Blog

So you've made that BIG decision - you're going to start a choir. You feel excited and inspired. You have so many ideas about what your choir will be but how do you make this a reality?

Aside from all those practical elements, such as when and where the choir will meet, there are so many considerations to take into account. How will you lead a rehearsal? How will you communicate the music to your choir? What level of skill do you need to have before you start?

Asking yourself these questions can q…

You probably did a double take at the title of this article. One thing? Only one? Surely a great choir leader needs a bundle of skill and talents: leadership, diplomacy, musicianship for a start. Well, yes. There are any number of skills that contribute to your choir leadership, but I want to argue in this article that there's really only one attribute that you absolutely cannot do without.

It's EMPATHY

The ability to put yourself in the place of another and feel how they feel. As choir leaders,…

So you've decided to take the plunge and start a choir. You're probably feeling a mix of excitement, nerves and anticipation and your head is probably full of all sorts of ideas. So where do you start? Here are four big questions to ask yourself:

What kind of choir do I want to lead?

This is definitely the first thing to ask yourself when embarking on a new choir project. There are so many different types of choirs; some are formal and audition their singers, some are more community-based and ar…

We all know that most of our work as choir leaders is done outside the rehearsal room. Whether you're a conductor or conductor/manager, you probably have a 'to do' list as long as your arm.

One of the tasks you may find yourself neglecting is score study. With all the demands of daily life, it can be a challenge to find the time to really knuckle down and get a thorough knowledge of the music.

It's fairly obvious that the score preparation we do will help our choirs in rehearsal and performance, b…

When planning performances for our choirs, it can be easy to end up doing the same things year in year out. A few years ago I was reminded of something very important: it's good to let your hair down once in a while!

Lots of wrongs can make a right!

We had just finished a week-long food festival in our village which was packed, not only with food but great music too. As our contribution to the festivities, we decided to opt for something a little different for our contemporary choir - a sing-alo…

I must confess from the outset that I don't have a magic answer to solve what can be the tricky task of balancing work and family life. Each person's situation is different but I thought nevertheless I'd share a few things that I've learned as I attempt to balance being a choir leader with a busy family life.

Being a choir leader is a great job; one that can be extremely fulfilling but also very demanding on your time. The hours vary but tend to be outside a nine-to-five framework. Much of your w…

An important part of running a successful choir is getting the right balance in rehearsals. You want the choir to bond as a team and make friendships but you don't want to be teaching over chatter - even if it's singers discussing the music! As irritating as chatter can be to you as the choir leader, if the room was completely silent all of the time it would be a bit un-nerving and you'd be convinced no-one was having a good time! Striking the correct balance is therefore vital to the choir's he…

When you lead a choir rehearsal, you are asking for the attention of a group of people so that you can impart information. Maybe you're lucky enough to be a natural born public speaker and you like nothing better than standing up in front of people and being the centre of attention, but most of us aren't like that. Even if you're confident of your musical skills, it can be hugely daunting to get up and speak with confidence and authority. So how do you take command of a room? Here are some helpf…

Most choirs have sections of voice types to which their members usually belong. Perhaps your choir is SATB, SAA, TTB or any other of the numerous combinations available.

You may have noticed that in any group of people subdivided into smaller groups, interesting patterns can start to occur. On the positive side, new relationships are formed, a sense of solidarity and a desire to represent the section well. If singers are well-placed within the choir, they can sing comfortably in their range, maki…

If you lead a mixed choir (male and female voices), you may well be familiar with the common problem of not having enough tenors and basses. The dearth of chaps is caused by a number of factors, some demographic, some social, but the upshot is that in most parts of the western world at least, you're likely to struggle with recruiting men to your choir. Here are a few ideas about how to handle that situation.

Stop recruiting women!

It sounds trite, but if you don't have enough men in your choir, …