Handbell Choir!

Over the past few years, I’ve had the joy of discovering playing handbells! And I’d like to tell you a little bit about them, in the hopes that maybe others will take up ringing.

When I started at my church job, I knew absolutely nothing about handbells, and had never touched a handbell, let alone directed a group of handbell ringers! Luckily, I have a very experienced player in the group who coached me in technique, how to choose music, and how to play the things.

The church owns a beautiful set of 3-octave bells, which is C3-C6 (one octave below middle C, to two octaves above middle C). With 10 ringers, this works out to approximately 2 bells/person.

When you play in a handbell choir, you are only responsible for your own notes — usually two. You have to count and coordinate your ringing with that of your neighbours so that the line is smooth and flows in time. I’ll be perfectly honest that it is really cool to be part of a musical line, but only playing one or two notes of that line.

Handbell music usually has lush chords that use the whole range of the notes available. There are many extended techniques beyond simple ringing, including using mallets, swinging the bell, dampening it with your thumb, and on and on. There is so much to learn, and I find it really fun because it’s such a different experience of playing music than I’m used to.

If you have the opportunity to play in a handbell choir, take it! It really is something different and something beautiful.

Here is a video of our handbell choir playing in March. You’ll see various techniques, including handchimes, mallets, key changes (where everyone has to switch bells!), and swings.

I Hate Dress Codes

I hate telling people what to wear.

It brings me great anxiety when someone in my choir says, “What do we wear?”

My job is to help all the members of my choir sing their best. I do this by teaching about vocal technique, vowel shape, and music theory. I do this by ensuring the community in the choir is welcoming and joyful. And when it comes to performance day, I’m becoming more convinced that asking people to adhere to an overly prescriptive dress code goes against “helping my choir sing their best.”

Instead, I ask my choir to wear clothes that make them feel great.

These days, my go-to dress code is “Summer Backyard Wedding.” I got this from GiUng Lee when we were working together with Prairie Voices, and I love it.

It means: wear something fun and a little formal. It could be colourful, it could be plain, but it’s definitely something that you feel fantastic about wearing.

Everyone ends up looking great, and singing well, because they’re wearing whatever feels the best for them! The choir looks cohesive because everyone looks great!

Because honestly, I’m getting tired of boring all-black performance outfits…anyone else?

I know that not everyone in my choirs has access to specific styles or colours, or the means to buy something just for one performance. But I hope that everyone has at least one thing in their closet that makes them feel good.

I do give some outlines:

1. Make sure you can take a full bow (aka consider the depth of a neckline, and the height of a skirt for those in front and behind you)

2. Make sure you can stand for the whole concert, and sing properly (aka consider not wearing heels)

3. Optional, depending on the situation: keep shoulders covered (if we’re performing in a church setting, for example)

But, as I said in my post from a few years ago about gender-neutral dress codes, I want the singers to be comfortable in their performance outfit so that they can sing their best.

That post was focussed on keeping gender out of a dress code, but in some ways, rejecting a dress code even further is just an extension of the same thing. The less prescriptive I can be about what people wear, the better.

Because — and this might be controversial — I would rather watch and listen to a choir that is wearing mismatched outfits enjoying themselves because they are comfortable, than one that looks perfectly put-together.

Planting Seeds

As my choir season starts to wind down, the farming season is starting to ramp up. I love this time of year at the farm!

Everything is full of potential and optimism as we plant seeds and put all the winter’s plans into action. The greenhouse fills up with trays of seedlings, and the pace is a little frantic to make sure we set ourselves up for the best growing season.

I’ve written in the past about transplanting seedlings and the artist’s life:

“When we transplant seedlings, we give them new and better nutrients, their roots have more room to spread, and they thrive very quickly.
Think about your life and your creative practices. Do you need ‘transplanting’ so you can stretch your roots and grow? How about some new ‘nutrients’? Are you giving yourself enough ‘water’ and ‘sun’ and taking care of yourself?
This isn’t about taking a huge leap from a little starter pot into a giant planter. Just the next size up. What’s one small thing you can do today to help yourself grow?”

As I was seeding zucchinis this week, I began to think that there is something to be said for planting ‘artistic’ seeds. If you’ll indulge me for another metaphor…

All winter, vegetable farmers look through seed catalogues and order what they think will grow well in the coming year. They plan where each crop goes, and when they need to be planted so that it can be harvested at the right time. But there are a lot of unknowns (weather, pests, disease).

As a conductor, I don’t know how any given performance will go in advance. I choose the pieces for our choirs without really knowing what the outcome will sound like. I can get a pretty good idea by listening to recordings, studying the score, and from my knowledge of the choir’s abilities, but there are a lot of unknowns.

In the spring at the farm, I drop a seed into the soil, and trust that the combination of sun, water, nutrients, skills, and time will help it develop into something beautiful.

At the beginning of a rehearsal, I drop the music into the hands of my singers, and trust that I can nurture it into something beautiful through the combination of skill, time, and effort.

Eventually, I get to harvest the fully grown vegetable and share it with the world!

Eventually, I get to hear the music in all its beauty and share it with the world!

This metaphor can be extended to every part of an artistic practice, what comes to mind for you?

Let’s be nurturing, mindful, and skillful as we tend the seeds we plant.

5 Year Plan for Choirs

I was going to write a post back in mid-March about how challenging it was to be a choir musician in the early days of the pandemic — five years ago! — and how we all came together to support each other.

But, as important as it is to remember the difficult times and celebrate the ways we found to connect, I just couldn’t do it. I would much rather look forward to what the next five years brings us!

So what do I hope for choirs and group singing spaces in the next five years?

1. That they continue to be places of inclusion and kindness and safety for ALL people.
   I want conductors and choir members to understand how vital and lifesaving choir can be, and to put in the work making their organizations the safe places that we desperately need.

2. That they perform music by more diverse people.
   It will be wonderful when programming music by trans or gender-diverse composers, Indigenous composers, women composers, historically underrepresented composers, and living composers is normal and expected, because it is the right thing to do.

3. That more people sing in choir, or come back to choir, and realize that singing together is actually really good for themselves, for the wider world, and for everything.
   Along with this, I hope that choirs/group singing spaces can adapt and expand to welcome those who want to sing, moving beyond the Standard European Way. This will require us to support and make space for up and coming group singing leaders and conductors who come from diverse backgrounds and have different ideas of what ‘choir’ can be.

In many ways, these are personal aspirations too. I know that I have work to do in these categories.

What are your broad aspirations for the choir world in the next five years?

If you want guidance, I would love to chat with you, your board, or choir leadership about any of the topics I write here, such as inclusiveness for gender-diverse folks and community building. Please get in touch!

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.