How to buy back HOURS of your time at work

choir director Sep 03, 2024

Are you feeling stressed out by the upcoming choir year?

Are you feeling like you have too much work to do and not enough time?

Do you sometimes even think about quitting and doing something completely different?

You are not alone.

But, there are steps you can take to totally transform your situation

Follow these steps and you will start to feel some major progress in your ministry

Tips for Choir Directors who are stressed out and need to buy back time:

1) Recruit and train a choir librarian - A choir librarian (that you train) can be a lifesaver in any music ministry. It is someone that knows how to copy, hole punch, assemble choir folders and help you with routine tasks that suck up your time.  Pick a detail oriented person that is easy to get along with, ask them if they would consider being the choir librarian volunteer for 2-3 hours once a week, and then teach them how to do basic tasks such as put music into folders.  Tell them how their...

Continue Reading...

Choir Director Tips for Summer 2024

Hi Choir Director colleagues,

I hope your choir season is coming to a nice close!

My name is Dr. Michael Carney and I am a choir director and orchestra/band conductor

After working with thousands of singers in many different high level programs, here are my best tips for using this summer wisely as a music director.

1) Take a deep breath

No - don't literally take a deep breath unless you need one!

But, listen up:

Without a doubt, the previous season has been a mix of highs and lows

Like any normal person, we have to take some time to process 'what just happened'

I invite you to take just 5 minutes to think through the previous year

Just think through the months and see what comes up for you

Here are a few questions to consider, but don't feel you have to answer all of them:

What has gone well?  Better than you expected?

What has gone poorly?  Worse than you expected?

What is the greatest area that 'needs improvement' for next year?

What is the...

Continue Reading...

Choir Warmups #11: Vocal Warm Ups for Choir (Mind Warmup)

In this blog post, I am going to teach you one of my top Choir Warm Ups.

This is called the Mind warm up and it is a good one for waking people up!

This choir warm up will help your choir:

1) Use their brains in order to "Wake up" and get focused

 To do this warm up with your choir is very simple.  All you have to do is:

1) Watch the following video

2) Download the Essential Choir Warm Ups cheat sheet

3) Try this warmup with your choir the next time you see them!

4) Observe the results.  You will probably notice your choir enjoys the challenge of this one.  It will help them to get focused and get 'thinking' and prepared for rehearsal. These warmups are basically guaranteed to work!

Click below to watch the video:

 Ok, great job!

Now you have a great warmup to try with your choir!

The next step is to get my Essential Choir Warm Ups cheat sheet so you can keep track of the warmups we learn.

Here's a link to the ...

Continue Reading...

Choir Warmups #10: Vocal Warm Ups for Choir (Intonation Warmup)

In this blog post, I am going to teach you one of my top Choir Warm Ups.

This is called the Intonation Warm Up and it is helpful to helping your choir sound their best...

Now, this is more of an advanced warm up - so don't use this one with a beginner choir!

You will need a choir that can sing all 4 parts - SATB

Now, this warm up will help your choir members to tune with each other.

 

To do this warm up with your choir is very simple.  All you have to do is:

1) Watch the following video

2) Download the Essential Choir Warm Ups cheat sheet

3) Try this warmup with your choir the next time you see them!

4) Observe the results.  You will notice an immediate positive difference if you do it right.  Notice how your choir starts listening to one another more carefully.  These warmups are basically guaranteed to work!

Click below to watch the video:

 Ok, great job!

Now you have a great warmup to try with your choir!

The...

Continue Reading...

Choir Warmups #9: Vocal Warm Ups for Choir (Vocal Sigh/Siren)

In this blog post, I am going to teach you one of my top Choir Warm Ups.

This is called the Vocal Sigh/Siren and it is essential to helping your choir sound their best...

 This warm up is great for helping you figure out how warmed up your voice is.

For example, if you sing this warm up before you have sung anything else, you'll probably notice your voice feels a little tight (and not loose...)

As you continue to warm up with various exercises, your voice will get more and more loose.

This is something you can teach your singers:

Tell them that the voice needs time to warm up, and this exercise can help everyone to feel how warmed up they are.

I also like this exercise because it goes through the whole voice.  By doing the exercise, you can continue to warm up the rest of the voice!

To do this warm up with your choir is very simple.  All you have to do is:

1) Watch the following video

2) Download the Essential Choir Warm Ups...

Continue Reading...

Choir Warmups #8: Vocal Warm Ups for Choir (Diction Warm up)

In this blog post, I am going to teach you one of my top Choir Warm Ups.

This is called the Diction Warm Up and it is essential to helping your choir sound their best...

This choir warm up focuses on getting clarity with words and diction.

Basically, your choir needs to learn how to express their consonants clearly and efficiently.

In previous warmups, we focused on vowels like "Vee" and "Ah", but this warm up is more about the consonants...

To do this warm up with your choir is very simple.  All you have to do is:

1) Watch the following video

2) Download the Essential Choir Warm Ups cheat sheet

3) Try this warmup with your choir the next time you see them!

4) Observe the results.  You will notice an immediate positive difference if you do it right.  Notice how your choir might annunciate the words more clearly since they are more focused on diction.  These warmups are basically guaranteed to work!

Click below to...

Continue Reading...

Choir Warmups #7: Vocal Warm Ups for Choir ("How High" Arpeggio)

In this blog post, I am going to teach you one of my top Choir Warm Ups.

This is called the "How High Is the Sky" warm up and it is essential to helping your choir sound their best...

This choir warm up will help your choir warm up a big section of their voice quickly.  This is an efficient warm up because it covers a lot of vocal ground quickly.

To do this warm up with your choir is very simple.  All you have to do is:

1) Watch the following video

2) Download the Essential Choir Warm Ups cheat sheet

3) Try this warmup with your choir the next time you see them!

4) Observe the results.  You will notice an immediate positive difference if you do it right.  Notice how your choir is sounding more warmed up. Their voices have covered a lot of ground and it will show when you go to sing your regular music.  These warmups are basically guaranteed to work!

Click below to watch the video:

.

 Ok, great job!

Now you have a...

Continue Reading...

Choir Warmups #6: Vocal Warm Ups for Choir ("Vee Ah")

In this blog post, I am going to teach you one of my top Choir Warm Ups.

This is called the "Vee Ah" warm up and it is essential to helping your choir sound their best...

This choir warm up will help your choir:

1) Match the vowels "ee" and "ah"

2) Warm-up their voice (duh!)

3) Continue to get the air flow moving

 To do this warm up with your choir is very simple.  All you have to do is:

1) Watch the following video

2) Download the Essential Choir Warm Ups cheat sheet

3) Try this warmup with your choir the next time you see them!

4) Observe the results.  You will notice an immediate positive difference if you do it right.  Notice how your choir will start to listen to each other more in order to match vowels.  These warmups are basically guaranteed to work!

Click below to watch the video:

 

Ok, great job!

Now you have a great warmup to try with your choir!

The next step is to get my Essential Choir Warm...

Continue Reading...

Choir Warmups #5: Vocal Warm Ups for Choir (Mee Meh Mah..)

In this blog post, I am going to teach you one of my top Choir Warm Ups. 

This is called the "Mee Meh Mah" warm up and it is essential to helping your choir sound their best... 

This choir warm up will help your choir: 

1) Match vowels "e, eh, ah, oh, oo"

2) Listen closely for matching of vowels (ear training)

3) Listen closely for matching of pitch (intonation)

4) Become vocally warmed up

Before I started doing this warmup with my choir, I found that they were: 

1) Not aware of different vowels that people are singing

2) Not aware of intonation issues, such as sinking pitch, during descending passages

That's why I started to use the "Mee Meh Mah" warm up! 

To do this warm up with your choir is very simple.  All you have to do is: 

1) Watch the following video 

2) Download the Essential Choir Warm Ups cheat sheet 

3) Try this warmup with your choir the next time you see them!...

Continue Reading...

Choir Warmups #4: Vocal Warm Ups for Choir (Timed Breathing)

In this blog post, I am going to teach you one of my top Choir Warm Ups.

This is called Timed Breathing and it is essential to helping your choir sound their best...

This choir warm up will help your choir:

1) Warm Up the breath support muscles

2) Line up entrances and cutoffs together

3) Focus their mind so they are ready to pay attention

4) Become physically engaged as a precursor to singing - after all, singing is very physical!

Before I started doing this warmup with my choir, I found that they were:

1) Not coming in or leaving notes together

2) Not warmed up well enough to sing with a free and healthy tone

That's why I started to use the Timed Breathing Warm Up!

To do this warm up with your choir is very simple.  All you have to do is:

1) Watch the following video

2) Download the Essential Choir Warm Ups cheat sheet

3) Try this warmup with your choir the next time you see them!

4) Observe the results.  You will notice...

Continue Reading...
1 2
Close

50% Complete

Two Step

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.