's just where my mind is right now. And if you are a Choir Director yourself, no matter what context that is, you're probably already thinking about Christmas. If not, you're probably already over Christmas. You've been there and you've been working on it for months. But that's where my mind is right now.
Speaker 9:So I've been thinking about the scripture, luke 2, verse 10. And the angel said unto them Fear not, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. Good tidings, great joy, all people. Well, what were these angels talking about? What were the good tidings that would bring great joy to all people? Well, in order to fully answer this question, you have to go all the way back to the beginning of the story. So journey thousands of years backwards with me to Genesis, chapter 3, verses 1 through 7.
Speaker 9:Say Now, the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made we're in the Garden of Eden, by the way. And he said to the woman has God indeed said, you shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said to the serpent. We may eat fruit of the trees of the garden, but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, god has said you shall not eat it or you shall not touch it lest you die. Then the serpent said to the woman you will not surely die, for God knows that in the day you eat it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food and it was pleasant to the eyes and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband, who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both of them were opened and they knew that they were naked and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings". So the serpent said you can be like God. You can be independent of Him, judging good and evil for yourself.
Speaker 9:I heard one person say once that this is like the fuel source for sin, feeling like we can be godly without God. Well, here's some news for us you can't. Not only is it impossible, but it causes us the greatest pain that we could imagine, which is separation from God being without His covering. Adam and Eve communed with God. I believe that they were clothed in His glory and when they sinned they lost the covering of God, which was His glory, and they realized they were naked. So they found fig leaves to try to cover their shame. It seems like a natural response to find something to cover yourself with, but it makes me wonder how silly it must have looked to heaven, or how silly it must look to heaven even now, when we try to clothe ourselves with the things other than the righteousness and the glory of God, things that we're not meant to clothe ourselves with, things that don't bear any fruit. But we are given a promise just a few verses later, verses 14 and 15 of Genesis.
Speaker 9:Chapter 3 says so. The Lord God said to the serpent Because you have done this, you are cursed more than all cattle and more than every beast of the field. On your belly you shall go and you shall eat dust all the days of your life and I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your seed and her seed. He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel. God said that the serpent would be cursed and would always basically be in pursuit of man, be after the good of man, trying to destroy man. Mankind and the woman in this passage becomes a metaphor for Israel. Let me read that again and I will put enmity between you and the woman, the woman. He's talking to Eve, but the woman metaphorically becomes Israel and Israel's seed as we go on. And between your seed and her seed, israel's seed is Christ. So let's read that again and I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your seed and her seed. He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel. So if Israel's seed is Christ, he's saying you will bruise his heel with nails upon a cross, but with the same feet that you nailed to the cross, he will crush your head.
Speaker 9:So go back to that question at the beginning Good tidings of great joy to all people. What are these tidings that we sing about, this great joy that we talk about? What is this joy to the world? Why is that night so holy that we sing about? Because of this right here, because this promise is being fulfilled. You will bruise his heel with nails. God said with nails upon a cross, but with the same feet that you nailed to the cross, he will crush your head.
Speaker 9:So, christ, the promise of Christ, these are the good tidings of great joy to all people that we're all so diligently working toward right now. Because, yeah, christmas is just around the corner and we're trying to create our plans and put our plans together, but sometimes we need to be reminded of the reason that it's the fulfillment of a promise of God, working through thousands of years of history to fulfill a promise that, like I said, that those heels, those feet that were bruised by the serpent, that they would crush the serpent's head. So this is my encouragement to you this week Don't get so caught up into the busyness of the season already, even though it's October and we're just planning that, we forget what it's all about and it's the fulfilled promise of Christ. Thanks, coleman.
Speaker 2:And remember, if ever we put the messenger before the message, we have failed to present an unblemished gospel. I'm Greg Thomas. Join us again right here next week in the choir room.
