Video transcript
2021 Primary Proms repertoire - 06. Supercalifragilistic - teaching tips

RACHEL KELLY: Hi, I'm Rachel Kelly. This video is part of a series on tips for conducting your choir. This well-known song from the musical Mary Poppins is mostly in unison, except for a little split between the sopranos and altos near the end. Now, don't get too hung up on the tempo marking at the beginning with that long, strange word. I'm sure if you stare at it for long enough, you will understand Ian Jefferson's hilarious joke there.

The time signature is a C with a line through it, which is cut common time. And it means exactly the same thing as 2-2, which is two beats in every bar, and each beat represents a minim. So, we conduct like this. Down, up, down, up 1, 2, 1, 2, (SINGING) supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.

And the reason we don't conduct the full crotchets in each bar is because it would be way too fast. We'd have to go like this - (SINGING) supercalifragilisticexpialidocious - which would be crazy. Something to listen out for right from the outset is sliding, especially at the end of this phrase, so (SINGING) expialidocious.

We really want to put a stop to that straight away. Try not to let it happen at all. It's really hard to fix it once a choir starts to do that. One method which you can try to fix it is to put a little gap in between the two notes they're sliding between, so you go (SINGING) expialido-cious. And then after a while of having that gap there, you try joining it up again and see if it's fixed.

Watch out for the chromatic notes at bar 19. So, it's (SINGING) supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, ex-pi-a-li-do-cious. Those small intervals can be really hard to sing at a fast speed. So, you might want to practise that bit in slow motion for a while until they get the hang of it.

We sing the um diddle part twice in a row at bar 21. But the second time, it's marked 'mp,' which means mezzo piano, which means moderately soft. So, we can remind them to do this with our conducting. We can make our conducting smaller. So, we go, (SINGING) um diddle iddle iddle um diddle ay, (SINGING MORE QUIETLY) um diddle iddle iddle um diddle ay.

Also, we go straight into the next verse there without a breath. So, it's, (SINGING) um diddle iddle iddle um diddle ay, because I was afraid to speak when I was just a lad, (SPEAKING) which isn't as hard as it seems because the tempo is so fast. When we go back into the chorus after the verse at bar 40, 41, this is another place to watch out for sliding. So, (SINGING) this is how it goes, (SLIDING) oh, super-- no, that is not how it goes. So, it should sound like this, (SINGING) this is how it goes, oh, super.

And because there are so many words in this song and it goes so fast, your singers really have to enunciate clearly and use their mouth, and their teeth, and their lips, and their tongue. So, you may want to do some warmups that focus on these things or that focus on consonants or some tongue twisters before you tackle this song. And then at bar 61, we're instructed to be posh because we're singing about being very clever and meeting lots of important people. So, we have to be very clear here. (SINGING) I travelled all around the world and everywhere I went.

Then at bar 77, we're extra smooth for this chorus, indicated by the word 'legato,' which means smooth and connected. So, we sing (SINGING) supercalifragilisticexpialidocious (SPEAKING) with no sliding. And you could get them to imagine that the word is a big piece of chewing gum that they're stretching out of their mouth, (SINGING) supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. And then at bar 97, we've got some extra um diddles as we go up a key. So, from bar 93, we sing, (SINGING) um diddle iddle iddle um diddle ay, um diddle iddle iddle um diddle ay, um diddle iddle iddle um diddle ay, um diddle iddle iddle um diddle ay, so when the cat has got your tongue.

There's a molto rit at bar 114 where it pulls back a lot. 'Molto rit' means slow down a lot. And then at bar 117, there's a big piano chord that gets louder. Then at 118, we're back in 2 for the faster tempo. And then we bring the choir in at 119.

So, I'll show you from 112 how you could conduct that. So, it's (SINGING) one night I said to me girl, and now me girl's me wife, piano. (SPEAKING) 1, 2, (SINGING) supercalifragilistic.

At bar 127, we get faster, little by little, which is what 'accel poco a poco' means. Just make sure everyone's watching you here and you're very clear with your speed up. Otherwise, it could become a runaway train.

At bar 131, this is where it splits between the sopranos and the altos. So, we cue the sopranos first. They should always be on your left. So, you go, (SINGING) supercalifragilistic.

Then you turn to the altos, who should always be on your right, (SINGING) supercalifragilistic. Then they're together, which is what 'tutti' means. And this is augmenting the rhythm here. So, it's twice as slow and matches the beats of your conducting, (SINGING) super-cali-fragil-istic.

Look carefully at where the rests come in this section because that's where you take a breath. So, it goes (SINGING) supercalifragilistic-ex-pi-a-li-do-cious. And for the final 'docious' right at the end as they sing that last word and the piano plays the last chord, you can do a theatrical cutoff, something like this, (SINGING) supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.