How will your choir cope if you don’t turn up?

Everyone likes to think that they’re indispensable.



The truth is though, when you’re not there your choir will manage fine without you.

Planning for a new choir season

It’s that time of year again. Summer is over and choir starts back very soon. We choir leaders will be thinking about which songs to teach for the next season.



How do we go about planning each term? What guidelines are there for choosing songs?

How close should a vocal arrangement be to the original song?

I’m in the middle of doing some voice-only arrangements of Queen songs for a weekend workshop I’ll be running at Farncombe Courses in the Cotswolds this September (I want to break free: the songs of Queen). So I’ve been listening to a lot of Queen recordings lately!



It’s made me wonder: how close do I need to stick to the original recordings when doing voice-only arrangements?

Corsican polyphonic singing

While you read this I will be in sunny Corsica on holiday!



For years I’ve been meaning to attend the annual Rencontres de Chants Polyphoniques de Calvi (literally: Meetings of polyphonic songs) organised by the Corsican singing group A filetta. This year I’ve managed it!

Easy songs for your choir 2: rounds, chants, call & response

Last week I wrote about what makes a song ‘easy’.



This week I’ll look at specific types of easy songs: rounds, chants and call & response songs.