The Choir Director Corner Podcast

I read an interesting article recently on "The Science of Learning", which asked some psychology teachers about their best teaching strategies.  I thought it was a fantastic article, so in this episode of the podcast, I'm sharing with you 5 of the strategies from the article that you can quickly incorporate into your teaching.  Ready to dive into more topics related to your work as...

There's been a LOT of things going on lately, and one of the things we've been involved in recently was the Iowa All-State Chorus.  This year, it was Dr. Edith Copley leading the choir, and she was AMAZING!  Throughout the weekend, she shared a number of rehearsal concepts with the singers that are pretty much universal, no matter what it is that you are singing.  These nuggets of rehear...

Former Secretary of State Colin Powell has been recognized by many for his tremendous leadership skills.  After his recent passing, there were a number of stories detailing his service and leadership, with one of those stories listing his 13 rules of leadership. In Episode 49 of the podcast, I share with you his 13 rules of leadership, and discuss how his rules might apply to us as choir directors...

Do your singers like Halloween?  My singers don't just LOVE Halloween, they are CRAZY about it!  So this year, I wanted to come up with an activity that combined music along with their love of Halloween.  In this episode, I will discuss the activity--Halloween Music Jeopardy--the steps I took in putting everything together, and how it went with my choirs (hint--I'll DEFINITELY be doing i...

We were fortunate to recently have our Fall Choir Concert--our first "normal" choir concert, in many, many months!  In today's episode of the podcast, I'm sharing with you some of my observations from our concert, as well as some things that my singers shared following the concert.  Whether you aren't quite back to having concerts yet, or you've got your first concert...

Think back to your college days--remember Edwin Gordon?  The guy that came up with Music Learning Theory?  Well, in case you missed it (or blocked it out), his work has formed much of the processes and strategies that we use to help our singers learn music.  And much of his work focused on the concept of audiation. In Episode 46 of the podcast, I share with you twelve strategies that I have used t...

You've heard of the phrase, "You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make them drink".  But when you can't get your choir to stop dragging, it feels like you are pulling the horse by the tail, fighting tooth and nail to get your singers to keep up! I feel your pain, my friends!  So, in today's episode of the podcast, I share twelve strategies that I have used suc...

One question I often get is how to vocally place singers into their sections.  If you’ve worked with the singers previously, you’ve got a pretty good idea of what part they should be singing.  But what if the singers are brand new to you? Or their voice has changed since the last time you heard them?  And how do you do it so it doesn’t take forever, and it also doesn’t waste valuable rehearsal tim...

One of our objectives as choir directors is to teach our singers the basics of music theory, because that will help them to be more independent musicians.  Another objective is to find ways of doing individual assessment in our choirs, without spending all of our waking hours grading assignments! Well, in today’s episode of the podcast, I share with you the resource that I use to accomplish ALL of...

I recently asked choir directors a question online.  I expected a few answers, but instead, social media BLEW UP!  In today’s episode of the podcast, I will share with you the question I asked, some of the responses, and an opportunity for you to get your questions answered, tools and resources to help you thrive in your life as a choir director. Got a challenge currently in your teaching? I'...

You’ve probably heard the saying, “Plan Your Work, and Work Your Plan”.  That quote applies to a lot of things, and it definitely applies to the life of a choir director!  There is so much planning related to our jobs, none more important than planning rehearsals. I searched for years for a resource that would efficiently and productively help me plan and organize my rehearsals.  I finally got tir...

The beginning of the school year is fast approaching (for some it’s already started!) and there are SO many things to do.  There are rooms to arrange, documents to prepare, music to organize, and before you know it, the first day of rehearsal arrives.  I know the members of our Choir Director Corner Community Membership were in planning mode, because I had multiple members ask me this past week, “...

In Episode 39 of the podcast, I’m discussing a topic that I’ve seen a lot of questions on lately, and that’s recruiting .  COVID really did a number on the arts, and a lot of choir directors are dealing with record-low numbers of singers in their programs.  In order to help you be as successful as possible in your recruiting efforts, I am busting the 10 myths about recruiting singers to your choir...

Out of all the topics that I get questions on from our CDC Community Membership members, the topic that gets discussed the most is how to find and select repertoire. When I look back at my most successful concerts, and I compare how I have selected repertoire from concert to concert, there are some common themes that appear. In Episode 38 of the podcast, I break those common themes down into 5 con...

I had a question recently from one of our CDC Community Membership members about my philosophy on warm-ups--my approach to warm-ups, and what I wanted my warm-ups to accomplish for each rehearsal.  Through our discussion, we came up with a list, and I’m sharing that list with you today--Nine Things Your Choir Warm-ups Should Do Each and Every Rehearsal.  I hope this list can be valuable to you as...

As we get closer to the start of the school year, I see more and more questions from choir directors about finding repertoire to fit a specific theme.  They're frustrated, stressed out and at their wit's end, trying to find something that fits their concert theme.  Here's the answer (possible unpopular opinion): You don’t need a concert theme! In today’s episode of the podcast, I di...

One of the biggest challenges that choir directors face is finding and selecting repertoire for their choirs.  Finding and selecting repertoire can be soooooo frustrating, and so incredibly time-consuming.  Which is why I created a resource to help you do just that--the CDC Choir Repertoire Lists .  And in today’s episode of the podcast, I will discuss seven reasons the CDC Choir Repertoire Lists...

One of the biggest challenges for choir directors is warm-ups.  Finding warm-ups, what warm-ups to use, selecting warm-ups, and then how to actually do warm-ups in rehearsal. I’ve also heard from some choir directors that they wish that choir warm-ups were just “done for them”.  For some people, it’s that they aren’t confident singers and they aren’t comfortable serving as a vocal model or teachin...

Yes, we are thankfully in full-on summer vacation mode!  But, that doesn't mean we can't start thinking about next fall and the new ideas/strategies/techniques that you want to incorporate into your teaching next year. Unfortunately, there are lots of things that can get in the way of our plans to bring a better experience to our singers.  Sometimes those things are related to our subjec...

One of the ways that you can inject energy and excitement into your rehearsal process is through the use of special projects.  A number of years back at my previous school, the school had provided every student with an iPad.  With this new technology at our fingertips, I wanted to come up with some way that my singers could utilize their iPads to engage with our music in a different way.  That’s w...

Whether you just finished holding auditions for your choir, or you’ve got them coming up in the near future, it’s ALWAYS a good time to review your audition process.  What do your choir auditions really tell you?  How could you make them more effective, as well as more efficient? Well, in today’s episode of the podcast, I discuss the ten essential elements to holding choir auditions.  These are th...

Whenever it gets to be concert season, I see a LOT of posts from directors talking about two things that can easily be thorns in our sides: 1) concert rubrics, and 2) make-up assignments.  In today’s episode of the podcast, I discuss what these things look like for me in a typical year, and where you can get copies of the rubrics that I use so that your concerts are assessing the right learning ob...

I’ve been hinting on the past few episodes of the podcast about an announcement about a new resource for choir directors, and today's the day!  In this bonus episode I share with you my vision for a new collaborative, online community for choir directors.  A community where choir directors can dive deep and have meaningful conversations with like-minded choir directors, free from the distract...

In this episode the podcast, I’m finishing off our series on end-of-the-year topics, and sharing with you my "End of the Year To-Do List" for choir directors.  I know the end of the year can get super busy, but if you can find some spare time to tackle these 10 things, it will give you a huge boost in not only finishing the year off strong, but also for when the new school year rolls aro...

I’m continuing our series on end-of-the-year topics, and in this episode I’m talking about creating a final assessment for your choir.  In my previous position, ALL teachers at my school were required to come up with a written semester final.  So I decided that if I was going to give a written final, I wanted to create something that was going to be an effective assessment of what students know an...