How to sing on kliros
To begin with, let's look at what a kliros is. From ancient Greek - kliros is translated as - lot, possession. These are places located in an Orthodox church, where singers and readers are located during worship. Along the iconostasis, on both sides, there is an elevation called the solea. Along the edges of the salt, there are choirs for reciters and choirs. The main notes on the "Kliros" are the notes of liturgical hymns.
In order to learn to sing on the kliros, it is not enough to know prayer, vocal musical skills or musical notation. It is necessary to learn not only the voices of church hymns, but also to understand the essence of the church service.
Voices is an Orthodox chant, consisting of eight frets, you can say the "standard" for performance.
There are several types of voices: troparion; stichera; prokimen.
And for each of them, different tunes are set so that the singing is competent, in accordance with the pronunciation of the texts and their musical arrangement. And if you have set yourself the goal of learning to sing on the kliros, you need to know not only the voices by count, but also their types.
Learning to sing in the kliros is not easy, you have to practice long chants every day. Listening to one or another tune of the voice, sing to yourself, and then start learning your part. You can use video or audio lessons, then, without the included audio or video material, start singing, reading notes, correctly reproducing sounds.
You can also arrange individual lessons with an experienced teacher who will explain the mistakes and suggest ways to correct them.
To get started, use:
- literature written in Church Slavonic (Psalter (book of psalms), Bible, prayer book)
- notes of chants (it is advisable to immediately learn the melody of the temple where you are going to sing on the kliros).
- a voice recorder on which you can record your performance or the general sound of the choir, you can later play back the recording, rehearse, and correct emerging flaws.
- computer, use the Internet, where you will find a lot of materials on how to learn to sing on the kliros.
The main thing is the desire to learn to sing on the kliros, and you can use your skills and abilities in any Orthodox church.
