Monday, July 28, 2025

Do singers know what to expect from your choir or singing workshop?

We all spend a lot of time crafting and honing the publicity blurb for our choirs and singing workshops.

But are we sure we have explained exactly what singers can expect when they attend?

I’ve had occasions when people attending my community choirs or singing workshops have been disappointed because it wasn’t what they expected.

  • My Songs of the Sea blurb included “we will learn a range of songs connected with the seas and oceans from different cultural traditions across the globe”. Someone said afterwards, “I thought it was going to be just sea shanties.”
     
  • Feedback from someone who decided not to join my new community choir (“The OK Chorale: a world music singing ensemble”) after attending the first session: “I thought it was going to be a world music singing ensemble.”
     
  • At a “harmony singing day”: “I got bored waiting for the other parts to learn their harmonies — couldn’t we have all sung the same thing?”
     
  • At a harmony singing weekend where the blurb included: “All songs will be taught by ear in the traditional way. No previous experience is necessary.” someone complained about the lack of sheet music.

The trouble is, people bring their own expectations and remember what they want to read in your blurb. So it’s always a good idea to repeat your message several times using different wording.

As leaders, we also bring our own experiences and expectations. We’ve been to so many of our own choir rehearsals and singing workshops that we forget what it might be like for a newcomer.

Here are a few ideas to help ensure singers know what they’re letting themselves in for.

  • imagine yourself attending a new class for the first time
    Pick something you’d enjoy, but haven’t done before. Nothing to do with singing. This will help to put yourself in the shoes of a singer attending your sessions for the first time. What would your expectations be? What information would you like? How might you be made to feel welcome? How can you be sure this is for you?
     
  • what are you offering that’s different to others?
    Identifying your Unique Selling Point (USP) can help make your publicity blurb unique, but also more specific to how you work.
     
  • be clear and unambiguous
    Check what you’ve written several times. Run it past a friend or colleague. Check it with an app like Grammarly. Keep the language relatively simple and not too flowery.
     
  • use non-technical language
    Unless you’re offering a specifically technical workshop. Otherwise don’t assume that singers will know any of the jargon that might be second-nature to you. For example, alto, harmony part, a cappella, etc.
     
  • don’t forget the basics
    Is your venue accessible? Does it have toilets? When, where and what? Should singers bring water? Is there anything else they need to bring? How do they sign up? Can anyone come? Will there be sheet music?
     
  • are you making any assumptions?
    Again, a friend can help with this, particularly a friend who has nothing to do with the singing world. If you’ve done something for a long time, it’s easy to forget that not everyone has the same reference points. What is obvious to you may be unfamiliar to them.
     
  • repeat often People won’t read everything you write. People skim and forget. They need to be reminded several times, using different formats and different language.
     
  • review your blurb from time to time
    Have you been using the same old publicity blurb for your choir for several years? It’s always good to refresh your message in advertising terms or people will stop noticing it. But also, your offering may have shifted over time and your description might not be accurate anymore.
     
  • use FAQs to back up your main blurb
    If you try to explain everything in your publicity material it will become too long and unwieldy and people will stop reading. Emphasise the important points, but then have a link to your website where you can include Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) to add more detail. Here are mine as an example: Chris Rowbury’s FAQs.
     

Chris Rowbury


 

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