Community Choir

Lessons

1. Getting in the Room

   We meet, we make some noise together, and we figure out where your voice sits before we ask it to do anything hard.

   • •What we're doing here and why no audition15 min
   • •Your first warm-up: humming before talking20 min
   • •Finding your section, roughly, for now25 min
   • •The one rule: sing so you can hear the person next to you20 min
2. Warming Up for Real

   Warm-ups aren't stalling, they're the difference between a good Thursday and a hoarse Tuesday, so we spend real time here.

   • •Why we warm up at 4,600 feet with dry air15 min
   • •Breathing low and breathing out loud together20 min
   • •Sirens, lip trills, and the stuff that feels silly20 min
   • •Bright vowels and why they carry20 min
3. Learning Your Part by Ear

   No sheet music required, I'll teach the notes by pattern and repetition until they live in your ears.

   • •Call and response: how we'll actually learn notes25 min
   • •Chunking a hard passage into small pieces25 min
   • •When your part crosses another and your ear panics20 min
   • •A wrong note sung loud beats a right note sung scared15 min
   • •Learn it in your ears now, drop the paper later20 min
4. Singing Together

   Now the sections meet and we work on the thing most choirs get backwards, which is blend over volume.

   • •Two parts at once without losing your own25 min
   • •Blend: the strainer is usually the problem20 min
   • •Entrances, and why you're rushing not late25 min
   • •Cutoffs, holds, and the difference nobody asked about15 min
   • •Dynamics: getting loud and soft on purpose20 min
5. Polishing the Piece

   We take what we've got and clean it up, phrase by phrase, until it sounds like we meant it.

   • •Diction that doesn't turn mushy in a group20 min
   • •Phrasing: where the sentence breathes20 min
   • •Memorizing late, once it's already in your ears20 min
   • •Full run-throughs and what they teach us25 min
6. The Performance

   A small end-of-session performance, nerves and all, and how we get there in one piece.

   • •Nerves: singing fine outside, freezing inside20 min
   • •Dress run and getting everyone there early25 min
   • •Performance night20 min
   • •After: what worked and where we go from here15 min

Class discussion