If you’re looking for new singers, don’t expect them to come to you

You’ve put your fliers out, spread the word, mentioned it on Facebook, but still you find it hard to recruit new singers.

photo by Indra Hardi Saputro

If you’re asking someone to try something unfamiliar, you need to make the effort to take it to their home territory – don’t expect them to come to you.

Singing – the more you do it, the worse you get!

You work on a song in choir week after week, but slowly things seem to get worse. You worry about getting the words right, you can’t seem to remember the second part of the melody, your voice stops hitting the high notes.

photo by Alex Proimos

What’s going on? Here’s what I think ...

Dress to impress – choosing suitable outfits for your choir

As many regular readers will know, I hate a choir in uniform.



However, it is a good idea to have some kind of unifying dress code and also to show your audience that you’ve made an effort. Here are some ideas to consider.

Taking over an established choir – a guide for choir leaders

Choir leaders don’t last forever so there will come a time when a choir needs to find a new one.



If you’re the person who gets the job it can seem daunting to take over a long-established choir. Here are a few tips to help with the transition.

How do you get to the truth of what your singing ability really is?

There is often a mismatch between how good you think you are as a singer and what your abilities really are.



Some people vastly overrate their singing abilities (just watch X Factor!), whilst others with a fine singing voice really think they sound awful. How can we reveal a more accurate picture?

Choir? Chorale? Ensemble? What’s in a name?

Many of you know that I avoid using the ‘C’ word: choir. But there other similar terms that I find just as bad: chorus, chorale, chamber choir.



What’s in a name? What does it tell you about the singing group? Does size matter? Can you have a chorus of four people, or does that become an ensemble? Let’s take a look ...

What makes a ‘good’ singer? – it’s all about context

Those of you who read this blog regularly know that I believe that everyone can sing. If you want to know more, you can read “Everyone can sing” – what the hell does that mean??!!

photo by Hollywata

Given that everyone can sing, what might it mean when someone says one singer is ‘better’ than another? What makes a ‘good’ singer any way?

“Darling, your technique is showing” – don’t be a singer who is all style and no substance

It’s usually the case that professional singers have had some sort of training in a particular singing technique.

photo by Kevin Cease

But dontcha just hate it when that’s all you see when they perform??!! All style and no substance. The point of technique is to not let it show.

What to say if someone asks you if they can sing

A friend asks you to comment on their singing or asks you if you think they can sing at all.



What can you say without hurting their feelings or putting them off singing entirely?

When you sing, forget everything you’ve ever learnt

In your singing lessons and choir warm ups you’re bombarded with exercises and technical advice about posture, breathing, enunciation, pitching, tension, placement and so on.



All good stuff. But when it comes time to sing you need to forget it all. Seems crazy? I’ll show you why it’s important.

Teacher of songs or song polisher – which kind of choir leader are you?

A while back I went to a singing workshop led by an internationally acclaimed workshop leader. I was very disappointed at the lack of teaching skills on display. But in the end the sound we made was amazing.

photo by Allan Harris

I realised that some singing leaders are great teachers of songs and some are great polishers of songs, but not everyone has both skills.

Can open-access choirs cater for every kind of singer?

As a member of the Natural Voice Practitioners’ Network I share their belief that everybody can sing and nobody should be excluded from music-making. Which is why no ‘natural voice’ choirs hold auditions or use unnecessary musical jargon.

adapted from a photo by Brian Robert Marshall

But can such open-access choirs ever be truly inclusive? I don’t believe they can and I think we need to be clear about that when promoting our work.

How to choose soloists in your choir: audition or self-selection?

Rather than everyone singing all the time, many choirs ring the changes by creating smaller ensembles within the larger choir or have occasional solos.

photo by Shelly Mags

In a non-auditioned, open-access choir, what is the fairest way to choose singers to take on these roles?

Singing in a choir – balancing individual freedom with the demands of the team

Those of us who love to sing often love to sing at the top of our voices. It’s joyous!

photo by William P. Gottlieb

But when you’re part of a choir you have to rein in those tendencies for the greater good of the overall sound. How do you achieve that balance without feeling restricted?

Process vs. product: are you along for the singing ride or just the final performance?

Learning and polishing a song can be a long process. Some people find it a chore and can’t wait to get to the end result: a public performance.



But others enjoy the ride, going deeper into the song, finding the nuances, becoming immersed in the whole process and not having any particular end in sight. However, process and product don’t have to be different things.

Never tell someone they can’t sing – it is brutal, damaging and untrue

Most of the people who come to my singing workshops are in their 50s and pretty much all of them have a story to tell about the time someone told them they couldn’t sing.

photo by TrueDragon13

Many of the stories date back to the time when they were at primary or even infant school. What amazing power a throwaway remark like “Just stand at the back and mime” can have!

Helping singers learn to hold a harmony part on their own

If you’re in a choir you’ll be used to singing your harmony part surrounded by others singing the same thing. But it seems much harder to hold a part by yourself when you’re in a small group.

photo by Eric Kilby

In this post I’ll show you how easy it is, how it’s your own head that gets in the way, and I’ll also outline a process that your choir can use to help train singers to hold a part on their own.

What’s the opposite of a “Singing for fun” choir?

Certain people are rather dismissive of “Singing for fun” choirs. If it’s for fun then it can’t possibly be of any quality.



Then I got to wondering: what are their choirs like? What’s the opposite of “Singing for fun”? — “Singing for boredom”? “Singing for misery”? I know which choir I’d rather be in!

Avoid toxic choir leaders – the end does NOT justify the means

There are some workshop and choir leaders who work through fear. They are not particularly nice people, but they do get good results.

photo by Craig Sunter

Yet it is possible to work compassionately and with fun to get the same results. That’s my kind of choir leader!

Joining an established choir: a guide for how choir leaders can help new singers

Last week I wrote about the challenges faced by singers joining an established choir.

photo by fromcolettewithlove

This week I will look at what choir leaders and committees can do to make the transition easier.