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I dunno about voice training or anything like that.

But it peeves me to no end that in most/many parishes the choir has been relocated to the front of the church on one side of the altar. The choir director stands on a box and directs the choir and then the parishioners in turn. It wrecks the accoustics and makes the choir director the central focus of the Mass, even though I know that is not the intention of the director. It's like a scripted play.

With the Tabernacle on the one side and the choir on the other, it makes both co-equal. Something is wrong with that.

Funny you should mention acoustics.

I've been going to the Cathedral here which is covered with acres of mosaics and marble. And I mean acres. It's a 7 to 10 second delay depending on where you sit in the church. Normally, the choir, accompanied by organ is behind the altar by the main console. That organ is about, oh, I'd say at least 70 ranks (that means BIG) and the music director plays it so fast that the acoustics wreck any semblance of a tune. The words turn to mush. It's just bad, especially when they get other instruments in there for Christmas and Easter.

I sang once with the previous organist there, Dr. Mario Salvatore, who really knew what he was doing and when we sang, he directed at a largo usually (slow) but in the church it sounded correct. I've heard one other organist do it there and it was so much better it's not even funny.

One Sunday, there was a guest choir that sang from the rear gallery where the second console is. Some people would call it the choir loft. Anyway, they sang a cappella (without accompaniment) and it was crystal clear. You could understand every word without amplification. That's what the church was built for.

As for the set off to the side of the altar, I've heard many choir members say that they don't feel like they are a part of the Mass if they are up in the galleries, and there is something to that, but truthfully, Mass is about Christ and the Consecration, not "being a part of it".