How to start a singing session without shouting

People are arriving and greeting each other; chairs are being set out; there is excitement in the air and the hubbub of conversation.

How do you get everyone to quieten down and focus in order to start your singing session?

Why singing leaves you tired – and relaxed

Singers often say how tired they feel after a rehearsal or workshop.

Paradoxically, singers who arrive tired at the start often leave feeling energised. What’s going on?

To learn and grow you need to be humble

Someone wrote to me recently asking if I thought my workshops would be suitable for them.

They had struggled at a recent community workshop because the teaching wasn’t based on reading music or understanding music theory.

When a song goes from hated to favourite

I always chose the repertoire for my community choirs. Most people knew what my taste was, which is why they’d joined the choir in the first place.

But every now and then I would introduce a new song and it just wouldn’t take.

Silence: the other half of singing

At the end of a recent residential singing weekend I was acutely aware of absence when everyone had left. The silence was almost painful.

It got me thinking about the different kinds of silence in singing.

It's a hobby, right? — The hidden work of a choir leader

I’m officially on my summer break. My last singing workshop was just over two weeks ago.

But that doesn’t mean I’m taking it easy or lazing by the pool. Here’s what I’ve been up to.

What else can your singers do without you?

Often, when leading a singing workshop, singers will start putting chairs out or standing in a circle.

It’s maybe not the way I’d planned, but I’ll usually go with it. It turns out my singers are often more capable than they realise.