--- title: Singing, choirs and talent shows — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Singing, choirs and talent shows», a lesson of the arts course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: Your voice is an instrument you carry everywhere: breath from the lungs makes the vocal folds in your throat shake, and steady breath, not s --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/arts/8-singing-choirs-and-talent-shows/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [Arts](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/arts/) / Singing, choirs and talent shows # Singing, choirs and talent shows Lesson 8 of the arts course of Mova's primary school: 17 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: [the lesson at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/arts/8-singing-choirs-and-talent-shows/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/arts/8-singing-choirs-and-talent-shows/0/) — Your voice is an instrument you carry everywhere: breath from the lungs makes the vocal folds in your throat shake, and steady breath, not shouting, is what makes a voice strong and in tune. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/arts/8-singing-choirs-and-talent-shows/1/) — Singers warm up with humming and lip trills (blowing "brrrr" through loose lips) so the voice works without strain; it looks like a stable of horses, but professionals do it before every show. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/arts/8-singing-choirs-and-talent-shows/2/) — A choir often splits into parts singing different notes at once, called harmony, so a different note is not always a mistake; picture the high voices, the low voices and the middle voices fitting together like layers of a cake. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/arts/8-singing-choirs-and-talent-shows/3/) — Most people who think they are "tone deaf" just have not practised; real tone deafness is rare, nerves make even good voices shake, and a sore throat needs rest, not a big push. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/arts/8-singing-choirs-and-talent-shows/4/) — Scots say "cannae" for can't, "lassies" for girls, "dinnae greet" for don't cry, "braw" for great and "hen" for dear; in Northern Ireland a "header" is a wild or mad person, and in Wales "lush" means lovely. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/arts/8-singing-choirs-and-talent-shows/5/) — Nerves make breath short and the voice shaky, even in good singers; slow breathing before singing helps calm the voice. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/arts/8-singing-choirs-and-talent-shows/6/) — Many boys sing very high before their voices change; cathedral choirs have high voices called trebles, and boys' voices usually drop in the teenage years. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/arts/8-singing-choirs-and-talent-shows/7/) — Warm-ups such as lip trills and humming help the breath and the voice muscles work without strain. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/arts/8-singing-choirs-and-talent-shows/8/) — TV talent shows are edited to be dramatic, so harsh comments and tears are often shown more because they get more viewers. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/arts/8-singing-choirs-and-talent-shows/9/) — The diaphragm is a big muscle under the lungs that helps you breathe in; "singing from the diaphragm" means steady breath support, not shouting. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/arts/8-singing-choirs-and-talent-shows/10/) — True tone deafness, called amusia, is reported to be rare; most people can learn to sing in tune much better with practice. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/arts/8-singing-choirs-and-talent-shows/11/) — Harmony means singing different notes at the same time that sound good together. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/arts/8-singing-choirs-and-talent-shows/12/) — Singing styles differ around the world: Chinese folk and opera singing, Ukrainian folk singing and Western pop use the voice in different ways. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/arts/8-singing-choirs-and-talent-shows/13/) — Lip-syncing means moving your lips to a recording instead of singing live; there have been reported cases of famous singers lip-syncing at big events, and people argue whether it is cheating or a sensible way to protect a big show from going wrong. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/arts/8-singing-choirs-and-talent-shows/14/) — Singing with a sore throat can strain the voice and make it worse; singers rest, drink water and avoid shouting. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/arts/8-singing-choirs-and-talent-shows/15/) — Feelings after a performance can be big and mixed, and feeling bad does not prove you sang badly. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/arts/8-singing-choirs-and-talent-shows/16/) — Vibrato is a controlled wobble in the voice that singers use on purpose, different from a nervous shake. - ← previous: [How a song is made: writing, recording, producing](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/arts/7-how-a-song-is-made-writing-recording-producing/) - next →: [Instrument families: strings, wind, brass, percussion, keys](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/arts/9-instrument-families-strings-wind-brass-percussion-keys/) - ↑ back to [Arts](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/arts/)