Choral Pedagogy

Over the last 5 weeks of the Semester, I engaged in choral pedagogy masterclasses similar to the wind band ones from earlier. Again this was a space where I felt somewhat comfortable, having been in many choirs throughout school, professionally and in the community. Admittedly I have had very little experience conducting in front of a choir, and I quickly realised that the skillset needed to run an effective rehearsal differs in subtle yet noticeable ways to the concert band conducting I am more familiar with.

In trying to recall the great choral leaders and teachers I have had previously (not least of all Liz Scott) I at first attempted to emulate their teaching styles and infuse some of their warm up practices into my own conducting. I found this effective, but also came to acknowledge that leading a choir requires imparting your own personality and I would need to be vulnerable in order to be most effective. I discovered how much dedication is needed to truly understand the score, the different vocal lines and most importantly the musical expression that I wished to create. 

These masterclasses not only helped with the development of my choral instruction skills, but also in building confidence in modelling strong singing, and even in some piano accompaniment (a skill that requires quite a bit more work…). 

P.S. Shameless plug. I’m in the choir here with Nick Cave back in 2019, somewhere hidden in the back!