i don't know if yours is a mixed choir or not.  sooo i'll just guess.  i
believe the alto voice/part is the bottom-most women's note line of a
chart's/song's bar, (unless there is a contralto voice, which is almost
rare).  i believe, and someone can correct me (because i sang soprano), that
if there is a tenor voice/part, then the line of notes just above the
tenor's line is the alto part, just above that is second/mezzo soprano and
above that is 1st sop.  you can reverse that order to find the lower range
men's voices.

in my college's accapella madrigal (mixed)choir, our conductor generally
discreetly gave us "a" first note from the first bar (not everybody's/not
all the part's first notes and definitely not the chord).   we never knew
which voice's note he was going to give us, cuz he liked to challenge us
(the stinker!).  rather quickly, though, you learn to hear your note in the
first chord on the sheet or you learn to find your part's note from some
other part's note.  once you have the first note, reading and singing from a
chart is easy.

since you already know how to read music, the rest should be a snap for you,
sweetie.  don't worry.  you'll get the hang of it quickly.

kate

Does anyone know of a site that would help me with this?
I DO actually know how to read music--the musical signs, notes etc. but
i am struggling in my new choir because i've never used music to sing
from before. in my old choir, we just got the words and learned the
music by  practicing over and over. now suddenly i have this music in
front of me and i don't know what note i'm supposed to be singing. i've
asked the woman on my right "how you know which is the alto part?" she
said she just guesses. i asked the woman on my left the same question.
she said it's different on every song. help! there must be a science to
this that i don't know about.

diane

The alto part is generally the second staff, Diane. It goes soprano,
alto, tenor, bass. The staff should be marked at the beginning of the
piece, but sometimes it's not. If in doubt, ask the choir director,
that's what he/she gets paid for :)

Carole

If there are two notes in the top staff, the bottom one is the alto. If
there are three, the bottom one is the alto. If there is one note, that's
the alto. Sometimes, just to keep us guessing, the alto notes will be above
the soprano notes, but this is rare and is always marked. The bottom staff
is for the tenor and bass. Bob doesn't read music either, but he's sung bass
for over 30 years. You can do this, Kiddo!

DeeTee