American Singer Canary Song Information

There is no exact sound for the American Singer canary. The definition of Song in the ASC Constitution (from section G. 32.) is:

ěRefers to Freedom and Rendition of Bird. A musical sequence of notes and tours naturally given, not too loud or too soft, medium, pleasing to the average human ear; varied, full songs, no repetition of short tours or notes becoming monotonous. No overly sustained notes. In red factor American Singers the song will be more varied due to wild Siskin notes breaking into the natural American Singer Song. In all American Singer songs a balance of the songs of foundation birds must show neither too much roller nor too much border. If too much of either show, a bird will be faulted under rendition for value of song.î

In shows, ten percent of their score is for Freedom, which means how soon and how often they sing. A good, healthy bird should sing on and off all day. So at a show, the first 10 minutes are devoted to counting how many times each bird starts singing. Each song is worth one point up to a maximum of 10 points.

Sixty percent of the show score is for song Rendition. In the ASC Constitution, the term Rendition refers to song as a whole, the musical interpretation or presentation of song. Song should not be monotonous, either by a sustained note or notes, or through repetition. The more variety the better. The official definition of Rendition (from section S. 7.) is:

ěSong of the AMERICAN SINGER should have just the right amount of blending of roller and border to be pleasing to the ear, neither too loud, harsh or monotonous, of the right quality, strength and variety, without any more than 6 chop notes in his song.î

Although subject to personal preference, here are many of the characteristics of Rendition:

Variety    a change in general song, intermixture or succession of different tours and notes pleasing to the human ear
Volume    medium is desired, not too loud or too soft
Length    the longer the total song the better
Range    capable of wide dynamic range, without becoming thin on the high notes or muddy in the low range
Tone    pleasing tone is desired, no harsh or nasal notes
Tempo    the delivery should be slow enough so that the song can be understood by humans
Creativity    changes the order of the tours, constantly surprises the listener
Smoothness    song should smoothly build up, then taper off, not cut off abruptly or stick on one note for too long
Showmanship    the bird should stand upright and proud while singing, no roller ěhoopî (horizontal stance) or singing from the bottom of the cage
Quality    depth and richness of song notes
Strength    vigor shown in a strong song, not necessarily loud; power of endurance

Here is a sample of good American Singer canary song. Because sound files are large and can take a long time to download over a modem, a full and short version is here for you to choose from. The short file is the beginning part of the long file and has nothing different on it. Click on the title to start the download. This song sample is provided by the Rocky Mt. American Singers chapter and is on the CD they sell. For information on ordering this CD, contact Bill Summers at wisummers@aol.com

TitleWAV File SizeLength of Recording
Full Song 700 Kbytes32 seconds
Shorter Song 175 Kbytes8 seconds

Click Here to watch a QuickTime video of ASC K816-04 singing, he took Best in Show on November 13, 2004. 5.7 Megabyte file, will take a while to download.
QuickTime is installed on Macs. Click Here to find out how to run QuickTime files on a PC.

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