Church Choir

“To laugh often and much; to win the respect of the intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty; to find the beauty in others; to leave the world a bit better whether by a healthy child, a garden […]

“Nothing is less important than which fork you use. Etiquette is the science of living. It embraces everything. It is ethics. It is honor.” Emily Post I have had two ChoralNetters contact me in the last month about two different Choral Ethics dilemmas. Both leave me scratching my head. Perhaps you can help; maybe you’ll […]

“Nothing is a greater impediment to being on good terms with others than being ill at ease with yourself.” Honore de Balzac We are almost finished with another Lenten, Holy Week and Easter season. Church musicians are rounding the corner, heading toward the end of the finish line of their busiest six weeks, exhausted and […]

“There is no harm in repeating a good thing.” Plato Last week, I wrote about recently getting emails concerning three problems I know I have addressed before in this Blog. I wrote about one of those re-occurring problems—tardiness. This week, we will tackle the other two. Absences  Like the tardiness issues from last week, if […]

“There is no harm in repeating a good thing.” Plato I have been regularly writing the Choral Potpourri/Choral Ethics ChoralNet Blog since the fall of 2015. During the last two and a half years, I have received one or two emails every week. There are times which are busier than others, but the emails are […]

“If time be of all things the most precious, wasting time must be the greatest prodigality.” Benjamin Franklin I am ticked this week for a number of reasons. My chamber choir is in the midst of their spring audition cycle and I have had two singers who wanted to audition for my choir blow me […]

ChorTeach is ACDA’s quarterly publication for choral conductors and teachers at all levels. It is published online, and each issue contains four practical articles. If you are not already a member of ACDA, you can join as an Associate for $45 per year and receive access to ChorTeach and the Choral Journal online. Last year I created an annotated ChorTeach index (found […]

Sometimes choral pieces look much more difficult at first glance than they really are.  The voicing might look daunting (SSAA, TTBB) or maybe the spread of parts across the page is intimidating.  But sometimes a piece can actually be much more accessible than you initially think.  This week’s post will look at two pieces for […]

  “The secret of life is honesty and fair dealing. If you can fake that, you’ve got it made.” Groucho Marx We all have people in our lives who claim to be honest. They crow about it, especially if they have said something unkind in the name of honesty. They tell us, if being honest […]

“As a child I loved ghost stories.” Rebecca Hall The Choral Ethics Cyber-Mailbag is filled to overflowing. Sit back for the first blog in a long series of Choral Ethics blogs about all sorts of problems. This fall, we deal with some newish Choral Ethics concerns as well as some familiar to everyone. Today’s Choral […]