Choir · vocal rehearsal · In active development · early access
A rehearsal room for every voice part — load the score, pick your part, and drill the passage in tempo.
Choir is a rehearsal surface for K-12 choral programs and community choirs: a director loads the score into the Musique engraver, each singer picks their voice part, and the surface centers that part on its SATB reference chord so the section hears exactly where they enter. The sectional cluster lets any section loop a passage, slow the tempo, and count in honestly before the downbeat. Choir is a tool singers and directors use with the music they already have — it does not write music for them, and there is no AI-generated harmony anywhere in it.
Choir is being built on the Musique suite. It is not yet generally available. This page describes what the rehearsal surface is and where it is going -- the honest next step is to ask about early access.
What Choir is
Every choral program runs on the same rehearsal physics: a director stops the group, isolates a section, plays the reference pitch, loops the measure, slows the tempo, and runs the passage until the section enters cleanly. The tools that surround that process have not always been built for it.
Choir is a rehearsal surface built specifically for the way choral sections actually work. The score lives in the Musique notation engraver — the same owned engraver that drives the wider music suite. A director loads a piece, and each singer can choose their voice part from a part selector that automatically centers the view on their line and shows the SATB reference chord for that section. The reference chord is the anchor: one look and a singer knows the interval they are entering on.
The sectional-rehearsal cluster gives the director three controls that matter most in a section rehearsal: a loop range that keeps the passage repeating across the selected measures, a practice tempo that slows the passage to the speed the section needs, and a count-in that plays the beat honestly before the entrance. The cluster is the same engine the rest of the Musique suite uses — Choir is its choral face.
Choir is in active development. What is described on this page is the surface’s design and the direction it is being built — not a claim that every part is finished and running today. The Musique engraver and rehearsal cluster are being built in the open; Choir is being wired on top of them. The honest summary: the rehearsal room is being built, early access is how you get in first, and there is no AI-generated music anywhere in it.
The rehearsal workflow — full score to a singer’s part
The arc a director actually runs, from the full choral score down to one singer’s home practice: load the score, isolate the voice part that needs work, slow the passage to drilling speed, mark the breaths, and send it home as an assignment. The first three steps are the core surface in active development; the last two — marking the breaths and home practice — are early access, on the roadmap and honestly not in the surface today.
The director loads the piece into the Musique engraver. The full choral score lives there — every voice part on its own staff, the accompaniment on its own if the piece has one. Nothing is generated or re-arranged; the surface reads the score the director already has and presents it.
A singer picks soprano, alto, tenor, or bass and the part selector centers their line in the engraver, with the SATB reference chord shown at the entry so the section hears their interval before the first note. A director can isolate a single part for a section rehearsal or hold two parts together to rehearse the interval between them.
Set the loop range on the measures that need work and bring the tempo below the performance mark. A phrase that falls apart at full tempo is almost always learnable slower; the loop holds those bars on repeat so the section drills the entrance without counting back to the top every time.
Marking the breaths — a breath mark before an entrance, a phrase mark over a long line, a ‘lift here’ note pinned to a measure — is how a director turns a run-through into a specific fix a section can carry into the next rehearsal. Breath marking and phrase annotation are early access: on the roadmap, not in the current surface, and this page does not claim you can annotate a score today.
The last step hands the marked passage to a singer to work on before the next rehearsal: the isolated part, the loop, the practice tempo, and the reference chord, sent home as an assignment the singer opens on their own. Home-practice assignment and the practice-tracking that would record whether it was done are early access — described here honestly as where the surface is going, not as something you can assign today.
Voice parts
Four voice parts, individually selectable. Each part view centers the singer’s line in the engraver and shows the SATB reference chord at the entry point so the section hears their interval before the first run. Everyone reads concert pitch, divided by voice — a choir does not transpose by instrument.
Soprano
The soprano part centers on the top line: the note, the pitch reference, and the interval to the chord below it. A soprano picking their part sees their line highlighted, with the full SATB chord shown so they hear the harmonic context of the note they are entering on.
Alto
Alto voices are notoriously under-supported in rehearsal tools that show one line at a time. Choir shows the alto line in context — the surrounding SATB chord visible so the section knows the interval above and below their part, not just the single note in isolation.
Tenor
The tenor part often reads from a shared treble staff and sits in a register that requires a careful reference to locate. Choir centers the tenor line on the SATB reference chord and labels the pitch clearly, reducing the time a section spends locating their starting note before a run.
Bass
The bass line carries the harmonic root, but in a choral rehearsal a bass section that enters a half-step flat pulls the whole chord out of tune. Choir places the SATB reference chord beside the bass entry so the section hears where they sit before the count-in begins.
Part isolation and combination
A director can isolate any single part for a section rehearsal, or combine two parts to rehearse an interval (soprano and alto; tenor and bass). The combination view shows both lines in the engraver and the shared reference chord, which is how the sections begin to hear each other before running together.
The SATB reference chord
The reference chord is not a generated harmony — it is the chord written in the score at the entry point the section is rehearsing. Choir reads it from the engraved score and centers the selected part on it. It is the composer’s own harmony, shown to help a section hear their place in it.
Sectional rehearsal
The four-step cycle of a choral section drill: pick the passage, slow it down, count in, and run it. Each step is one control. No keyboard shortcuts to memorize, no separate metronome app, no hunting for the start bar.
A director selects the measures to rehearse -- the entry phrase, the difficult cadence, the section that fell apart in the last run -- and the loop range holds those measures on repeat. The section does not have to count back to the start bar; the surface holds it for them.
The practice tempo slider brings the passage down from performance tempo to whatever speed the section needs to hear each interval clearly. Drilling at half tempo is standard choral pedagogy; the surface makes it a single control rather than a conversation about how fast to go.
The count-in gives the section beats before the entry measure. The clicks are routed honestly through the Musique audio engine: the producesSound flag is false until SONUS is wired, so the count-in is shown and announced but never synthesized as a fake audible click. When the audio engine lands, the same flag flip brings it live without any other change.
The loop runs the passage at the set tempo, count-in to cadence, and returns to the top of the loop range. The section repeats it at drilling speed until the entry is clean, then the director adjusts the tempo back toward performance and runs it again. That cycle is the work Choir is built to support.
What the surface does, and how far along each piece is
Every capability below is labelled honestly. In active development means the piece is designed and being wired on the Musique suite — not available to use today. Honest-off means it is present in the surface but deliberately does not run yet. Early access means it is on the roadmap, not in the current build. Nothing here is a shipped, log-in-today product.
Voice-part isolation (SATB selector)
The part selector narrows the engraver to a single voice part — soprano, alto, tenor, or bass — and centers that line for a section rehearsal, while the director keeps the surrounding harmony in view. Designed and in active development on the engraver.
The SATB reference chord
The chord written in the score at the section’s entry point, read from the engraved score and shown beside the selected part so the section hears their interval before the first run. It is the composer’s own harmony, not a generated one. In active development.
Loop range and practice tempo
The sectional cluster holds a measure range on repeat and drops the tempo below the performance mark for drilling. Set the loop, set the tempo, run the passage. Designed and in active development.
Part-dominant playback and count-in
Playing the passage back with the selected voice part brought forward, and the count-in before an entrance, both route through a voice whose producesSound flag is false until the SONUS audio engine is wired. The beat and the part are shown, never faked as an audible click or a synthesized voice. Honest-off until SONUS lands; one flag flip brings it live.
Breath marking and phrase annotation
Pinning a breath mark, a phrase mark, or a note to a measure so a run-through becomes a specific, carryable fix. On the roadmap, not in the current surface — this page does not claim you can annotate a score today.
Home-practice assignment and practice-tracking
Sending an isolated, looped, slowed passage home as a singer’s assignment, and recording whether it was practiced. Early access — described honestly as where the surface is going, not as something you can assign today.
Who Choir is for
The choir director runs the full ensemble and the section rehearsals inside it. You have a score, a room of singers who need to drill an entrance, and limited time. Choir puts the isolate-loop-tempo-count-in workflow into one surface so the section drill is the focus, not the setup — and the same score that drives the full read drives every isolated voice part. It is built for K-12 choral directors and for community and church choir directors running volunteer sections of mixed skill levels, where the time between “where do we start” and a clean first run is the difference between a productive rehearsal and a frustrating one.
The section leader — a student soprano lead or an assistant director running a voice sectional on their own — needs the section’s part, the loop, and the tempo without the full score in front of them. The single-part view is built for exactly that: pick the part, set the loop, run the drill, and report back what still needs work before the next full rehearsal.
The singer who wants to drill their part on their own time can use the part selector independently: pick the voice part, set a loop on the hard measure, slow it down, and work through it alone before the next rehearsal. The SATB reference chord is always visible so the practice is in harmonic context, not just the single note in isolation.
The surface is built on the same Musique suite as the wider music-program tools on the platform, so a school that runs choral, band, and music theory through the platform has one consistent rehearsal engine behind all of them. Choir is the choral face; it is not a separate product that requires a separate account or a separate contract.
Scores, practice data, and privacy
The score a director loads is the school’s music. Choir reads it to display it, center each voice part, and read the reference chord — that is all. The score is not sent to an outside AI service, not used to train a model, and not shared with or sold to anyone. There is no generative model in the path: the engraver renders what was loaded and centers the selected part on the harmony already written in it, and nothing else.
When practice-tracking arrives — it is early access — any record of what a singer practiced belongs to the school and the family. Student practice data is never sold and never handed to an advertiser or a data broker. The surface runs on private infrastructure, with no third-party ad network and no behavioural tracking on students, and any practice record is deletable by the school.
Choir is a rehearsal tool, not a photo or media product: it does not collect student photos and does no face matching of any kind. If a school runs the wider platform for its picture day and event media, the consent rules for that media live there; the rehearsal surface itself holds scores and, when it ships, practice records — both school-owned, both deletable, neither sold.
What is in active development, honest-off, and early access
In active development: the Musique engraver carrying the score, the SATB voice-part selector and the reference chord it centers each part on, and the sectional cluster that holds the loop range and practice tempo. These are the core of the surface. They are designed and being wired — not available to use today.
Honest-off: part-dominant playback and the count-in. They route through a voice whose producesSound flag is false until the SONUS audio engine is wired, so the beat is shown but never synthesized as a fake audible click. When SONUS lands, one flag flip brings the click live without any other change to the surface.
Early access: breath marking and phrase annotation, and home-practice assignment with practice-tracking. These are on the roadmap, not in the current surface. This page does not claim you can mark breaths or assign practice today.
Money is honest-off: there is no pricing, no checkout, and no card is charged on this page. Choir does not generate, arrange, or harmonize music, and there is no AI in the rehearsal path. The honest next step is early access.
Where the build is, honestly
Choir is in active development on the Musique suite. In active development This page describes the rehearsal surface’s design and where it is going — not a claim that the voice-part selector, SATB reference chord, and sectional cluster are available for a choral director to use today. They are being built.
What is settled is the surface’s design: voice-part isolation, SATB reference chord, loop range and practice tempo, and an honest count-in. What is being built is the engine that makes them run — the Musique engraver carrying the score, the rehearsal cluster playing the passage, and the SONUS audio engine wiring the count-in to an audible click. We would rather say that plainly than claim the whole thing is live.
If this fits what your choral program needs, early access is how you get in while it is being built. No pricing and no checkout on this page — just a way to start the conversation.
Frequently asked questions
What is Choir?
Choir is a vocal-rehearsal surface for K-12 and community choral programs, built on the Musique music suite. A director loads the score in the Musique engraver; each singer selects their voice part and sees their line centered with the SATB reference chord shown; the sectional cluster provides loop, tempo, and count-in controls for drilling a passage. It is in active development — not a product you can use today.
What is the SATB reference chord?
The reference chord is the chord written in the score at the entry point the section is rehearsing — read directly from the engraved score, not generated. It is shown beside the selected voice part so a singer hears their harmonic interval before the first run, rather than locating their pitch only from the melodic line.
Does Choir work for a cappella and accompanied music?
Both. Choir reads whatever score the director loads. If the piece has a piano or organ accompaniment, it lives on its own staff in the engraver and the voice parts are centered against it; if the piece is a cappella, the voice parts are the whole texture and the reference chord is read from the voices themselves. Choir does not add an accompaniment that is not in the score, and it does not generate one — there is no AI in the path.
Does Choir handle divisi?
Yes, to the extent the score writes it. Divisi — a soprano line splitting into first and second sopranos, a bass section dividing for a fuller chord — is a property of the engraved score. The part selector centers the singer’s assigned divided line and the reference chord shows the full divided harmony at the entry. Choir reads the divisi from the score; it does not invent or re-divide the parts.
What voicings does Choir support — SATB, SSA, TTBB, SAB?
Whatever the loaded score is written in. The voice-part selector reflects the parts present in the score: a four-part SATB anthem, a three-part treble SSA piece, a men’s TTBB setting, or an SAB arrangement. Choir reads the parts and the reference chord from the score and centers the selected line; it does not re-voice or re-arrange the music.
How does the sectional rehearsal cluster work?
Three controls: a loop range that holds a set of measures on repeat, a practice tempo slider that slows the passage below performance tempo, and a count-in that plays beats before the entry measure. They work together: set the loop, slow the tempo to drilling speed, press start, and the section repeats the passage until the entry is clean. The count-in is honest-off until the SONUS audio engine is wired.
What does “honest-off” mean for the count-in?
The count-in’s clicks route through a voice in the audio engine whose producesSound flag is set to false until SONUS is wired. That means the beat is shown and can be announced visually, but the surface never synthesizes a fake audible click. When SONUS lands, flipping that flag brings the audible click live without any other change to the rehearsal surface.
Can I mark breaths or assign home practice today?
Not today. Breath marking and phrase annotation — pinning a breath mark or a note to a measure — and home-practice assignment with practice-tracking are early access. They are on the roadmap and described here honestly as where the surface is going. The core rehearsal capabilities (voice-part isolation, the SATB reference chord, loop, and practice tempo) are the pieces in active development; breath marking and home practice come after them.
Can a singer use Choir on their own to practice a part?
Yes. The part selector and sectional cluster are designed to work independently, so a singer can pick their voice part, set a loop on the passage they want to drill, slow the tempo, and work through it alone. The SATB reference chord is always visible so the practice is in harmonic context, not just a single pitch in isolation.
How is Choir different from Concert Band?
Choir rehearses voice parts — a singer reads one line against the harmony, everyone at concert pitch, divided by voice (SATB). Concert Band rehearses transposing-instrument parts — a clarinet, a horn, and an alto saxophone each read in a different key derived from the same concert-pitch score. The transposition is the difference: a choir does not transpose by instrument, and a band cannot rehearse without it. Both are built on the Musique suite, but they are deliberately separate surfaces: choir.software for voices, concertband.software for winds and their transposed parts.
Does Choir generate harmonies or suggest voice leading with AI?
No. Choir is a rehearsal tool, not a composition or arrangement tool. The reference chord it shows is read from the score the director loaded — it is the composer’s own harmony. Nothing on the surface generates, suggests, or auto-harmonizes anything. There is no AI in the rehearsal path.
How does Choir relate to the rest of the Musique suite?
Choir is the choral-rehearsal face of the Musique suite. The notation engraver that carries the score and the sectional-rehearsal cluster that powers the loop, tempo, and count-in are shared Musique engines. musique.software is the wider suite; choir.software is its vocal-rehearsal front. concertband.software is the instrumental-rehearsal sibling; musicschool.software runs the operations of a music school, which is a different job entirely.
Is there a cost?
There is no pricing and no checkout on this page. Choir is in active development; the honest next step is to ask about early access, not to buy a subscription. No billing, no contract, no card charged, and no price are presented here.
What this page is and is not claiming
This page describes a rehearsal surface in active development on the Musique suite. It is not a claim that Choir is a finished product you can log into and use today. The voice-part selector, the SATB reference chord, the loop range, and the practice tempo are being built; part-dominant playback and the audible count-in are honest-off until SONUS is wired; breath marking, phrase annotation, and home-practice assignment are early access, not in the current surface.
Choir is a tool for music a director already has. It does not compose, arrange, harmonize, or generate anything, and there is no AI in the rehearsal path. It handles voice parts — soprano, alto, tenor, bass, and the divided voicings a score is written in — which is what makes it the choir surface and not the concert-band surface, where a section reads a transposing-instrument part. It is not the studio-operations platform that Music School Software is.
There is no pricing, no checkout, and no card is charged here. No fabricated schools, students, or testimonials appear on this page. The honest next step is to ask about early access.