When a Particular Song is Not Your Favourite - Coping with Songs You Don’t Like

Tanya Lawrence
6 days ago
3 min read

Let’s be honest - at some point in your choir journey, a song might pop up in rehearsal that

really doesn't light your fire. Maybe it’s not your style, or maybe you’ve just never liked it.

That’s totally normal! In any choir it’s perfectly natural that not every piece will land the same way for every singer.

But here’s something worth considering: every song in the programme is chosen for a reason.

Behind each selection is a lot of thought from your Musical Director. Song choices aren’t just

plucked out of thin air, nor are they on the list just because your Musical Director likes them.

Everything that makes the cut has been chosen to serve a broader purpose. Sometimes, a

piece is selected to challenge and grow the choir’s skills. Other times, it fits perfectly into the programming arc of an upcoming show, helping to shape the emotional journey for our

audience. It may be that your MD is considering the voices available, especially if you have new members on board who need something suitable for their current skill set. Developing singers, especially in teams, is a very fine art. And quite often, the song choices reflect your MD’s understanding of what your audiences enjoy and will respond positively to.

Yet, creating a successful show isn’t just about listing a few crowd-pleasers. It’s a craft. There needs to be light and shade, surprise and comfort, energy and reflection. There must be balance, flow, pacing, and story. That takes experience, vision, and more than a bit of behind-the-scenes planning - including sourcing or even arranging music that suits your choir's unique sound and setup. And that's before we get into the niceties of licencing and all the paperwork MDs and choir administrators have to learn to navigate.

So if a song doesn’t immediately spark joy for you, try to hang on to a wider perspective. The pieces that stretch your team musically, emotionally, or stylistically are often the very ones that help you grow the most. And many singers have found that a song they weren’t keen on in rehearsal became one of their favourites after performing it in full context, with stage-lights, energy, and a live audience. That's happened to me on many occasions.

If you're new to the choir, this is especially important to remember. Your MD draws on years of experience and a broad musical toolkit to guide the group, and that includes making judgement calls about repertoire that might not please everyone all the time - but serve the whole choir, the performance, and the audience in ways you might not see until show night.

So keep an open mind. Lean into the learning. You never know - by the end of the project, that song you weren’t sure about might just be the one stuck in your head, or the one that moves someone in the audience to tears. And it might just be the one that brought you from where you were to where you are now.

So, keep singing, keep growing, and keep trusting the process.