A couple of things this week reminded me how important mistakes are when learning something new.
One was performer, song leader and composer Brendan Taaffe’s substack: The most important thing you can do is fail”, and the other was a workshop I attended on Voice, Body and Rhythm with Helen Chadwick and Tania Bosak.
I’m attending a three-day workshop this weekend and I’m feeling nervous.
It’s a common feeling when stepping into the unknown. But I’ve been to countless workshops before — so what’s going on?
There was a choir I needed to contact recently. I knew their name and where they’re based, but I couldn’t find their contact details anywhere online.
Is your choir easy to find and contact?
If you don’t have a mailing list for people interested in your choir or singing workshops, you’re missing a trick.
It’s the easiest and most powerful way to recruit singers.
Sometimes I teach a song at a workshop that some singers already know.
Invariably it will be a different arrangement. So how can singers approach re-learning a version that has only slight variations?
I was trying to come up with an idea for this week’s blog post, but everything I thought of I’d already written about!
For a moment, I started to worry that I’d run out of things to say about choirs and singing. Surely that can’t be true — can it?
When I lead a one-off singing day or weekend, I’m always amazed at how many songs I’m able to teach — and how quickly singers pick them up.
This is in stark contrast to weekly choir rehearsals which are often harder work and far less productive. So what’s going on here?