“I don’t know”: Why vulnerability makes you a stronger choir leader

Sometimes I don’t know what I’m doing. There, I’ve admitted it.

We usually keep quiet when we’re unsure, but I believe it’s much better to own up in public. Here’s why.

The secret to learning a song: focus on the next note, not the tricky part ahead

Sometimes we encounter a challenging part of a song and need to work on it separately.

image generated by Gemini AI

But if we try to keep this in mind when singing the first part of the song, it will affect the other notes. Here’s what I think is happening.

Vocal range 2: 5 relevant reads

This is one of a series of summary posts around a specific topic, bringing together five relevant posts from the past. 

This summary is all about vocal range: how it’s relevant to being in a choir and how you might go about finding where you fit. I’ve already referred to five older posts in the first part of this series.

Take your time! Being unable to learn songs quickly doesn’t define your singing talent

One of the many reasons why people say that they can’t sing is that it takes them ages to learn a song.

photo by Takashi Hososhima

But that’s OK. Even professionals take time to get a song under their belt.

Feeling like everything is falling apart? Here's a hint: no one really notices!

Last week I wrote about song leaders and singers in rehearsal and at workshops feeling that they’ve made a big mistake. Yet nobody noticed: Think it's all going wrong? Spoiler: nobody's noticing!

photo by madaise

This week I want to consider live performance, both from the perspective of choir leaders and singers.

Think it's all going wrong? Spoiler: nobody's noticing!

I had a bad workshop experience the other day. I felt that the whole day had gone wrong and I wasn’t up to snuff.

Yet loads of people came up to me afterwards to tell me how much they’d enjoyed it. What’s going on here?

Magic words that will help you become a better singer or choir leader

We’re all very good at sabotaging ourselves. You know the kind of thing: “I can’t do that” or “That was a disaster.”

However, there are some simple and powerful phrases that can help us overcome these self-doubts.