When is Choir? Consider: Monthly Rehearsals

One unique feature of Winnipeg Upper Voices, the choir I founded for sopranos and altos of any and all genders, is that we only meet to rehearse once a month. Instead of weekly evening rehearsals, we meet every 4-6 weeks on Saturdays and spend a whole day together.

After the pandemic, we tried to go back to ‘normal’ weekly rehearsals, but each week I would get a handful of texts and emails from people who couldn’t make it. Always for valid reasons: illness, childcare, work schedules, mental health; but it became my most-dreaded part of the week. This wasn’t sustainable for me or the choir. I began to understand that we (myself included) had become more protective of our time and energy, and that going out every evening for activities was perhaps not in the cards anymore.

It was during a breakfast with other conductors at Podium 2022 in Toronto that someone mentioned their women’s choir rehearses monthly instead of weekly. That sounded pretty good to me!

I pitched the idea to a few members of WUV and had a very positive response. So we shifted the following season to 6 day-long Saturday rehearsals (10:00-3:30) with a shared lunch (often potluck, but also brown bag).

Now, after three seasons of monthly rehearsals, I can say that it is a successful model for this particular community of people who are mostly in their 20s and 30s.

Here are some features of the WUV season that work well for us:

1. We start in late October, which allows people to get into their fall routines. We rehearse in October, November, January, February, March, and April. 6 Saturdays x 4.5 hours = 27 hours (which is about the same as 13 weekly 2-hour rehearsals).

2. The rehearsal dates are known well in advance, before registration opens. There are no surprises, so folks can adjust or schedule work/travel/childcare to fit around choir days.

3. We only do one concert per season. Some may see this as a downside, but the focus of this choir isn’t to do as many concerts as possible. We enjoy the slower pace, and the community that is created and built.

4. I host “in-between” sessions as optional extra help. These are informal practices at my house, 1 or 2 between each rehearsal. We typically have 3-5 people at these sessions, with a few more coming as we get closer to the concert.

There are some downsides, but they aren’t insurmountable:

• There is a definite need for independent practicing. I make learning tracks to help with this, but the onus is on the members to be proactive about using them in the long stretches between rehearsals.

• Absences are more obvious and challenging. When someone has to miss a whole day, it does make a big difference. This is something I am still learning how to navigate.

• Creating lasting connections is sometimes harder when you only see each other once/month. To help this, we use nametags all season, and do some name sharing each month. This is also why lunch is so important. Having a potluck or asking folks to bring their lunch means everyone stays and hangs out for that hour (vs. scattering to go eat elsewhere).

Overall, this model works really well for this choir! It may not work for all communities, but it was definitely the right choice for this one.

Have you ever considered a rehearsal model that goes against the ‘standard’ of weekly-evening? What other models could exist? Every-other-week? Mornings? What would work best for your particular community?

Why Bother Warming-Up?

Someone recently told me that their community choir doesn’t do a group warm up at the beginning of their rehearsal. Instead, they are expected to come ready to sing, and will just get right into the repertoire.

Although everyone is entitled to run their choir how they see fit, I have a couple issues with this.

I’ve come to view the warmup as having more than one purpose:

1. It gets our voices and bodies ready to sing so that we don’t tire or injure ourselves.

2. It gets everyone in the same room, metaphorically.

That first one should be obvious, but let me expand on the second.

When we arrive at choir, we are coming from all over. Our pathways to get to choir that day could have been easy, or they could have been really challenging, but we’ve all made it there [hopefully] on time.

Our bodies may have made it to the room, but often our minds haven’t quite caught up. Instead, they are stuck on the emails we haven’t sent, or the thing we said to that person this afternoon, or the eight million things we think we could be doing other than being mentally present at choir.

Taking a few intentional minutes to do simple and familiar exercises at the beginning of a rehearsal gives our minds a chance to catch up and figure out how to be present in the rehearsal space. And then we can get to work.

I’ve tried to skip warm-ups in situations when we are pressed for time and are in some chaotic circumstance. But then, I take a breath and realize that this is exactly the best time to do a few warm-up exercises. Going through familiar exercises and notes (and being intentional about my breathing because of it) is exactly the kind of grounding that I/we often need in those kind of chaotic moments.

And I think this is important, regardless of the level of the choir. When I was working with the University of Manitoba Singers last year, it was a good assumption that they were all vocally warmed-up. But it was essential to the effectiveness of the rehearsal that we do a quick warm-up together. Otherwise, we were never going to be in the ‘same’ room. In that case, I wasn’t prepping their voices to sing, but I was inviting them all to be present in the room for the next two hours.

Again, everyone is entitled to run their rehearsals how they want, but if you don’t take a few minutes to get everyone in the room, perhaps consider trying it — you may be surprised at the difference it makes.

Choir is Low-Stakes!

We can all agree there is Too Much going on in the world right now. Everything feels urgent and important and overwhelming, and very High Stakes.

Amidst the chaos and the perfectionism, may I offer a suggestion? Let choir be your low-stakes place.

Let choir be the place to play, and experiment, and make mistakes. The world will not end if you sing a wrong note, I promise! The stock market is not going to crash because you forgot the words. There are very few earth-shattering consequences for making some silly noises.

In fact, I think there are only positive outcomes for singing together, for laughing at ourselves, for trying something new. If we can’t find the joy in something we do for joy, then why are we doing it?

This goes for the conductors too — I know it’s Concert Season, and Important Church Service Season, but in the face of Everything Else, can you release a little bit of your hold and just reclaim the joy?

Bob Ross said, “There are no mistakes, only happy accidents.”

Ms. Frizzle from the Magic School Bus implored her students to “Take chances, make mistakes, and get messy!”

Let choir be your low-stakes place to just HAVE FUN.

Little Celebrations and Traditions

Do you have any little celebratory traditions in your choir?

Some examples…

In my community choir I (almost) always remember to ask during the warm-up before our concert: “Who is singing their first concert with us today? Or their first ever choir concert?!” A few folks will put up their hands, and we all clap and welcome them to the joy of performing because we are proud of the commitment they made, and followed through with, all season.

I love when people announce special events, birthdays, anniversaries, or other causes for celebration. Although, I always double check if someone actually would like Happy Birthday sung to them, and then I honour that preference. (And I will defend it if others try to push the issue.)

Prairie Voices has a rousing refrain they sing — as loudly as possible — before sharing a beverage at an after party. (I truly cannot express how loudly they sing it!)

Aurora Chorealis members in Yellowknife always bring out recordings of past concerts to sing along with during after parties.

These little traditions and celebrations are important! Sometimes they are mindfully brought about, but other times they are just spontaneous actions that end up repeated until they are entrenched.

I’d love to hear about your choir’s quirky traditions!

How's Your Choir Community? - Part 2

Hello friends!

Last week we started the process of assessing our Choir Community by taking a little audit and observing our community in action. Did you have any insights? This can be an interesting experience to sit back a little, and just notice what is actually happening.

This week, we’ll go through the next steps you can take to ensure that your Choir Community is actually supporting the music you’re making, and the connections you want to build.

Step 2: Ask for more input.

This is where we can start to dig a little deeper. Now that you have your own observations, you could bring them to others in the organization to get their thoughts. This doesn’t have to be anything formal, although it could be! Just simply chatting with folks during breaks, or before/after rehearsals can often elicit great insights. Or small group discussions, or chart paper on the walls with post it notes…whatever feels right for your choir.

1. Check in with your new members: What did they expect to find when they joined, and has it met their expectations? Do they feel welcomed and supported?

2. Check in with your old timers: Have things changed? What used to work? What didn’t work before? What do you miss?

3. Ask everyone: What do you think of the community here? Do you have any ideas for what we could do?

Which leads us to…

Step 3: Take action.

You’ve got all the information, so now: Do something! It can be small, or big, but probably best to start small. Here are some ideas that have worked for me, and some that I haven’t tried yet. They range from very easy to more complicated.

Take a few minutes out of your warmup time to encourage conversation.

• Introduce yourself to the people next to you — even if you think you know their name, double check!

• Pose a guiding question to help them break the ice: “Find out the best thing the person next to you has eaten recently. Find out their favourite song.”

• If the group is smaller, you could do this with the whole choir! At the beginning of our monthly Winnipeg Upper Voices rehearsals, one member would pose a question to us all, and we’d go around the circle, introduce ourselves, and answer the question.

• What’s your favourite candy/food/piece of clothing/etc, etc. We learned some really interesting things through those questions!

If it’s possible, organize snacks for break or after rehearsal once a month.

• Assign one section to bring food each month (Sopranos for September, Altos October, Tenors November, Basses December)

• Encourage everyone to stay for some casual fellowship. (Food is a great connection tool!)

If you want to go bigger, perhaps organize a potluck meal!

• This can take a few forms: just appetizers or just desserts, up to a full-blown feast.

• Check out this spread from a recent potluck I attended! I have been to innumerable choir potlucks in my life, but this was something else!

• This particular meal included choir members performing songs, poems, jokes, and readings as entertainment. Everyone brought their own plate and cutlery to reduce the clean up load. It was joyful!

Do a simple mental health check-in with singers by asking them to show their level of mental health/energy by holding up fingers 1-5 (1 being “feeling not good at all,” 5 being “feeling great”), without judgement or the need to justify.

• While keeping their hands up, encourage everyone to look around to see how the general mood of the choir is that day. If I am a 5, but the people around me are 2s and 3s, perhaps I can be gentler and hold them in my good energy.

• As a conductor, if I see that the spirit of the group is flagging that day, I might adjust my rehearsal.

• Choir should be a place that lifts us when we’re having a challenging day, not presses us down.

If you’ve noticed that folks are on their phones more than connecting to each other, would it be good to go phone-free at break?

• We did this in my first year with Winnipeg Upper Voices to great success!

• If you needed to check your phone, you excused yourself to the side of the room, did your business, then came back to engage with others.

Setting up a way to connect outside of your regular meetings is helpful!

• I’ve used Discord, but there could be other platforms that are similar. Even creating a group chat on a messaging platform can be a great way to connect.

• This is one area that I’m still improving on. As the conductor, I need to lead by example, and engage more with the hope that others will follow my lead.

• This could lead to groups attending concerts together, or board game nights, or picnics – the sky’s the limit!

What other ideas for connection and community building would you add to this list? What ideas do your members come up with? Not every idea will work for every group, but it usually can’t hurt to try something!

Taking the time to intentionally connect with each other is so important. I attended a workshop where the leader was talking about including time for connection in their rehearsals (of their professional ensemble), and someone asked, “How can you spare the time for this?” Her response was, “How could you not?”

The benefits outweigh the costs, and I’ll keep shouting it from the rooftops: Good Community = Good Music = Good Community = Good Music!

How's Your Choir Community? - Part 1

Hello friends! How is your Choir Community these days? Have you thought about it recently? Or ever?

Every choir - big, small, professional, community, church, school - has a unique Community within and around it, and it’s vital to pay attention to it. I think that having a strong sense of community helps choirs thrive and sing better together.

Your Choir’s Community consists of…

• Singers and conductors - of course!

• Pianists and other instrumentalists - of course!

• Administrators and board members - of course!

• Family members of singers - who are the support networks behind our singers?

• Audience members - it’s wonderful to share music with others!

• Other members of the specific community the choir represents - do we want to connect to them?

• Social media followers - do we include them? Should we?

This is a non-exhaustive list, and there may be some you disagree with, or others you’d add. But each of these groups play a different role in the life and vibrancy of your choir’s community, and I think it’s important to consider how far your Choir Community extends.

What happens when we ignore the Choir Community? What happens when our priorities are imbalanced? What if your Choir Community prioritizes audience size, or income, or prestige, over the ties that bind our people?

I think that we lose touch with why we do this at all. We lose the spark that makes the music come alive. I have seen this happen, especially in professional ensembles where the motivation for being in the room or ensemble isn’t purely about connection. And yet, that also means the music-making suffers. The music is better when the community is strong.

Let’s begin!

Step 1: Do a little audit of your Choir Community.

For the moment, we’ll stay pretty singer-focussed, but that’s where we need to start since it’s the foundation for everything else. What can you observe about the community within your rehearsals? See what it’s like over the next couple weeks of rehearsals, without judgement.

Here are some questions to get you started as you think about your choir:

• Do people stick around to chat after rehearsal, or do they pack up and go quickly without much interaction?

• Do you have name tags? Are people still wearing them, even halfway into the season?

• Do you have specific time for connection? Breaks, meals, snack, etc.

• What are people doing during breaks? Talking to each other? On their phones?

• Do you have a way for people to connect with each other outside of rehearsals? Messaging apps, social media, contact lists, etc.

• Have you had any new members since the ‘official start’ of the season? Has anyone checked in with them?

• Do you have a way to connect people with carpooling or rides?

When you start to look at what is actually happening in the rehearsal room, it could be surprising. Even just writing this, I’m realizing there might be some work to do in my own choirs.

Next week, we’ll continue with this topic, and look at some next steps you can take with your Choir Community. For now, this is a good start!

1. Consider who is in your Choir Community.

2. Observe and start to think about what is actually happening in that Community.

There are Infinite Choir Pies!

In May 2022 at Choral Canada’s national conference, Podium, I had breakfast with a wonderful group of conductors from across Canada who conduct women’s choirs.

As we went around the table introducing ourselves and our choirs, I was the first to make the distinction that I don’t conduct a women’s choir. The choir for sopranos and altos that I founded in 2019 is called Winnipeg Upper Voices. It was a very intentional choice to not call this group a ‘women’s choir,’ because it is explicitly not just for women. The choir welcomes all people who sing in the soprano/alto range, regardless of their gender identity.

As I expected, this brought up quite a lot of conversation in the group about the language that we use, and why/why not some choirs are having conversations about their names, their mission, and their members. It was interesting to hear all the different viewpoints, and how each group has approached the subject, or if they had ever considered it.

Sometimes when this kind of conversation comes up, there can be defensiveness: “Women’s choirs are important places for connection and community and sisterhood. How can we just throw that away?”

I believe this kind of thinking is fairly narrowminded. As the title of this post states, there are infinite choir pies available in the world. There is space - and need - for all kinds of choirs.

There is absolutely a place for the kind of community that women’s choirs, or men’s choirs, create and provide. But by their nature, they are exclusive. If someone doesn’t fit the expected gender to join, then they won’t have a choir to sing in.

New ensembles, like my Winnipeg Upper Voices, aren’t trying to do away with women’s or men’s choirs that are thriving and are important communities. Instead, we want to expand the choir world so that we make space for all singers who are looking for the wonderful community that singing together provides.

If starting a women’s choir or a men’s choir is your calling, and what your community needs, then please start that choir! If your community needs a choir that defines itself in other ways, then please make that happen!

We can always have more pie, and we can always have more choir.

Who do you sing for?

We often explore why we sing (in choir, or at all), but not so often do we think about who we sing for. Is it as important as the why?

Perhaps we need to make sure our who aligns with our why.

Do you sing for others? An audience, your family, passersby, the birds?

Do you sing for yourself? Your body, your cells, your lungs?

Do you sing for me?

Do you sing for the universe?

Tell me, who do you sing for?

Why does it matter what words I use?

We started a new piece with my community choir this month, and the edition we’re using has certain entrances labelled “all women” or “all men,” when what is actually intended (and shown by the staves/clefs) is “all sopranos and altos” or “all tenors and basses.”

I took a moment in the first rehearsal to clarify that wherever it says “all women,” I would like all sopranos and altos to sing, and that where it says “all men,” it should be all tenors and basses.

“But Katy,” I hear you say, “they mean the same thing! And isn’t it just faster to say ‘men’ instead of ‘tenors and basses’?”

And to that I reply, “They don’t mean the same thing. And if taking the time to say 5 syllables of ‘tenors and basses’ bothers you, perhaps you need to look at your rehearsal time management...”

But seriously: the language you use in rehearsal, matters. The language we put on our published scores, matters.

What do I mean when I say that they aren’t the same? Your voice on its own is inherently ungendered. A voice is just a voice, and the way it sounds has everything to do with your physiology and the shape of your vocal folds/larynx, and nothing to do with your gender.

Society has placed the signifiers on voices that ties the way they sound to particular genders, but we don’t have to go along with that. In fact, many people don’t. There are people in your choir who may have diverse genders, whose identity doesn’t ‘match’ what our society expects based on the way they look or the way their voice sounds.

And we, as conductors, may never know about them. We may look at our bass section and see “men,” or at our altos and see “women,” when in reality, there could be any number of gender identities present. Gender identity is extraordinarily personal and each person decides for themselves what their gender identity is. By lumping our sections by “men” and “women,” we remove the agency of our singers to decide their own identity.

Using the correct name of the sections you are referencing is just more accurate and precise, no matter how you look at it. There will never be confusion or hurt in asking all sopranos to sing, or all tenors. We strive to use precise and factual language elsewhere in our rehearsals for clarity, and it is no different when using the names of voice parts instead of genders.

It may seem insignificant, but even small things add up - for better or worse. And if we want our choirs to be safe, inclusive places, then we must shift our language to match.

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For a more in-depth (but still approachable) look at the role that language plays in choir, especially as it relates to gender, read this blog post on Chorus Connections: Understanding the Linguistic Nuances of Gender Identity in the Choral Ensemble by Melanie Stapleton.

A short list...

... of what I’ve (re)learned about choir over the past couple years:

1. people first, perfection later (or never)

2. only do music you like (sing, conduct, listen, etc)

3. do music by folks who are alive

4. this is the right path: keep going

5. you are not alone – reach out, reach out, reach out

6. this is important, don’t take it for granted

A thank you card made for me by a choir member - people first, people first, people first.