Do you send out score marking instructions to your singers? Many conductors have a set of markings that they want every singer to have in their score: cutoffs, changes to rhythm or diction, accents and dynamic changes, or paticular tempi to observe. Rather than send those on a sheet of paper, or take time in […]
Turn your Mac into a Sheet Music Database
Tired of the piles of music that you collect after a reading session? Wish you could remember where to find a particular motet or chant? It sometimes seems like devising a personal system for organizing your scores and octavos is a rite of passage for choral directors, and there are myriad strategies and tools available. […]
Tuning the Room (and your ears)
(commons.wikimedia.org) When setting up for the concert, we are often faced with trying to set up microphones and a sound system as well as the risers or stage. You flip the switch on the board, and either the high squeal or low rumble of feedback fills the room. What is wrong? Often, whether due […]
Choose Your Tool Wisely: Mics, Directions and Reading the Poles
I attended a concert recently from a large regional choir. As often happens with large ensembles and performance halls, a single solo mic was brought down front for one piece. When it came time for the soloist, though, it was not one singer that approached the mic but a trio. Even before the trio sung […]
Advertising, Social Media and Streamlining
(fredcavazza.net via Flickr) Do you use social media outlets to advertise your events? You may even have an instagram to promote your business. This can be especially effective when you have used an instagram bot to help raise the number of instagram followers that you have. It’s a simple goal to advertise our concerts and […]
Use Word Clouds to Show Important Text
(Word Cloud of Beatles’ singles: LEOL30,Flickr.com) Whether implicitly or explicitly, the pieces that we select for our concerts tell a story and convey meaning. As conductors, choosing areas of text to emphasize or using specific diction can be part of our toolkit to communicate our interpretation of the piece. That interpretation has to be […]