Choir Director

I think a big misconception for choir directors is that you have to know everything before you get started. You have to know how to conduct perfectly, you have to know how to pick music, you have to know everything about singing and about different voice types. And while a lot of that information is useful, you don't need all of it before you start. So go ahead and get started, take what you do know, and then build upon it as you direct. You'll learn a lot of things on the go and depending on what choir you're leading, if it's a volunteer choir or a beginner's choir, they probably won't know that you don't know very much if you don't know everything. So just be confident, try new things, and give it your best shot. Learn as you go and things will all work out.

Common misconceptions, I would say, I am not a choir director full-time. I do this as a part-time volunteer position, and some of the common misconceptions that we run into are, you know, that you have to rehearse for hours and hours, and it's this huge time commitment. Well, it is a time commitment, but rehearsals for us are one hour once a week, and I'm very firm on that because I expect the choir members to practice at home. We record all of the parts for them. Me and my accompanist will sit down, my pianist will sit down, and they will play the parts. I will record them. We will create files, send them out to everyone so that they can record, they can listen to those and practice from home, that everybody can play the piano right. So that's a way for us to be able to really maximize our time polishing during our one-hour rehearsals once a week.