In his book Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell refers to the “10,000 hour rule”, claiming that the key to achieving expertise in any skill is to practise for around 10,000 hours.
I reckon I’ve done my 10,000 hours over the last 30 years of teaching songs and leading choirs. Yet I still can’t pull it out of the hat without preparation.
I know you can’t please everyone, but when I plan a singing workshop I try to make sure I won’t be teaching anything that any of the singers already know.
An impossible task, but I have a low boredom threshold and feel I need to keep singers interested.
When teaching new songs, especially those with foreign lyrics, I often end up teaching using only the words of the first verse.
But when it comes to the other verses, things get a bit wobbly! Why is that, and what can we do to stop it?
Sometimes I teach a song at a workshop that some singers already know.
Invariably it will be a different arrangement. So how can singers approach re-learning a version that has only slight variations?
Inevitably, some singers will wait around doing nothing while the choir leader focuses on one of the other harmony parts.
Whether you teach by ear (as I do) or use sheet music, this will happen. However, there are ways of minimising this waiting time.
I tend to teach songs quickly (see How many songs can you teach in an hour?). I can easily get through 6-8 songs in a one-day workshop.
A singer recently said to me that quality might be better than quantity. Yes, she’d learnt a lot of different songs, but didn’t feel that she’d really nailed any of them.
I had a bad workshop experience the other day. I felt that the whole day had gone wrong and I wasn’t up to snuff.
Yet loads of people came up to me afterwards to tell me how much they’d enjoyed it. What’s going on here?
As mentioned, I recently started going to line dancing classes.
What I hadn’t expected is that I’m learning so much about becoming a better singing workshop leader.
I’m learning a lot about teaching from the new line dancing class I’ve started!
The teacher has an awareness that there is only so much new information that we can take in, but it doesn’t stop her from overloading us.
Recently I led a local singing day open to everyone and, as always, we ended up making a great sound.
But talking to people in the breaks, many of those who came claimed that they couldn’t really sing. What’s going on here?
A couple of months ago I wrote a post entitled What is a ‘community choir’?
Now it’s the turn of Liz Rog to attempt a definition.
It’s easy to forget, especially when preparing for a concert, that singers come each week to have a good old sing.
They don’t want to be learning new material all the time or focusing on vocal development.
People often ask how much they should charge for leading a workshop or concert.
They usually focus on the professional fee for the contact hours, but forget any travel time involved.
I’ve pointed out before that too much thinking is bad for singers. See The curse of confusion: why thinking is bad for singing.
In fact, your mouth knows far more than your brain does when it comes to songs!
No matter how well you plan your singing workshop or performance, you can find yourself with an unexpected slot that needs filling.
Which is why you should always have a spare song or two up your sleeve.
I give an introductory pep talk at the start of all my singing workshops.
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The aim is to give out useful information, but also to reassure and relax the singers.
I usually try not to use lyric sheets at all. I’d rather have singers with their heads up, watching me and each other.
But sometimes, if a song is in a foreign language, or has lots of words, I’ll put lyrics up.
As singers and choir leaders we grow and develop skills over time. We leave behind us things we consider to be only for beginners.
But no matter how elementary something is, we can always learn something new by revisiting it.
Many choir leaders hand out sheet music or lyric sheets to their singers when teaching a song.
But does this do more harm than good? Is it better to learn the lyrics by ear?
Sometimes when we’re learning a new song, a singer might ask a question because they’re having difficulty.
I will then offer what I believe to be a helpful explanation. But sometimes this won’t help every singer.