Latest Blog Posts
Self-Selected Choir vs Non-Auditioned Choir: 12 BIG DIFFERENCES!
There is a BIG DIFFERENCE between a self-selected choir and a traditional non-auditioned choir. Both ensembles are only as good as it’s strongest singers. So where are your strongest singers? Are they in a select group instead? Is your “y’all come” choir stripped of all talent? Is it plagued by apathy? This blog post offers a different approach […]
How to Commission a New Piece for Your Choir (It’s easier than you might think!) – Part 2
By D. Geoffrey Bell Today’s post is part 2 of a two-part post. Part 1 was published on Tuesday, March 15. SUCCESSFUL COMMISSIONING EXPERIENCES To broaden and deepen my understanding beyond my own personal experiences, I asked a selection of fellow composers and conductors to give me their thoughts about the key elements to successful […]
Intentions Matter with Emily Williams Burch
A Podcast Exchange! Emily Williams Burch is back. What makes us tick? Can we be collegial without knowing each other? What was it like for me to traipse around uninvited at Southern Region ACDA? Why do in person conventions matter so much? These and many more questions answered! A candid and jam-packed conversation between podcast […]
Choral Potpourri/Choral Ethics: Ignore the Dependable at Your Peril
“Professionalism in art has this difficulty: To be professional is to be dependable, to be dependable is to be predictable, and predictability is esthetically boring – an anti-virtue in a field where we hope to be astonished and startled and at some deep level refreshed.” John Updike Maude* began last fall’s concert cycle the way […]
Together in Music…Collaboration tips and “squashing the why (not)!”
Some of the most common FAQs presented to the ACDA Advocacy and Collaboration Committee include “how do I find someone to collaborate with” and “how do we make it work?” So often, finding that “perfect” partnership is the barrier in and of itself (hint: there is no such thing as “perfect” but we’ll get to […]
How to Commission a New Piece for Your Choir (It’s easier than you might think!) – Part I
By D. Geoffrey Bell There are many reasons to commission a new composition for your choir. You may already be planning for an upcoming special occasion, anniversary or celebration. You may be thinking about raising your choir’s public profile, taking them to the next level. You may be looking for a new way to motivate […]
Democratic Approaches for the Choral Ensemble
ChorTeach is ACDA’s quarterly online publication, designed for those who work with singers of all levels but specifically K-12 and community choirs. A full annotated ChorTeach index is available online at acda.org/publications/chorteach. Over 160 articles are organized into seventeen categories. For more information, email or visit acda.org/chorteach. Following is an excerpt from an article in the current […]
The Fastest “Tone-Deaf Quiz” You’ve Ever Given!
My latest blog post offers a simple approach for ensuring your struggling singers are not tone-deaf. This 2 minute “tone-deaf” quiz will not only help you to quickly assess if your struggling singers could actually be tone-deaf, it will help you to figure out if their ear is even the problem at all. You can give this quiz […]
“Real Men” Sing? With Dr. Braeden Ayres
Dr. Braeden Ayres is a teacher, conductor and composer with a passion point related to concepts of masculinity in choral music. What stereotypes are we stuck too, what challenges to we face when discussing it, and what are the best ways to engage young adolescent boys in our school choral programs? We discussed some of the findings from […]
Choral Potpourri/Choral Ethics: Wasting Time
“Time is the most valuable thing a man can spend.” Theophrastus A few weeks ago, I wrote about a problem ChoralNetter Trudy* was having at her church job. Everyone in this congregation was tardy, from the clergy to the choir to some members of the congregation for services. She was thinking about resigning but had […]