You can’t please all your singers all the time (see Keeping a choir happy – you can’t please everyone).
There will inevitably be times when some singers want one thing while others want something very different. How do you keep everybody happy?
The first thing to acknowledge is that most people join a choir because they broadly share the choir leader’s vision: the repertoire, the teaching style, the general ‘vibe’ of the choir.
The exception, of course, is when your choir is the only one in town and singers are simply making the best of what’s available!
So in most established choirs there won’t be huge disagreements very often. Singers tend to self-select the kind of choir that suits them.
But tensions do arise.
I touched on this recently in Some want to sit. Some want to stand. Now what? Some singers wanted chairs available throughout the workshop, while others felt the atmosphere and energy worked better when everybody stood.
There’s no single right answer.
And this kind of tension crops up all the time in choir leading.
Some singers want sheet music, others prefer learning by ear.
Some love movement and choralography, others hate it.
Some enjoy public performance, others feel terrified by it.
Some want tea breaks and social time, others would rather sing straight through.
The role of a choir leader is rarely about finding the perfect solution. It’s usually about finding the best compromise for this choir, these singers, and this situation.
Sometimes that means offering options and flexibility.
Sometimes it means making the choir’s ethos very clear from the outset so singers know what they’re signing up for.
And sometimes it simply means accepting that no choir can be all things to all people.
It’s just the nature of working with groups of human beings.
In my next post I’ll look at some of the most common areas where singers want very different things — and a few ways choir leaders can navigate those tensions.
Chris Rowbury
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