The folder, complete
Rehearsal notes
Everything written down since 2019, in the order the rehearsals happened. Nothing is rewritten later; where we changed our minds, the later note says so.
No. 05Rehearsal notesJul 2026
A year of Tuesdays, read back through the rehearsal notebook
September to June in a small amateur choir: the loud early weeks, the long middle where nothing improves, and the fortnight when a piece finally stands up.
Rehearsal14 July 2026Written up26 August 2026Reading8 minutes
No. 04ConcertsNov 2025
Nerves: the forty minutes before a small concert
What actually happens to a small amateur choir in the hour before it sings, and the unglamorous routine we now follow to get through it in reasonable shape.
Rehearsal25 November 2025Written up14 January 2026Reading6 minutes
No. 03TextMay 2025
Singing in a language you do not speak: vowels, stress and honesty
Latin, German and a Catalan folk setting, sung by people who mostly speak none of them. What we get wrong, and the rehearsal that was entirely consonants.
Rehearsal20 May 2025Written up8 September 2025Reading7 minutes
No. 02TechniqueDec 2024
Breathing, blend and the long note: what Tuesdays are really for
Twenty minutes of warm-up, a section that stopped pushing, and the awkward business of holding a note together. Notes from a winter of unglamorous rehearsals.
Rehearsal10 December 2024Written up18 February 2025Reading8 minutes
No. 01LearningJun 2024
Learning your part by ear when the page still looks like weather
How a choir with three kinds of reader teaches a line: call and response, the piano used sparingly, and the point where the score stops being decoration.
Rehearsal11 June 2024Written up3 July 2024Reading7 minutes
The folder lives in a cardboard box under the piano, and this is the typed version of it. If a note contradicts something a singer remembers, the singer is probably right and we would like to hear about it — see the notes on how notes are kept.