Maybe you got your class registrations for next year and thought, "Maybe I should do some recruiting!" But all of your time and energy didn't produce the results you wanted, resulting only in stress and frustration. In Episode 101 of the podcast, I'm sharing the audio from my recent video over on YouTube (Yes, I have a YouTube channel!) where I discuss five of the common reasons why your recruiting efforts aren't working as well as you'd like. At the end of the video, I also shar...
May 2, 2024
20 min
It seems like just yesterday, I uploaded the first episode of the Choir Director Corner Podcast, not knowing where the road might take me. And here we are, at 100 episodes! In Episode 100, I'm going back into the podcast archives and sharing with you ten of top 10 episodes of the podcast. Not only are these some of the most downloaded episodes, but they are also episodes that cover topics that are often discussed inside of our CDC Community. If you are new to the podcast, ...
Apr 5, 2024
19 min
The question came from one of the members of our CDC Community Membership: "How, or where, do I start in teaching music literacy to my choir, when almost all of my singers are beginners when it comes to sightreading?" Our elementary general music colleagues know--it's all about starting with "sound before sight"! We need to give our singers an aural vocabulary to work from before we give them tools and strategies to start tackling music notation. In my teaching I've developed a 5...
Mar 28, 2024
39 min
As choir directors, we often find our teaching centered in the "Performing" set of the National Music Standards--it can be difficult to find ways to incorporate the "Responding" and "Connecting" sections of the standards. In Episode 98 of the podcast, I share with you how I use my Choir March Madness Listening Project to cover some of these "harder to reach" standards--it's a project you can use in a variety of ways to get your singers analyzing and discussing choral music! And even be...
Mar 18, 2024
26 min
After several days off due to snow and dangerous wind chills, I knew it was going to be a challenge to get my singers back into our routine. As they started coming into the room, I thought to myself: "I'm going to have to go all Ted Lasso on these guys today!" And it got me thinking--there are lots of lessons that we as choir directors can learn from Ted Lasso. In Episode 97 of the podcast, I discuss seven of the lessons that we can take from Ted to build community and move our ...
Jan 20, 2024
26 min
The social post said, in so many words--"My Choir is SO Unmotivated!" And this is obviously a widespread problem, because the responses were flying fast and furious, all from choir directors with the same problem! But most of the responses never dealt with the real question, which is WHY our singers are so unmotivated. Pinpointing the root cause is the first step to coming up with potential solutions to combat the issue. This is an issue that I have dealt with myself as well, and...
Dec 19, 2023
29 min
Diving into a choral score is a big process, but also one that is critical in bringing the music we have before us to life. Once we have tackled our score study, a new challenge emerges–how does the work we’ve done in preparing the score show up in our rehearsal process? In Episode 95 of the podcast, I’m sharing with you some tips for how choir directors can connect the dots between the in-depth analysis of a choral score and the practical, and creative, aspects of rehearsal planning, ...
Dec 9, 2023
23 min
There’s been a lot in the news about AI recently, and more specifically, with ChatGPT. I myself have used ChatGPT for a number of things, for a number of purposes–usually as an assistant to bounce ideas off of, and to brainstorm ideas when my brain is fried. It certainly can be helpful in saving me time. But there are still a lot of issues with it--the information often isn't accurate, you don't know where the information is coming from, and it doesn't always apply directly ...
Dec 2, 2023
19 min
As choir directors, we always have to be one step ahead. Which means that even though it's fall outside, it's time to start planning for those much-anticipated winter choral concerts! In Episode 93 of the podcast, I share with you five hand-picked winter themed choir pieces, all of which would be great additions to your winter concert. Get set to introduce new repertoire to your choir, irrespective of whether it's an upper elementary, middle school, high school or an adult communi...
Nov 8, 2023
16 min
One of the questions I most often get from choir directors is, "My singers are so chatty--how do I get them to stop talking?" Granted, I'm not someone that expects total silence in my rehearsal. But at the same time, in order for there to be as few distractions as possible, and have rehearsal be as productive as possible, it's a good idea to limit any unnecessary chatting by our singers. So in Episode 92 of the podcast, I'm sharing 11 proven strategies that will not only r...
Oct 20, 2023
42 min
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