Holy Week is one of the most beautiful, meaningful and exhausting weeks in the entire church year.

From Palm Sunday through Easter, it’s a marathon of liturgies, rehearsals, psalms and even last-minute changes.

Even the most seasoned choir directors and singers can feel overwhelmed by it all

To be successful for our congregation, we have to be on our "A" game by being practical and strategic 

Before we get started, I always offer a huge discount on my training courses this week only.  Here are the links if these courses might help you out:

How to Sight Read Music  (60% off, no code needed)

Choir Essentials for Choir Directors (50% off with code HappyEaster)

Advanced Vocal Technique for Singers  (50% off with code HappyEaster)

Fearless Voice Training (50% off with code HappyEaster)

How to Conduct Course (25% off, no code needed)

                                 ********Let’s get started********

1) Become a nerve-less leader

Nervous energy has a nasty way of reinforci...

Does your choir struggle with achieving a good blend?

Do you struggle with some voices "sticking out" while others you can't hear at all?

In this article, I want to give you my BEST strategies for fixing choir blend issues

I don't want to waste your time, but before we start, I want to tell you that I am offering my exclusive Choir Essentials Training Program with a massive bonus!

Choir Essentials is an online training program which gives you the skills of professional choir directors so that you can get your choir sounding great

For every order before Ash Wednesday 2025, I am offering free access to my "How to Sight Read Music" online course  for your entire choir.

All you need to do is put in your order here before Ash Wednesday, and you can massively improve your choir

The singers who take my course "How to Sight Read Music" will first learn the basics of reading music - staff, notes, steps, skips.

After that, they will learn how to use the solfege system to understand music...

Does Ash Wednesday always seem to sneak up on you?

Are you ready for Easter??

Are you feeling a little ping of anxiety just thinking about it??

Nearly ever year I have felt Ash Wednesday sneaks up SO quickly!

Although part of me is excited for the Lenten season, my music director brain screams "Oh no!!!!!" and then "Here we goooo!!"

Without a doubt, this is the busiest season for church music directors

If you are having this feeling, I want to give you a few tips to make this your best lenten season ever (courtesy to Matthew Kelly for the phrase!)

1) Strategic Planning & Communication

One of the reasons the season is challenging is because there is SOO much music

Not only that, but our singers can come with a lot of questions and anxiety around the busier season

They ask:

"What are we doing for Easter", "Are we singing Good Friday?", "Is this piece during communion or offertory?"

And state:

"We don't know this Gloria" (you know the one we did 2 years ago!)

You know, with ...

Does Ash Wednesday always seem to sneak up on you?

Are you ready for Easter??

Are you feeling a little ping of anxiety just thinking about it??

Nearly ever year I have felt Ash Wednesday sneaks up SO quickly!

Although part of me is excited for the Lenten season, my music director brain screams "Oh no!!!!!" and then "Here we goooo!!"

Without a doubt, this is the busiest season for church music directors

If you are having this feeling, I want to give you a few tips to make this your best lenten season ever (courtesy to Matthew Kelly for the phrase!)

1) Strategic Planning & Communication

One of the reasons the season is challenging is because there is SOO much music

Not only that, but our singers can come with a lot of questions and anxiety around the busier season

They ask:

"What are we doing for Easter", "Are we singing Good Friday?", "Is this piece during communion or offertory?"

And state:

"We don't know this Gloria" (you know the one we did 2 years ago!)

You know, with ...

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 work makes such a big difference fo...

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 greatest area of growth for...

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 playlist where I demonstrate all of the warmups I use with m...

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 next step is to get my Essential Choir Warm Ups cheat she...

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 cheat sheet

3) Try this warmup with your choir the...

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 watch the video:

 Ok, great job!

Now you have a great warm...