Introduction

Like anything worth doing, choral singing requires attention, diligence, commitment, and love. New choral singers are sometimes overwhelmed by how much they have to learn and remember – frequently, things that veteran singers appear to understand (and recall) instinctively.

They don’t, of course. They’ve just heard the same things repeatedly until they do them automatically (well, most of the time, anyway). To help make the experience of choral singing less intimidating and more enjoyable, I’ve compiled some of the more useful bits and pieces I’ve come across in 20 years as a choral singer and conductor.

Entries below that are identified [RLS] come from Robert Shaw, [FW] from Fred Waring, [JFW] from John Finley Williamson, [HVP] from Herbert Pate, [JJ] from James Jordan, [HW] from Herbert Witherspoon, and [FL] from Francesco Lamperti.

Before anything else and after everything else, choral singing is about joy – joy found, joy shared, joy communicated to the audience. I hope what follows helps to increase yours.

– Sean Boulware