Why your concert publicity isn’t working

We all want audiences at our concerts, so we have to let people know about them.

I’ve seen so many bad examples of concert publicity recently, I thought I’d write a few tips.

How do you know when your choir is performance ready?

Most choirs get to the point where they want to share the songs they’ve learnt with an audience.

Prepared by Nick Youngson CC BY-SA 3.0 Alpha Stock Images

But how do you know that the songs are in a good enough state to share?

The concert was great, so why do I feel like a failure?

Sometimes a performance is a blinder. There is a standing ovation and cries for more.

photo by svenwerk

And yet … it is possible to come away feeling that it’s all gone wrong. How is this possible?

Coming down after a big event – how to land softly

It’s the day after Christmas Day and, however well or badly it went, there can be a sense of a let-down.

photo by Inga Munsinger Cotton

After any big event like Christmas or an important choir concert, there needs to be a transition back to ‘normal’. This is not always easy! Here are some ideas of how to deal with the come down.

Why be perfect when you can be great?

We all strive for perfection in our singing. At the same time, we realise that being 100% perfect is impossible.

photo by Ars Electronica

By aiming for perfection we can become blind to our achievements and how good we actually are.

How your performance can be a disaster, but the concert a huge success

We had a concert recently where pretty much every song went wrong in some way.

Yet we ended up having a fantastic evening and the audience enjoyed it enormously. How is that possible?

Singers’ big mistakes in performance usually go unnoticed by the audience

A choir concert is never 100% perfect. There are usually one or two minor errors, or even big mistakes.

photo by Alex Proimos

But what might feel like a huge disaster on stage is often not noticed by your audience.

Is it important for singers to memorise the songs they perform?

I’m often asked how to get singers “off book” for their next concert.

 

The assumption is that it’s best for a singer not to have lyrics or sheet music in their hands when performing. But is this necessarily a bad thing?

What is a ‘popular’ song?

When does a song have ‘popular’ appeal? When is it entertainment?

Does ‘popular’ simply mean ‘well known’?

Dreaming of the perfect choir (a light-hearted fantasy)

Last night I dreamt of leading a choir where everyone turned up on time every week fully prepared.



Unfortunately it was only a dream, but it got me thinking: what would the dream choir be like for choir leaders and for singers?

How to put on a successful concert 2: songs and concert structure

Last week we looked at planning and asked a series of questions like why? what for? when? who’s coming?



This week we’ll look at the how: how you actually put a concert of songs together.

How to put on a successful concert 1: planning

It seems such a straightforward idea: learn a bunch of songs then find some people to sing them to.

photo by Nick Youngson

But planning a successful concert involves a lot of planning. Here’s a guide to how you might approach it.

Outdoor gigs: how to cope when audiences aren’t interested

It’s summer, the time when many choirs and singing groups perform outdoors.

summer Singing Safari, Holywells Park, Ipswich, July 2016

It’s hard enough to sing in the open air, and compete with music on the other stages at festivals, but for me the most difficult thing is when audience members wander off. How do you cope with the heart-sink?

Why do some audience members insist on sitting at the back of concerts?

[Spoiler alert: I don’t know the answer!]

Whether it’s an indoor or outdoor venue, unless there are allocated seats there will always be a few audience members who insist on sitting as far away as possible.



They sit there straining to hear and see what’s going on. Why on earth do they do it?

When nobody comes to your concert or workshop – how to avoid or recover from a marketing fail

You’ve put all the time and hard work into publicising your next concert or workshop, but then hardly anybody turns up.



How do you figure out what went wrong? It’s all about the what, the when and the where.

How to decide whether to cancel a concert or singing workshop

It’s your worst fear: despite all your hard work publicising the event, only a handful of people turn up. Or the musical director is taken ill. Or perhaps the venue burns down.

photo by B Rosen

The difficult question is: can you continue or should you cancel? And if you do decide to cancel what’s the best way to do it, and what are the implications? There are no easy answers, but here are some things to consider.

Sing the intention, not the meaning

We’re always told to focus on the meaning of the lyrics when singing a song in order to communicate it properly and to give some emotion to our delivery.



But what if the lyrics are “lully lullay” or “fa la la” or what if the context seems to contradict the meaning or what if any ‘meaning’ is ambiguous? Then you need to sing your intention. I’ll explain more below.

What should individual singers focus on when performing as part of a choir or small group?

Whether you sing harmony in a small group or a large choir there are many things demanding your attention: other singers, conductor, audience, your own part, remembering lyrics, sheet music, and so on.

photo by andercismo

But what is the most important thing to focus on? It turns out that there are several.

Should your choir perform live? – arguments for and against

When I started my most recent community choir The OK Chorale back in 2011 I decided it wasn’t going to be a performing choir.

Brighton Vox, photo from atticglimpse.blogspot.co.uk

But inevitably, over time, we have ended up giving local concerts. Not all choirs perform though. Let’s look at the pros and cons.

7 ways to share your choir’s singing without making a big performance of it

Some choirs don’t perform at all (see Choirs that don’t perform). But most choirs, at some point, will want to share their hard work with others.

photo by pyramis

It is possible to share your choir songs without it being scary or making it a big deal. I’ll show you how.