Liven up your leisure time!

New for 2015 – self-catering at Shorland
Listed on January 15, 2015 by Shorland Old Farm in Blogs!
Self-catering at Shorland New for 2015, we’re pleased to be able to offer our self-contained, two-bedroomed cottage for a self-catering holiday experience at Shorland. Available all year round, to rent separately from the accommodation in the house and studio, it’s perfect for those who would like to visit this idyllic corner of Devon, but don’t ...

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Hurray, the new programme is out!
Listed on January 13, 2015 by Dillington in Blogs!
The new programme is out and dropping onto door mats all over the country. I think most people know it is a work of considerable ingenuity – the programme not the postal service… or maybe both in fairness. The programme … Continue reading →
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Build it and they will come – why you can never have too many choirs
Listed on January 12, 2015 by Chris Rowbury in Blogs!
I had a friend who moved to a new town and set up a new choir, blissfully ignorant of the 100+ community chorus that already existed there.

photo by ToBreatheAsOne

What was amazing was that the new choir quickly attracted 40 or so new singers, none of whom were from the rival choir. How is that possible?

We choir leaders like to kid ourselves that people come to sing with us because they like us and what we do.

The reality is that people come to a choir mainly because it’s at a convenient time and day!

You’ll be surprised at how many singers are out there waiting for a choir to spring up on a Wednesday evening or a Monday lunchtime. As soon as you build one, they will come.

Don’t worry about poaching singers from existing choirs. Unless the singers are seriously disillusioned with the repertoire and the way things are run, they have found something (at a time and day) that suits them so they will stay.

So if you’re hesitating about setting up a new singing group and worrying that there are not enough singers to go round: don’t! Build it and they will come (but make sure it doesn’t clash with something else that’s already on).

If you’ve not set up a choir before, you might like to read my series of 10 posts called How to start your own community choir. And if you’re not a choir leader and want to start a choir, then check out the two guest post called How to set up a choir if you’re not a choir leader.

Good luck!

Chris Rowbury

Website: chrisrowbury.com
Facebook: Facebook.com/ChrisRowbury
Twitter: Twitter.com/ChrisRowbury

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Telephone Interview Success
Listed on January 7, 2015 by A Life at Work in Blogs!
As pressure mounts on HR managers to reduce recruitment costs, more and more opt to use one or two methods of remote job interviews. Remote job interviews are typically used before the face-to-face interview and allow the HR manager to interview a greater number of candidates in shorter time. If you are looking to change […]

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Welcome to the 2015 Course Programme
Listed on January 7, 2015 by Arvon in Blogs!
Ruth Borthwick, Chief Executive It’s amazing to think that it is 40 years since Arvon started running courses...

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Increase your enjoyment of singing in the choir in the coming year
Listed on January 5, 2015 by Chris Rowbury in Blogs!
I wrote a post a while back called Ask not what your choir can do for you – ask what can you do for your choir. The more you put in, the more you get back!

The OK Chorale, Woodbridge, Suffolk

There are plenty of practical things you can do to help you get more out of your choir. Here are a few. Why not try them in the coming year?

Liz Garnett’s wrote a post on her blog Helping You Harmonise recently called Four Non-Musical Contributions You Can Make That Can Transform Your Choir.

In it she suggested “four things that every choir member can manage, whatever their current skills or levels of experience, that will actively help their choir improve”. Here they are:
1. Turn up
2. Be ready to start at the start
3. Be ready to start again after the break without having to be chased back
4. Be organised
If only every choir member took these responsibilities seriously! It’s all pretty obvious stuff, but it’s amazing how many singers forget their lyrics, arrive late, can’t remember which part they’re singing, get distracted by chatting to their friends.

I mentioned some similar points in my post How to be a good choir member.

Yes, singing in a choir is fun, but if you can balance it with a few basic responsibilities, it makes the whole experience much more rewarding for all concerned.

If you recognise a bad habit (or two!) of yours when reading these posts, make a note of it/ them. Don’t try to change everything at once (those kind of New Year resolutions are bound to fail), but maybe pick one important one and see how that goes.

You might also enjoy my post from last January: What small changes will make you a better singer in the coming year?

I wish you every luck with any changes you want to make and hope you have a wonderful year of singing ahead.

further reading
You might also find these posts relevant.

The pleasures of being a choir member

How to deal with unwanted talking during choir rehearsals without killing anybody

How to get people back after the break

Don’t stand too close to me! – finding the right place to stand in your choir

How will your choir cope if you don’t turn up?

You are the most important singer in your choir

Don’t try to help your fellow singers – it’s not your job!

Dealing with choir members who are always late

Joining an established choir: a guide for new singers

Chris Rowbury

Website: chrisrowbury.com
Facebook: Facebook.com/ChrisRowbury
Twitter: Twitter.com/ChrisRowbury

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2015 Begins…
Listed on January 1, 2015 by Dillington in Blogs!
2014 ended in a cold bright calm, a beautiful coda to what seems a terrible year. Missing aircraft, misery and death in Gaza, savage atrocities in Iraq, Syria, Somalia, Nigeria and elsewhere in sub-Saharan Africa. An then there is the … Continue reading →
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Busily doing nothing – 5 reasons why downtime is important for singers and choir leaders
Listed on December 29, 2014 by Chris Rowbury in Blogs!
Feel like you’re on a treadmill? Constantly learning and practising and planning but never arriving? Not enough time to catch your breath between concerts?

photo by Roger Gordon

Then you need some downtime! That is, time spent doing things completely unrelated to singing and choirs. Here’s why.

It often feels like as soon as one choir season is over then the next one is upon you. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a singer or a choir leader, it’s all to easy to lose sight of why you loved singing in the first place.

It’s vital to factor in some downtime for yourself where you do nothing related to either choirs or singing. Here are a few reasons why it’s so important:
1. your subconscious needs time and space – many creative problems can’t be solved by a head-on attack. But give your subconscious time to work and the solution will appear. Whether it’s an arrangement that’s not working or a song that you’re finding hard to learn, leaving it alone for a while works wonders. See also How songs are stored in your brain
2. you’ll feel refreshed and renewed after a break – and remember why you loved singing in the first place. Doing it all the time can make it feel like a chore and you’ll lose all the fun. A break doesn’t necessarily mean stopping everything (although vacations are important too!), just make sure you’re doing things unrelated to choirs and singing. Make your choir life richer by tapping into other interests. You’ll be surprised at the unconscious connections that get made.
3. it’s possible to overwork things – yes, too much practice or too much planning really can start to bring diminishing returns. Stepping away from rehearsal or lyric learning gives the brain time and space to make new connections. The amount of time you spend practising is not as important as the quality of that practise. Constantly bashing away at something isn’t always the best way. See also Over-rehearsed or under-prepared: which is better?
4. you need to look after yourself – or you’ll burn out or get ill and then be no use to anyone. Remember all those activities that relax you and give you pleasure: listening to music, making a meal, going for a walk, reading? Take time to pamper and take care of yourself. See also Taking care of ourselves as choir and workshop leaders and Keep it to yourself! – why colds, singing and choirs don’t mix and Looking after yourself in a busy concert season.
5. you need time to organise and reflect – even though it is related to choirs and singing, it’s important to make time to do things like tidying up your sheet music, archiving the previous choir season, cleaning up your work space, filing CDs and recordings away. You’ll not be dealing with choir-related issues head on, but these relatively mindless tasks can throw up all kinds of ideas: songs you’d forgotten about, new ways of organising your music, better ways of planning, etc. See also Putting your house in order or how to clear up after a busy choir season
  
  It’s also good to have space to look at the bigger picture by reflecting on how the last choir season went, whether you’re still heading in the right direction, what things you might do better in the future. All done in a very loose and casual manner! See also Getting the best out of your choir 6: self-reflection and The secret to great singing that teachers don’t tell you.
further reading
You might also find these related posts of interest:

What I did on my summer holiday – why we all need a break some time

Use the long choir break to get better at what you do

This quiet time between Christmas and New Year is the perfect opportunity to take some downtime. Come and join me?

Happy New Year to all my loyal readers and I hope all your dreams and wishes for 2015 come true.

Chris Rowbury

Website: chrisrowbury.com
Facebook: Facebook.com/ChrisRowbury
Twitter: Twitter.com/ChrisRowbury

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Our Chrismas Message
Listed on December 23, 2014 by Dillington in Blogs!
Well, Christmas is almost upon us and it feels like the lull before the storm. All the work is done and we’re prepared to welcome a house-full of guests tomorrow and even more for lunch on Christmas Day and Boxing … Continue reading →
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Why a choir can never be truly democratic
Listed on December 15, 2014 by Chris Rowbury in Blogs!
Ever asked your choir members how they think things are going? Is there a large committee helping to run your choir? If so, you’ve realised that a choir is not a democracy!

A choir is more like a benign dictatorship. Here’s why democratic choirs don’t work.

getting feedback from choir members
Many choirs send out an annual questionnaire to their members to get feedback on how things are going. Is the repertoire to their taste? Are there too many or too few performances? Can the weekly sessions be improved in any way?

If you’ve ever conducted one of these surveys you’ll realise that there are as many different opinions as there are singers in the choir! In fact, the only thing holding this disparate group of people together is you, the choir leader.

Even if there is some kind of consensus in the responses, it can become divisive. The choir ends up being in two different camps, for example, those who want more pop songs and those who want less.

If you try to seek the choir’s input on every matter – song choice, frequency of performances, length of warm ups – then it becomes rather like trying to run a country by having endless referendums. It’s best to elect someone to represent you and then trust them to make the right decisions.

Which is where choir committees come in. Trouble is, sometimes they don’t end up representing the views of the choir members, but are often made up of people who have strong views and who like being on committees.

Far better (in my opinion) to choose the right choir leader and let them get on with it.

the benign dictator
People join a particular choir for two main reasons:
1. the rehearsals are at a convenient time and day for them, and
2. they like the way the choir is lead and the choice of songs
Basically (if they’re free on that day), a singer will join a choir because they buy into the choir leader’s vision. They like their approach to singing, ways of working and choice of songs. If they stop agreeing with that vision, then they can leave and join another choir which suits them better.

It’s like a benign dictatorship.

But if the choir leader is always seeking feedback and always trying to please everybody, then you end up with a strange beast that has no clear direction, keeps changing what it does, and never pleases anyone.

By all means do an annual survey. It might turn up a few interesting ideas or concerns that you weren’t aware of. But don’t take too much notice of complaints about length of warm up, song choices, style of performance, etc. – that’s the choir leader’s job.

further reading
You might also find these older posts interesting.

Using feedback forms for choirs and singing workshops

If some singers want more and some want less, you must be doing something right!

You can’t franchise charisma – why your choir leader is special

Too many cooks – benign dictators rule!

Exactly who’s in charge of my choir?! – how to deal with change

Trying to please all the people all the time

What the job of choir leader involves

Whose choir is it any way?

Chris Rowbury

Website: chrisrowbury.com
Facebook: Facebook.com/ChrisRowbury
Twitter: Twitter.com/ChrisRowbury

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A Happy Christmas from Shorland Old Farm!
Listed on December 12, 2014 by Shorland Old Farm in Blogs!
To view our Christmas newsletter, please click here: http://us6.campaign-archive1.com/?u=890c0ae28afa1425b5f5a7f6f&id=f30b1feb1c If you do not already subscribe to our occasional newsletters, and would like to receive them directly, by email, plea...
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Eileen Brunton
Listed on December 12, 2014 by Dillington in Blogs!
My blog is not usually a place of personal remembrance but this morning I received the news of death of one of our Patrons – Eileen Brunton. Eileen and Howard retired to south Somerset about 18 years ago and soon … Continue reading →
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Christmas Closure
Listed on December 12, 2014 by Benslow in Blogs!
The Benslow Music offices will be closed from 5pm on Friday 19 December and will re-open at 9am on Friday 2 January 2015. Any emails, booking forms or messages received during this period (including online applications) will be addressed on our return.
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Songbooks and other resources for choirs (that will also make great Christmas presents)
Listed on December 8, 2014 by Chris Rowbury in Blogs!
I’ve written before about finding songs for your choir (Where do you find all your songs? and Easy songs for your choir and Finding songs for your choir). But times move on and new books get published all the time.

Here’s a round up of songbooks and other resources that are either fairly new or which I haven’t mentioned before.

Here is a list of recent and not so recent songbooks, DVDs, CDs, etc. for use with your choir. Click on the large image under each description to find out more.

Fill the room with sky
BRAND NEW! A varied collection of 25 of Jane Schonveld's songs and arrangements for community choirs, all in 3- and 4-part harmony. You can buy the physical songbook and then get access to free MIDI downloads of individual song parts.

The Best of Village Harmony: a 25th Anniversary Collection
BRAND NEW! Compiled and edited by Village Harmony co-directors Larry Gordon and Patty Cuyler to commemorate Village Harmony's 25th anniversary in 2014, this mammoth undertaking includes nearly 100 songs from around the world for a cappella choral ensemble. The accompanying mp3 CD-R has sample recordings for nearly all the songs in the book, with performances by Village Harmony, Northern Harmony and associated ensembles.

Community Voiceworks
BRAND NEW! Community Voiceworks: 40 inspirational songs and warm-ups for community choirs by Alison Burns and Gitika Partington. Book and two CDs. Part of the Oxford University Press’s Voiceworks series, due to be published in July 2015.

The Choral Imperative
Patty Cuyler and Mollie Stone have produced a series of songbooks and DVDs called Raising the Bar which currently covers songs from Georgia, Bulgaria and South Africa. Teaching a new ‘world music’ genre can be an intimidating prospect. The Choral Imperative resources assist you in helping your singers learn proper pronunciation, and do research on the song and its cultural milieu.

Voices of Iceland
DVD of Icelandic folk songs and dances. An informative booklet, in English and Icelandic, about the various forms of Icelandic traditional music and dance, accompanies the DVD.

UNESCO Collection of Traditional Music
Comprises more than 125 albums of music from around the world. Smithsonian Folkways Recordings are gradually re-releasing all of those recordings published between 1961 and 2003 and out of print since 2005 as well as publishing a dozen previously unreleased albums. All will be available in both digital and physical formats.

Slovakian Roma songs
Žudro is a non-profit, non-political, non-government, voluntary association in Slovakia. Their aim is to increase the tolerance of ethnic, social, cultural or otherwise different groups of people by monitoring, documenting, processing and subsequent visibility of cultural, spiritual values and expressions of these groups of people at home and abroad. They have published several CDs and songbooks of ancient Roma songs from Slovakia, for example Phurikane gil'a.

99 Georgian songs
The Centre for Performance Research has just raised money through Crowdfunder to re-publish 99 Georgian Songs in a revised and extended edition. It does exactly what it says on the book cover! Available in 2015.

The Sephardic Songbook
By Joshua Horowitz and Aron Saltiel. 51 Judeo-Spanish songs in a book containing musical transcriptions, trilingual song texts (Ladino, German and English) and explanations.

Traditional Cuban Songbook
An on-line resource maintained by Jorge Fernández Crespo containing a bilingual Cuban traditional songbook with lyrics and audio recordings.

Anthology of Traditional Prikamye Folklore
Prikamye or Perm Krai is a federal subject of Russia in the east of the East European Plain and the western slope of the Middle Ural Mountains. The region is one of the top in Russia by its ethnic diversity, home to over 120 peoples. This website has plentiful music, videos and photographs of many of these ethnic groups. Some of the CDs are for sale.

Amidon Music
Peter and Mary Alice Amidon are versatile and widely respected performing and teaching artists who for the past twenty years have dedicated themselves to traditional song, dance and storytelling. Their website is packed with music downloads and songbooks for sale, mostly arrangements by the Amidons of traditional songs in SATB. You can download sheet music or buy physical products like CDs and DVDs.

Jewish Songs for Harmony Singing
BRAND NEW! This is a set of 20 of Judith Silver's own compositions. The songbook includes extensive notes, translations and pronunciation guides. There are recorded full versions on various CDs/iTunes etc., and sound files of the separate parts are available on request.
Please email info@judithsilver.com to order and for further details of how to pay by cheque or PayPal. More information soon on Judith's website: www.judithsilver.com.

Open To the Day
BRAND NEW! Open to the Day is a collection of 20 original songs, with music and lyrics by Ros Thomas. Composed specifically for unaccompanied, harmony singing, all of the songs have been tried, tested and enjoyed by a variety of singing groups and workshop participants, with content ranging from simple warm-ups and light-hearted short pieces, to more complex rounds and full lengths songs sung in two to five part harmony.

The songbook contains 20 song scores and two audio CDs containing recordings of full songs and individual parts — all sung by Ros for the relative ease of learning from one voice rather than many. It costs £25, and is available by emailing ros@naturalvoice.net.

And as always, if I’ve missed anything out that you think should be included here, then please leave a comment. Remember it’s mainly about traditional music from around the world, not Western classical or pop!

Chris Rowbury

Website: chrisrowbury.com
Facebook: Facebook.com/ChrisRowbury
Twitter: Twitter.com/ChrisRowbury

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It’s amazing what you can learn…
Listed on December 5, 2014 by Dillington in Blogs!
Last night I went to a presentation concerning the world’s oceans and how they may help with some of the myriad of problems facing our continuing well-being. It was once said that the Amazon rainforest held the key to new … Continue reading →
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The Benslow Buzz
Listed on December 3, 2014 by Benslow in Blogs!
The December 2014 - January 2015 issue of our monthly newsletter
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Out of the City and into the Country
Listed on December 2, 2014 by Dillington in Blogs!
I was talking to someone in Bristol last night about meetings and they said that they often go out of the city and into the country in order to think, debate and decide on business strategy. Of course this was … Continue reading →
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P.D. JAMES AND ARVON
Listed on December 1, 2014 by Arvon in Blogs!
by Simon Brett It is frequently said that crime writers are a benign and friendly lot, and of...

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The differences between a ‘natural voice’ choir and all the rest
Listed on December 1, 2014 by Chris Rowbury in Blogs!
You may have come across the term ‘natural voice’. You may also have realised by now that I am a member of The Natural Voice Practitioners’ Network.
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PD James
Listed on November 27, 2014 by Arvon in Blogs!
Everyone at Arvon is very sad to hear of the death of PD James. She was one of...

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Miranda Peake’s Arvon Week
Listed on November 27, 2014 by Arvon in Blogs!
Miranda Peake blogs about her writing journey, from Arvon to winning the Mslexia Poetry Prize, including a poem...

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Magical Light at Dillington
Listed on November 25, 2014 by Dillington in Blogs!
Christmas has been in the shops for months and now television is a barrage of yuletide joy trying to persuade us to part with our hard-earned cash. Certainly the nights are closing in and the days are shortening. Yesterday morning … Continue reading →
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On not making things up – by Diana McCaulay
Listed on November 24, 2014 by Arvon in Blogs!
Diana McCaulay is this year’s winner of the Hollick Arvon Caribbean Writer’s Prize. The prize is an annual...

The post On not making things up – by Diana McCaulay appeared first on Arvon.
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Using world songs in the classroom: a teacher’s guide to sourcing songs and how to teach them
Listed on November 24, 2014 by Chris Rowbury in Blogs!
Some teachers find themselves having to lead singing sessions at their school, but don’t have that much experience of using songs from the world music repertoire (‘world songs’) or of teaching songs by ear
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Wondering what to give the person who has everything this Christmas?
Listed on November 23, 2014 by Knuston Hall in Blogs!
We have a couple of ideas for you - why not give them a Knuston Hall gift voucher which they can put towards any of our courses or Talks. Or for the special gift you could make contribution towards our Seasonal Celebration
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PEVSNER REVISITED
Listed on November 20, 2014 by Dillington in Blogs!
Sir Nikolaus Pevsner (1902-83) is perhaps most well-known for his architectural guides published between1951 and 1974. Entitled ‘The Buildings of England’, these were published on a county basis and the Somerset edition originally came out in 1958. In recent years … Continue reading →
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Doctors or Teachers?
Listed on November 19, 2014 by Dillington in Blogs!
On Sunday I gave a talk about the relationship between adult education and an ageing society. My key message was that to continue to engage in learning – and I don’t just mean reading a book – but to learn … Continue reading →
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Choirs and copyright: a beginner’s guide for the bewildered
Listed on November 17, 2014 by Chris Rowbury in Blogs!
[NB this post is about UK copyright laws. Although the situation will be similar in other countries, the various copyright and performing rights agencies and websites will obviously be different]

I wrote extensively about copyright way back in 2010 (see my series of seven posts Songs and copyright)
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Green Shoots and False Dawns
Listed on November 13, 2014 by Dillington in Blogs!
Economic recovery is often described in metaphors. Swallows and spring also come to mind. Theorists try to describe economic theory in scientific or mathematical terms but they are often wrong. Some people believe the dynamics at play are more emotional … Continue reading →
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Is how you label yourself as a singer holding you back?
Listed on November 10, 2014 by Chris Rowbury in Blogs!
We all have an image of the type of singer (or musical director or choir) that we think we are. There are things that we can do and things that we can’t (or won’t) do.
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