Choral Caffeine: Humor in the Choral Rehearsal, Part 2

       Let’s continue our look at the value of humor in our work with a little more from Steven Sieck’s article, “Humor in Choral Rehearsals.”  Today Steven tells us that “Humor frees singers to make mistakes without fear . . . .”

 

       Singers will make mistakes. If you’ve been in a professional choir recording session, you know that professionals also make mistakes. No one wants to make them, and you don’t want toencourage such a practice in the rehearsal. Choirs perform the way they rehearse. But if you “bite off heads” when a mistake occurs, you, and the singers, get a very different rehearsal experience and a different sound. Submission and trepidation in singers create the opposite of what we conductors desire from our singers.

       Choral music is an art form based on the act of giving: giving your voice, your words, and your spirit. I believe singers should feel free to acknowledge a mistake in rehearsals. For example, when the choir works on an especially difficult passage and a number of mistakes occur, I can stop and say “That’s pretty much ready for the CD!” There’s laughter, at first awkward or embarrassed but then relaxed. I can then work efficiently on all the mistakes with no resentment from the singers. You cannot control your singers’ fallibility; however, you can control how you respond to it. In my way of thinking, the use of appropriate humor is the most workable solution to the problem.

 

(To access the full article, simply click the highlighted title. For additional articles on a dazzling array of choral topics, visit  ChorTeach.)