[A version of this article first appeared as a post on my blog From the Front of the Choir]
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.
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.
People join a particular choir for two main reasons:
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.
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
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