As a choral and creative director who likes to get the details right, statements like
that are not exactly music to my ears. However, after hearing that dreaded phrase
yet again at one of our thrice yearly newcomer evenings, I realised that this
repeated message is in fact valuable customer feedback.
Here's the thing, In an increasingly complex and sometimes scary world, some people simply long for the companionship and relaxation of a communal sing-a-long experience. They're not actually looking for a choir to join. They're looking for company and a couple of
hours respite from the daily grind. They don't know where to find that, so they rock
up at an open rehearsal hoping I'll point them in the right direction.
In the two and a bit years since Covid restrictions ended, these lovely folk began
popping up ever more often as we slowly built our first Women Rockin' Harmony
Choirs ® team from scratch. So, I found myself living in Ground Hog Day, having
the same conversation over and over – until I finally got my response right.
As GHD is my all time favourite film, it's a bit of an irony that it took so long for the
penny to drop. Especially as, once upon a time, I earned my living working in an
old time music hall setting!
Before I go any further, I must add the caveat that I emerged as dazed and confused from two years of restrictions around singing as anyone else, and it took me a while to find my choir leader “legs” again. Also, during the early months after the final restrictions were lifted, casual drop-in singing sessions were thin on the ground, so pointing people in the right direction was challenging to say the least. So, I feel I can be forgiven for not realising from the outset that people's needs around singing are somewhat less defined and somewhat more nuanced than they were before the pandemic temporarily obliterated choirs, musical theatre societies and community singing from the social landscape.
Somewhere along the way, a proportion of people had become confused as to the distinction between a sing-a-long and a choir. Metaphorically speaking, they were looking for their car keys under the wrong lamp post. Alongside that, many people who had some experience of open mic' or choir singing had lost all confidence and were very hesitant to join a new choir straight off, preferring to ease themselves in with a more casual, social singing setting. A few of those who did join, found the experience too intense after two years of not singing at all, and disappeared after a few weeks. Some even citing that hated
phrase “I only wanted a bit of a sing.” Oh dear.
Then, our marketing and media director, Jackie, a woman who loves scouring the
internet for hidden “treasure”, came across World Singing Day and suggested we
try running an event under that banner. So I cobbled together a list of sing-a-long
favourites alongside the official WSD song and we booked a small private room in
a pub to hold our event.
Somewhere around the third song, with our guests smiling and singing along, it suddenly all came rushing back to me. All I'd forgotten about the fun, the laughter and the easy companionship a public sing-a-long can provide revealed itself , and the community singing leader in me was unleashed once more. To my great surprise I began to thoroughly enjoy myself. Who knew?
Over lunch a day or two later, Jackie and I acknowledged that this may be the
solution to more than one problem. Post pandemic, simply recruiting singers to our
choirs was proving far more challenging than before, simply because many
women were still so sure they weren't “good enough” to join our teams. So,
offering public sing-a-long events with no expectations could be an opportunity to
advertise the choir concerts and invite our drop-in singers to come along and hear
what the next level is like. Sure enough, at that first event, we got an enquiry about
choir membership. The very best thing, though, was seeing all those happy faces
and hearing all those vibrant voices, singing along with gusto. After twenty four
months of being deaf to the obvious message, I'd finally “got it”. I could almost
hear “The Universe” breathe a sigh of relief.
So our timetable for 2025 includes regular sing-a-long events, two weekly choir
opportunities (two teams at opposite ends of town) and our annual Masterclass
Course for those wanting to focus on the finer points of vocal and choral
technique. Plus, of course, our regular choir members work towards at least three
significant performance opportunities during the year. All bases covered.
So now, like Phil Connors in my favourite film, I no longer dread the alarm clock
on newcomer days because I now have a much more fulfilling answer for the
ladies who turn up wanting “a bit of a sing”. And, for those who may turn up at our
sing-a-longs looking for something more, we simply tell them about the choirs.
Happy days.
You can find all our upcoming events at Eventbrite - hope you come along!
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