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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
The second Friday in January is known as “Quitters Day” — the point at which most people abandon the goals they set in their New Year’s resolutions.
Apparently, only 9% of people successfully keep their resolutions and 23% quit in the first week. So how can you real, lasting progress as a singer or choir leader?
A new year and a new choir season don’t just bring change — they also bring choice.
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This is often a moment to pause and reflect: what’s working, what’s not, and what might benefit from being done differently. For choir leaders in particular, it’s a chance to plan rather than simply react.