Chris Rowbury's weekly blog about choirs and singing.
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At the end of a recent residential singing weekend I was acutely aware of absence when everyone had left. The silence was almost painful. It got me thinking about the different kinds of silence in singing. There are three kinds of silence in all music: before, during and after. Before The silence before singing is full of anticipation: anything can happen. What’s coming next? These silences occur…
I’m officially on my summer break. My last singing workshop was just over two weeks ago. But that doesn’t mean I’m taking it easy or lazing by the pool. Here’s what I’ve been up to. Most people don’t realise how much behind-the-scenes work there is for choir and singing workshop leaders. They think we just turn up, teach a few songs, then go and lie down for the rest of the week. I’m not…
Often, when leading a singing workshop, singers will start putting chairs out or standing in a circle. It’s maybe not the way I’d planned, but I’ll usually go with it. It turns out my singers are often more capable than they realise. I’m rarely fixed on how to arrange the singers. Sometimes we’ll work in a circle, sometimes we’ll face a wall so I can put large lyric sheets up. Sometimes we’ll…
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. Although the 10,000 hour rule has often been questioned, it’s…
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. I have so many new songs I’m dying to teach that I’m always introducing brand new repertoire. But singers often want something familiar. They want…
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? It’s very tempting, especially when teaching songs by ear, to use only the words of the first verse while singers are learning their parts. It can be overwhelming…
I’m amazed at the number of singers who miss the starting note of a song, but then carry on regardless. You have several options if you miss the start note, but one of them definitely isn’t: “sing anyway”! There are many ways to be given your starting note for a song. See How to give and receive starting notes (three posts). Some methods might suit you better than others. However, there are two…
Twenty years ago, Warwick Folk Festival asked me to create a community choir as part of its education outreach programme. Singing Safari, Warwick 2007 I was reluctant to use the word “choir” because I thought it might put some people off. So I used a thesaurus and came up with “Singing Safari”. This is the story of that project. The idea was simple: create a choir from scratch and have it perform…
When you’re leading a one-off singing workshop, or have large influx of new members to your choir, there will be lots of people who don’t know each other. Here are a few simple ways to mix people up so there’s less chance of things becoming cliquey. mixing people up Whenever I lead a singing workshop, I always mix people up before the warm-up. I ask singers to stand in a circle in a particular…
I’m seeing lots of great warm-ups and singing advice online these days. But most of it is aimed at choirs which meet regularly. Many of these ideas won’t work in one-off workshops. Let’s look at the different needs of each. There are many differences between choirs which rehearse regularly and one-off singing workshops open to anyone. choirs relatively fixed membership most singers know each other…
As Blanche DuBois says in A streetcar named desire : “I’ve always depended on the kindness of strangers.” Although I don’t actually depend on it, I’m always surprised and humbled when singers step up to help at a workshop. These days all my work involves one-off singing workshops. Although many familiar faces turn up, there is always a significant number of strangers who I’ve not sung with before.…
I wrote last week about how No choir can be all things to all singers . Some singers prefer sheet music, others learn best by ear. Some love movement and performance, others just want to stand still and sing. Here are some of the most common tensions that arise — and a few ways to navigate them. The role of a choir leader is rarely about finding perfect solutions. It’s usually about finding the…
You can’t please all your singers all the time (see Keeping a choir happy – you can’t please everyone ). There will inevitably be times when some singers want one thing while others want something very different. How do you keep everybody happy? The first thing to acknowledge is that most people join a choir because they broadly share the choir leader’s vision: the repertoire, the teaching style,…
In my experience, when it comes to moving and singing at the same time, men seem to find it hardest. photo by Kevin Burke Why is this, and are there ways to help? I think there are three main reasons. 1. We don’t grow up in a rhythmic culture In the UK, music tends to be melody-led rather than rhythm-led. The folk and pop music we’ve grown up with isn’t especially rhythmic and is rarely…
It’s important for singers to feel wanted and to know that they play an important part in their choir. But if nobody notices you, how will you ever shine? Here are 10 ways to make sure you get noticed in your choir. Always arrive fashionably late to rehearsals And make sure everyone knows you’ve arrived by banging the door, shuffling noisily through chairs, or loudly announcing “I’m here now!”…
When I ran community choirs, I used to insist that singers stood during rehearsals. But some complained that their legs ached by the end of the evening. Now I usually get people to sit for singing sessions. But recently some singers have complained because they prefer to stand! Is there a middle way to keep everybody happy. I’ve always believed that standing to sing is best (see Standing up for…
If you’re a choir member, or thinking of starting a choir, you might imagine that all choir and workshop leaders have extremely ordered lives. In my case, that’s absolutely not true! I don’t work between the end of October and late April, so in theory I have six whole months (plenty of time!) to get “everything in order”. That means filing the pile of scores I chuck in the corner after each…
I’ve seen several online videos recently of choirs using simple, fun songs as warm-ups. It looks harmless enough. But some of these songs have dubious content, which I’m sure the choirs weren’t aware of. Even so, it’s our responsibility to check sources thoroughly. There are loads of songs in foreign languages available through music publishers or picked up in workshops. Many published songs come…
Yes! Just do it. There's no time like the present (see If not now, when? – start singing NOW! ). older posts to help get you started The 3 steps to becoming a singer: step 1 — SING! “Everyone can sing” – what the hell does that mean??!! 12 false beliefs about singing that can prevent you from even trying – don’t let them stop you! Do you need singing lessons in order to sing?
At a choral concert there is usually someone standing in front of the singers waving their arms about. But what are they actually doing, and is there really any need for them to be there? The role of a choir conductor in rehearsal and performance It’s usually evident when a conductor is new at the job. They will simply be beating time, with both arms moving in unison. With a bit more experience,…
When I started my first community choir way back in 1997, most of the singers were in their 40s and 50s. photo by DG EMPL Some of them are still in the same choir today, now in their 70s and 80s. But where are all the new, younger singers? In large cities like London and Edinburgh, there are choirs of all types with members of all ages. This reflects the size and cosmopolitan nature of a big city.…
A couple of things recently reminded me just how important mistakes are when learning something new. One was performer, song leader and composer Brendan Taaffe ’s substack The most important thing you can do is fail , and the other was a voice, body and rhythm workshop I attended. Getting lost is part of learning Brendan believes that “the best thing you can do is to allow yourself to not be good…
When someone doesn’t like what you do, it can make you wobble and start to doubt whether you’re any good. But not everyone is going to like what you have to offer. Once you accept that, it’s easier to move on. Someone might say they don’t like the sound of your singing voice; or how you lead warm-ups; or your choice of repertoire; or how you conduct; or how you interpret a song; or the way you…
Recently, there’s been a spate of ‘tricky’ choir warm-up videos on Instagram. They’re clever and challenging, but I can’t help wondering: do they actually lead to better choir performances? Sometimes, a warm-up can simply be fun It doesn’t need a specific goal. A light-hearted exercise helps loosen people up, builds a sense of community, and reminds singers that mistakes aren’t the end of the…
Here in the northern hemisphere it’s cold, wet, dark and miserable. it’s the ‘slump’ end of the year before spring truly arrives. Going to choir each week can help. But what happens if you lose the joy of singing? I’ve marvelled before at how choir members turn up each week regardless of the weather or time of year (see What motivates you to turn up to choir week after week? ). This works because,…
In Part 1 , I looked at some of the more obvious reasons why choirs begin to falter: the impact of Covid, ageing membership, toxic behaviour, over-ambitious projects, and too many concerts. In this second part, I want to explore some of the longer-term and less visible causes — the ones that creep in gradually or hide behind apparent success. Complacency In an ideal world, your choir will be…
