{"id":26,"date":"2015-04-09T10:55:55","date_gmt":"2015-04-09T10:55:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/communitychoirs.wordpress.com\/?p=26"},"modified":"2015-04-09T10:55:55","modified_gmt":"2015-04-09T10:55:55","slug":"starting-a-community-choir","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.community-choirs.co.uk\/wordpress\/2015\/04\/starting-a-community-choir\/","title":{"rendered":"Starting a Community Choir&#8230;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\n  (function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){i['GoogleAnalyticsObject']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){\n  (i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),\n  m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)\n  })(window,document,'script','\/\/www.google-analytics.com\/analytics.js','ga');<\/p>\n<p>  ga('create', 'UA-74309659-1', 'auto');\n  ga('send', 'pageview');<\/p>\n<p><\/script><br \/>\nWe are lucky to be surfing a bit of a zeitgeist as far as community singing goes at the moment. \u00a0Whilst I am sad about the direction that Gareth Malone has taken singing on TV (competitions? \u00a0Why is it always competitions?), I do believe that his Military Wives series in particular, helped to show people that singing was an empowering thing that *anyone* can do. \u00a0Lots of people feel able to look for a group to sing with.<\/p>\n<p>The problem comes at the next stage, however. \u00a0You&#8217;ve summoned up the courage to join a singing group, but you can&#8217;t find one near you, or the ones that you can find are not the sort of thing you are looking for. \u00a0What should you do?<\/p>\n<p>First of all &#8211; don&#8217;t give up. \u00a0The chances are very good that if you want to join a particular kind of singing group then you probably won&#8217;t be the only one. \u00a0Experience tells me that there are generally lots of other people willing to have a go if they find the right sort of group. \u00a0So why not set one up?<\/p>\n<p>It isn&#8217;t as hard as you might think. \u00a0Formal choirs generally have piano accompanists and trained conductors familiar with classic and choral music. \u00a0They may encourage only music readers to join.<\/p>\n<p>THIS IS NOT THE ONLY WAY TO SING!!!<\/p>\n<p>I have been running choirs for several years now, and singing solo, in bands and in choirs for longer than I care to remember. \u00a0And&#8230; \u00a0I don&#8217;t care at all for the classical model with a piano accompanist, beautifully organised SATB parts and lots of showy, complicated music that you need to be able to read to follow. \u00a0And that&#8217;s OK &#8211; it really is. \u00a0Plenty of people *do* like that (I actually like to listen to it, but have no desire to participate in it), but plenty of people also like what I do &#8211; orchestrated backing tracks, modern and upbeat songs, choose your own part and sing what you love.<\/p>\n<p>It is really easy to do as well. \u00a0To get something started, I recommend this setup kit:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.community-choirs.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/z.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-28 size-full alignleft\" style=\"margin:15px;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.community-choirs.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/z.jpg\" alt=\"Z\" width=\"224\" height=\"300\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A battery-powered portable amplifier (something like this \u00a0Block Rocker that works off Bluetooth).<\/li>\n<li>An iPod\/MP3 player.<\/li>\n<li>A copy of any of Mark DeLisser&#8217;s &#8220;Sing Out&#8221; books.<\/li>\n<li>A printer with a photocopy facility.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>With this setup, you can take a choir rehearsal *anywhere*. \u00a0You can work acapella, or if you are uncertain and need a little bit of confidence building, you can sing along with the tracks, following the alternative parts (Mark&#8217;s books utilise CDs\/downloads of tracks so that everyone can learn their own parts before blending them altogether. )<\/p>\n<p>Pop the tracks from the books onto the iPod, and then connect the iPod to the Bluetooth speaker and just&#8230; sing&#8230; along.<\/p>\n<p>You can do this in your living room. \u00a0Or a church hall. \u00a0Or a friend&#8217;s garage. \u00a0It doesn&#8217;t have to be complicated, but it really *should* be joyous.<\/p>\n<p>Don&#8217;t wait for someone else to set up your dream choir &#8211; do it yourself!!!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We are lucky to be surfing a bit of a zeitgeist as far as community singing goes at the moment. \u00a0Whilst I am sad about the direction that Gareth Malone has taken singing on TV (competitions? \u00a0Why is it always competitions?), I do believe that his Military Wives series in particular, helped to show people [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.community-choirs.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.community-choirs.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.community-choirs.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.community-choirs.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.community-choirs.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.community-choirs.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.community-choirs.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.community-choirs.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.community-choirs.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}