Building a Choir - Recruitment through Voice Class
  • noel jones, aagonoel jones, aago
    Posts: 6,605
    If you a blessed with a choir director who is a trained singer, and especially if this person is a voice teacher, then there is a very easy way to increase the size of your choir. Today the world is full of singers that can not project sound further than the closest microphone. And that is killing vocal music and choral programs.

    A church that offers a free introductor voice class of say, 6 weeks at a time, can draw singers. But who is going to pay for it? Voice class lessons, most group music instruction in fact, results in class members wanting to pay for private lessons. If the teacher is encouraging, helpful and likeable, students are inclined to pay for private lessons. Some teachers will take this as an opportunity and undertake the class as a way of increasing their private lesson income.

    Voice Class Lessons, Tuesday at 8:00 at St. Mary's. Call for information.

    It also works to pay the teacher, charging a minimum fee for parish members, more for those outside the parish.

    A talented voice teacher can train children to sing, protecting their voices in the process. There are a ton of would-be Madonnas, Lady Gagas and children want to learn to sing.

    Not all pop stars rely on amplification. I did a musical in Germany and, when one soprano sang we had to turn the bullet microphones off because of the huge sound she created. Rather than going on to pursue a career as an opera singer, Donna Gaines of Boston chose to marry a record producer and settle down in Germany. However, her first recording as a disco queen under her new stage name, Donna Summers, took her out of retirement. There's one disco song she sings in which she holds a long, long note. People, that's not a recording splice trick, that's her singing.

    Voice Class Lessons, what do you think?

    How will this build a choir? People meet you all, like you and leave the program where they are not respected and educated and offer to join your choir.

    Thanked by 1Gavin
  • btodorovich
    Posts: 32
    It's a great idea! I may consider it myself.
  • canadashcanadash
    Posts: 1,499
    This is how the church choir, where I began singing, was developed. It ended up being all female, but it was wonderful and went on to produce many amazing singers. Then, when there are festivals and such in your area, create duets, trios, quartets that sing the music you need for mass too. The members can rehearse these on their own.

    Something similar can be done for organ training too, but perhaps through the diocese. It could incorporate choral singing, theory and organ lessons. I have heard of this in Europe, where on Saturdays the youth involved in music would go to a central location for these lessons. Church music there was vibrant!
  • noel jones, aagonoel jones, aago
    Posts: 6,605
    There is a new organ program that teaches basic music skills, including reading music, singing the melodies, all learned at the organ in group lessons. Classes are now forming in some locations - one has been up and running for two years and it is turning out some who decide to study organ, others joined to improve their music reading skills and are better choir members as a result and all the students, no matter what instrument -piano, guitar, voice, drums - all leave with an understanding of what the organ does, how to play it and these people will be supporters of the organ for life.

    It's about time.

    Thanked by 2canadash CHGiffen
  • miacoyne
    Posts: 1,805
    Maybe capable music directors can give voice lessons instead of choir practice during summer?
    Thanked by 2canadash CHGiffen
  • canadashcanadash
    Posts: 1,499
    Where is this happening? The model could be written down and posted somewhere and "franchises" open in other dioceses. It IS about time.
  • fp
    Posts: 63
    Any more practical details Noel? I have a daughter who is looking for something like that.(Here in SE Tn there's no organ "because nobody can play it", and no organist "because there's no organ"....!)
    FP
    Thanked by 1canadash
  • noel jones, aagonoel jones, aago
    Posts: 6,605
    www.keystotheorgan.com

    I was brought in last fall to edit the student books and teacher's guides and, it seems, to do some marketing. The first teachers were trained last month and there are centers being set up in Hawaii and Pennsylvania (that center is up and running and a second teacher has been trained and added) with a couple of west coast ones going online shortly.

    The teachers are organists or, a music educator assisted by an organist. This gives organists income, one of the goals of the program.

    I am in the midst of setting up centers in TN, have located teachers and working on locations.

    This has some applications to home school situations, I am working at a Catholic version that ties into Gregorian Chant on my mind at this point. This training system was developed by an educator trained in group piano instruction, adapted to the organ as a superior instrument for beginning students (steady tone, students gain confidence, develop an ear and then may go on to study piano, harpsichord (one of my favorite instruments - I am on the road promoting it a bit right now in a program, Playing The Invisible Notes) organ, voice, any instrument.
    Thanked by 1canadash
  • tomboysuzetomboysuze
    Posts: 289
    Noel! Great minds, dude. (well, mine is pretty good anyway...)
    A PARISH CHOIR SCHOOL - An idea whose time has come.
    (Remember what you said about the Holy Spirit really being the catalyst of true creativity? It's so true.)
    This has been my dream and I may finally have a chance to do it. I think it's the key to true restoration of the liturgy. As Directors, we can offer classes in ear training, site singing, pitch matching and audition, music theory, Gregorian Chant - etc.
    The concept is simple, yet I believe it will be very effective.

    a. Find a location - your choir loft, school classrooms, your house.
    b. Find someone who can teach something your choir needs: Improving vocal technique, site singing, whatever (or teach it yourself)
    c. Decide how many classes you need to affect true education - 2? 4? 6?
    d. Pick a time OUTSIDE of choir rehearsal - Sat. mornings? Summer time?
    e. Figure out what your choir members can afford. $10 a class for 6 classes/ $35 for a 6 hour workshop on the weekends...whatever. The money goes to the teacher w/ either the parish picking up the materials if possible, or charge enough to pay for the materials and a stipend for the teacher.
    f. Print out a flyer and go for it.
    g. This should be first: Design a series of different classes and name your "choir school"

    What do you think?

    My real goal is to establish such a program so that other parishes would want to send their choir members for training. And - as a bonus - create an income stream for all the low paid Catholic Church Musicians in the area - who could make a little extra money by teaching classes.

    If there is a parish or two or three (four) that can create a consortium of schools and classes - then you have the environment from which great music can grow. You can create a true musical culture - and the Church can return (if only for a moment) to her role as Great Patron of the Arts!!!! Well, it could happen...maybe

    (Tune in next week when we'll be dreaming about the "Festival for Catholic Liturgical Arts" where we have a weekend of demonstrations by artists doing everything from stained glass to liturgical embroidery - complete with Food For Special Feasts of the Liturgical Year - Floral Symbolism in History - Displays and Explanations of Heraldry - And Heraldic Art, where kids get to make their own Heraldic Crests from medieval symbols of virtue - all held in a mock, historically accurate, Monastic setting - where we turn the church parking lot into an Abbey. Sigh.)
    Thanked by 1CHGiffen
  • Ally
    Posts: 227
    Tomboysuze, I would LOVE to have a small choir school just like you're talking about! I've thought about it many times, and even have a list in my desk of these same ideas!
    Not sure if there is enough support to hold it at my parish yet, but I would definitely do it out of my house if not!
    Just not sure how/when to start it practically.
  • noel jones, aagonoel jones, aago
    Posts: 6,605
    I've found that they work the last four weeks of the summer....invite the entire Diocese. Some of your choir members (not all) will show up, invite choir directors interested in improving their conducting skills...give them a chance to direct during these sessions. They get a thrill out of standing in front of a special choir like this. Nice to end with an Evensong the last night, they come at 7, rehearse till 7:50, open church (or in our case the school gym) - MUCH better acoustics than the old church, and sing Evensong. Involve deacons to do the readings.

    A couple of artifacts including pics in the gym about this at www.sjnmusic.com

    You will pick up choir members this way, be sure to list the music you are going to sing in the publicity. When they see Adoramus Te or other music they sang in college or high school choir, it attracts them like a moth to a flame. Also, put a notice on all the papers, do not restrict attendance to Catholics. Evangelize....
    Thanked by 2CHGiffen miacoyne
  • JanDen
    Posts: 23
    This was successfully done at our church many years ago. The voice classes recruited parishioners who then became members of our choral group. The singers still talk about it. It's a great idea if you have the resources.
  • marajoymarajoy
    Posts: 781
    I tried this a couple years ago, and it WORKED! Well, something similar. I did it during the summer, and advertised in the bulletin one free, 1/2 hour lesson (private) for any individual, where I would give some general voice coaching and help them gain more confidence at singing. Of course, I was able to use that time to help them see that they *did* have a nice voice, and would fit in great with the choir! I think I had about 4 or 5 people respond, and 1 or 2 of them ended up joining the choir!

    It really hardly took any time or effort, so it was obviously on a smaller scale than what is being described above. But...there are certainly positives also to *not* asking people to commit to a longer period for voice lessons.
  • Musicteacher56
    Posts: 621
    Thank you for this suggestion. I just put in ad in our bulletin for the same thing. If it results in some voices for the choir, that's wonderful, and if not, at least it will give non-singers the confidence they need so that they may reconsider the choir in the future.
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