https://northgatechorus.com/Rehearsal notes from a small amateur choir in Gràcia, Barcelona: learning a part by ear, breathing and blend, foreign vowels, and concert nerves.enhttps://northgatechorus.com/journal/a-year-of-tuesdays/https://northgatechorus.com/journal/a-year-of-tuesdays/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.Tue, 14 Jul 2026 12:00:00 GMThttps://northgatechorus.com/journal/nerves-before-a-small-concert/https://northgatechorus.com/journal/nerves-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.Tue, 25 Nov 2025 12:00:00 GMThttps://northgatechorus.com/journal/singing-in-a-language-you-do-not-speak/https://northgatechorus.com/journal/singing-in-a-language-you-do-not-speak/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.Tue, 20 May 2025 12:00:00 GMThttps://northgatechorus.com/journal/breathing-blend-and-the-long-note/https://northgatechorus.com/journal/breathing-blend-and-the-long-note/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.Tue, 10 Dec 2024 12:00:00 GMThttps://northgatechorus.com/journal/learning-a-part-by-ear/https://northgatechorus.com/journal/learning-a-part-by-ear/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.Tue, 11 Jun 2024 12:00:00 GMT