Outdoor gigs: how to cope when audiences aren’t interested

It’s summer, the time when many choirs and singing groups perform outdoors.

summer Singing Safari, Holywells Park, Ipswich, July 2016

It’s hard enough to sing in the open air, and compete with music on the other stages at festivals, but for me the most difficult thing is when audience members wander off. How do you cope with the heart-sink?

Ways into vocal improvisation for singing groups

I’m often asked by choir members if we can do some vocal improvisation.

photo © Aude Vanlathem

Improvising with a large group of singers is really hard, but here are some pointers to get you started.

Do everything you can to support your choir leader – they’re the only one you’ve got!

For the last two weeks I’ve been looking at how to sustain your choir as it grows and develops.



Last week I considered ways to persuade choir members to help run the choir. This week I want to look at how your choir leader’s uniqueness can make your choir vulnerable.

Beyond the usual suspects – how to get choir members to volunteer for supporting roles

Last week I wrote about how to sustain your choir as it grows and develops.



This week I will look at how you can persuade choir members to volunteer to help run your choir.

Choir growing pains: how to sustain your choir as it grows and develops

This post is part of a series of occasional Questions and Answers. Just use the contact form if you want to submit a question.


Hannah writes:

“Our choir started in 2013 very informally with a small membership and modest organisation. We have gone from strength to strength in terms of the quality of our singing and repertoire, membership, community grant, website, the availability of practice recordings for each voice part and each song ... the list goes on!

“We have always had a committee run by volunteers, with a constitution. Inevitably there is a very limited group of people who are stepping up to take committee roles, and after four years there is only so much that can be asked of people.