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 your choir or singing business can stay in the public eye even though you have no events to promote

There are times, especially during the pandemic, when there are no choir events or concerts coming up.

But you need to keep your singing business in the public eye or people will forget you. Here are some ideas you might try.

If you’re a man, do you have to be a ‘bloke’ in order to sing?

There are plenty of opportunities for men to sing together these days. They are called things like “Sing like a bloke” or you can even go to ‘BlokeFest’.



Does that mean that men have to be ‘blokes’ to sing? Of course not!

Is your choir name fit for purpose?

Many choir names are descriptive and give a clear idea of what kind of choir it is.



But choirs change over time. Maybe your choir name doesn’t fit what you do any longer.

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.

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.

How to promote your next choir concert to reach more people and get a bigger audience

Over the last two weeks I've shown how to sell more tickets for your next concert by using your own choir members and also by widening the net.

photo by One_Glass_Eye

But if nobody knows about your concert in the first place, all of that is irrelevant! So how do you let people know your concert is on? And how do you persuade them to come?

How to sell more tickets at your next concert: widening the net

Last week I suggested ways to use your choir members to help sell tickets for your next concert.

photo from FreeFoto.com

But over time, you can’t rely on friends and family and will have to widen the net. Here are some ideas on how to sell tickets in other ways.

Read now to avoid disappointment – don’t miss out!

Places strictly limited. Book now to avoid disappointment. To be sure of a place, please send a cheque. Last year we sold out, so reserve a place early!

Photo by London Permaculture

How many times have you heard these kind of pleas for a concert or singing workshop? But the tactic can seriously back-fire.

Starting a new choir: my story

Having written about starting your own community choir, I recently put my money where my mouth is and started a brand new singing group – my first in 15 years.

I learnt a lot from this process and thought I’d share with you.

pastures new

Last autumn I moved to a completely different part of the UK – Woodbridge in Suffolk. I knew that at some point I would need to start a regular weekly group as I have to earn a living! I decided to wait a while to settle into our new house and start something up in the new year.

Before I moved here I thought I would start a group in the nearest big town, Ipswich, as that had the largest population and was a central point for the surrounding area. But I also decided that I wanted to cut down on my travel.

So I decided to take a risk and set up a group in the small town that I live in (population 11 – 12,000).

In January this year I put my modest publicity machine into action, gave the group a name (The OK Chorale – I wanted to keep it light-hearted and avoid the word ‘choir’), found a venue (this was very hard as most decent spaces are already used on a regular basis), and waited.

the first session

I had modest expectations. I reckoned that if 20 people turned up, that would be OK as I could build over the coming months. If only 10 people turned up, at least I could cover my costs and it would be a start.

The start time was advertised as 7.30pm. A handful of early-birds turned up just after 7pm. By 7.10pm this had turned into a steady trickle, and by 7.15pm all the seats in the room (about 30) had been taken. By 7.30pm there were almost 100 people squeezed into the tiny room that I had booked with no room to move!

Fortunately, I was able to contact the person who books the large adjoining hall which (luckily for me!) just happened to be empty on that one night that month. We re-assembled in the big hall and only then did I realise how many people were there.

Panic over, I began the session with some trepidation as I’ve not worked with such a large group before. The acoustics were great for singing, but I had to really project my own voice to be heard above the hubbub. The evening went fast, and people seemed to enjoy themselves.

I got everyone who was interested in coming back to jot down their email address as clearly I had to find a new venue by the following week. I was amazed at how many names there were! I had thought we maybe had 60 or 70 people, but it was only when I counted them all up that I found there were over 100.

following on

I spent the rest of the week phoning round madly to find a suitable new venue. I thought I’d exhausted all the possibilities when I booked for the first session, but finally managed to find a school hall only 5 minutes walk from my house!

The following week pretty much everyone who said they would come back did, plus a few more who had heard about the group. Now that the dust has finally settled I have 93 fully paid up member for this term (I work in blocks of 10 weeks). And I still have people contacting me to go on the waiting list!

We have just finished our sixth session and everyone seems as keen as ever. The biggest problem I now have is what to do with such a large group and how to deal with those people who still want to join. A nice problem to have!

what I’ve learnt

• plan for success – most of us have a contingency plan for when things don’t work out, but I didn’t plan to have such a successful choir!
   
• big isn’t always better – yes, it’s great to have a large sound, keen singers, and lots of voices, but there are drawbacks to working with such a large group (I’ll be writing about this in a later post)
   
• there are never enough men – amazingly I managed to attract around 17 blokes out of a total of 93 singers. I usually reckon on there being only 10% men, so that’s a great turn out (we even have a decent male tenor section). BUT it would be nice to have around 40 blokes at least. Same old story (see Why men won’t sing).
   
• it’s the usual suspects who turn up – same old constituency: older white women. That seems to be a fact of life with any arty workshop. I have nothing against older white women, it’s just that it would be great to have a cross-section of (at least) ages (see How to recruit singers to truly reflect your local community). I have to admit though that I didn’t put a great deal of effort into widening the net.
   
• get help! – with such a large group of people, the logistics of collecting money, getting contact details, dealing with questions, etc. means that I couldn’t have done it alone. Fortunately my partner Susie Mendelsson helped enormously.
   
• start as you mean to carry on – it’s no good pandering to what you think other people will want only to do what you really want to do later on. You need to start as you mean to carry on. People will get used to your ways quite quickly so it will be difficult to change tactics later down the line.
   
• it’s not just down to you – don’t let success go to your head. You might like to think that everyone turned up because they’d heard of you, or because your publicity was wonderful, but most probably it was due to luck, their friend told them, or it happens to be the one night of the week they have free.
   
• keep tabs on everyone – even with smaller groups, it’s important to have everyone’s contact details (in case you need to cancel or move a session). Everyone also needs to feel valued and noticed so make sure you keep your eye on everyone (even those at the back) and try to learn everyone’s name. I’m getting photos of everyone and learning their names in the holidays!
   
• create a sense of community – if you want everyone to stay and work well together you need to create a strong sense of community and team work. Introduce everyone to each other, be playful and make everyone laugh, put people in different groups each week, move people around, create social events outside the sessions.
   
• make it clear what it is – you should have done this at the publicity stage, but it’s certain that some people will mis-read or mis-understand. People often hear or read what they want to, no matter how clearly you describe something. Make it clear from the beginning by the activities in each session and the songs you teach. Tell everyone several times and in different ways what they can expect. The OK Chorale is not currently a performing group and I’ve made that clear. But neither is it just a ‘singing for fun’ group. I’ve said that it’s “challenging but rewarding work” which means that I can keep the standards high.
   
• you can’t plan for everything – no matter how hard you try, you won’t be able to plan for every eventuality. The first venue I chose had a huge car park, so even though 100 people turned up, there shouldn’t have been a problem. BUT ... the car park also serves the local independent cinema which was showing The King’s Speech to packed houses so the car park was full to capacity!
   
• you can’t please everyone – even though you might try. There will be people who don’t like some of the things that you do or want to learn more slowly (or faster) or who hate the warm-ups or who don’t like moving and singing or dislike songs that are not in English. Tough. This is what is on offer and if people don’t like it, there are plenty more choirs out there who can accommodate them. (see also Trying to please all the people all the time)

and your experience?

Several of you have contacted me over the last few months to say that you’re setting up your own choir. I’d love to hear how you’re getting on and what you have learnt from the experience. Are there things you would do differently? Did you make any mistakes? What was your biggest success? Do drop by and leave a comment and share your own experience.

 

Chris Rowbury's website: chrisrowbury.com

 

Finding an audience 4: 20 ways to increase your concert audience

Over the last three weeks I’ve been looking at the traditional way of getting audiences to come to your concerts: identify what your choir does, describe that accurately, then get the word out.

Piper auditorium by brettstil

This week I’m going to show you 20 other ideas to increase your concert audiences.

1. use a smaller venue – of course you won’t fit a bigger audience in, but the audience you do get will seem bigger and give the choir confidence, you might sell out (leave them wanting more!), and you will create a buzz.
   
   
2. tailor songs to suit the circumstances – make sure you choose the most appropriate songs from your repertoire for the venue or festival or event.
   
   
3. do a joint concert – with a local school or other (different kind of) choir. They will bring their own audience and both choirs will benefit.
   
   
4. set up time-limited project – and involve other singers who aren’t in your choir. Time-limiting the project gives it focus and requires less commitment from the participants. You never know, they might end up joining the choir afterwards!
   
   
5. be a support act/ guest slot – offer your services to other choirs, orchestras, bands, singers, etc. Make sure you complement what they have to offer.
   
   
6. special deals on tickets – half price special, discount for certain groups, competition prize, etc.
   
   
7. create a ‘friends’ scheme for the choir – charge a nominal fee to cover costs of a regular newsletter and other ‘goodies’ like advanced notice of concerts, priority booking, cheaper tickets, etc.
   
   
8. get someone else to find the audience – offer your services to another organisation or festival who might want to raise money for charity in exchange for them doing all the marketing. Charge a percentage of the box office.
   
   
9. pay a PR person – employ an expert to market your concert or,if you can’t afford one, send a choir member on a course.
   
   
10. offer food and drink – it doesn’t have to be free (how many concerts do you go to just because they offer a free glass of wine?), but could be unusual fare that fits in with your programme of songs. Your concert will have “Added value”.
    
    
11. link concert to another event – don’t just do joint concerts with other choirs, it could be a non-musical event like a summer fair, lecture, guided tour, food tasting, etc.
    
    
12. have a “pay what you can” gig – no charge in advance, but leave a big bucket by the entrance for people to pay what they think the concert was worth.
    
    
13. create an afterlife – that you can then use to promote your next concert. Video, sound recording, photo display, etc.
    
    
14. get feedback – from your audience which you can use as copy for your next press release or website. Even better, get a review from your local music critic and get it published.
    
    
15. vary the concert – make it a more interesting evening by adding variety: repertoire, small groups, solos, instruments.
    
    
16. take it to the audience – don’t just expect them to come to you. Find other events or venues where lots of people gather and take your singing to them. Even if it’s a taster rather than a full concert, you will interest a few people.
    
    
17. make sure there are no other events on the same day – easily done! Make sure you’re entered in any local ‘clash diaries’. Plan well in advance.
    
    
18. steal someone else’s audience – choose music-makers that you admire and busk outside their concert.
    
    
19. try different kinds of venue – if you find that you’re almost always performing in churches, try your local sports centre. If you’re always in the local concert hall, try a church instead. Go further afield.
    
    
20. recruit more choir members – if each choir member brings friends and family, then increasing the size of your choir will automatically increase the size of your audience!

... and more?

I’m sure there are plenty of other good ideas out there for increasing the size or composition of your audience. If you’re not afraid of other people stealing your best idea, do leave a comment and let us know your good ideas. The more the merrier!

In case you’ve missed any of the other three posts in this series on finding an audience, here they are:

1. identifying what your choir does
2. describing what we do
3. letting people know

Next week, I’ll be considering choirs that choose not to perform at all.

 

Chris Rowbury's website: chrisrowbury.com

Finding an audience 3: letting people know

You’ve identified what your choir does, found a way of describing it accurately, so now it’s time to let people know about it.

Banksy rat mural in Soho, New York by caruba

I’ve considered this subject before in Getting the word out which forms part 5 of How to start your own community choir. But in this post, I’m going to look more specifically at the forms that publicity might take and what outlets there are to promote your choir.

different forms of publicity

There are many forms you can use to spread the description of what your choir has to offer. Here are some of them. It’s not an exhaustive list!

written word

This includes press releases, posters, fliers, brochures, beer mats, business cards, advertisements and so on. You will probably already have a written description of what your choir has to offer, so can easily adapt it for each of these different forms. You can also use audience testimonials from people who have seen your concerts before, or – even better – a review by a recognised music critic.

images

For posters, brochures, etc. there also needs to be a design element and suitable choice of images. You can get something off the shelf or see if anyone in the choir has design skills. Sometimes a photo of the choir is useful (especially in the local press), but is not necessarily always the best image for a poster. For my views on photographing choirs see Picture this.

sound recording

Your latest CD, a recording of your last concert, even a rough recording of last night’s rehearsal can all easily convey exactly what your choir sounds like and what kind of repertoire it sings.

video recording

In these days of cheap digital camcorders and YouTube, having a recording of one of your performances or rehearsals is probably the easiest way of summing up what it is that you do.

spoken word

Word of mouth is by far the best way of promoting your choir, but there are also interviews (with your musical director and/ or individual choir members or audience members) which can be used in a number of different ways.

live performance

Maybe obvious, but a live performance is the very best example of a live performance! People can see exactly what it is that they will experience in a full concert.

This can also be extended to live demonstrations (a taster workshop, a free trial for potential choir members, teaching a song to the audience).

different outlets for your publicity

In these days of mobile phones and the internet, there is an increasing number of different outlets for publicity, but don’t overlook the more traditional outlets such as newspapers and magazines. Here are some of the more common outlets. Again, by no means exhaustive.

broadcast media (TV and radio)

There are local BBC radio stations all over the country and they are desperate to have free content to fill the airwaves. They will often give you a phone interview and/ or play a track from your CD or even interview you in the studio. One of my choirs did a live performance in the studio one Christmas!

Local commercial stations tend towards the more populist end of the spectrum, so whether you approach them or not depends on what your repertoire is and what kind of choir you are.

Regional TV is harder to get onto, but you can always try the ‘human interest’ approach. Maybe you’re donating your concert proceeds to a local charity, or one of your choir members has a story to tell.

The BBC website has separate pages for each local station. Most of them have some sort of events section and some of them will also broadcast a what’s on slot. Worth sending them your press release.

brochures (festivals or arts centres)

If you happen to be performing at a festival or arts centre which produces its own brochure (and posters), then you will get excellent coverage for free. Make sure you get the information (and images) to them in plenty of time in the format they need and with the correct word count.

Even if you’re not actually performing at your local arts centre or festival, they often offer a service whereby you can piggy-back their brochure distribution by putting a single item in the envelope with the brochure when they do a mailshot. It’s cheaper than posting them yourself and it will also get to more people than your own mailing list.

newspapers

Local newspapers will almost always list your concert in their what’s on or community section, but that might just be a couple of lines amongst many other events on the same day. Much better to try to get some editorial space.

Again, like other local media, you’ll need an angle (not just another concert!), preferably one with human interest. Local papers usually like to send their own photographers so you won’t get a chance to use that carefully chosen choir photo that you spent so much time on. Their photographers only work office hours and weekdays so won’t come to one of your evening rehearsals.

All local papers will have a website. You can get listed in their what’s on section, but more importantly that’s where you can find full contact details and names of reporters. Try to develop a personal relationship with one of them. Phone calls are better than email for doing this. Find out who on the staff might like the kind of music you do.

It’s very, very unlikely that you will get national press coverage, but if you think you have an unusual and interesting enough angle, then give it a go. Again, make sure your contact is targeted, don’t just send it to the general news desk.

Make sure you get your information in to the paper in plenty of time. If it’s a weekly local paper, then make sure you know which day it comes out. Send your stuff in with at least a week for them to publish. There’s a fine balance between getting the word out too early (so people forget) and leaving it too late (when they’ve booked up to do something else).

Keep a file of all press contacts, names, addresses (real and email), website address, publication dates, etc. etc. Keep it up to date as personnel change frequently.

magazines

Magazines are like newspapers only they have a much, much longer lead-in period. Find out when they come out and when they go to press. You’ll need to keep a forward planning diary to make sure you hit their deadlines (which are often published in the magazine the month before). It’s easy to forget that the information about your Christmas concert needs to be submitted in August for those quarterly magazines that come out in October.

It’s very,very hard to get a review of a concert which has only one performance. Newspapers and magazines will only tend to review something that will still be on after the review is published. But still worth a try.

advertising

So far I’ve only considered outlets which are free. The one big advantage is that they don’t cost money, but the big downside is that there is no guarantee that you will get in, or if you do, they might mangle your press release and miss out vital information.

One way to guarantee inclusion in newspapers and magazines is to pay for an advert. This can range from a small black and white ad in the classifieds, to a full-colour, full-page ad in the magazine section.

The big plus is that you will definitely get published – at a price. Make very, very sure that you’ve checked everything for typos and accuracy before submitting, make sure you agree a price beforehand and check what format they need the final copy in.

websites and blogs

Obviously you’ll put your concert information on your own website (you do have one, don’t you??!!), and make sure it’s kept up to date, but there are also hundreds of listings and what’s on sites on the internet. Some are nationwide, and some are local. They all have different requirements so you’ll need to adapt your basic publicity information to fit a whole range of word counts. Don’t forget time, date and how people can get tickets.

Many newspapers allow online submission for events via their website. There is usually a form to fill in. Make time to investigate all relevant websites and bookmark them so you can update them all in one sitting.

Put it on your choir’s blog if you have one, or find out if any choir members have a blog.

online social media

This is the age of Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and so on. If you have the time (and know-how), set up a Facebook page for your choir, a YouTube channel (for all your videos) and a Twitter account, and any other social media you can think of. Regularly update your followers and fans. Keep them in the loop and offer them special previews or deals. Make them feel special!

Make sure that it’s easy and obvious via your website how to connect with you on these other sites. Put it in your choir email signature, on your choir business card (you do have one, don’t you?), and any other place you can think of.

public spaces

The place for fliers and posters. Before you print hundreds of A5 fliers, make sure you know where they’re going to go, if it’s allowed (always ask permission in bars, cafes, etc.), and whether it’s worthwhile (you don’t want to come back after the concert and find that there are still piles of flier sitting there!).

Before you print loads of posters, figure out exactly where they’re going to go. It’s no good getting 500 printed if you only have 20 outlets. Don’t get A2 posters printed if you only have small notice boards available that will only take A4 posters.

Can you pay to have the local leaflet people display your fliers or put them through people’s letter boxes? Is it cost-effective?

As long as your local council or shopping centre doesn’t object (ask them first) you can do impromptu performances in public spaces. Make sure someone is there who is not singing who can hand out leaflets and field enquiries. Maybe get a big self-standing board made so you can advertise clearly the name of your choir and concert details. Maybe have some CDs to sell!

other people’s concerts

Offer to be a support at someone else’s concert – for free. Go to the top. Ask the big guns. You’d be surprised how many big names will go for it if they’re doing a local concert near you. If you don’t ask, you don’t get!

Make the offer clear: “we’ll do two songs, it will take six minutes and we think it will complement what you plan to do in the second half.”

Offer your services to the local cinema. There was a French film a while back called “The Chorus”. Offer to do a few live songs before the film starts. Choose an appropriate film!

Contact the local schools and offer to do a joint concert. Or other local choirs.

mailing lists

You should always be developing your mailing list. Collect names and email addresses (cheaper than snail mail postage) at concerts, workshops, outdoor performances, on your website, etc. Do a mailshot in plenty of time before your concert. Don’t use exactly the same wording as on your website (or Facebook page or Tweets). People get bored very easily and fed up if they keep hearing the same refrain. Vary it and keep it spiced up.

If you only have snail mail addresses, think about posting fliers. Or if you can’t afford it, rope the choir in to hand deliver stuff. Always put a note in for people to let you know if they have an email address, it’s cheaper.

the telephone

Finally, a bit old-fashioned, but there’s nothing like the personal touch. If you have phone numbers on your mailing list, then why not recruit some choir members and choose a random group of people to phone and plug your concert to. Hopefully it will have a ripple effect. Make people think they are special by making it personal. And if they can’t/ won’t come, then it’s a perfect opportunity to get some feedback.

And since we live in the modern world: don’t forget texting.

it’s all too much!

There’s a lot here I know. And I’m sure I’ve left some things out!

I’m not suggesting you do all of these things, but I hope I’ve given you a glimpse into the many forms and outlets that your publicity can use. There are plenty of resources out there to help you write the perfect press release, maximise your social media presence, design the ideal poster, hunt down your local newspapers.

A lot of it is trial and error. For instance, I found at that for some reason more people came to our concerts who saw it in the local free paper rather than the paid-for evening news. Also, there aren’t that many suitable places to put fliers out locally, so printing hundreds is a waste of money.

Change your strategy and learn as you go along. If you decide to pay form something (a designer, and advert, a flier distributor), then make sure it’s cost-effective. If it’s not, stop it.

So why not get started ... now!

And you have to keep it up. It’s no good putting a huge effort into your next concert, then letting up. You have to develop, extend and push.

other methods

Next week I’ll be looking at alternative strategies for getting a bigger and better audience for your concert: 20 ways to increase your concert audience.

But in the meantime, do drop by, leave a comment, and give us the benefit of your own ideas and wisdom. Is there anything I’ve left out? What works (or doesn’t work) well for you?

 

Chris Rowbury's website: chrisrowbury.com

Finding an audience 2: describing what we do

This is a revised version of a post which first appeared as It does exactly what it says in the blurb – or not! in August 2007

Last week I pointed out that the first step in finding an audience for your concerts is to identify what it is that your choir actually does.

Describing words by Kathy Cassidy

The next step is then to describe that in a way that people can relate to. That is the tricky part!

misunderstandings

A few years ago I ran a workshop called Beatles acappella. The publicity said something like: “A fabulous singing workshop for Beatles lovers. Learn fun harmony arrangements of well-loved songs by the Fab Four.”

I was very pleased that a few younger women had decided to attend. But half way through the morning, after learning a couple of songs, they left. When I asked why they were leaving they said “It wasn’t what we expected.”

What had they expected I wonder? I thought I had explained very clearly what was going to happen, but obviously not clearly enough!

On another occasion I ran a workshop called The Paul Simon Songbook. Again, explaining that I would be teaching well-known Paul Simon songs in three and four part harmony. During the warm-up I made a joke that Paul Simon was stuck on the M6 and had phoned me to ask me to carry on with the workshop until he arrived. Everyone laughed. Except – I later realised – for two women who thought I was serious and complained to the box office when Mr. Simon hadn’t arrived by lunchtime!

Had they really expected Paul Simon to fly over to run a workshop that cost just £15 for the day?

It reminds me of a Monty Python sketch. A customer goes into a dry cleaners and complains when his clothes aren’t ready the next day. “But your shop is called 24-hour dry-cleaners!” “That’s just its name” the man replies.

getting your description right

We had a concert recently which I called Around the world in 30 songs. I thought that captured the essence of what we had to offer, but we only got a tiny audience. Maybe I got it wrong and it sounded too much like musical theatre or a play. Getting the description right is vital, but can never be 100% perfect.

This is what I’ve learnt over the years about trying to describe what you have to offer:

• imagine you’re talking to a stranger in the street – don’t assume that the people reading your description know anything about what you do. It’s all too easy to forget this and to imagine you’re talking to your choir or other singing colleagues.
  
• keep it short and simple – don’t use complicated words and don’t write too much. Think of a snappy, descriptive title and possibly a strapline (short sentence to go underneath).
  
• be aware of different meanings – I bandy words like ‘harmony’ about knowing that I’m referring to singing, but ‘world harmony’ means something very different.
  
• avoid jargon – just because you use it everyday, don’t assume your audience know what you mean. Things like acappella, polyphony, Western canon, etc. can alienate or confuse people.
  
• find common reference points – mention something that people can relate to: “It’s like Pink Floyd meets West Side Story”. People need something familiar to hang onto if you’re trying to introduce something new or different.
  
• you can never get it right – it doesn’t matter how well you describe what you have to offer, you will definitely be misinterpreted or misunderstood!

oh, that’s what you do!

We can try very hard to describe what to expect, but we’ll never get it exactly right. Whatever we write is open to misinterpretation. Often people hear what they want to hear. So you can expect some disappointment from a few audience members.

On the other hand, if you can just get people through the door they are usually pleasantly surprised. “I didn’t expect anything like that. It was wonderful!” What’s a little depressing though is that you thought your description was spot on, and yet obviously your message didn’t get through to that person!

Why not use this fact? Have a chat with those audience members and find out what they had expected and why there was a mismatch. You can ask them to describe the concert in their own words.

You can extend this further and get more formal feedback from your audience by handing out questionnaires. I always have a comments book at concerts, but often people just write “Great concert!” which is not that helpful. Try more focused questions and use them to adapt your description for your next concert.

are you getting your message across?

What’s your experience? Do you find it hard to describe what you do accurately? Are there audience members who say it’s not what they expected? Do you keep the same descriptions or do you constantly update them for each concert?

Next week I’ll be looking at how you get this description out there in order to promote your choir and your concerts.

 

Chris Rowbury's website: chrisrowbury.com

10 things I want to achieve in 2010

It’s year’s end and thoughts turn to the year that’s just gone (The 10 most popular posts of 2009) and hopes for the year to come.

photo by photon bomb

I do hope it will be a happy new year, but also a productive, fulfilling and successful one. Which got me thinking: what do I want to change next year? What do I want to achieve? Are there new things I could try that I’ve been putting off?

These are ten things that I came up with. Maybe some of them will resonate with you too.

1. more ‘theatrical’ concerts

   2010 will be the 15th anniversary of the birth of Woven Chords, the community choir that I lead. I took over as musical director 10 years ago, so that’s two birthdays this year! To celebrate, our spring concert in March will be in a ‘proper’ theatre with lighting, wings, raised stage, etc. – something we’ve not done before.
   
   I want to create a performance that is not just a choir standing still (or jiggling a bit) on stage singing (What are you looking at?). I’d like to play with the dynamics, groupings, entrances & exits, lighting, etc. to make for a more theatrical show.
   
   Nothing too adventurous (or scary for the singers!) but something a little different in order to put on a proper entertaining ‘show’ with a few surprises for the audience. Nothing gimmicky, but not ‘just’ a concert.
   
   QUESTION: have you ever performed in or attended a choral concert which was out of the ordinary in some way?
   
   

2. professional development

   Some years ago, at this same time of year, I went on a weekend musicians’ retreat. It was a chance to reflect on our career, our practice, our future, etc.
   
   There was a disparate group of musicians from a range of backgrounds, but we had one important thing in common. When the facilitator asked us what we did for our professional development, she was met with a sea of bemused faces!
   
   She told us that it was important for us to always be developing and growing as musicians and that it was all too easy for our day job to get in the way. Either we didn’t make time, or thought that we had nothing new to learn.
   
   This was a real eye-opener for me. When was the last time I’d attended a workshop as a regular punter? When was the last time I’d read a book or article on choirs and singing? When was I going to make time to go and learn more about teaching rhythm for example?
   
   So that following year I attended several excellent workshops and not only learnt new songs and new approaches, but also learnt a lot about being on the receiving end and how workshop leaders work effectively. And I read a lot of books and articles too.
   
   But I’ve slipped off the wagon once more and haven’t made enough time for my own professional development. Not only does it rejuvenate my own practice, but it’s a wonderful break from feeling that I’m giving out all the time.
   
   QUESTION: what are you going to do next year to develop your own practice as a singer or choir leader?
   
   

3. engage more with readers

   Ever since I started this blog I’ve always intended it to be a dialogue. I have so much to learn and this is a way of putting ideas out there and (I hope) getting useful responses (Looking back – a year of blogging).
   
   I know a lot of you get something out of reading my blog because you’ve told me so. I also know that a lot of you are ‘lurkers’ – you enjoy reading, but don’t feel moved to ever leave a comment.
   
   I’m going to make more of an effort this year to engage more with you, the readers. Not sure how yet! Any suggestions gratefully received. It can get a bit lonely some times!
   
   One thing I’m definitely going to do is to leave more comments on other blogs. After all, I need to put my money where my mouth is!
   
   QUESTION: what is stopping you from leaving a comment?
   
   

4. develop more social networks

   Although I’ve been using the internet since 1975 (wow! it was called the Arpanet then), I’m still no expert. I have a Facebook page and I dabble on Twitter, but I haven’t really investigated sites like Digg, StumbleUpon, LinkedIn, etc. I want to try to exploit sites like this more in order to create a sense of community online.
   
   Singing in a choir is one of the most popular hobbies in the world, and yet it’s hard to find that many choral singers on Twitter for example. I know you’re all out there, it’s just a matter of finding you all!
   
   QUESTION: do you have any experience using social networks that you can pass on? If you’re already in one of these networks, how about connecting with me there?
   
   

5. get more guest blog posts

   Last year I was privileged to have guest posts from David Burbidge, Alexander Massey and Deb Viney. That was three more guest posts than the previous two years!
   
   Sometimes I get bored with the sound of my own voice! It’s also nice to get a different perspective on a subject, or to hear from someone on a subject that I don’t know much about.
   
   So . . . even if you’re ‘just’ a singer in a choir, or you come from a non-Western singing culture, or you have a background in percussion, or the last concert you attended was particularly special – I’d like to hear from you.
   
   You don’t have to write much (I tend to have verbal diarrhoea so don’t use me as a role model!), just write from the heart. Drop me a line ([email protected]) and let me know that you’d like to write a guest post.
   
   QUESTION: what are you passionate about that you could write a short article on?
   
   

6. re-evaluate exactly what I do

   Am I simply a teacher of songs or a community builder or a singing enabler? Maybe I’m all these things.
   
   I’ve been doing this singing lark for over ten years now so maybe it’s time to re-evaluate what I do. Perhaps it’s time for a complete change or at least a change of focus.
   
   I’m pretty sure I don’t do this because I’m only interested in, say, health or community. For example, I personally wouldn’t get much pleasure from leading unison singing in an old people’s home.
   
   But I’m not just in it for the end product otherwise I’d be running a sight-reading choir and churning out songs by the dozen.
   
   I do know that I love what is called ‘World Music’, especially the harmonies of Eastern Europe and the rhythms of Africa. I also know that I like to work in a relaxed, non-threatening, fun way and not to be always focused on performance. Beyond that . . . I’ll just have to see!
   
   QUESTION: what is the most important reason that you either attend or lead a choir?
   
   

7. run less pop song workshops

   Once upon a time I was struggling to get more people to join WorldSong. I realised that if I collared an average person on the street, they would know nothing of the singing traditions of the Republic of Georgia (Georgia on my mind), they would probably be put off by the idea of singing in foreign languages, and they would maybe think choirs were posh and only for people who read music.
   
   So I invented a range of populist workshops that I hoped anyone could respond to: Beatles acappella, Beach Boys bonanza, The Paul Simon songbook, etc. They were all very successful, and many people who attended these workshops ended up joining the choir (and learnt to love Georgian singing!). So much so, that the choir became full and we had to set up a waiting list.
   
   But now, all these years later, I have become known for these more populist workshops and it’s become a bit of an albatross around my neck. I enjoy running the workshops occasionally, but I don’t get nearly enough opportunities to teach the kinds of songs that I really love.
   
   It would be great to become known more for world music workshops than pop song workshops! Workshops like Songs on the Eastern Wind and World Songs.
   
   QUESTION: have you ever been labelled in a way that became restrictive? How did you change the situation?
   
   

8. re-design the blog

   When I started this blog way back in December 2006 (Choirs are becoming cool!), I didn’t know much about using Blogger. I used WorldSong’s red and black theme as a basis and threw together a quick design. Over time I’ve added more and more widgets to the blog too.
   
   During this time I’ve set up my own website (ChrisRowbury.com) with a clear and simple design which I’d like reflected in this blog. The main problem is finding the time to do it all!
   
   Since I’m not a full-time blogger or website designer, I have to find time amongst all my other higher priority commitments to get down to re-designing the blog. It’s all about priorities and trying to create an eight-day week! Do I migrate to the more flexible WordPress platform or do I design my own template or modify and existing Blogger theme? Time will tell!
   
   There are a couple of issues here: how we prioritise all the different types of work that we need to do as freelancers (The job of being a choir leader) and whether we can afford to pay someone to do work for us – website design, publicity, PR, etc.
   
   QUESTION: do you have any hints on how I might best re-design this blog to make it easier to use and nicer to look at?
   
   

9. attract more audiences for choral music

   We had a new guy join the basses this term. He persuaded his partner to come and watch Woven Chords’ Christmas concert.
   
   Apparently she had said: “I don’t like choral music!”, but ended up having a great evening, played our CD all the next day, and even gave her Mum a CD for Christmas!
   
   We often come across this: if we can just manage to get people through the door, they usually end up really enjoying themselves. But so many people get put of by words like ‘choir’ and ‘choral’ (Avoiding the ‘C’ word). If they do eventually get to a concert, they often say: “Oh, that’s what you do! Not what I expected at all.” (It does exactly what it says in the blurb – or not!)
   
   Does that mean that all our publicity was simply wrong? How do we describe what we do in order to get people to give our kind of music a go (Fitting into the right musical box)? How can we attract more (and younger) people to our concerts (Who is our audience?)? How do we dispel out-of-date preconceptions?
   
   QUESTION: how do you publicise your own concerts and do you have any tips on how to widen your audience base?
   
   

10. regularly reflect on and evaluate my own working methods

    It’s not enough to reflect on our practice just once a year, it’s something that should be done on a regular basis.
    
    Every new term I try to introduce new warm ups, new challenges, new approaches so that we’re always developing and not becoming complacent (Fighting habit and complacency). But this coming year I want to try and challenge many of the implicit assumptions I make.
    
    Why only acappella? Why world music? Am I a community musician or just a teacher of songs? Am I just interested in the end product? Why don’t I ever use written music?
    
    QUESTION: are there any assumptions you make about singing in a choir that maybe you’re not aware of?

 

So there we have it: my (professional) New Year resolutions for 2010.

Happy New Year and may all your own
hopes and dreams come true in 2010!

 

Chris Rowbury's website: chrisrowbury.com

The job of being a choir leader

A version of this appeared as an article in the Natural Voice Practitioners’ Network’s newsletter in 2006.

As a singing workshop and choir leader I have an incredibly easy life. I can get up when I want to and have no work commitments for four days of the week. I’m my own boss and can choose when I work and how much I do. I have holidays when the schools do, which means a long summer break each year.

I’ve just been away for a week to Suffolk, and have come back even more tired than when I went! How come? It was a restful week and we didn’t do anything strenuous.

So I got to thinking: how much do I actually do when I’m working? Perhaps it’s more than I thought. Maybe it’s like teachers and other high-energy, stressful occupations – when you eventually stop, you crash. Most teachers seem to get ill in the holidays when they let go. Perhaps it’s adrenaline that keeps us going during term time, and as soon as we have time off our bodies let go.

Until recently, when people asked me what I do, I felt slightly embarrassed to say that I just taught songs for two evenings a week, two hours at a time, and ran singing workshops three Saturdays each month. It seemed a pathetic amount of work for a grown man!

Then I realised that, of course, the “work” is not just during the contact hours, that in fact I am not just a teacher of songs, but a PR guy, a publicity designer, copywriter, PA, project planner, administrator, song arranger, office manager, website designer, recording engineer, marketing officer, song researcher, committee member, musical director, music transcriber, accountant, performance & rehearsal scheduler, community musician, filing clerk, stationery purchaser, fund-raiser … amongst other things.

In fact, I have a very FULL TIME job! I work evenings, weekends, bank holidays, and half-terms. Yet it doesn’t feel like “work” at all. When I’m arranging a song or designing publicity or writing this on a Sunday afternoon, it’s because I want to. It has to be done at some point, but I enjoy doing it, it’s creative, and I can choose when to do it.

I thought it might be interesting for those starting out (or for those who’ve been doing this for a while who didn’t realise how much work they actually do!) to give an idea of what a typical week might be like for a freelance teacher of songs/ musical director/ community musician. This is (some of) what I did during a fairly typical week shortly before I went on holiday:

• transferred a concert recording to my PC and edited it into separate tracks
• dealt with several requests to buy some of my song arrangements
• researched and contacted a range of venues in Lincolnshire and Coventry for autumn gigs
• updated my website with workshop information
• started to look for a suitable local venue for a workshop I’m running in October
• answered a backlog of emails asking general questions about singing
• planned and ran a workshop in Shropshire
• finished writing and arranging a new song about the summer
• liaised with a Stamford venue regarding an early September gig
• archived last term’s work with my choir and updated song lyrics and information for choir members
• ran choir on Thursday evening
• rehearsed with scratch choir for Warwick Folk Festival on Monday evening
• started funding application to be part of Coventry’s Peace Festival in the autumn
• agreed dates for more workshops next year
• confirmed rehearsal space for two projects for the autumn: Vox Mondiale and Foot and Mouth
• put in several invoices for recent work
• publicised my Beach Boys workshop in September
• sent out orders for choir CDs
• maintained mailing list (via website requests)
• designed flyers and posters for Vox Mondiale autumn gig
• updated my Facebook page and Twitter account
• started to collect songs for Woven Chords’ autumn term
• kept Woven Chords’ website up to date
• wrote blurb for Farncombe Estate open day
• made a recording of separate parts for a song arrangement that I sell

When I look back at that list it just makes me feel tired! Most of us get through huge amounts of work like this every week, but it’s only when we write it down that we realise how much we actually do to maintain our modest lifestyles, and that being a “community musician” or “choir leader” is not just about the music.

The job of choir leader

If you’ve enjoyed this post, you may be interested in several other posts I've written about choir leadership.

I’ve looked at the basic job definition, the roles and responsibilities and the notion of the ‘benign dictator’ (What the job of choir leader involves).

I’ve considered how you might assess a choir leader and whether the ends justify the means (How to tell if your choir leader is rubbish).

I've listed what I consider to be the six qualities needed by any good choir leader.

 

Chris Rowbury's website: chrisrowbury.com

Picture this

One of the many bees in my bonnet is the subject of photographs of choirs. I have yet to see any photo of a reasonably sized choir (say, over 30 members) which is of any interest to me whatsoever. Almost always the photo is of serried ranks of identically dressed people looking straight to camera. It screams CHOIR in the most stereotyped, dull, predictable way. I pick up the newspaper and read an article about an upcoming choral concert or maybe a review of one, and most of the time it is accompanied by a photo of a choir. I’ve just read that fact, and now to reinforce it (in case I hadn’t grasped what the word ‘choir’ means!) I’m confronted with an amazingly boring photo which adds nothing to the piece. Why say the same thing twice?

I believe this does the choral world a disservice. It perpetuates the conservative old-fashioned view of what a choir is. I really don’t think it helps attract audiences (if an audience already knows what a choir looks like, it’s not going to mean anything, and if they don’t, it will almost certainly put them off!). Why, oh, why can’t we have interesting photos of choirs??!!! (OK, I’m sure there are some out there and I would love to be inundated with exciting examples).

As with most successful marketing, the image used in publicity doesn’t necessarily have to be a literal interpretation of the thing being sold. Very often in the performing arts, the publicity photo is not a still from rehearsals (this is reserved for the world of amateur dramatics or the photo display in the foyer), but a carefully thought-out image that somehow sums up an overall impression of the performance. For example, when WorldSong performed at Coventry’s main theatre, their marketing department told us that, from years of research, they had discovered that images of nature helped to sell musical events most effectively. Our posters were based around the image of a tree and it was so successful that we stole the idea for our first CD cover!

Yet some media outlets will still insist on an actual photo of the choir itself. OK. Fair enough. Local press is usually interested in the ‘human interest’ side of things, so let’s give them a photo of the people in the choir. But why in a static, formal, boring pose? Why not something different and exciting? Of course, there is a problem here in that it is difficult in practice to get every member of a large group in a photo at a decent scale (so we can see their faces). The easiest solution to this is the typical group or school photo: stand in rows with the tallest at the back, the shortest in front and maybe even some people right at the front sitting on the floor. Yes, it gets everyone in the photo, but it is very predictable and not exciting in the slightest. The only use for such a photo is that little Johnny’s mum can actually see her darling boy.

Some people try to use photos of their choir in performance. It's a great idea, but trying to capture the energy and spirit of a choir in full voice is very, very hard. Most often we catch people in mid song with their mouths open, but their eyes half shut looking completely gormless. I have many examples of this, but won't inflict them on you!

There are, however, other solutions. I’m not going to be specific here because I want to keep hold of some good ideas to use with my own choir! Suffice it to say, there are interesting ways of photographing choirs. However, it’s difficult finding good photographers who agree with me! Please, please send me some good examples of choir photos.

go to Chris Rowbury's website