A couple of things recently reminded me just how important mistakes are when learning something new.
One was performer, song leader and composer Brendan Taaffe’s substack The most important thing you can do is fail, and the other was a voice, body and rhythm workshop I attended.
When someone doesn’t like what you do, it can make you wobble and start to doubt whether you’re any good.
But not everyone is going to like what you have to offer. Once you accept that, it’s easier to move on.
Recently, there’s been a spate of ‘tricky’ choir warm-up videos on Instagram.
They’re clever and challenging, but I can’t help wondering: do they actually lead to better choir performances?
Here in the northern hemisphere it’s cold, wet, dark and miserable. it’s the ‘slump’ end of the year before spring truly arrives.
Going to choir each week can help. But what happens if you lose the joy of singing?
In Part 1, I looked at some of the more obvious reasons why choirs begin to falter: the impact of Covid, ageing membership, toxic behaviour, over-ambitious projects, and too many concerts.
In this second part, I want to explore some of the longer-term and less visible causes — the ones that creep in gradually or hide behind apparent success.
If you’re lucky, your choir goes from strength to strength: numbers grow, standards improve, and the sense of community deepens.
But sometimes things start to slip. Numbers fall, confidence drains away, rehearsals lose their energy, and going to choir begins to feel like a chore rather than a pleasure. When that happens, what can you do?
Whenever I ran a one-off singing day, I would always encourage people to bring lunch to share.
The idea was to create a sense of community and get people to socialise with each other. But I no longer do that. Here’s why.
Most singers know they should warm up before singing — but what exactly should a warm up contain?
I’ve written before about why warm ups matter— see The singers who didn’t like warm ups (and what became of them) — but it’s worth looking more closely at what actually makes a warm up effective.
When singers join a non-auditioned choir, they are usually expected to choose the voice part that suits them — without any help.
Over time, singers in community choirs can begin to wonder if they’ve chosen the right part. Here’s a simple way of carrying out a vocal range test with the whole choir.
The second Friday in January is known as “Quitters Day” — the point at which most people abandon the goals they set in their New Year’s resolutions.
Apparently, only 9% of people successfully keep their resolutions and 23% quit in the first week. So how can you real, lasting progress as a singer or choir leader?
A new year and a new choir season don’t just bring change — they also bring choice.
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This is often a moment to pause and reflect: what’s working, what’s not, and what might benefit from being done differently. For choir leaders in particular, it’s a chance to plan rather than simply react.
It’s the start of a new year, a time when people make new plans and take on new challenges.
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For singers and choir leaders, that often means dealing with change: new people, new spaces, new songs, and unfamiliar ways of doing things. Change can be exciting, but it can also feel unsettling.