Is it OK to wing it?

There will be times when you’re not fully prepared. It may be due to illness, laziness or circumstances outside your control.

 

The question is: should you go ahead regardless?

17 years on: what’s changed?

17 years ago I led one of my first residential singing weekends. The theme was the Beach Boys.

Beach Boys singing weekend, September 2009, Farncombe Estate

The other weekend, I was in Derbyshire leading another of my (rare) Beach Boys weekends. It got me thinking about all the things that have happened since 2009.

How to be prepared for any combination of voices

I’m leading a singing workshop tomorrow. I know I will have 35 singers, seven of whom are men. Five of those are tenors.

That means that I can choose song arrangements accordingly. But what happens when you’ve no idea in advance which voice parts you’ll have?

The day I thought I'd finally arrive as a song leader

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.

Why I rarely teach the same songs twice

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.

The curse of the second verse

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?

When the song you know isn’t quite the same: Tips for re-learning variations

Sometimes I teach a song at a workshop that some singers already know.

Image generated by Gemini AI

Invariably it will be a different arrangement. So how can singers approach re-learning a version that has only slight variations?

How can you avoid singers doing nothing while other parts are being taught? — 4 ideas to reduce waiting time

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.

Finding the right balance in singing workshops: Quality vs. Quantity

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.

image generated by DeepAI

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.

Think it's all going wrong? Spoiler: nobody's noticing!

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?

Become a better choir leader by taking classes unrelated to singing

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.

How much new information can singers take in before they become overloaded?

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.

How can a group of “non singers” make such a great sound?

Recently I led a local singing day open to everyone and, as always, we ended up making a great sound.

photo by Paul Baker

But talking to people in the breaks, many of those who came claimed that they couldn’t really sing. What’s going on here?

What is ‘community singing’? — an attempted definition by Liz Rog: part 1

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.

Don’t forget that your singers have come to SING!

It’s easy to forget, especially when preparing for a concert, that singers come each week to have a good old sing.

photo by Alex Beattie

They don’t want to be learning new material all the time or focusing on vocal development.

Don’t forget travel time when charging for an event

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.

Your mouth knows more than your brain does

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!

Always have a spare song up your sleeve

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.

The pep talk I give before every singing workshop 1: preparing to sing

I give an introductory pep talk at the start of all my singing workshops.

The aim is to give out useful information, but also to reassure and relax the singers.

Why you might need lyric sheets for even simple songs in English

I usually try not to use lyric sheets at all. I’d rather have singers with their heads up, watching me and each other.

photo by Sheila Scarborough

But sometimes, if a song is in a foreign language, or has lots of words, I’ll put lyrics up.