Monday, August 29, 2016

Finding songs for the new choir season

A new season kicks off for many choirs in a the next few weeks. I don’t know about you, but I always seem to leave it to the last minute to find new repertoire for my choir!

group-of-people-look-through-binoculars

Here are some ideas for finding new material for your next choir season.

Monday, August 22, 2016

Just because a song is hard or you don’t like it doesn’t mean you should give up on it

Last week I looked at why singers might be finding a song hard going: If a song’s not working, when do you stop flogging the dead horse?

Frustration
photo by Tanya Little

I suggested easy solutions to most situations, but what happens if the singers don’t like the song or are finding it harder than you thought they would? Give up or soldier on?

Monday, August 15, 2016

If a song’s not working, when do you stop flogging the dead horse?

Sometimes I bring a great song to choir and for some reason the singers really struggle with it.

Pushing_van_together

How do you decide whether to persist with a song until it comes right, or just abandon it and move on? Let’s look at the options.

Monday, August 08, 2016

If the energy in your choir is low do you go with the flow or wake everyone up?

I ran a whole weekend of singing recently and when the Saturday evening session rolled round everyone was understandably very tired.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
photo by Son Lee

This slot has always been problematic: do I do simple songs, slow songs or high energy wake-up songs? Do you go with the flow or try to wake everyone up?

Monday, August 01, 2016

You can’t avoid feelings of apprehension at the start of a singing workshop

I’ve just come back from my annual visit to the English Lake District to run my summer singing weekend.

frightened

On a weekend workshop I always find the first session on the Friday night tricky. There is an air of trepidation and hesitation that’s impossible to avoid. Why is that?