How can you possibly teach songs without a piano??!!

“You can’t run a singing workshop here, we don’t have a piano.”

photo by Thomas Quine

It’s amazing how many people can’t get their heads around the fact that it’s possible to teach songs without a piano (or sheet music). How is it done?

10 reasons why your next singing workshop should be a residential one

There is something different and special about a residential learning experience.

photo by Martyn Gorman

A whole day of singing is great, but to spend an entire weekend (or even a week) with a bunch of like-minded people, getting away from the rat race, is just magic.

Here are ten reasons why your next singing workshop should be a residential one.

Instant choir – just add people

Most choirs rehearse for months to perfect their songs before they perform.

the Big Night Out Community Choir for BBC Children in Need 2012

But there is an alternative: gather a bunch of strangers together, teach them a set of songs quickly and then perform them before they forget. This approach has many advantages ...

The only thing stopping you from being a better singer is ...

... YOU!

photo by Stephen Mcleod

Your job is to get out of the way and allow your unique voice to shine. Easier said than done.

The joys of outdoor singing

Well, spring seems to have finally arrived here in the UK and our thoughts turn to picnics and summer music festivals.

Lakeland Voices at Tarn Howes on a summer evening singing walk

Whenever I run a workshop on a sunny day people always ask if we can sing outdoors and I always say no because it’s hard to do well (see Performing outdoors – tips and tricks). But David Burbidge has been singing and walking outdoors regularly for many years and writes here about the joys of doing both together.

Stop chasing after songs for your choir – learn to respect, research and relax

There are people out there desperate to find more songs for their choir.

photo by Victor Grigas

They record everything at singing workshops, go to song swap sessions at every opportunity, exchange songs over the internet, and pester workshop leaders for their arrangements.

They can’t ever get enough! It almost becomes an obsession to capture songs in any way they can.

What exactly is the point of your choir?

I often get people writing to me for advice about choirs.

Some of them don’t agree with the direction their choir leader is taking them, some find the repertoire too hard, some have trouble with singers next to them singing out of tune, some worry about getting their part right for the next concert.

photo by Jeff Lutz

But before I can answer I need to know what kind of choir they belong to. What is the point of their choir?

Why being a confident singer is not always a good thing in a choir

I’m all in favour of confident singers (see How to be a confident singer). The problem is there are two kinds and one of them can be disruptive in a choir.

photo by truu

There are confident singers who know what they’re doing; and there are those who don’t. It’s the latter who can cause real difficulties.

How to run a choir without driving everyone nuts: the first seven years

This is a guest post by Betsy Sansby who co-leads the One World Community Choir in Hopkins, Minnesota, USA along with Alan Dworsky.

The One World Community Choir

Read on to find out what Betsy has learnt so far in the seven years since she started her first community choir.

How to promote your next choir concert to reach more people and get a bigger audience

Over the last two weeks I've shown how to sell more tickets for your next concert by using your own choir members and also by widening the net.

photo by One_Glass_Eye

But if nobody knows about your concert in the first place, all of that is irrelevant! So how do you let people know your concert is on? And how do you persuade them to come?

How to sell more tickets at your next concert: widening the net

Last week I suggested ways to use your choir members to help sell tickets for your next concert.

photo from FreeFoto.com

But over time, you can’t rely on friends and family and will have to widen the net. Here are some ideas on how to sell tickets in other ways.

How to sell more tickets for your next concert: use your choir members

You’ve put all that hard work into rehearsals, so now you need to sell some tickets to actually get a decent audience.

photo by planetschwa

You might think that promotion comes first (more on this in a future post), but your best resource for selling tickets is right on your doorstep: your own choir members.

Size matters: how to work effectively with large choirs

If I get 30 singers on one of my weekend workshops someone will say “Gosh, what a large group!” whilst another says “Quite low numbers then.”

photo by tsheko

‘Large’ is in the eye of the beholder. But however you define it, working with a large group has its own problems.

Don’t play a recording of a song to your choir before you teach it to them

I’m often asked by choir members to play a recording of a song before I start teaching it so they can get an idea of how it sounds.

Photo by ~~Tone~~

Yet at a recent workshop people said that the easiest song to learn was the one that they’d never heard before. So should I play a recording first?

Can you remember a song while standing on one leg?

I teach a song in the morning and it’s sounding pretty good.

photo by kalavinka

Then after lunch I get the group to stand facing a different direction and it all goes wrong. What’s happening here?

If there’s too much talking in your choir, something must be right

I read once that if there’s a lot of talking during the break in a workshop, then it’s a good sign because it means everyone is happy, enjoying themselves and getting along well.

photo by aavarnum

I think the same applies to a choir: if there is plenty of social chit chat it’s a good sign.

Ask questions – your choir leader (probably) won’t bite!

When I was a student, I’d sit in lectures scribbling down everything that the lecturer wrote on the board. Like most people there, I understood very little.



This one guy would put up his hand and ask the lecturer a naive question and the rest of us would breathe a sigh of relief. That’s what we wanted to ask, but had been too ashamed to!

The lecturer would patiently answer the question with no trace of condescension.

That’s when I realised: there are no stupid questions.

You are the most important singer in your choir

Yes, you! No matter what size your choir is, you are by far the most important singer in it.

photo by ~BillieJoesEntourage

Without you, the choir would simply not function. We couldn’t do it without you!

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It would be great to get to know you better and to find out more about your singing lives.

Help someone to start singing this year — maybe even you!

I’m probably preaching to the converted here as I guess most of you reading this already sing regularly.

photo by T Sundup

So how about getting someone else to start singing in the coming year? If we all introduce one new person to the joys of singing in a group, that’s a lot of people singing together!