[The views expressed in this blog are from my personal experiences from 25 years of leading non-auditioned community choirs in the UK, as well as adult singing workshops. My focus is on teaching by ear using a repertoire of songs from traditions across the globe. Your experiences may differ from mine, so do feel free to leave a comment and let's begin a conversation! A version of this article first appeared as a post on my blog From the Front of the Choir]
It comes to all of us at some point. We sit down to plan a warm up or rehearsal or singing workshop and we just go blank.
That’s exactly how I’m feeling now writing this blog post! Here are a few ideas that might help.
Sometimes you have to do things when you don’t really want to. You might be ill or bored or a bit low or too stressed or not have enough time. But the thing needs doing and it needs doing now because that’s the when it’s due.
It could be planning your next choir season, choosing songs for a concert, creating a warm up session, planning a singing workshop.
When you’re not in the mood, it’s often hard to come up with ideas.
Always start from where you are and use that. If you are very low energy, don’t plan a choir session full of movement and high energy singing. Use your low energy and work from there. If you’re feeling a bit angry or fed up, try to channel that energy effectively.
I was once feeling so ill that I decided to do the warm up with everyone seated. That led to lots of interesting things that I hadn’t expected.
Here are a few hints that might help.
I hope you find some of these hints useful. At least it helped me write my blog post!
Chris Rowbury
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