Music/Cantor Question

[rlriehn85]

Cantors in our parish go to the ambo to sing the Psalm. We are very far from the piano, and even with a mic on the piano, it is still hard to sing and hear it because of the delay and volume. Is there a way to get one of those ear pieces they use at concerts so the piano is literally playing in our ear? Or is that not what they are for? I don’t know if turning up the mic would really help or not. The one on the ambo is quite loud. Some of our “full voice” cantors have to stand about a foot and a half away from it to make it sound normal. The priest’s mic and ambo mic are on one sound board and the choir loft is on another.

 

[superamazingman]

Cantors in our parish go to the ambo to sing the Psalm. We are very far from the piano, and even with a mic on the piano, it is still hard to sing and hear it because of the delay and volume. Is there a way to get one of those ear pieces they use at concerts so the piano is literally playing in our ear? Or is that not what they are for? I don’t know if turning up the mic would really help or not. The one on the ambo is quite loud. Some of our “full voice” cantors have to stand about a foot and a half away from it to make it sound normal. The priest’s mic and ambo mic are on one sound board and the choir loft is on another.

Yes, it’s technically possible, if that’s what you’re asking.

 

[Sarabande]

Cantors in our parish go to the ambo to sing the Psalm. We are very far from the piano, and even with a mic on the piano, it is still hard to sing and hear it because of the delay and volume. Is there a way to get one of those ear pieces they use at concerts so the piano is literally playing in our ear? Or is that not what they are for? I don’t know if turning up the mic would really help or not. The one on the ambo is quite loud. Some of our “full voice” cantors have to stand about a foot and a half away from it to make it sound normal. The priest’s mic and ambo mic are on one sound board and the choir loft is on another.

I don’t know about the ear pieces, so can’t answer that question. Perhaps they could set up a speaker near you that will amplify the piano a bit?

I completely sympathise with you about delay issue. Most of the parishes I work in use an organ which is often located in the choir loft all the way in the back of the church. At some of the places the delay is pretty big, so we’ve had to compensate by lots of practice to learn how to basically go against our musical instincts and either not sing with (if you’re a cantor) or not play with (if you’re an organist) with each other. You have to literally be about a beat ahead of the each other to make it sound like we’re together in the congregation. Other places, you have to really count and keep a steady beat without slowing down or speeding up. It works pretty well. If the speaker or ear piece doesn’t work, I’d suggest maybe practicing that for the cantors and pianists at your church.

 

[Phemie]

Couldn’t the Psalm be sung a capella? That would take care of the problem without a complicated technical set-up.

 

[OraLabora]

Couldn’t the Psalm be sung a capella? That would take care of the problem without a complicated technical set-up.

I was thinking the same. Our Gregorian schola used to have an organist to accompany us. When he resigned, we had to go a cappella and our singing improved 200%, we had no choice but to perfect our technique.