Thành viên hợp xướng vừa lấy hơi vừa nhìn khuông nhạc.

It means a choir member or a chorister.

• thành viên = member
• hợp xướng = choir / choral singing

So thành viên hợp xướng is literally member of the choir.

In more natural Vietnamese, you may also see:

• ca viên = choir singer, chorister
• thành viên của dàn hợp xướng = member of the choir

The phrase in your sentence is understandable and natural enough, but it is a bit descriptive rather than a fixed single-word term.

vừa ... vừa ... is a very common pattern meaning doing two things at the same time.

So:

• vừa lấy hơi vừa nhìn khuông nhạc
  = breathing in / taking a breath while looking at the musical staff

You can often translate vừa ... vừa ... as:

• while ...
• at the same time ...
• both ... and ...

More examples:

• Cô ấy vừa ăn vừa đọc sách.
  = She eats while reading.
• Anh ấy vừa nghe vừa ghi chép.
  = He listens and takes notes at the same time.

In this sentence, it shows two simultaneous actions:

1. lấy hơi
2. nhìn khuông nhạc

lấy hơi literally means to take breath or to draw breath.

In music or singing, it usually means:

• to inhale in preparation for singing
• to control one’s breath
• to take a breath before the next phrase

This is a very natural expression in a musical context.

Related expressions:

• hít vào = breathe in, inhale
• thở ra = breathe out, exhale
• lấy hơi để hát = take a breath in order to sing

So here lấy hơi is not just ordinary breathing; it suggests the kind of breath a singer takes before singing.

This is a very common learner question.

Both can relate to looking, but they are not the same.

• nhìn = to look at, to direct your eyes toward something
• xem = to watch, examine, check, read/look over something with attention or purpose

In this sentence, nhìn khuông nhạc means the choir member is looking at the musical staff.

If you said xem khuông nhạc, it would sound more like:

• examining it
• checking it
• reading it more deliberately

So nhìn works well if the focus is the physical action of directing one’s eyes at the staff while breathing.

khuông nhạc usually means the musical staff — the set of horizontal lines on which musical notes are written.

This is a more technical term than bản nhạc.

Compare:

• khuông nhạc = the staff/staves
• bản nhạc = a piece of sheet music / a musical score / a written piece of music
• nốt nhạc = a musical note

So if the sentence says nhìn khuông nhạc, the image is specifically of someone looking at the staff notation.

In everyday English, depending on the context, you might translate it more naturally as:

• looking at the sheet music even if the Vietnamese literally says khuông nhạc.

Vietnamese usually does not mark tense the way English does.

The sentence:

• Thành viên hợp xướng vừa lấy hơi vừa nhìn khuông nhạc.

does not itself clearly mark whether it is:

• present: is taking a breath while looking at the staff
• past: was taking a breath while looking at the staff
• habitual: takes a breath while looking at the staff

The time is usually understood from:

• context
• time words
• the surrounding sentences

If you wanted to make time clearer, you could add words like:

• đang = currently, in the middle of
• đã = already / past
• sẽ = will

For example:

• Thành viên hợp xướng đang vừa lấy hơi vừa nhìn khuông nhạc.
  This is possible, but a bit heavy because vừa ... vừa ... already gives a sense of an ongoing action.
• More natural: Thành viên hợp xướng đang lấy hơi và nhìn khuông nhạc.

So in your original sentence, tense is left to context.

By itself, it is grammatically number-neutral, but most naturally it is understood as singular here: a choir member.

Vietnamese nouns usually do not change form for singular vs. plural.

So depending on context, thành viên hợp xướng could mean:

• a choir member
• the choir member
• choir members in a generic sense

If you want to make plurality clear, you can add:

• các = plural marker for countable nouns
• những = plural / some, multiple

Examples:

• Một thành viên hợp xướng... = one choir member...
• Các thành viên hợp xướng... = the choir members...
• Những thành viên hợp xướng... = choir members / some choir members...

In your sentence, without a plural marker, singular is the most likely reading.

Because Vietnamese often forms noun combinations directly, without needing của.

So:

• thành viên hợp xướng = choir member

This works like a compact noun phrase where the second part identifies the type or field of the first noun.

If you use của, you get a more explicit structure:

• thành viên của dàn hợp xướng = member of the choir

Both are possible, but the version without của is shorter and more compact.

This kind of noun-noun structure is very common in Vietnamese:

• giáo viên tiếng Anh = English teacher
• sách lịch sử = history book
• phòng khách = living room

Yes. That is exactly the idea.

The pattern vừa ... vừa ... can often be translated in different natural English ways, depending on style:

• while taking a breath, the choir member looked at the staff
• the choir member was taking a breath and looking at the staff at the same time
• the choir member both took a breath and looked at the staff

However, both ... and ... in English can sometimes sound a little stiff here. In natural English, while or at the same time often sounds smoother.

So grammatically, both ... and ... is correct, but stylistically while is usually the best match.

Yes. The word order is very normal.

The structure is:

• Thành viên hợp xướng = subject
• vừa lấy hơi vừa nhìn khuông nhạc = predicate with two simultaneous actions

So the pattern is basically:

Subject + vừa + Verb 1 + vừa + Verb 2 + Object

This is a standard Vietnamese structure.

A very similar example:

• Cậu bé vừa chạy vừa cười.
  = The boy ran while laughing / The boy was running and laughing at the same time.

So your sentence is built in a very regular and natural way.

It is understandable and fairly natural, but a native speaker might choose slightly different wording depending on the context.

Possible alternatives:

• Ca viên vừa lấy hơi vừa nhìn khuông nhạc.
• Thành viên dàn hợp xướng vừa lấy hơi vừa nhìn bản nhạc.
• Người ca sĩ hợp xướng vừa lấy hơi vừa nhìn bản nhạc.

Why might someone change it?

• ca viên is a more specific word for a choir singer
• bản nhạc may sound more natural than khuông nhạc if the person is looking at the whole sheet of music, not specifically the staff lines

So the original sentence is fine, but some speakers might prefer a version that sounds a little more idiomatic for a musical setting.

A rough pronunciation guide is:

• Thành viên hợp xướng vừa lấy hơi vừa nhìn khuông nhạc
• approximately: tanh vyen hup soo-uhng vuh luhy huhy vuh nyin khoo-uhng nyak

A few important points:

• thành has a rising tone
• hợp has a heavy, clipped tone
• xướng has a rising-glottal kind of tone in the North
• vừa has the low falling huyền tone
• nhìn also has the low falling huyền tone
• nhạc ends with a clipped consonant and heavy tone

If you want to sound natural, focus especially on:

• keeping vừa ... vừa ... smooth and connected
• making nhìn khuông nhạc flow as one phrase
• not over-stressing every word equally

A native speaker would typically say it with the rhythm of one connected clause rather than as separate dictionary words.