[A version of this article first appeared as a post on my blog from the Front of the Choir]   My main skill is as a teacher of songs to those who don’t read music.   Photo by elfsternberg   Other choir leaders have different s...

[A version of this article first appeared as a post on my blog from the Front of the Choir]   Have you noticed how the living dead always have husky laboured breathing?   Photo by theogeo   I’m beginning to worry that zombies ...

[A version of this article first appeared as a post on my blog from the Front of the Choir]   A friend of mine asked the other day: “How do you find songs? And how do you do vocal arrangements of them?”   Photo by Jorge Fr...

[A version of this article first appeared as a post on my blog from the Front of the Choir] Trying to increase your vocal range? Want to develop a richer tone to your voice? Puzzling over voice placement and timbre?   photo by the-Serene-...

[A version of this article first appeared as a post on my blog from the Front of the Choir]   I teach a song in the morning and it’s sounding pretty good.   photo by kalavinka   then after lunch I get the group to stand f...

[A version of this article first appeared as a post on my blog from the Front of the Choir]   Learning and polishing a song can be a long process. Some people find it a chore and can’t wait to get to the end result: a public performance....

[A version of this article first appeared as a post on my blog from the Front of the Choir]As we saw last week, many singers struggle with finding (and keeping) their starting notes. photo by Albin Olsson What can make it even harder is if a man ...

[this is a version of a post which first appeared on my blog from the Front of the Choir]   Some people lead their choir or singing workshop with another person. I’ve tried it, and it doesn’t really work for me.     cont...

[A version of this article first appeared as a post on my blog from the Front of the Choir] You get what you ask for, so be careful how you seek feedback!   photo by Howard Lake   When designing feedback forms, less is more. Here&r...

ENTERING the SHELL Love is alive, and someone borne along by it is more alive than lions roaring or men in their fierce courage. Bandits ambush others on the road. they get wealth, but they stay in one place. Lovers keep moving, never the sam...  moreENTERING the SHELL Love is alive, and someone borne along by it is more alive than lions roaring or men in their fierce courage. Bandits ambush others on the road. they get wealth, but they stay in one place. Lovers keep moving, never the same, not for a second! What makes others grieve, they enjoy! When they look angry, don't believe their faces. It's spring lightning, a joke before the rain. they chew thorns thoughtfully along with pasture grass. Gazelle and lioness, having dinner. Love is invisible except here, in us. Sometimes I praise love; sometimes love praises me. Love, a little shell somewhere on the ocean floor, opens its mouth. You and I and we, those imaginary beings, enter that shell as a single sip of seawater. Texts by Rumi, translated by Coleman Barks © 1995 Coleman Barks. Used by permission. Performed by the Millennium Consort, Martin Neary, conductor, and the Pomona College Choir, Donna Di Grazia, director. Water Ruminations is a setting of six...    less