Voices Of Fire - General Discussion

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Quote

Ezekiel Williams builds an inspiring, nontraditional gospel choir with the help of superstar nephew Pharrell.

Promo:

Original release date: 11/20/20

Edited December 25, 2020 by ElectricBoogaloo

[ElectricBoogaloo]

I love singing/choir songs so I was excited to see this pop up on Netflix. One thing I love about this show is that there are so many adults. I used to watch American Idol and at a certain point, I got a little tired of having so many singers in their late teens/early 20s. There are so many great singers who are over the age of 25, so it's great to see many so many older singers on this show. I was also really glad that they didn't show any joke auditions of bad singers so we could laugh at them.

I found it interesting that the judges only talked about having soprano, alto, and tenor sections. No bass section?

In my high school choir, we had a girl who sang with the tenor section. The semester that she joined, we had a dearth of boys so our director asked her to sing with the tenors to help bulk up the sound a bit. No one thought it was a big deal, so I really felt for the girl who auditioned and said that she was told in college she should be singing with the altos. But I also thought it was weird that the judges got so excited about her because what she sang was definitely within alto range. It's not like she was singing two octaves lower or something crazy! I think female singers often neglect their lower range these days so I love whenever I hear women sing below even a middle C these days. People always talk about Mariah Carey's whistle register, but she doesn't get enough props for her lower range!

I'm guessing that some viewers will be put off by all the sad back stories, but at least these are real back stories (my mom was murdered, my arm was amputated, I was born with only one ear) instead of the usual "omigawd, I was so pretty in high school so everyone hated me" kind of sob story.

Edited December 25, 2020 by ElectricBoogaloo

[ElectricBoogaloo]

I agreed with the judges keeping Maria over Jeannie as the final soprano. Marie had a very beautiful clear voice and her singing sounded very natural. Jeannie, on the other hand, sounded like she needed a lot more training, especially with her phrasing. She was inhaling audibly and she was doing it way too often which made me think she doesn't have enough breath control.  I was surprised that the judges liked Elana the 15 year old so much. I thought she sounded a bit forced. But since everyone we saw was pretty good, the judges were splitting hairs to cut people. I'm looking forward to hearing the choir sing together!

One thing that may be a problem in choosing a 75 member choir where everyone had a great solo voice is getting them to blend (particularly is they have a lot of people who haven't been in a choir before). Singers who are accustomed to singing solo get to do what they want, but when you sing in a group you can't just yell the song at the top of your lungs and throw in vocal runs wherever you feel like it. Being part of a choir means you have to blend and be synchronized, and that can be an issue for people who are not used to being part of a singing group.

The other issue that could be a problem is that with so many people in the choir, not everyone is going to get to sing solos and that may make some people upset. In a smaller choir, it's easier to spread out the solos but with 75 people it's just not possible to give everyone a chance to shine individually. When I was in choir, I was totally fine with singing harmonies and not being a soloist, but there are some people who are super competitive and think they deserve to sing solos. Hopefully this choir won't have 75 people with that attitude or there will be jealousy and squabbling.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

I was trying to figure out why they originally said there would be 75 people in the choir, they chose 75 people, and then they said they were making more cuts. Did they change their minds or was this all for the sake of (extremely unnecessary) ~drama~?

What I found interesting in the first three episodes is that because this is a choir, they will be expected to sing in harmony but all they asked the singers to do was sing solos. Some people who are great singers can't sing harmonies because they're so used to only singing the melody. And some people are so used to doing their own thing ("He was bebopping and scatting all over me" - George Costanza) that they don't like being reined in (aka they don't like that they can't unleash their melisma whenever they feel like it). And there are some great soloists who are so used to doing whatever they want in terms of flourishes that they aren't used to staying on a note and sustaining it, which ends up making the harmonies sound bad. Singers who aren't used to singing in a choir don't always know how to listen to others and blend. The perfect example is the group numbers on American Idol. They always sound like a bunch of caterwauling cats to me because instead of trying to blend, every person on the stage is screeching the song at the top of their lungs. That's why I would have included trios singing in harmony as part of the audition. I need to know that you can sing your own part without relying on the other people in your section and that you can blend.

I loved seeing how excited Danlie's mom was when she found out that Danlie got to meet Pharrell.

It was nice to see Jordan helping Marcus with his upper range (rather than having that competitive reality show mentality of "he's my competition so I'm not going to help him").

I was glad that they finally did some cuts by singing in small groups. If they had done this earlier, they could avoided this so late in the game.

One thing I hated was when the choir guy telling someone not to cry. As a choir director, do what you need to do, but don't dictate how someone reacts to being cut. Crying is an involuntary response. She was disappointed. There's no need for you to try to control her emotional response like that. If her crying makes you feel bad, that's on YOU.

I also didn't like that he was going to cut Jordan and he relented because Jordan put up a fight. I don't care how much you want this. If you aren't up to snuff, that's it. Why should you get more time to try to prove yourself when other people have already been cut? You should have already proven yourself.

Elana has no excuse for not knowing the words. I give her more of a pass for pitch since she is missing an ear, but she could have memorized the words.  But I give her props for wrangling private lessons from Peggy Britt!

Tilden and Brennen seem like a novelty. If they weren't twins, I don't think they would have made the top 75. They aren't bad singers by any means, but they also aren't amazing. They aren't even great. They're passable. They aren't flat, but that's it. Don't get me wrong - every choir needs singers like that who are competent and reliable, but I don't know that they were in the top 75 who auditioned.