How to look after your voice (especially in the winter): 5 relevant reads

This is one of a series of summary posts around a specific topic, bringing together five relevant posts from the past. 

This summary is all about looking after your voice, especially in the winter months or when you have a busy concert season or if feasting is involved.

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?

Don’t forget travel time when charging for an event

People often ask how much they should charge for leading a workshop or concert.

They usually focus on the professional fee for the contact hours, but forget any travel time involved.

10 ideas to help you balance stress with enjoyment when putting on a singing event

A little stress can be good for us. It helps us to get things done or to focus on something that needs our attention. 

But too much stress can affect our mood, our body and our relationships. How can we put on a successful singing event without getting too stressed out?

Recordings of concerts may sound disappointing at first – give it time

I often record the songs I teach in workshops and the concerts that my groups do.

photo from depositphotos.com

But when I listen back a few days later, I’m often disappointed. Why is that?

A concert has arrived and some important singers are missing – what to do?

It’s the final rehearsal on the day of your big concert. You realise that several important singers are missing.

What can you do? Here are a few ideas.

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?

Turning bad singing experiences into good singing lessons

Things go wrong from time to time, but it doesn’t have to be a bad experience.


It’s possible to consider things from a different perspective and find the positive. Here’s how.

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?

Why alcohol and good singing don’t mix

Performing in public can be nerve-racking. Some singers have a drink to take the edge off their nerves.


But that often results in very bad singing. Here’s why should avoid it.

Effective ways to make a song more interesting for your audience

Sometimes choirs think it’s enough to sing a song well. They stand in static rows and sing the whole thing from start to finish.

photo by John Cummings

But that can be like watching paint dry. You need to create some interest if you’re going to keep your audience interested. Here are some simple ideas that might help.

Do you need to practice outside choir rehearsals?

Many singers come to choir – especially “singing for fun” groups – to get away from the stresses of regular life. They love to sing and find it a relaxing escape from the daily grind.

photo by Aka Hige

But if your choir performs, there comes a time when you need to be “off the book”, know all the lyrics and be totally familiar with your part. Can that all be done within the rehearsal sessions?

10 ideas to keep you going when you feel like giving up

I’ve been writing this blog now for 10 years. My first post was on 3 December 2006 when I declared that Choirs are becoming cool! (this was the beginning of all those choir programmes on British TV, before even Gareth Malone).

photo by Gerard Van der Leun

How is it possible to stick with something for the long run without getting bored, disillusioned, diverted, lost, setback or running out of ideas?

The costs of cancelling a concert or singing workshop (and ways to avoid it in the first place)

I wrote recently about how to decide whether to cancel a concert or singing workshop.


It’s a difficult decision to make, but even when you’ve made it there are plenty of repercussions to take into account.

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.

Money matters 1 – practical solutions for dealing with choir finances

Whatever kind of choir you run, at some point you’ll have to deal with money. Whether it’s hiring a rehearsal space or paying an accompanist or collecting members’ subs.

photo by nikoretro

Money and finances can be scary though. Here are some practical steps you can take to ease the pain.

Only connect – a brief introduction to social media for choirs

In case you haven’t noticed: this is the modern world.

photo by Yoel Ben-Avraham

If you’re not promoting your choir on social media, then you’re missing a trick. Here’s a handy introduction.

One recording is worth a thousand photos – use sound to promote your choir

Singing is all about sound, whether it’s a one-day workshop, a live concert or a CD.



I’m amazed at choir websites, concert promotion and singing workshop publicity which is full of photos, but have no sound clips. If you don’t have sound, you’re missing out.

10 choir website mistakes to avoid (or how to look professional online)

I was trawling through a bunch of choir websites the other day in order to send out some information about a workshop I’m running.



I was amazed how hard it was to contact many of them and in general how badly designed many of the websites were. I’ve come up with 10 mistakes that you should avoid.