r/Choir

Hi everyone!

I'm from the Philippines and was recently appointed as one of the officers of our newly formed Grand Choir in our Catholic parish. One of my responsibilities is coordinating rehearsals, schedules, announcements, and—probably the biggest challenge—finding a rehearsal venue.

Our choir has around 25 members, and about 90% of them are students. We rehearse twice a week in the evenings (6:00 PM–9:00 PM) because that's when everyone is available after school or work.

Our parish allows us to use its facilities occasionally, but not every week since they also have to consider electricity and maintenance costs. We've also tried rehearsing in members' garages, but that's not a long-term solution because we don't want to disturb their families or neighbors with several hours of singing.

Our Grand Choir was created to serve during major parish celebrations, diocesan events, competitions, and to help raise the musical standard of our parish, so regular rehearsals are important.

I'm curious, have any of you experienced the same challenge?

• Where does your choir rehearse?
• Does your church provide a permanent space, or do you rotate venues?
• If you had little or no budget, how did you make it work?
• Have you partnered with schools, community centers, or local businesses?
• Looking back, what would you have done differently?

I'm not necessarily looking for a free venue. I'm more interested in learning how other choirs or church music ministries solved this problem and built a sustainable rehearsal setup.

I'd love to hear your experiences. Thank you!

I was in a pretty highly praised national youth choir as a kid (ages 7-9), and they disbanded a couple years ago. Eventually quit because I dreaded every rehearsal so much as a result of things that happened. I thought they were normal, but when I was talking about this with some (non-choir) friends, they told me it wasn't. Did other ex-kid choir people experience any of this? Or was this just our choir?

First of all, to get our attention, we were never told to quiet down. From the very first moment we walked in, our directors would whistle on their fingers in a microphone or hit the keys of the piano. This was like 30 kids ages 7-15 in a classroom type of room. We weren't super rowdy or loud, but I can understand that maybe they had prior experiences that made them want to be strict?

Whilst singing songs for the first time, we would stand in lines. Everyone who didn't sing well enough were asked to stand in front of everyone and one by one sing again what we did wrong until we got it right.

And I think this is the most normal one; obvious favoritism. In our case it was the kids who were good enough to be on the official recordings. They were let off the hook a lot more; didn't get shit when they had to miss due to illness or other private circumstances, were put apart from the rest of the group during concerts, although this served no purpose.

And just a bunch of things that made you wonder if these people should really work with kids. Like sending off a girl who was crying because her uncle was passing away, or brushing off a kid who was struggling to sing with an allergic reaction (not fatal, just annoying, I was this kid lol).

It's been almost a decade since I left it there. Just wondering if other people have similar stories? And how did it affect you/how did you deal with the effects?

I'm in music school and I want to compose non-religious choral music. My voice lesson teacher/choir director recommended a few contemporary choral composers to listen to so I can learn more:

• Eric Whitacre
• Susan Labarr
• Sydney Guillaume
• Rosephanye Powell

And I like a lot of Elaine Hagenburg and Victor Johnson's music too.

What are your favorite songs by those composers/ what do you recommend prioritizing listening to?

Thank you!!

* Edited to fix composer name spellings.

Hello! I'm doing lots of research and soul-searching still but I am eager to apply for my masters this fall. I have an undergrad degree in voice performance and music education, and have been teaching high school for 8 years (choir, music theory, directing musicals) while also choral singing professionally when I can.

My conundrum is that while I like conducting and teaching (though I'm running out of steam with public high school education), I also want to study/pursue voice and singing professionally. I used to perform a lot more and I want to bring that side of me back as well. I'm wondering where should I look/logistically go about this. Should I initially apply for choral conducting? Performance/voice? Both? Double major in a masters program if they allow? Basically, I'd like to be somewhere that can bridge my passions as best as possible.

Any guidance and tips would be greatly appreciated, thank you!

hi friends!

for context, I'm an activity director for an independent senior living community. I have a handful of residents that LOVE to sing.

back around the holidays, we did a Christmas choir, with myself leading and playing the piano and the residents singing. it was so much fun, and it's something I love to do every year with them.

they've now begged and pleaded for me to keep the choir going. I have two problems:

1. I have a couple residents who HATE singing vocal warmups. I trick them into warming up with silly tounge twisters and body stretches. as someone with their bachelor's degree in music therapy, I try to explain to them that warm ups are so important and we don't want to damage our voices, but they look at me like I'm an idiot whenever I try to explain.

2. half of the current choir wants to sing 4-part harmonies, and I have no idea where to source music that ISNT religious. as the director for activities I have to stay pretty non-religious in my programming (and truly, doing anything religious makes me uncomfortable). the other half of the choir just wants it to turn into a general sing-along with me at the helm (playing the piano and singing).

long story short, I want to try some music with harmonies to humor them. if it's a mess, then it will turn into a sing along and the "choir" will return for the holidays.

currently, I'm pulling familiar favorites from The Real Fake Book, which only has the melody line to sing. I tried to get them to learn Something Stupid by Frank and Nancy Sinatra (which has some fun and interesting harmonies) and they didn't like it. /:

does anyone have ANY resources where I can find some easy, familiar, NON RELIGIOUS, and (preferably) free sheet music for two to four part harmony???? I'm begging and pleading. 🫶🏻

(I'm about ready to give up, as they are turning my talent and love for music into a complete chore for me (I get practice anxiety, not performance anxiety) and expecting me to play the piano for them at the drop of the dime, which I will not do, because that's not why I was hired for this job, but that's for a different post)

I've been classically trained since the age of 7 (28f now) and need sheet music to play - I'm not one of the chosen ones that can play by ear. /:

okay I'm done, thank you in advance!

Sorry if this has been asked before

I'll share first.

My director took our choir on an international trip with two sets of parent chaperones (two different girls' moms and dads). I think that there were about 30-40 of us total, mostly teenagers.

We got there and my director basically peaced out with the organist. Like I think we only saw her for half an hour before each concert we gave (four total). She didn't rehearse with us. This one girl's mom basically handled all the logistics, including helping when two students got hospitalized and needed to reschedule their flight back.

(She was not paid to do any of this. She was actually paying to attend herself)

That girl and her parents ended up quitting shortly after, and I made fun of how poorly my director planned it until I graduated.

I am a software engineer, the future in this field is looking quite bleak with the emergence of AI. I am 31 and I have been singing all my life albeit solo. Music is my life, but I do need some music theory training. Other than that, my throat and stamina are pretty solid.

Recently I joined a youth choir and by the end of the year I am auditioning for another choir which has a really good rep and quite prestigious and has been around for 50 years. I've attended one of their rehearsals and while I couldn't keep up with the sight reading, I was doing very well vocal wise as people next to me have complimented.

So this makes me think if I lock in and get solid with my music theory and sight reading, transitioning is entirely possible in the next 10-15 years. But evidently I am new to this field, so I'd like to hear some realistic opinions from people here who have been doing this a while. Thank you so much!

Edit: Thank you so much for all the responses and the solid reality checks. I didn't know it's almost close to impossible to make a living out of choral singing alone. My expectations have been managed. I will continue to sing in a choir as a hobby!

Matthew Culloton is positing these cryptic, scathing things about cronyism, others are positing about mediocre white men...i havent been to a national conf since Kansas City so Im kinda out of it

I teach high school music in a rural town, and my intermediate ensemble for the upcoming year is pretty imbalanced due to scheduling conflicts.

There are 21 students, only 3 of which are boys (all baritone-ish in range). Does anyone have any fun/challenging SSAB repertoire recommendations?

I’m already planning on arranging some rep, but I’m trying to minimize how much I’ll have to arrange because I also teach the instrumental program and I have to write or arrange everything for that class because of the low numbers and wonky instrumentation makeup of that class.

Any and all help is greatly appreciated!

I know many people for whom music is their happy place. I'm curious about it. What makes it a safe place for you?

Hi there, in a few weeks I (19F) have an audition with a pretty prestigious UK cathedral choir who have asked me to prepare a piece for the audition. Now, I have sang in small local choirs, and I am quite good (if I may be a bit of a peacock for a second) but never formally in a cathedral of this size or fame. I am TERRIEIFED.

I am a soprano, looking for a classical piece which is not overly complicated/ too operatic but also can showcase some variety and dynamics. Yet something that will be easy enough for a singer who has NEVER EVER had singing lessons (and knows next to nothing about music theory!)

I'm a section leader in a small choir. I started several years ago with no choir experience but I have since grown into a leadership position. Choir is a team sport. We are no better than the least skilled among us. It's frustrating because while some of us are dedicated to technical and artistic excellence others are mainly in the choir for social reasons. If one of us can't stay on the beat and sing in key the whole choir suffers.

When is it time to join a better choir?