Chorus Motivation 101
Our current chorus champion director, Mark Hale talks about tips to motivate your singers.
One of the most difficult challenges we all face as directors is getting our singers to care about the results of our music as much as we do. A large amount of the time we spend in our rehearsals seems to be on repeating fundamental ideas that most of the singers either already know or certainly SHOULD know, as many times as we’ve said it. Motivating the singers to continuously put forth their best effort both during rehearsals and on their own between rehearsals is the most important aspect of our job as directors. To help us uncover some methods for improvement we must consider these points:
The most successful chapters have members who share similar goals, from winning contests to putting on entertaining shows to learning lots of old songs and singing tags most of the night. If the member’s personal goals or ambitions are out of alignment with the organization as a whole he will always be hard to motivate.
Learners tend to fall into three categories: Auditory (tell them what you want), Visual (show them what you want) and Proprioceptive (let them experience it first.) If a singer has trouble getting things to stick it’s because he’s only getting a surface level of understanding. The Auditory learner asks lots of questions to delay real understanding. The Visual learner often simply mimics the example giving the illusion of understanding but it cannot be repeated without the initial example each time. The Proprioceptive learner is the type who wants to sing along with you even when you’re teaching it to them the first time. Unfortunately this behavior gets in the way of real understanding as they are often too easily satisfied. Learn to appeal to a variety of learning styles and you’ll have an easier time motivating them.
One topic we often hear is the lament about how to get our singers to learn their music more quickly. Some tips for improving this are:
Make sure your plan is known with consistent and continuous communication.
Send a weekly note or email to the chorus with all new songs in the pipeline, the current status and when the singers are expected to be off music.
Use friendly peer pressure. On the date when the music is to be memorized have them go to the risers to sing it but allow no music for anyone but guests. While some of them might fumble through it (not a fun experience) you can bet they’ll spend outside time getting up to speed for next time. Anyone who insists on using music can sit in the seats and sing along while the rest of the chorus rehearses.
Never start a piece of music until the chorus has had the music AND a learning track for at least a week. Forcing them to sight-read is cumbersome and a waste of valuable chorus time. One thing that I’ve learned over the years is that the higher the quality the learning track is the faster and more accurately they’ll learn the song.
Make the transition from learning mode to performance mode as quickly as possible.
Choose music that your chorus wants to sing! This seems obvious but so often we get caught up in doing what WE want that we lose sight of whether they are enjoying it as well. Trust me, if the chorus doesn’t like a song you’ve introduced—you’ll know!
I’ve long been a student of great directors and have found them all to have several common characteristics, but most notably is their use of a soap box. By this I’m metaphorically referring to the wealth of little upbeat words, phrases or stories they employ to motivate their singers. They use them constantly, like Batman’s utility belt, they’ve got something for every occasion. We can get so bogged down in trying to fix things…to make them “right”…that we lose sight of the fact that often the problem is not in the “how” but in the “why.” Develop a repertoire of these expressions or quips that caters to different personalities.
Learning to motivate any group to achieve common goals is truly an art and it requires continuous study. If you get the opportunity to observe other successful directors pay as much attention to how they say as to what they say. Hear their tone of voice, observe their eye contact, body language and level of energy. Notice the overall positive attitude and enthusiasm they exude. It may be hard for you to believe sometimes but pleasing the director is usually very important to the membership. And very rarely is someone’s main objective to make you miserable. Good music and effective motivation go hand-in-hand so study up on human behavior you’ll hear how well the chorus responds.
contents copyright of the author and copyright (c) 7/30/2010
Barbershop Harmony Society
7930 Sheridan Road
Kenosha, WI 53143
800-876-SING | 262-653-8440 | fax 262-653-4048