Why tricky warm-ups don’t always make a better choir

Recently, there’s been a spate of ‘tricky’ choir warm-up videos on Instagram.

They’re clever and challenging, but I can’t help wondering: do they actually lead to better choir performances?

Lost the joy of singing in your choir? Here’s what to do

Here in the northern hemisphere it’s cold, wet, dark and miserable. it’s the ‘slump’ end of the year before spring truly arrives.

Going to choir each week can help. But what happens if you lose the joy of singing?

How to revive a failing choir (Part 2): deeper causes and hard truths

In Part 1, I looked at some of the more obvious reasons why choirs begin to falter: the impact of Covid, ageing membership, toxic behaviour, over-ambitious projects, and too many concerts.

In this second part, I want to explore some of the longer-term and less visible causes — the ones that creep in gradually or hide behind apparent success.

How to revive a failing choir (Part 1): spotting the problems

If you’re lucky, your choir goes from strength to strength: numbers grow, standards improve, and the sense of community deepens.

But sometimes things start to slip. Numbers fall, confidence drains away, rehearsals lose their energy, and going to choir begins to feel like a chore rather than a pleasure. When that happens, what can you do?

Do shared lunches at singing workshops really build community?

Whenever I ran a one-off singing day, I would always encourage people to bring lunch to share.

The idea was to create a sense of community and get people to socialise with each other. But I no longer do that. Here’s why.

The essential elements of a choir warm up

Most singers know they should warm up before singing — but what exactly should a warm up contain?

I’ve written before about why warm ups matter— see The singers who didn’t like warm ups (and what became of them) — but it’s worth looking more closely at what actually makes a warm up effective.

A simple vocal range check for non-auditioned choirs

When singers join a non-auditioned choir, they are usually expected to choose the voice part that suits them — without any help.

Over time, singers in community choirs can begin to wonder if they’ve chosen the right part. Here’s a simple way of carrying out a vocal range test with the whole choir.