here is a thread that addresses this problem. Have a look at it and see what you think.

I qualify invitations to prospective cantors stating that only those who are willing to be trained and are accepted will be able to participate. Usually after three or four half-hour rehearsals they begin to get the message without saying it to them directly. During the training sessions I stop playing as soon as they go off pitch and then go over the problematic phrase a few times. Another thing is to record them and then play it back to them. Many times they don't know what they sound like until they hear it for themselves. I programmed one prospect to sing at a liturgy three weeks into the future and called them every week and set up a half hour rehearsal. When they realized that I had taken the time with them each week to rehease something they could not master (a single psalm for a single liturgy), it became sorely obvious it was beyond their ability. You always want to be their advocate until they come to a self realization.

This is definitely the most difficult part of being a DM, takes great tact, charity, patience and careful handling. I have not done this with a prospective choir member, but I think it could work just the same.

No, CharlesW, he's singing down here in Florida at several parishes.
While Francis has a great approach with new singers, most of us face the question of the established, longtime choir member who's in place when we come on the scene. And since you can't ask all members of a volunteer choir to submit their resignations for you to keep in a drawer to use at will, you climb on to the wobble board of pastoral vs. musical. One tactic I've used in the past is to use the best voice parts for motets, anthems, whatevers and have the whole choir, including the errant singers, reserved for things where the whole church is singing. All of these presuppose that the difficult voice is fairly soft.

With beginner groups, I've done lots of canons. When I had a gentle monotone in the bass section, we never let the men finish or people would wonder what that strange buzzing was - and it was Patrick in the back row!

I think cantors fall into a special category. (Actually I wish in most places that they didn't exist.) Leaving aside all the liturgical implications, singing the psalm verses in most parishes is a front-and-center solo turn. And I've met people with astonishingly bad voices who are addicted to that performance. What makes the "reality intervention" more difficult, is the cadre of folks over the years who have told them that they were great. Why they did this I don't know - misguided charity or perhaps they're musically challenged as well. Nonetheless, the poor singer falls back on these "reviews" when confronted. If the choir director persists, the next stop for the singer may be the pastor's office. So give the pastor a heads-up if this is coming - and get your point of view in there first.

That off axis singer is down here in Mexico and he is not in the choir at all -- he is the celebrant, off-axing into a super-amped microphone.

joseph... you can get a pitch converter for him... i believe cher uses it on some of her pieces. it adjusts your pitch to next closest half tone. (sounds a bit robotic, but will definitely train him how to sing on pitch!)

Wow...I didn't realize my schola member was so well traveled. I'll ask him to buy me a t-shirt from the local shops. Thanks for all the suggestions!

On a related note, though, what are the membership numbers for men's scholae out there? I've got 4-5 men right now, and I'm hoping to expand (mostly to drown this guy out---well, only halfway kidding) but I'd like to know what kind of numbers others are working with.