My daughter is going away on tour at the end of August with her school's girls chamber choir. (As background: she usually sings alto in this particular choir, although from what I have seen the alto parts do not generally go very low; she sings second soprano in another choir outside school) One of the pieces they intend to perform calls for a solo which, because of the subject matter, has to be sung by one of the younger girls. The girl who has done this before has just pulled out, leaving two rather reluctant candidates to take over, one being my daughter. Actually, I think my daughter would rather like to do it, but for the fact that at one point it involves a leap of a fifth from the C an octave above middle C to the G above that. Now, she's quite happy singing up to the F; if she was at home, and relaxed, and working up the scale she could manage the G too - on a good day - but this big jump is defeating her at the moment. Is there anything she can practise to help her achieve this, or do you (as I suspect) advise encouraging the other girl to sing the solo, or the teacher in charge to drop the song from the programme? We may not, of course, be able to encourage either the girl or the teacher sufficiently!

Thanks.

Two options here:
Option 1. Ask the teacher if the piece could me dropped down a tone.

Option 2.
I don't know what the song is of course but it might be possible for her to vocalise the sound rather than form the correct word on that note. If she can hit the note on a good day then it is in her vocal range! If she is properly warmed up it might be a simple matter to just float it out to a relaxed Ah rather than anything else. Just an thought!

Sometimes the melody can be tastefully altered slightly, perhaps by staying on the same note, or moving to a different note that either fits with the harmony or keeps the overall shape of the melody intact. It might be an idea to play around with this option, and then if the teacher is very reluctant to cut the item, you could suggest this as an alternative.
Or perhaps if the two of them sang it together your daughter could sing a harmony at that point and the other girl could sing the G?

x Bass Clef

A sound idea. There are a number of pieces for tenor where "alternatives" are offered if the singer is not comfortable with the upper note - usually A upwards. No shame in delivering a lower note, especially where the audience is not following the score!

Just felt the need to add a caveat to my previous post. I of course always take the upper note (as far as a D flat!)

Thanks for suggestions. The choir has a rehearsal next week, so I think I'll just have to leave the teacher to do such tweaking as is necessary.. The song is not a well known one. It's a setting of Robert Herrick's "A Child's Grace" by my daughter's English teacher. No one is likely to notice any alterations therefore. The high note is, however, at the end of a line, "Here I lift them up to thee" (referring to hands) so seems apt!

Meanwhile, daughter is practising. Sometimes it sounds all right......