From the front of the choir: Time to hit pause on this blog

Monday, December 14, 2020

Time to hit pause on this blog

[the views expressed in this blog are from my personal experiences from 25 years of leading non-auditioned community choirs in the UK, as well as adult singing workshops. My focus is on teaching by ear using a repertoire of songs from traditions across the globe. Your experiences may differ from mine, so do feel free to leave a comment and let's begin a conversation!]

I can hardly believe it, but I’ve been writing this weekly blog for 14 years – that’s 798 articles!

I haven’t missed a single week in all that time. Until now.

I’m astounded that I’ve managed to keep this blog going for such a long time. I had no idea when I started if I would be able to keep it up. I thought I might last a few months at most.

My blog has served as a place where I can air new ideas and share experiences from my 20+ years of leading singing groups. It’s helped put my thoughts in order, and acted as a forum for people to ask questions and to share their ideas with me.

There have been some weeks when I’ve had no ideas in my head, but somehow I’ve always managed to write something in the end.

It’s been a great ride so far.

Most of my ideas come directly from my experiences of leading singing groups. One particular session may throw up an issue which I can then look at in next week’s blog post. But it’s been a long time since I’ve run any singing sessions and the ideas have dried up.

I haven’t sung with anybody since 14th March 2020. That’s nine months not being in a room with others and making beautiful harmonies.

I’ve attended Zoom singalongs a couple of times, but it’s just not for me.

I have a few old ideas for posts knocking around, but they have no relevance to how choirs are meeting (or not) during the pandemic.

I have therefore decided to pause my weekly blog posts until things are back to some kind of ‘normal’.

I may do an occasional summary post bringing old articles together in a more convenient form, but I won’t be adding any new material.

It may be that I never come back to this blog, but I hope it’s just a temporary sabbatical.

My huge thanks to all of you who have read my various ramblings over the years, and especially to those of you who’ve commented and shared your own experiences.

It has enriched my singing life and improved my teaching enormously.

Until the next time …