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suppose that a new chazzan like me were to come to your regular minyan to daven: what would you like such a chazzan to know? What general advice would you give to such a chazzan? Meta-advice: par...
Answer
#2: Post edited
by
Monica Cellio
·
2020-08-19T00:23:56Z (about 4 years ago)
- > suppose that a new chazzan like me were to come to your regular minyan to daven: what would you like such a chazzan to know? What general advice would you give to such a chazzan?
- Meta-advice: participate in the congregation and observe for a while before stepping up to be a *chazzan* there. Every congregation and every *minyan* is a little different, and some things are best gleaned by observation:
- - Are there particular melodies they always do, or do they mix it up? How much do they sing, in general?
- - What's the pace? Are there parts of the service they spend more or less time on than you expected? Is everybody there trying to get through things efficiently before going to work, or is the pace more relaxed?
- - What about volume and articulation? As a congregant, can you hear every word, just the beginnings and endings of blocks, not even that? (If the articulation is poor I'm not saying you should emulate that! But if they are way toward the other end, you'd want to know that.)
- - To what extent, if any, do the other *chazzanim* give cues? What kind?
- - Who else besides the *chazzan* participates in the service, and how? (One *minyan* I used to attend always had somebody else lead the psalm of the day at the end of Shacharit, for example -- don't know why, but it was their custom. As a *chazzan* you probably wouldn't want to step on something like that unawares.)
- - Is there any optional content, like giving a short introduction to the *parsha* on torah-reading days? (Pay close attention; you're trying to balance honoring existing traditions and not being a burden by adding to them on your own initiative.)
- As a woman I've never been a *chazzan[it]* in a traditional *minyan*. But I've been one in liberal congregations. Granted, norms are different there; that's why I'm not giving specific advice. I learned most of what I know (there's also a ton I *don't* know, too!) not through any formal training but by carefully observing others, sometimes even discreetly timing things. When you are doing this you're being what I've heard called a "participant-observer"; you are there to fulfill your own obligations, of course, but you are *also* observing the nuances of how they run things, what's going on in the room (do people seem impatient, bored, engrossed in conversation?), and your own reactions. Think of yourself as running a multi-threaded application, both doing and listening/observing. If you need to record notes, do it as soon as possible after you leave.
- > suppose that a new chazzan like me were to come to your regular minyan to daven: what would you like such a chazzan to know? What general advice would you give to such a chazzan?
- Meta-advice: participate in the congregation and observe for a while before stepping up to be a *chazzan* there. Every congregation and every *minyan* is a little different, and some things are best gleaned by observation:
- - Are there particular melodies they always do, or do they mix it up? How much do they sing, in general?
- - What's the pace? Are there parts of the service they spend more or less time on than you expected? Is everybody there trying to get through things efficiently before going to work, or is the pace more relaxed?
- - What about volume and articulation? As a congregant, can you hear every word, just the beginnings and endings of blocks, not even that? (If the articulation is poor I'm not saying you should emulate that! But if they are way toward the other end, you'd want to know that.)
- - To what extent, if any, do the other *chazzanim* give cues? What kind?
- - Who else besides the *chazzan* participates in the service, and how? (One *minyan* I used to attend always had somebody else lead the psalm of the day at the end of Shacharit, for example -- don't know why, but it was their custom. As a *chazzan* you probably wouldn't want to step on something like that unawares.)
- - Is there any optional content, like giving a short introduction to the *parsha* on torah-reading days? (Pay close attention; you're trying to balance honoring existing traditions and not being a burden by adding to them on your own initiative.)
- As a woman I've never been a *chazzan[it]* in a traditional *minyan*. But I've been one in liberal congregations. Granted, norms are different there; that's why I'm not giving specific advice. I learned most of what I know (there's also a ton I *don't* know, too!) not through any formal training but by carefully observing others, sometimes even discreetly timing things. When you are doing this you're being what I've heard called a "participant-observer"; you are there to fulfill your own obligations, of course, but you are *also* observing the nuances of how they run things, what's going on in the room (do people seem impatient, bored, engrossed in conversation?), and your own reactions. Think of yourself as running a multi-threaded application, both doing and listening/observing. If you need to record notes, do it as soon as possible after you leave.
- You'll notice that I've said basically nothing about *t'filah* itself or any *halacha* issues. I assume you're proficient in the prayers themselves and can do passable renditions of whatever melodies you know. All that is necessary, but there's another layer of skills and perception on top of all that, and that's what I'm focusing on here. There's a *meta* to being a *chazzan*, too.
#1: Initial revision
by
Monica Cellio
·
2020-08-19T00:21:39Z (about 4 years ago)
> suppose that a new chazzan like me were to come to your regular minyan to daven: what would you like such a chazzan to know? What general advice would you give to such a chazzan? Meta-advice: participate in the congregation and observe for a while before stepping up to be a *chazzan* there. Every congregation and every *minyan* is a little different, and some things are best gleaned by observation: - Are there particular melodies they always do, or do they mix it up? How much do they sing, in general? - What's the pace? Are there parts of the service they spend more or less time on than you expected? Is everybody there trying to get through things efficiently before going to work, or is the pace more relaxed? - What about volume and articulation? As a congregant, can you hear every word, just the beginnings and endings of blocks, not even that? (If the articulation is poor I'm not saying you should emulate that! But if they are way toward the other end, you'd want to know that.) - To what extent, if any, do the other *chazzanim* give cues? What kind? - Who else besides the *chazzan* participates in the service, and how? (One *minyan* I used to attend always had somebody else lead the psalm of the day at the end of Shacharit, for example -- don't know why, but it was their custom. As a *chazzan* you probably wouldn't want to step on something like that unawares.) - Is there any optional content, like giving a short introduction to the *parsha* on torah-reading days? (Pay close attention; you're trying to balance honoring existing traditions and not being a burden by adding to them on your own initiative.) As a woman I've never been a *chazzan[it]* in a traditional *minyan*. But I've been one in liberal congregations. Granted, norms are different there; that's why I'm not giving specific advice. I learned most of what I know (there's also a ton I *don't* know, too!) not through any formal training but by carefully observing others, sometimes even discreetly timing things. When you are doing this you're being what I've heard called a "participant-observer"; you are there to fulfill your own obligations, of course, but you are *also* observing the nuances of how they run things, what's going on in the room (do people seem impatient, bored, engrossed in conversation?), and your own reactions. Think of yourself as running a multi-threaded application, both doing and listening/observing. If you need to record notes, do it as soon as possible after you leave.