Pretty much all my singing events are open to anyone, regardless of experience.
This means that I always work with groups of mixed ability: from professional singers to those who’ve only ever sung in the shower. So how do I pitch the teaching level?
Inevitably there will be times when you are not available. But the show must go on.
What do you do?
There will be times when you’re not fully prepared. It may be due to illness, laziness or circumstances outside your control.
The question is: should you go ahead regardless?
17 years ago I led one of my first residential singing weekends. The theme was the Beach Boys.
The other weekend, I was in Derbyshire leading another of my (rare) Beach Boys weekends. It got me thinking about all the things that have happened since 2009.
Most of the singers who attend my workshops are in their 60s and 70s. Many of them having been coming to my singing events for years.
The other day, somebody asked if I’d noticed whether they struggled more with learning songs as they got older.
I’m leading a singing workshop tomorrow. I know I will have 35 singers, seven of whom are men. Five of those are tenors.
That means that I can choose song arrangements accordingly. But what happens when you’ve no idea in advance which voice parts you’ll have?
I went to a theatre performance the other day. It was basically one actor on stage for over two hours.
It was coming to the end of its seven-week run, but it still felt as fresh as the first time it was performed. How do you manage to keep a performance alive after so many repetitions?