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?
Here in the UK the arts seem to cater for just three age groups.
If you don’t fit into one of these, then woe betide you!
For the first time in over 13 years I will soon be starting a choir from scratch. And I’m asking for your help!
I’ve written a whole series in the past about how to start your own community choir, and I will be taking a lot of my own advice on board (time to put my money where my mouth is!).
But the nut I’ve been unable to crack is to recruit a truly representative set of people from my local community: in age, gender, race, culture, background, education, disability, etc. In short, a real community choir.
The sad fact is that most choirs in the UK don’t reflect a true cross section of society.
They majority are made up of white women in their 50s and older and often don’t represent the racial, cultural or gender mix of the community they’re based in. How can we change this?
I’ve written on the subject of choir membership and recruitment before.
I’ve realised that there is no easy answer to recruiting a representative set of people from your local community! So I’m asking for your help.
Do you have any ideas or experience of recruiting successfully from right across your local community? Would you like to share your solutions with us? Please drop by and leave a comment.
It seems to me that we can break down the problem as follows.
First you need to be clear what your aims are and then find the right words to explain that clearly to prospective choir members. It may be that you have to use different language for the different groups that you’re trying to attract. Each group will use different language and have different shared points of reference.
Then you have to get this information in front of the relevant people. It’s probably no good putting an advert in the local press to attract 16-year-olds, and it’s no good handing leaflets out after a live pop concert if you’re looking for older singers. You’ll need to take the word to the people you want to attract. That may mean identifying places where groups gather. For example, colleges, adult education classes, churches, cultural clubs.
I’ve pointed out before that when a prospective new choir member walks into their first choir session, they want to see a lot of people like themselves. Otherwise they will feel that they don’t belong and wont’ come back.
If you have a single man or just one 21-year-old, that’s just not going to work. You’ll need to make sure there are large enough sub-groupings within your choir to attract more similar people.
It may not be possible to start from scratch with a truly representative group of singers. It may be that your description, publicity sources, venue, etc. may have to be tailored for each particular group. You can then combine them at a later stage.
For instance, you could start a regular choir (which will probably be older women), a men’s choir, a choir at the local Afro-Caribbean centre and a youth choir. Once these are up and running, you could have a joint concert (involving a couple of joint songs where everyone needs to rehearse together), then gradually amalgamate all the different groups into one choir.
On the face of it, that seems like a lot of work! It may be that you simply don’t have the time or resources to go the whole hog (I know I don’t!), so please, please write in with your own solutions and let’s see if we can all crack this particular nut together.
This is an updated version of a post which first appeared as Children and special interest groups first? in May 2007.
The Sing Up programme for schools has been running since January 2007 and has funding until at least next year. Their aim is to “give every child the chance to sing, with opportunities to develop their singing and performance skills.”
There appears to be an abundance of singing schemes aimed at schools, children and ‘youth’ in general – and even for old people – but what about the rest of us?
It seems to me that the Sing Up programme is another case of pendulum swinging: there was once vibrant music provision in schools (at least there was when I was a kid in the 50s and 60s) which has since been cut back, and now the government want to re-instate it.
But how will this affect the place of music in people’s lives as they get older? It’s all very well pumping money and effort into kids’ time at school, but what then? Why don’t people keep singing through their 20s and 30s?
All that money and effort goes into introducing young people to music, then they’re left to their own devices when they leave school. Choirs are often seen as fuddy duddy and formal, and evening classes are for grown ups (besides, who wants to go back to studying so soon?!), so those in their 20s and 30s often let singing go.
There are youth orchestras, youth bands, youth choirs, young people’s workshops, song writing initiatives for young people, studios for kids, etc. But then what? Once you reach your 30s, you’re out in the cold.
The government would have us believe that the dark ages of music and singing in schools is over. No more: “Stand at the back and mime”, or “You’re not good enough to be in the choir”. Singing in schools is now assumed to create confident singers. There is plenty of singing provision which is supposed to turn us into a singing nation.
But us Natural Voice Practitioners still get people coming to us who were thoroughly put off by their experience of music teaching in schools – even people in their 20s and 30s. Have things changed that much?
Most people who attend choirs and singing workshops that I run are 50+. Many is the time that someone has come up to me after a workshop and told me that it’s the first time that they’ve sung since they left school all those years ago? I always wonder why that is. How come they’ve left singing that long even though they enjoyed it?
It could be argued that singing in a group is just not cool enough for young people once they’ve left school. But what about the pop role models of boy and girl bands singing in harmony? And how come that when people eventually do come back to singing, they say how much they’ve missed it? Is there anything we can do about these ‘dark years’ when we stop singing?
There are so many initiatives these days for specific, well-defined groups like the young, the disadvantaged and the old. But what about people who don’t fit into any of these categories?
The Alzheimer’s Society provides a service called Singing for the Brain to help those with dementia. Age UK (formerly Age Concern) run Singing for Fun groups across the country for those aged 50 and over.
There doesn’t seem to be any support though for the huge majority of people in between: from 20 to 50s, say. It’s hard to get funding for this group as it’s not seen as a priority area. Money is pumped into schools, but then people stop singing. What can we do about it?
Do drop by, leave a comment and give me your ideas.
You might also like to read: Why do kids stop singing when they grow up?
This is a revised version of a post which first appeared as When and why do we stop singing? in April 2007.
The average age of people who attend the choirs and workshops that I run must be around 50. I would say that about a third of any group is of retirement age, and the majority of the rest are in their early 40s to late 50s.
Most of these people sang when they were kids, but then they stopped. Why?
I had plenty of opportunities to sing as a kid (certainly in my early school days in the 1950s): morning assembly, “music & movement” on the radio, the school choir (especially at Christmas), cubs and scouts, the local church choir. I sang in all of these regularly. I even persuaded my Mum to go to my primary school and complain when I didn’t pass the audition to get into the school choir! They relented (my Mum is a force to reckon with) and I joined.
When I was about 15 or 16 I started a band with my mates and we sang lots of Beatles songs. I distinctly remember sitting in the garden on the swing singing along with “I wanna hold your hand” on the radio when it first came out. I loved singing and used to harmonise automatically with all the pop songs on TV (“Juke Box Jury”, “6-5 Special”) and radio. So it’s not as if there weren’t any role models for adolescents.
Then it all stopped and I didn’t really come back to singing until about 25 years later in the early 1990s when I was working in theatre. They often say it’s because boys’ voices break and during that embarrassing transition they find something else to do. But I didn’t have that experience and also I have heard similar stories from the many women who join choirs or come to my singing workshops.
Just this weekend at a workshop a woman came up to thank me and said it’s the first time she’d sung for 50 years!
These people obviously love singing, but have let it lie dormant for such a long period. The desire to re-connect with their singing voice must be very strong as it’s a brave thing to walk into an open workshop when you’ve not sung for such a long time. I often wonder what has compelled that person to come back to singing at that specific moment. After 50 years, why now? Why this particular weekend? Why this particular workshop?
Many people who come back to singing were put off in some way when they were kids: “stand at the back and mime”, “will you stop that awful racket!”, “you can’t be in the choir, you’re not good enough”, “you just can’t sing”.
We have such a personal relationship with our voices that this can cause a huge set-back and put people off singing for a long time. Many participants in my workshops still believe that they can’t ‘sing’ because somebody told them they couldn’t 40 years earlier!
But the desire to make music is strong and can survive for many years. The need to express ourselves through our voices is a primal force, otherwise people wouldn’t come back to singing in later life having been put off so thoroughly in their youth.
If you came back to singing later in life, perhaps you’d like to tell us your story. Why did you stop singing when you were a kid? And what prompted you to start again on that particular day all those years later? Why did you leave it so long?
A few weeks ago I started a discussion here on Why men won’t sing and last week I debunked 15 myths about men and singing.
I also sent out an email to everyone on my mailing list asking for advice on how to get more men singing. This week I want to share some of the suggestions I received. Do leave your own suggestions as a comment and we can try to get more men singing!
“I would suggest easy, emotive, powerful songs with plenty of unison. Make it easy for them with familiar songs like ‘You'll never walk alone’. Once hooked then you can branch out !!” Trevor
“Target churches, synagogues and Bible colleges where men sing regularly ... although there are overall only 10% of Church attendees that are men!!” Ann-Marie
However, Marie points out that her “church choir is always desperately short of men.”
“Perhaps the proprietors of a gym will let you have a table top and a CD player, and you could have a little advertising session for a morning. Better still, get some singers along for a quartet/octet sing on the spot, with some posters saying ‘Singing is Healthy/ Singing is Fun’ sort of message.” Teresa
“Lads [like to] go to the pub for a pint or so. Perhaps encouraging your basses to bond after choir would make it feel more like a ‘manly’ pursuit.” Fiona
“In some singing groups there is the emphasis on the gentle, romantic, caring and sharing, non competitive, easy-going nature of the activity as opposed to the more overtly challenging: ‘Let’s do it better; that was atrocious; we have a performance tomorrow for *’s sake; surely you can give more volume; shake the walls, blast it out'; sing this war chant as if you're going into battle for *’s sake!!!’
Obviously this is an exaggerated scenario, but would some men possibly prefer a better balance?” Malcolm
“Many of the songs are not what I would call robust; I wonder if they appeal more to women? (I now feel that if someone asks me to sing another preachy song I’ll scream!) I would like to see maybe sea shanties. What would it be like if men had the tune and women were the backing?” Patricia
“If an existing choir member recruits a bass, offer a 50% discount on his/ her subscription.” Fiona
“Men will commit to things like Rotary, Masons, etc. Why? Is it because they can say: ‘I’m off to my networking event/ charity fundraising event’ rather than ‘I’m off to choir now, dear’?
The word ‘choir’ might seem rather churchy to some ... I personally love being in bands and adore your workshops but I’m not sure I would want to commit to a ‘choir’ ... and I’m not even a man!” Fiona
“Introduce singing as a motivational tool in business and sport settings: ‘sing to win'!’” Jeremy
“Base a workshop in a pub?? A football ground??? Set it up as a competition?” Linda
“If you’re advertising from the point of view of health benefits, why not advertise via GP surgeries/ health centres/ pharmacies and get the cooperation of the health professionals there?” Marie
“I think people need permission to be bad singers before they learn to become good singers, otherwise they are frightened in case they are not good enough and will ‘fail’ and embarrass themselves. Maybe you could advertise for ‘bad singers who’d like to be good’ or something!! Aimed at those who sing in the shower or the football match but nowhere else.” Marie
“Make it OK to come along and just listen. Fear of the unknown is part of it.” Theresa
“Men may be willing to come if you set a quota that you want at the event and make it clear that they are really, really needed. But they don't need to make any long term commitment — it's only a one-off.” Frances
“[I know of] a group that meets monthly, just to sing, rarely to perform, and has a good proportion of men. I think many of your comments ring true here, some like the drop-in, non-commitment idea.” Angela
“Many men know their voices are limited — the notes you can’t reach. Most men have no idea that actually a choir offers the chance to sing parts that allow them to optimise their vocal limitations; that their gravelly rumblings can actually be very valuable.” Lionel
“I don’t think I would have tried [the choir] if I hadn’t done Vocal Academy first. They offered seven weeks of voice TRAINING which made all the men think they were amongst novices who wouldn’t judge them. They advertised quite widely.” Lionel
“Would it be worth doing a half day workshop, just for those men who think they cannot sing?” Alan
“Maybe a ‘preparation for the six nations rugby’ singing course might work for dads and lads where they can learn some of the well-known rugby songs, but then you can also chuck some African songs in there without them knowing.” Mags
“Start some men-only choirs to mirror your mixed choirs. Keep it simple for as long as it takes, keep it fun always. Once your men get comfortable singing with themselves and each other then that is the time to introduce them to the horrors of a mixed choir.” Rodger
“Perhaps men need to get to sing the tune more. Bass parts can be extremely boring. Tenor parts can be baffling.” Jeremy
“For one or two men to join an established choir with an extensive well-rehearsed repertoire is very daunting and it may seem to take ages for the new boy to feel comfortable and competent to sing in public. So this model sets up a choir for a limited period with the aim of performing in a major concert for charitable reasons. It requires a lot of money and commitment from quite a lot of people.
... we did extensive advertising through a 35,000 leaflet drop
... So far we have spent nearly £3000 and it has been very demanding of members’ time.” Peter
“I used to give massages at work and men would come to have massages but wouldn’t go to a health therapist in their own time. So maybe start a choir in a big business block during lunch time!!! That might get them interested and give them a good taster” Mirjam
“I was speaking to a friend who is a human resources executive and she suggested you target the business world — especially large companies and organisations — and pitch it as a ‘stress-busting’ exercise. Singing could be used as a team-building exercise or even as competition between different departments!” Veronica
“Give them a reason !!!! Men like a challenge.” Nick
“Maybe men need a ‘real-life’ purpose for their singing, not just singing for the sake of it? Workplace (miners for example) or church/ chapel or political activity (African townships), football terrace, or even rugby club. Many of the cultural spaces in which singing is ‘normal’ have disappeared from British society over the past generations.” Robert
“What I found helpful is a men-only time within choir practise. Our pianist takes the men for about 20/30 mins. and rehearses their parts.” Beate
“Most men are competitive. Singing in a choir requires collaboration. Just turning up and singing for the sake of it doesn’t make sense to men. There needs to be a challenge, either a competition against other choirs or the challenge of a difficult piece of music, which needs to be finished and performed to an audience.” Simon
“Men love public praise and appreciation. Whilst I can understand that it is difficult in your Saturday workshops to complete a piece to a polished standard, men need to experience a completed product that is finished to a high standard and then be praised for it.” Simon
“At the end of the workshop get the men to perform at a concert — a couple of songs learnt that day.” Grenville
“[I was in a choir that] was lead by a husband and wife team who were both technically excellent. However the husband made jokes at the male singers’ expense. I realised that as a bass singer I have got used to that as it has happened in other choirs but it annoys me.
Occasionally his wife would take the men’s sectional rehearsals. She never made jokes about us, she was always encouraging and always saw the positive in our singing. That made such a difference. Those rehearsals have been real highlights in my singing life. Give men lots of warm and genuine praise.” Simon
“Arrange a sporting anthem workshop targeting all the men who regularly sing football and rugby songs. There is a superb selection of songs: ‘When the Saints’, ‘You’ll never walk alone’, national songs like ‘Bread of Heaven’ (Wales), ‘Jerusalem’ and ‘Swing low sweet Chariot’ (England). I've forgotten what Scotland’s and Ireland’s are, but you get the idea.
A mail out to all the football and rugby clubs would be manageable. The workshop would probably have to be out of season in the summer.
The theory behind this is that this is for men who love singing with their mates but who wouldn’t think about joining choirs. If they enjoy the experience, then who knows?” Irene
“Most boys are happy to sing, enjoy it no end in fact, but in about the last six months to a year of Primary school it becomes harder to retain them in the choir. Once they’re at the comprehensive there will be nooooooo singing. Singing (lack of) at Secondary level is a huge issue
I’m sure it's about what happens between 10 and 16. Work with male teachers!” Theresa
“Do a schools presentation about singing and trot along the best and most macho of the men you have to speak about it.” Linda
“The perception of many male choirs is of old men — and in fact this is true! Set a senior age limit ... unpopular / ageist but the only way.” Grenville
“[There has been some] success with dads and lads choirs. You could still have an age restriction: no under-tens, etc. The breakthrough seems to come with a real family connection and support plus younger children all being enabled to perceive themselves as singers before the age of ten, then moving onto all-male choirs later.
When the younger lads get into singing, the more likely they and the dads continue to join choirs.” Gloria
“Hire in someone with a reputation for getting men to sing — a TV face not a choral conductor — the men you want will have no idea who they are. Bob Chilcott would attract choral singers but the men you want won’t have the faintest idea who he is.” Grenville
Over to you now. I’m sure there are lots of other great ideas out there. Do drop by and leave a comment to share them with us.
Next week I’ll share with you what I think are the best ideas and practical ways to take this forward (Men and singing 3: seven ideas to get more men involved). Do let me know if you have any suggestions or are actively trying to recruit men yourself.
After reading my post Over-rehearsed or under-prepared: which is better? Dawn contacted me about a problem she has with her choir.
Dawn writes:
“Enjoyed reading your article. As usual.
My problem is slightly different as we only meet once a month, and all the members are over 60. Often they tend to forget the points we worked on the previous month, or they are anxious to move on to other songs (or both, to be honest).
Where do I go from there? Any ideas would be gratefully received.”
The fact is that singers in choirs these days are getting older. For some reason singing in a choir seems to attract 50-somethings and people who have retired. In all the community choirs and singing workshops I have run, the majority of people are at least in their mid-forties and older. We are all finding it hard to recruit younger members.
Does this matter? Does it affect the way that a choir is run or its repertoire? Personally, I don’t think it makes a difference.
Dawn says that her singers tend to forget points that they worked on the previous month. Well, some of my singers forget what they were doing the previous week or at yesterday’s rehearsal!
The longer the gap between sessions, the more likely that people will forget what they did. If you do have to have long gaps between sessions then there are two obvious solutions:
This taps into my recent post on specialist versus generalists. Some people feel that they’ve done enough of one song thank you very much and want to move onto new songs. Whereas some of the group might want to keep on working on the same song until it’s perfected.
In this case you need to steer a course between the two extremes. Maybe leave a song for one session, and bring it back in the next one so it feels fresh.
Some people just come for fun and don’t really want to work on a song too much, they just want an opportunity to sing. Maybe they’re in the wrong group and need to go to a ‘songs from the shows’ kind of choir where lots and lots of songs are sung each session to a piano accompaniment. Learning a song properly is a different kettle of fish.
If you are clear about the kind of choir you want to establish, then you need to stick to your guns. People sign up to your choir because they like what you do. You need to decide exactly what kind of choir it is that you want to create.
If you don’t want to keep moving onto other songs, then don’t. People will respect your authority and you will eventually end up with a choir of singers who agree with the way you run things. Don’t stand for any nonsense!
Many people seem to remain stuck in the music of their youth. I can’t relate to that myself as I’m always on the lookout for new stuff. But the fact is I know people in their 50s who still only listen to early 70s bands and people in their 60s who only like rock and roll.
But this is to stereotype people. Just because somebody is old, does it mean they only want to sing ‘White cliffs of Dover’ or ‘It’s a long way to Tipperary’?
In fact, unless it’s a simple sing-along session, trying to learn an arrangement of a well-known song can be very hard (see my post: It’s hard to teach songs that people already know). Why not find material that is fresh and new for everyone in the group?
There are so many offers and schemes out there for the “over 50s”. I don’t know about you, but that makes me feel like I’m OLD and on the scrap heap at 57 (I know, I know, I don’t look that old ...)!
Age is in the mind. I know 16-year-olds who behave like 80-year-olds, and we have an 84-year-old woman in my choir who acts like a spring chicken. It’s all about attitude. The fact that your singers are over 60, Dawn, is irrelevant I believe.
Of course, working with singers who might have health issues (limited mobility, dementia, breathing problems, etc.) can be problematic, but generally I don’t think that age is an issue.
What do you think? Do you work with older singers in your choir? Do you find that they are more forgetful or want to keep moving onto new songs? Do leave a comment and share your experience.
