How to Start a Church Choir

Church Music

Sep 19

One year, I was asked to start an intergenerational choir (youth and adult) at a church.

The church had a strong children's choir program (through 6th grade) and a good-sized adult choir (30-40).

This choir was a short, 8-week session designed for people who love to sing—no prior experience necessary. We met once a week for an hour, and at the end of the eight weeks, we combined with the adult and children's choirs to sing an anthem in worship.

I created this group for people who liked to sing but felt uncomfortable jumping right into the adult choir, those who couldn’t make Wednesday night rehearsals or didn’t feel they could make the year-long commitment, and those who had never formally sung in a choir but wanted the experience.

It sounded good on paper.

I sent an invitation by email, printed mailings, and the weekly bulletin. I announced it in church one Sunday. I shook hands with people I didn't know at Coffee Hour.

One week before the first rehearsal, I had four people signed up.

How do you plan for a first rehearsal if you don't know how many people you'll have?

I planned mostly unison/2-part anthems for the first week (see list below) to build everyone's confidence, hoping that more people might show up on Monday night. And they did.

I had seven singers in the first week—three men and four women. Two had sung in the adult choir in the past; everyone else was new. Several had not sung in a choir since high school (quite a few years ago, for some!), but they all had some level of music-reading experience. I was thrilled to have such a diverse group!

Here’s my rehearsal plan from the first night:

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Choir Rehearsal Plan

Warm-ups

stretching
- 5-4-3-2-1 (nah)
- 1-123-345-3-1 (ha)
- 1-5—4321 (me-ah)

Anthem 1

A Psalm of Thanksgiving (Shaw)

Anthem 2

Soon and Very Soon (arr. Schrader)

Bulletin Bloopers

A quick change of pace to get everyone laughing

Hymn

Amazing Grace (without notation)
- part 1: melody
- part 2: mi-fa-sol
- part 3: do-sol-do

Anthem 3

Simply Alleluia (Moore)

Anthem 4

Song of Joy, Song of Praise (arr. Brighton)

The first night, we did a lot of listening. I kept a fast pace so we could sing through as many different things as we could and listened closely for breath, vowels, and intonation. I emailed everyone the next day to let them know how grateful I was that they came to sing. What a joy and privilege it is to sing and make music together!

The next week, four new people came to rehearsal, bringing the total number to eleven! I split the women and read a few SAB anthems (much to the altos' delight!). Here is our repertoire list: