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, these are great episodes to start with!  And if you are a longtime listener, these are episodes th ..read more

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-stage process to get my singers from sound to sight, and I'm sharing that process with you in Episode ..read more

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 better news--if you want to do your own Choir March Madness Listening Project, the work is ALL DONE FOR Y ..read more

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 choir programs forward! Ted Lasso is just one of the "roles" that we can play when it comes to motivat ..read more

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 in Episode 96 of the podcast, I'm sharing with you the questions that I ask to help myself analyze the ..read more

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, ensuring every rehearsal is not only productive and purposeful, but also engaging! Looking for an onli ..read more

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 to everything we do as choir directors. But I have good news!  In Episode 94 of the podcast, I’m ..read more

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 community choir! And if after listening you are still looking for more winter repertoire ideas, our recent Monthly ..read more

I've had choir directors ask about a "Beginning of the Year To-Do List", but our jobs as directors can differ greatly, just because of the particular school district or organization we work for.  However, I do believe there are some universal key elements that help us to give ourselves, and our singers, the best possible chance to be successful. In today's episode of the podcast, I'm focusing on 11 key elements to consider at the start of your choir year.  If you haven't incorporated any of these into your program, that's okay!  There's never a bad time to start making these el ..read more

In order to market your choir program to prospective singers, you need to get the heart of what motivates singers to join your program, as well as the obstacles that prevent them from joining your program. When you talk to prospective singers about why they haven't yet joined your program, you'll hear a lot of different reasons--we call these objections.  Once you have a better understanding of what those objections might be, you can then go about addressing them, and helping prospective singers overcome them. One great way that you can address some of the objections that prospective si ..read more