Sacred songs to soothe the soul

Stars, stripes and maple leaves — songs from across the pond

Sing Africa!

Sing Africa!

How to plan a singing workshop when you don’t know who’s coming

• don’t make assumptions – if you assume you’ll have an equal distribution of voice types or plenty of singers to tackle that complex five-part arrangement, then you risk ending up being disappointed and probably struggling.
• have a few simple songs – whatever the number of singers or how experienced they are, it’s always a good idea to have a few simple songs up your sleeve: rounds, two-part harmony, chants. Even with an experienced group there is plenty of work you can do around simple material.
• allow for alternative arrangements – when you’re planning your workshop, have an alternative in mind for each song. Can you drop a part if necessary? If you have no male tenors, can you change the key so women can sing the tenor part? If you end up with all women (or all men), can you adapt your arrangement easily?
• lower your expectations – since you’re heading into the unknown, it’s best to keep things simple and flexible. Don’t take all complex material or hard songs or songs with lots of parts. Maybe take one, but be prepared to let it go. Mixit up.
• don’t pander to the worst case – on the other hand, don’t assume the worst. If you just take simple stuff and you end up with an amazing group of singers who pick stuff up very quickly, you might be left with not enough material.
• try not to rely on handouts – if you’re going to use sheet music or printed lyrics, you might be in trouble if you don’t know how many singers will be coming. Try to avoid handouts entirely (I put A1 size sheets of paper on the wall with lyrics written on them) or make sure there is somewhere to copy more at the workshop venue.
• what’s the worst that can happen? – having no expectations is really, really hard. It’s very difficult to hide your disappointment if only a handful of people turn up. Imagine the worst possible case and then it’s bound to be better than that! I ran a workshop once with just three other people. In retrospect I used material that was too hard. With the experience I have now, I could make it work much better. The absolute worse case is that you might have to cancel or reschedule.

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Chris Rowbury

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Choir committees and how to handle them 3: the advantages of a good committee

• chance give back to your choir – being on the committee gives choir members a chance to give back to the choir rather than simply being a passive member with no sense of control or destiny
• sense of ownership – the option of being on the committee and of having  a group of choir members to represent you can give a real sense of ownership of your choir and bring it together as a true team.
• frees up your choir leader – there are lots of niggling, but important, practical tasks that many choir leaders end up doing by themselves. With an effective committee, this workload is taken away giving your MD time to focus on what they’re good at: leading your choir.
• puts members’ skills to good use  – there is a huge reservoir of skill in any choir. Each choir member brings specific practical skills with them, often connected with their day job. Utilising this rich seam of talent can be really powerful.
• enables growth and development – it’s easy to have great ideas for your choir — foreign tour, commission a composer, get funding, buy new risers, put on a big concert — so it’s wonderful to have a small team of people who can actually get on the case and make it happen. Your committee doesn’t have to do all the work themselves but can set up different teams of choir members to be responsible for particular developments.
• gives choir members a voice – individual choir members can feel that they disappear in a large choir and are not being heard. If you have a committee you can have an informal chat with a committee member, write a formal letter, propose an agenda item at the AGM, suggest a project to be discussed at the next committee meeting and so on. In this way you can feel that your voice is being heard.

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Chris Rowbury

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Choir committees and how to handle them 2: when committees go bad

things that can go wrong

1. the bad apple – sometimes an apparently benign choir member turns ‘difficult’ when they get elected to the committee. They may be dictatorial or disruptive or make meetings long and complicated or simply be out of step with all the other committee members. You can seldom see this coming until the person gets elected!
    
2. committee as dictator – things may be going smoothly but then a new committee is elected and tries to take over the choir. They start making unpopular decisions, try to take control of creative decisions and tell the choir leader how to lead the choir.
    
3. lazy members – some people are desperate to get elected, but once there they don’t pull their weight. They may turn up to meetings but aren’t proactive and never volunteer for anything. Resentment gradually builds amongst those members who feel they’re doing all the work.
    
4. too many cooks – it is said that if you want to stand for office, then you’re probably the wrong person for the job! Sometimes those people who stand for election are precisely the wrong people to be on the committee. They are ego-driven and power-hungry. Get enough of those type of people together and there will never be any cohesion or consensus.
    

ideas to help thing go right

• get your constitution right – if you draft your constitution carefully you can often avoid many of the problems outlined above. For example, you can add a clause to say that a committee member can be voted off if a majority of other committee members vote against them or will lose their position if they don’t attend enough meetings. To keep relations good between choir leaders and committees, some constitutions allow choir leaders to attend meetings (but not to vote), but have the option of having part of the meeting without them.
   
• have clear boundaries – make sure that the committee’s roles and responsibilities are clearly defined. This doesn’t have to be in your constitution (although it’s helpful if they are written down somewhere). Then if any disputes arise about the committee straying into areas that aren’t theirs (e.g. repertoire choice), you can point to the relevant clause. It helps committee members do their job better if they have clear guidelines.
   
• head hunt – often there are choir members who you know would make excellent committee members. Maybe even a specific office, e.g. chair or treasurer. However, they may not think of coming forward or be a little reluctant at first. It’s a good idea to sound these people out before your AGM and persuade them to stand for election.
   
• get the size right – if your constitution requires too few committee members (e.g. the minimum of chair, secretary and treasurer), then it’s possible that it might become dictatorial. Conversely, if you don’t limit numbers you can end up with huge, unwieldy committees that can never get anything done.
   
• civic responsibility – it’s very easy for choir members to let the ‘usual suspects’ step forward when volunteers or committee members are needed. This means that the choir is only ever run by a small elite. The danger of this is that only one set of views are heard and that most members won’t feel any ownership of their choir. Try to instil a spirit of “don’t ask what your choir can do for you, but ask what you can do for your choir.” You can have a formal system whereby every choir member gets to be on the committee at some point, or just encourage every member to feel that they ought to contribute. It’s amazing how well this brings a group together.
   

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Chris Rowbury

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Choir committees and how to handle them 1: what is a committee for?

you don’t have to have a committee

committees can take different forms

how to form your committee?

make sure the committee knows its responsibilities

next week

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Chris Rowbury

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Front, back or side? The best place to stand in your choir

• you can’t see (or hear) the choir leader clearly;
• you can feel isolated and forgotten;
• you have to rely totally on yourself since you’ll be on the margins of your section;
• you won’t be able to hear the rest of the singers in your section clearly to know if you’re on track;
• it’s hard to get a sense of how it all fits together as everyone’s voice will be projected away from you.

• the other singers will be reinforcing your part by singing in your ear;
• you will feel supported and part of the team;
• you will be able to see (and hear) your musical director clearly;
• your musical director will be able to see (and hear) you so can help and support when needed;
• you will get a better sense of how all the harmony parts fit together;
• the closer you are to the other singers, the more accurate the harmonies will be.

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Chris Rowbury

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Why learning songs with foreign lyrics need not be scary

why do singers want songs in English?

• familiarity – if English is your first language, then there’s an assumption that it’s going to be easier to sing English lyrics.
• fear – of the unknown, of not getting it ‘right’, of foreign words being unfamiliar and hard
• understanding– some people need to understand every word that they’re singing. If the lyrics are in a language they don’t understand, that can be an obstacle. See Song meanings lost in translation.
• language – many singers feel that they need to be able to speak the foreign language in order to be able to sing in it. Maybe a French song is OK, but Serbo-Croat is a non-starter.

the problems with English lyrics

• storytelling – songs with English lyrics, especially those from the English folk tradition, are usually ballads so there are lots of verses to learn (and remember). They also tell a story so are usually sung solo with often tricky and unpredictable rhythms. That’s hard when a group of singers are trying to sing such songs. See also Why choirs shouldn’t sing pop songs.
• paraphrasing – because we understand English lyrics, we tend to remember the overall meaning rather than the individual words. So we end up paraphrasing, using similar words to get the gist. But those words won’t fit the music and also we need everyone in the choir to be singing the same lyrics.
• mis-remembering – not only do people want to sing songs in English, they often want to sing something they already know, believing that this will make learning easier. Actually it usually makes it harder! There’s a very good chance that we’ve mis-remembered the lyrics over the years and we will have as many different version as there are singers. See It’s hard to teach songs that people already know.

the advantages of learning songs with foreign lyrics

• enjoy different sounds – you can really enjoy getting your mouth and tongue around the unfamiliar sounds of foreign lyrics. You can focus on individual syllables (rather than the meaning) which results in a tighter sound for the group.
• not many lyrics – many songs from countries with a strong harmony singing tradition focus on the sounds rather than the meaning, so the words are not as important. In many cases songs might have only one, two or three words.
• open vowels – English is a rather flat language which can almost be spoken without moving your mouth. Not very good for singing! Whereas many foreign languages have ‘open vowels’ (like Italian which is used a lot in opera and bel canto voice training). These vowels are a fantastic vehicle for singers and can help with blend and tone in a choir.
• level playing field – there’s a good chance that nobody in your choir will know any of these foreign songs in advance. In which case everybody is starting from the same place, unlike songs in English which many choir members might already know.
• sing in character – singing in a foreign language enables us to feel like we’re someone else. We can sing in character which can be enormously liberating. See Want to sing with more energy? – pretend to be someone else.
• learn about other cultures – singing songs from different countries allows us to find out more about unfamiliar cultures. It opens the world up to us and helps us to understand that human beings are all the same regardless of where they come from. We all fall in love, have children, get sad and die.
• focus on the music – since we usually won’t understand the language we’re singing in we won’t get sucked into the story but can focus on the music and harmonies – which is what a choir is about after all. See What do words add to music?
• rote learning stays longer – unless it’s a foreign language that we speak, the only way of learning is by rote, one syllable at a time. Since we have to drill this more than English lyrics and there’s no scope for paraphrasing, the lyrics tend to go into our long-term memory better. See How to sing a song in a foreign language.
• be a better singer – by having to focus on the sound of the words and being exposed to an unfamiliar language, you will develop your listening skills and become a better singer. See Singing is all about listening.

what puts you off singing foreign songs?

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Chris Rowbury

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How male singers can successfully pitch from a woman (and how women can pitch from a man)

men’s voices are (usually) lower than women’s voices

we make automatic adjustments

three problems when pitching from the opposite gender

1. a woman thinks she’s singing down with the bass men, but is actually singing an octave higher
2. the man or woman giving out the note can actually sing it at pitch which can confuse the singers
3. when there are men and women in the same part singing at the same pitches it can feel weird to the singers

1. singing different notes that sound the same

2. giving out a note “at pitch” to the opposite gender

3. men and women singing the same part

do you have problems pitching from a man (or woman)?

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Chris Rowbury

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Finding (and keeping) your starting note

why some singers find it hard to get started

keeping the note you’ve been given

• don’t panic – if you start to worry about keeping your note, you will get anxious and more likely to forget. Same thing if you try to block the other parts out.
• relax and open up – trust that you will remember your note. As  you listen to the other parts being given their notes, think of it as a starting chord and be aware of where your own note fits into the whole.
• keep it to yourself – some beginner singers are tempted to quietly hum or sing their starting note so they can hold on to it. Not only can this put the other singers off, but the opposite can easily happen. By singing out loud you’re focusing on yourself and not the starting chord plus you’re being anxious (see don’t panic above). The longer you sing the note, the more likely you are to drift off as you’re not paying attention to the whole. Then when you do start, you’ll probably be flat. If you hold the note silently within you and listen to how it fits in with all the others, you’re good to go when the song starts.
• sound the opening chord – some choir leaders do this all the time. Or maybe it’s something to do only in rehearsal whilst you’re learning. The idea is that once everyone has been given their note (and is singing it silently within), then the whole group sings the opening chord out loud to make sure it’s tuned perfectly. There’s a short pause, then the song sets off. If your musical director doesn’t do this, ask them if you can try it at one rehearsal to see if it helps.

your part might not come in at the start

men pitching from women, and women pitching from men

other useful stuff

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Chris Rowbury

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I know over 600 songs so how come I can’t think of one when somone asks?

memory aids

the tyranny of complete freedom

we’re not performing monkeys

other reasons?

Chris Rowbury

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Neither fish nor fowl – why most singers don’t fit neatly into SATB boxes

1. If you can’t reach the notes, it doesn’t mean you can’t sing

2. Fit the arrangement to the voices – not the other way round

Chris Rowbury

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When nobody comes to your concert or workshop – how to avoid or recover from a marketing fail

do your homework

WHAT?

• what’s worked before? – if you’ve held events in this area before, what has worked best or has been most popular? You might choose to do the same or a similar thing, or something that contrasts.
• other events in the area – look at the ‘competition’. What other events have worked really well? Rather than copying them (then you’ll be going after the same punters), think of doing something similar or contrasting.
• do market research – ask local people; get some editorial in the local press; use your Rotary Club (or similar); put a questionnaire through people’s doors (or in the local library); ask people who attend other concerts and workshops. You can’t please all the people all the time, but you might get an idea of the kind of thing that a lot of people want.
• look for a market gap – there might be loads of classical concerts in your area, or lots of pop song workshops. In which case choose something very different as there’s clearly a market gap and you can fill that niche.

WHEN?

• Google future local events – this can be hard because you might be organising a concert a year ahead and other events might not have fixed their dates yet, but it can throw up events that tend to occur every year at around the same time.
• is there a clash diary? – some areas have clash diaries to help choirs avoid programming concerts on the same days. Also consider whether it’s a good idea having an event a couple of weeks before or after a similar event, not just on the same day.
• avoid (or choose) public holidays – people often have more leisure time on public holidays and want to do a workshops. However, that’s also the time that kids are off school and people want to spend more time with their families. Depends on who you’re aiming your event at.
• what’s on websites for your area – most towns have a “what’s on” website for local events. Check out a selection to see what else is on.
• regular classes – choir rehearsals, etc. The worst time to programme a workshop is on the rehearsal night of the local choir! Use your library to look up regular classes and rehearsal nights in your area.

WHERE?

• accessibility of venue – there are many different kinds of accessibility and you need to consider them all: disabled access; parking; public transport (when’s the last bus/ train home?); ease of finding the venue (is the SatNav postcode accurate? is it down some dark country lane? can it be confused with a similar venue?).
• catchment area – work out how far people will travel: audiences for concerts tend to be more local than those for one-day workshops. Make sure there is a sufficient density of population in your catchment area: a workshop on the Yorkshire Moors is very different from one in central London. Does your catchment area overlap too much with one from a previous event of yours?
• where do your audience live? – there’s not much point in running a residential singing weekend slap bang in the middle of an area where most of your fans live. People want to travel (not too far) to somewhere different and attractive if they’re going to fork out for a whole weekend. Similarly, if most of you concert audience live in your own town, think twice about doing a concert in a different town as you won’t be known there.

learning after the event

• do your homework again – and make sure you’ve not missed anything out.
• get feedback – from the few people who DID attend your event. Reach out to their friends who maybe wanted to come, but didn’t. Ask around the usual suspects who you expected to attend, but didn’t. Ask people on your mailing list.
• change one thing – but not too drastically. Change one of the what, the when and the where, e.g. the theme of the workshop, the concert venue, the date. Then if it doesn’t work out the next time, change one of the other elements.

apply the same rules to publicity material

Chris Rowbury

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Stuck in a rut? 10 ways to revitalise your choir

1. do the same thing differently – sing well-known songs from your repertoire in an ‘inappropriate’ style (e.g. opera, country and western, lullaby); use different points of focus in warm ups (e.g. eye contact with others, focus on your feet, listen more loudly, focus on your breathing); warm up after your first song; have the break at the start of the session.
    
2. take a break – do something completely other, not necessarily singing. Maybe an away day or an evening out at ten pin bowling.
    
3. change something – sing a different part; move the sections around; mix the parts up (i.e. not in blocks but small groups of SATB); if you use chairs, stand up – if you don’t use chairs, try sitting down.
    
4. find a new context – use a completely different rehearsal space; perform somewhere unusual (i.e. not your usual concert venue); rehearse in the street; get a slot in a concert that you wouldn’t normally consider singing at.
    
5. swap choirs – find a local choir who rehearse at the same time and day and swap choir leaders. They are bound to do things in a different way. You might discover new ways of doing things, or at the very least appreciate your own choir leader more when they return! If there is no suitable local choir, then hire a choir leader in for one session.
    
6. do something new – something you’ve never done before, something that’s a challenge, e.g. very different kind of repertoire, a flash mob, work with musicians, record a CD.
    
7. introduce the unexpected – gets people out of their habits. This is mostly for choir leaders because it involves a bit of planning. Set something up so when the choir members arrive at rehearsal they will be somewhat discombobulated. Just by setting yourself this challenge can get you out of your own rut!
    
8. go deeper – really explore something in depth, whether it’s the dynamics of a song or a vocal technique. People often get bored because they feel over-familiar with something and have lost the ability to really be in the moment with it. This is a way of re-connecting with the material.
    
9. collaborate – find another choir to collaborate with. Could be to do a joint concert, or to perform a song together, or swap repertoire, or set up a choir festival. Working with others always introduces a different energy and reminds us that there is more than one way of doing things.
    
10. create a goal – it’s always good to have something to work towards. If you don’t usually perform, then maybe work towards a song sharing. If you perform regularly, then set something up with much higher stakes (choral competition? the Royal Albert Hall?). Make a CD. Plan a choir exchange.
     

Chris Rowbury

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Why returning to your choir after a long absence need not be difficult

have they forgotten me?

1. I will be too far behind and won’t know the new songs
2. people will have forgotten me
3. there will be no place for me any more
4. there will be lots of new people who won’t know me
5. I might have forgotten how to sing
6. I won’t remember any of the songs we’ve learnt
7. my choir friends will have found new friends

don’t worry, just sing!

1. Yes, you might not know some of the newer songs, but you can always catch up.
2. You’ll be surprised how many people will have missed you and will flock to you when you turn up to find out how you are.
3. There will always be a place for you in choir. Somebody else might have taken that solo you used to sing, but the rest of the singers in your part will welcome you back with open arms because you know the old repertoire.
4. Getting to know new singers always takes time. If you’re a regular choir member with lots of choir friends, you might be tempted not to bother getting to know the new singers. But if you’ve been absent for a while it’s a great opportunity to make a connection with them.
5. As someone who loves singing, I bet you’ve sung around the house at the very least. You’ll probably have watched all those choir and voice programmes on TV. You’ll still be a big fan of singing and even if your voice is a bit rusty, it will soon come back to you.
6. It’s funny how memory for songs works. You may not have sung a song for years and think you don’t know it, but as soon as the song starts you will find yourself in amazement as you watch your mouth form the words and you sing your part with ease.
7. Choir friends are for life! Yes, some of your choir friends might have formed new friendships, but they will also be really happy to welcome you back into the fold.

just do it

• contact your choir leader – share your worries and they will reassure you.
• make a commitment – tell as many people as you can who are connected with the choir that you are re-joining. Once you’ve made your decision public, it’s harder to wiggle out.
• phone a friend – contact a choir buddy and make arrangements to travel to choir together.
• go to a choir concert – ease your way back in by watching a performance by your choir and chatting with the singers.

Chris Rowbury

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Singing in a group is a learnt skill – if you find it hard, it doesn’t mean you can’t sing

1. When leading a group, remind yourself that singing in harmony is a skill and not everyone is as accomplished as others. Lead singers in with lots of unison singing (an under-rated technique, and one that can act as a useful training tool. See Sing something simple (and see if your singing is as good as you think it is) ) Then maybe move on to rounds or songs where each part has a distinct and separate melody (like a quodlibet).
    
2. Without putting singers on the spot, make sure you get to hear each individual and give them an equal chance to shine and share their voice with others. This may mean using very familiar tunes and slowly dividing the singers into smaller and smaller groups. Help inidividuals realise their voice is fine and they have an equal ability to sing as everyone else in the group.
    
3. Emphasise to everyone that really learning a song takes many many repetitions. Just because that alto has picked it up quickly and you still haven’t got it doesn’t mean that they are a better singer. Most professional singers take several months before they really feel that a song is under their belt. Yes, you might pick up the melody or harmony quickly, but it’s easily forgotten and you’ve not begun to explore all the subtleties.
    
4. As a singer, be patient. Give yourself time to learn a new song or to pick up a harmony in a group. Don’t give up too soon or think you can’t ‘sing’. Be kind to yourself! You might find these two posts useful: How to sing – 10 habits of successful professional singers and Handy hints for hesitant singers – 10 tips for singers new to choirs.
    

Chris Rowbury

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Does you choir need a conductor?

the ideal size for a choir

downsides of having a conductor

upsides of getting rid of the conductor

why don’t more choirs do without conductors?

letting go of your conductor

Chris Rowbury

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The costs of cancelling a concert or singing workshop (and ways to avoid it in the first place)

things to think about when considering cancellation

• how expensive will it be? – what are the cost implications if you cancel? You may end up losing less money if you go ahead. If you do decide to cancel, make sure you’re aware of all the payments you’ll still be committed to plus costs already incurred (that you won’t recoup): ticket reimbursement, venue hire, accompanist, any equipment hire, lyric sheets already printed, publicity costs, etc.
• disappointed punters – unless there is a very clear reason for cancelling (e.g. ill health, venue fire, instrument theft), you may end up losing some goodwill amongst your audience. They may think twice about booking your next event.
• cancel or re-schedule? – instead of cancelling outright, you may decided to hold your event on an alternative date. One reason for this might be that a clash has occurred with another event that you hadn’t known about in advance. You’ll need to make clear to people who have already booked that they have the option of a refund or they can transfer their ticket to the rescheduled event.
• silver lining – there’s always a silver lining! You can find ways to spin the cancellation and use it to extend your publicity campaign for when you do end up performing. You can also work up the story behind the cancellation in order to get some press coverage.

ways to avoid cancelling

• substitute key personnel – if you’re cancelling because a key member is not available (e.g. choir leader, section leader, soloist, accompanist), you could always find a substitute. Rather than rushing around at the last minute it’s a good idea to have potential alternatives in place. You might be training up an associate choir director or have an alternate soloist for example. I was once phoned up the day before a singing workshop when one of my colleagues had to pull out due to illness. I was available and able to run the workshop in her stead. You may need to give refunds to some individuals who complain it wasn’t what they’d booked for.
• back-up venue – quite hard to pull off, but if you’ve been let down by your venue (double booking, caretaker doesn’t turn up, venue closed down for health and safety reasons) and you have a few days notice, then you can try to find an alternative. The hardest part will be to make sure you inform everyone who’s booked to come.
• replacement act – if your choir can’t perform for any reason, there might be a slim chance that you can get another local group to take your place. This is a bit easier if you’re not asking them to fill an entire evening. It’s a long shot, but given a day’s notice quite possible.
• roll with it and improvise – if the lights fail or the piano doesn’t turn up, then improvise. Have a candle-lit performance or sing acappella. Use it to your advantage to do things differently.
• low numbers can still work – if you get a really small number of people turn up to a singing workshop, you can easily adapt and turn it into a masterclass or an opportunity to do some one-to-one training. If your concert has a very small audience, you can rejig the performance space to make it more intimate and use it as an opportunity to perfect your choir’s performance skills – an unexpected dress rehearsal!
• use the unexpected to your advantage – if there’s an act of god like your coach breaking down or the town flooding, then just create a new, spontaneous event with whomever is there. Sing on the coach, entertain the service station, teach the regulars stranded in the local pub.

Chris Rowbury

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How to be a bad choir director (it’s easier than you think)

leading by fear (and not encouragement)

why people stay with bad directors

Ann’s story (or how to be a bad choir director)

further reading

Chris Rowbury

Website: chrisrowbury.com

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How to decide whether to cancel a concert or singing workshop

perhaps you should have cancelled

possible reasons for cancelling

• low numbers – despite all your hard work in publicising the event, just a few people turn up. It doesn’t seem worth carrying on. There used to be an Equity (UK actors’ union) rule that if the number of actors in the cast outnumbered the number of audience members, then it was OK to cancel the performance. But choirs sometimes have over 100 singers, which might mean lots of cancelled concerts.
• venue/ equipment problems – nobody turns up to unlock the venue or the PA system breaks down or the piano doesn’t arrive in time. Circumstances beyond your control, but pretty hard to continue.
• people problems – illness is one of the biggest reasons that people can’t turn up, but it can also be injury or family bereavement, traffic jams or transport breakdown. It’s OK if it’s a couple of singers in the chorus, but if it’s the musical director or a soloist or the accompanist then that’s a big problem.
• under prepared – the concert has arrived, but you may feel that you’re just not ready. There may have been a lot of absences or cancelled rehearsals or the complexity of the repertoire was underestimated. The big question is: do you go on knowing that it’s not up to your usual standards, or do you cancel?
• acts of god – these are easier to deal with because they affect everyone and not just the singers or workshop leader. Things like flooding, transport disruption, strikes, etc. There’s usually no alternative but to cancel.

how to cancel

• let everyone know – it’s important to let people know so they won’t have a wasted journey. For a workshop you may well have a list of names and contacts so send emails and make calls. Depending on your concert ticketing system, you may also have contacts for some of your audience members.
• arrange for refunds – you will also need to contact people to arrange refunds. Make it clear how and when they will receive their refund and if it includes reimbursement of any booking fee. If the event has been re-scheduled, give people the option of carrying their payment forward.
• let the venue know – and anybody else who might be involved, e.g. equipment hirers, caterers, etc. The sooner you let them know, the more likely it is that you can reduce your overheads. Let them know why you’re cancelling. If it’s due to ill health they might consider a reduction. If you have event insurance, contact your insurers as soon as possible.
• put a note on the door – you’ll also need to make it very clear to people who might turn up on the door that the event has been cancelled. Not only a sign on the door, but a person to there to explain what has happened and to let people know when your next event will be.
• get the word out as widely as possible – use social media to get the word out too. Maybe even local radio. Use as many outlets as possible.
• use it to your advantage – try to be as positive as possible. Offer alternative events that people can come to. Try to spin it to your advantage.

Chris Rowbury

Website: chrisrowbury.com

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Monthly Music Roundup: Tinyletter.com/ChrisRowbury

Your job as a singer is to get out of your own way and be in the moment

• What are the words to the next verse?
• Did I get that last note right?
• Will I have enough breath to get through the next phrase?
• Is the person next to me singing something different to me?
• Is it hot in here or is it just me?
• Are my shoulders relaxed?
• I wonder what’s for tea?

Chris Rowbury

Website: chrisrowbury.com

Facebook: Facebook.com/ChrisRowbury

Twitter: Twitter.com/ChrisRowbury
Monthly Music Roundup: Tinyletter.com/ChrisRowbury

Money matters 2 – online payments and ticketing systems

printing your own tickets

go straight to the bank, do not pass Go

on-line box offices

hidden payment “processing fees”

pay monthly services

do it yourself

do we even need to sell tickets?

Chris Rowbury

Website: chrisrowbury.com

Facebook: Facebook.com/ChrisRowbury

Twitter: Twitter.com/ChrisRowbury
Monthly Music Roundup: Tinyletter.com/ChrisRowbury

Sing the intention, not the meaning

lyrics don’t tell the whole story

songs come as complete packages, not just words

get your intention right

further reading

Chris Rowbury

Website: chrisrowbury.com

Facebook: Facebook.com/ChrisRowbury

Twitter: Twitter.com/ChrisRowbury
Monthly Music Roundup: Tinyletter.com/ChrisRowbury

Money matters 1 – practical solutions for dealing with choir finances

how much to charge

collecting money in advance

• the messy business of collecting money and keeping records is done in advance and separated from the singing;
• people can choose a payment method which suits them;
• you have a clearer idea of numbers in advance rather than waiting (and hoping!) on the day.

paying on the day

• have an assistant (volunteer) to collect money on the door (leaving you free to focus on the singing);
• have plenty of change at hand (get it in advance from your local bank);
• get people to write their own names on a register;
• offer the choice to pay by cheque (or even have a hand-held credit card machine).

bank accounts

who the money goes to

when things go wrong — be professional

ticketing and on-line payments

Chris Rowbury

Website: chrisrowbury.com

Facebook: Facebook.com/ChrisRowbury

Twitter: Twitter.com/ChrisRowbury
Monthly Music Roundup: Tinyletter.com/ChrisRowbury

What to expect at my singing workshops (and those run by other Natural Voice Practitioners)

frequently asked questions

• everyone can sing (hence no auditions, no experience needed)
• singing should be accessible to everybody (hence no sheet music or unnecessary jargon)
• singing starts with the breath and the body (so we spend quite a while preparing to sing using physical, vocal and breathing exercises)

Chris Rowbury

Website: chrisrowbury.com

Facebook: Facebook.com/ChrisRowbury

Twitter: Twitter.com/ChrisRowbury
Monthly Music Roundup: Tinyletter.com/ChrisRowbury

What would you do differently if you were starting your choir today?

my experience

what if you can’t start anew?

Chris Rowbury

Website: chrisrowbury.com

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Twitter: Twitter.com/ChrisRowbury
Monthly Music Roundup: Tinyletter.com/ChrisRowbury

What single thing will make you a better singer this year?

Chris Rowbury

Website: chrisrowbury.com

Facebook: Facebook.com/ChrisRowbury

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Monthly Music Roundup: Tinyletter.com/ChrisRowbury

How men sing (Part 3) – amazing examples from across the globe #getmensinging

Chris Rowbury

Website: chrisrowbury.com

Facebook: Facebook.com/ChrisRowbury

Twitter: Twitter.com/ChrisRowbury
Monthly Music Roundup: Tinyletter.com/ChrisRowbury