Great tips on how to effectively direct a choir/choir rehearsal

[betnich]

Here's another "Gospel Warmup" - anybody need this in letter-in-note "E-Z-Play" notation, please let me know...

[betnich]

And here's another - I think the end of the same song. Doing the end of this in ascending keys would be a good spirited warmup. The first part would be good for different sections/people in the choir to do "solo" lines.

(I am also attaching a very rough MIDI, with a click track, because the piano/choir is so offbeat, to give an idea of how it sounds)

[betnich]

Here's a link to a Book/CD of warm ups for choir - lots of vocal technique, directed at school/youth choirs...

http://www.halleonard.com/product/viewproduct.do?itemid=9970913&lid=14&subsiteid=27&

[Qdee1]

I am a new choir director and I am so glad for the points that you have posted. Thanks

[felicia37]

hello my name is felicia .. i am a choir director i have been doing this for about 4 years and i do ok but i definitely can use some pointers so i as well as my choir can improve out sound .. i am now learning to play the organ and that is helping b cuz i am able to  teach the parts to the choir and be more sure of myself .. i want to thank u for posting thoes tips and all the suggestions .. i needed some pointers .. thanks again ... i accidentally found this website but i now know it was not by accident .. 

[betnich]

Welcome to LGM, Felicia!
God Bless!

[vtguy84]

Welcome, Felicia!

[dboyd1]

Running an effective choir rehearsal

A choir rehearsal is extremely important to the choir’s function.  A rehearsal can make the choir better or ultimately weaken the choir.  Here are some things you may want to consider when it comes to rehearsal.

Before Rehearsal
A rehearsal is something not to be taken lightly.  When working with a choir, it is easy to lose focus if there is no control in the rehearsal.  There must be a clear cut plan of what will be executed in the rehearsal so things will run smoothly.  Here are some things you want to do before your scheduled choir rehearsal:

• The choir director should meet with the head musician at least 24 hours before rehearsal to discuss the flow of rehearsal, including which songs will be rehearsed.
• Lyrics should be emailed at least 24 hours before rehearsal or printed off and brought to rehearsal.
• If possible, bring a copy of the songs to rehearsal.

At Rehearsal

This is where your preparation gets executed.  If you have prepared well, rehearsal should go very smoothly.  Be confident in your administration.  Here is how a typical practice should start:

• Make sure all the leaders are ON TIME!  If possible, have a small leadership prayer before the choir gets there.  If you show up late, the choir will feel that it’s not required for them to show up on time.
• START ON TIME!  Whether there are three people or 30, make sure that you get the ball rolling on time to show members that you will not wait for anyone.
• Start with breathing exercises to get the members prepared for the rehearsal.

Make sure that you change the format of rehearsals weekly to make things different.  If people know that you are going to have a 10 minute Bible study at the beginning of each rehearsal, people won’t come on time because they feel like they won’t miss anything. 

Execute the plan that you have come up with in an orderly, but fun manner.  One thing you must remember is that being in the choir is extracurricular and if people don’t feel their time is being used effectively, they will not feel a need to come to rehearsal.  Make rehearsal important.

Executing the Plan

The plan that you come up with in rehearsal is important to a successful and productive rehearsal.  Here is a sample of a plan that I have used in my choir rehearsal:

Thursday’s Rehearsal (Seitz 313)
Set Up @ 5:30 p.m.
Prayer @ 6:00 p.m.
Word: ______________________

Warm-ups: ________________________________
Ice breaker: _______________________________
Song 1:  __________________________________
Song 2:  __________________________________
Water Break
Announcements/Upcoming Engagements
Song 3:  __________________________________

Closing Prayer



In this particular rehearsal…

• We had the Word given at the beginning of rehearsal. 
• We had an icebreaker because it was an interest meeting.  Try to limit these to 5 minutes to keep rehearsal fun, but not lose track of why we’re here.
• Song #1 was ‘All Hail King Jesus (Sing the Praises to the King)’, a song that most people, even if it were their first rehearsal, are able to sing with ease.

With this plan, you have a clear idea of what songs will be done and how much time you should spend on each thing. 

A different way to run rehearsal

If you are looking for a different way to run rehearsal, here is something that I have done and works well.  This may or may not work based on the resources that your choir obtains:

As far as learning songs:

I have 1 section leader for each section.  The three are responsible for learning the songs ahead of time.  We get together two days before rehearsal and go over parts to make sure that parts are successful.  Once we have mastered this, we go to rehearsal.

At rehearsal when I introduce a song, I let the choir listen to the whole song in its entirety.  Afterwards, there are three separate rooms where the different section leaders take their section and work on their parts; each room has a CD and a boombox.  While this is going on, the musicians are in the main room fixing last minute stuff to make sure that the music flows effectively. This way all people are working at the same time. A normal song takes about 10-15 minutes to work on.  After that time, we come together and put it all together.


Summarized Points

Here are the points summarized:

• Prepare for rehearsals in advanced, giving songs to the musicians and writing out a plan.
• Show up to rehearsals on time and start rehearsals on time.
• Make rehearsal fun.  When the choir feels a family atmosphere, they will feel more welcomed to showing up and being faithful.
• Change the layout of rehearsals to keep people intrigued.

Hope this helps.