How to find the balance between easy and challenging songs in a drop-in singing group

A drop-in singing group is exactly what it sounds like: singers don’t need to make a regular commitment, but can drop in any time they want to.



I’ve written about before the pros and cons of these kind of groups. But here is what I’ve learnt from leading a monthly drop-in group for the last few years.

How to cope with too many male singers (a rare and unusual problem!)

It’s very common for choirs to be short of men. Most of my singing workshops attract far fewer men than women.



But sometimes – very occasionally – loads of men turn up unexpectedly. Which can be a problem too. Here are some ideas for what to do.

Why you need many different ways of telling your singers the same thing

As I started yet another singing workshop, I realised that I say pretty much the same thing in the introduction each time.



That got me thinking: if singers hear exactly the same thing too many times, they’ll just zone out. How can we avoid that?

Why are some ‘easy’ songs hard (and vice versa)?

Sometimes I start a singing session off with what I consider to be an easy song.

photo from Wellcome Images

But the group end up struggling and it turns out to be really hard! What’s going on here.

If you’re a man, do you have to be a ‘bloke’ in order to sing?

There are plenty of opportunities for men to sing together these days. They are called things like “Sing like a bloke” or you can even go to ‘BlokeFest’.



Does that mean that men have to be ‘blokes’ to sing? Of course not!