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blog: How close should a vocal arrangement be to the original song?

[A version of this article first appeared as a post on my blog From the Front of the choir]   Some years ago I did some voice-only arrangements of Queen songs for a weekend workshop. I ended up listening to a lot of Queen recordings!   ...

blog: “Darling, your technique is showing” – don’t be a singer who is all style and no substance

[A version of this article first appeared as a post on my blog From the Front of the choir]   It’s usually the case that professional singers have had some sort of training in a particular singing technique.   photo by Kevin Cea...

blog: Using world songs in the classroom: a teacher’s guide to sourcing songs and how to teach them

[A version of this article first appeared as a post on my blog From the Front of the choir] Some teachers find themselves having to lead singing sessions at their school. But often they don’t have that much experience of teaching songs ...

blog: What am I going to do with no singing over the summer break??!!

[this is an updated version of a post which first appeared on my blog From the Front of the choir]   for those of us who work to school terms, it is now the summer holidays. Unlike us poor folk here in the UK, the summer break is months long i...

blog: How to deal with song lyrics 3: foreign words and beyond the first verse

[this is a version of a post which first appeared on my blog From the Front of the choir]   Last week I looked at how you get beyond the written word if you've been learning lyrics from sheets of paper.     This week I want to look a...

blog: Singer or chorister? choirmaster or conductor? What do you call yourself?

[this is a version of a post which first appeared on my blog From the Front of the choir]   I’ve suddenly realised I don’t know what to call myself any more. I used to be a ‘choirmaster’ (a term I got from Gareth Malone and...

blog: Size matters: how to work effectively with large choirs

[A version of this article first appeared as a post on my blog From the Front of the choir]   If I get 30 singers on one of my weekend workshops someone will say “Gosh, what a large group!” whilst another says “Quite low numb...

blog: Avoid jargon: make sure we're all speaking the same language

[this is a version of a post which first appeared on my blog From the Front of the choir]   Unlike many ‘traditional’ classical or church choirs, Natural Voice choirs seldom use written scores. We don‘t assume that singers who att...

blog: Vaughan Williams' cantata: Folk Songs of The Four Seasons - a new version for SATB choir

If you are looking for a tuneful large-scale choral work to perform with your choir  - you might like to consider a new SATB arrangement by John Whittaker of Vaughan Williams' Folk Songs of The Four Seasons' (duration 50 minutes) - which was original...

blog: It’s too hot to sing! – choosing the right space to work in

[A version of this article first appeared as a post on my blog From the Front of the choir]   Summer has finally arrived in the UK. We’ve been praying for sunshine for so long, but now it’s just a little TOO hot!   Photo b...