Rehearsals

Newcomers' Tips for rehearsals

Here are our top tips for making the most out of your rehearsals 

Know your music

Knowing the music is fundamental to rehearsal, so try and learn your parts as soon as possible. This means you can get out of your sheet music and into the rehearsal.

Unfortunately there is no replacement for learning at home, but you can find a method that has been has been honed and developed by our members in the Personal Development Section.

Listen and focus

When the Music and Performance Teams are speaking, keep your ears and your minds open. There is a lot of work done behind the scenes on what we will focus on, so trust that they know what they’re doing! Please avoid asking open questions or making general comments in the middle of rehearsal: we only have so many hours to be together each week, and we’ve found that focusing on the rehearsal is the best use of our time. If you have any questions, please speak to your section lead on slack or during the breaks, who will ask the question to the right team on your behalf.

Make the most of breaks

Rehearsals naturally take effort. We know this, so we make sure to give you breaks for recharging and friendships.  Have some water,  have a biscuit, rest your body, make some friends, sing some tags (not always in that order).

Take time out if you need it

If you feel yourself getting stressed, caught up, experiencing vocal pain or anything that isn’t good, take some time for yourself. It’s totally okay to step out and have a listen to the chorus, shake yourself out and reset; we are all human! We get the most out of rehearsal when we’re in the best physical and mental space we can be. 

Structure 

Here is a loose format of how rehearsals are structured, and what is contained within each section. Full detail can be found in the Music Handbook:
docs.google.com/document/d/1R02T9eytN-ijkWD9-9nopxzJElgwVBKAbnnC8pvBKiA/edit 

Individual Mindfulness/Warm Up

This 15 minutes is to get you from where you’re at when you come through the door to where you want to be to start singing in the chorus. Individual members will often have their own warm up routine which is personalised to them. For most of us, this often involves lying down on the floor and doing some mindfulness exercises, stretches/massages, SOVT (semi-occluded vocal tract) exercises and primal sounds.

Members will lead a variety of different optional sessions during these weeks. If you would like to lead a session with the chorus, please contact Simon on Slack.

Vocal Pedagogy: A

After the individual warm-up, Simon will lead group vocal exercises. Often, these exercises have been chosen specifically to help a particular area of vocal technique that needs work. We will use a coffee cup with a hole at the bottom to do semi occluded vocal tract exercises. We will also do exercises with the app TE Tuner (Tonal energy tuner) which allows us to see how well we're singing in tune in real time.  For more information on this, please see the 'personal development' section.

Song Work

This will be when we start work on the particular songs we are looking at for this rehearsal. This could be anything from a particular section of the song, working on the vowels, working on very fine tuning, and anything in between. 

Admin Break

Our chorus exists solely by its members' dedication and work. To this end there are often administrative requirements such as updating attendance for rehearsals, events and gigs; ensuring your voice is heard through answering surveys; money-related tasks and more. We are giving you this time in rehearsal to make sure everything is up to speed with these necessary if less exciting responsibilities.  

Performance 

A key part of singing to an audience is engagement and embodiment of the music and lyrics. In this section our performance team will teach the chorus particular aspects of performance, using tools from dance and drama to build our skills. We will also learn the performance plan for each song, ensuring the chorus is delivering and authentic and unified message to the audience.    

Rep Runs

At the end  of every rehearsal, we perform some songs in our repertoire as if they were being performed to an audience. 

Pub & Social

The go-to post-rehearsal venue is Latymer's Pub, just a 5 minute walk around the corner from St Mary's. Join us for a relaxed catch-up and bonding time with friends. It's in the down-time that the community really happens. 

What to Bring 

There are a number of things we ask you to bring to every rehearsal 

• Ensure you have the app Tonal Energy downloaded on your phone or other device of your choice

• Ensure you have a paper cup with you, preferably with a hole in the bottom of it already!

  • If you can't find a cup, a small straw will suffice!

• Bring something to read your sheet music from - the bigger the better, but a phone will do in a pinch.

• A water bottle to ensure you stay hydrated. 

• An open mind and an eagerness to learn

• If you're on biscuit duty, don't forget to bring biscuits

• If you're not on biscuit duty, don't forget to eat the biscuits

Conduct

There are some important things to remember during a rehearsal. 

• Above all, be kind and courteous. 

• Please warm up before singing, even if arriving late means you have to start rehearsal after everyone else.  Everyone benefits when we're all at our best.

• Don't hum/quietly sing your part if we're working on another part. No matter how quiet you are, it will still be audible.

• Don't talk/hum over the pitch pipe.  

• Keep talking to a minimum throughout rehearsal. This is what the breaks are for!

• Please don't give unsolicited feedback to fellow members.

• Sing tags with all your heart.

The Music Team's requests regarding questions during rehearsal:

• Only Music Team can ask questions during rehearsal (Songs 1-3) This is to ensure we always stay on track and focussed with what we are currently working on

• Any member can ask a ‘Can you clarify?’ question at any time

• Any member can send their question to their Section Leader on Slack - the Section Leader will either ask the question in rehearsal, or answer at a later time when relevant to do so

• There will be moments where coaches directly open up questioning/wanting comments to the whole chorus

• Any member can ask a question during Vocal Pedagogy sessions - especially if a ‘Can you clarify?’ question