I hereby resolve to stop saying the more common phrase “notes and rhythms” and replace the phrase with “rhythms and notes.”
In my experience, singers on their own focus far more on notes than rhythms – so we’re always fighting to get back to accurate, crisp, rhythmic singing.
There are lots of solutions – from Shaw’s count singing to speaking the rhythms to any number of other strategies.
But one thing we can do is note that putting notes ahead of rhythms in the expression creates an unintended hierarchy. We can fix that.
Next week: make sure you have all your rhythms and notes learned!