Mistango Choir Festival

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blog: Are you tone deaf? Very unlikely!

[A version of this article first appeared as a post on my blog From the Front of the Choir]   Very, very few people are tone deaf. Tone deafness is an abnormality of the brain which can also affect the understanding of language and certain spatial ...

blog: Why the singers in your choir still love you even though they look bored

[A version of this article first appeared as a post on my blog From the Front of the Choir]   Even though I’ve been teaching for almost 30 years, I still get affected by that glum-looking face in the third row.   ... and it's no...

blog: When you don’t feel like singing, that’s the perfect time to do it – sing yourself happy!

[A version of this article first appeared as a post on my blog From the Front of the Choir] Many of us wait until the mood hits us before we do something. But often the doing something is what changes our mood for the better.     Th...

blog: How to sing together in times of isolation

[A version of this article first appeared as a post on my blog From the Front of the Choir] We are living in unprecedented times. People are not allowed to socialise.     How do we keep singing together? I’ll look at some of the ...

blog: Why learning songs with foreign lyrics need not be scary

[A version of this article first appeared as a post on my blog From the Front of the Choir]I teach songs from all over the world, often in foreign languages. But people are always asking me for more songs in English. Why is this? Especially since ...

blog: Singing is about people, not musical notes

[this is a version of a post which first appeared on my blog From the Front of the Choir]   There are many choir leaders whose priority is to create as perfect a rendition of a written musical score as they can (see Music lives in flawed humans and...

blog: Finding out about songs: don’t believe everything you read!

[this is an updated version of a post which first appeared on my blog From the Front of the Choir]   I was in the middle of planning a workshop and was checking through a few songs to make sure I had the correct lyrics, source, meaning, backgr...

blog: Does your choir respond to where it's based?

[this is a version of a post which first appeared on my blog From the Front of the Choir]   I lived in Coventry in the Midlands of the UK for almost 13 years (gosh, doesn’t time fly!), although I’m originally from South London. In 2010...

blog: Ask questions – your choir leader (probably) won’t bite!

[A version of this article first appeared as a post on my blog From the Front of the Choir]   When I was a student, I’d sit in lectures scribbling down everything that the lecturer wrote on the board. Like most people there, I understood...

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

[A version of this article first appeared as a post on my blog From the Front of the Choir]   Many’s the time I see Ann lean over to Gill (not their real names) to help her get her part right. And every time I see a pained expression on ...