When you attend the performance of any amateur or professional choirs near you in California, know that they had to rehearse for the performance you just attended. There are lots of varying factors that affect how long rehearsals need to be. Obviously, what is appropriate for one choir, might not be okay for another. The purpose of this article isn’t to try and discover a specific length of time that works for every single choir, but rather to closely view varying factors that might impact how long a choir’s rehearsals should last.
Regular rehearsals
Probably, the most crucial thing that a choir could do is make sure that rehearsals are regular. Most choirs rehearse on a weekly basis through a fixed length of time. The way members of a choir can plan around such times should help in keeping attendance figures up. If you hold regular rehearsals for fixed lengths of time, this also helps greatly when it concerns planning for concerts, as will be shown later.
Determining rehearsal length
There are lots of varying factors that will eventually determine how long a choir’s rehearsals will be. One of the major problems is likely to be the cost and availability of venue, both for your accompanist as well as the venue. In general, anything between one and two hours is an excellent length for rehearsals, maybe a bit longer if you usually take a mid-season break. But you should have it in mind that singers become tired and a point comes at which, for both amateur and professional choirs, rehearsals can actually turn less productive the longer they last.
Stay focused
Quite related to length and time of rehearsals, is the rehearsal’s content. Eventually, like the saying goes, content is king. Experts have always believed that the perfect length for any rehearsal is the one in which the choir is able to remain focused. Singing is challenging work and after some time, singers naturally become tired. The crucial thing is to be capable of spotting this and thus not push on regardless. A times comes, in every single rehearsal, where you could end up doing significantly more harm than good if you carry on.
When gigs are approaching
There’s this tendency for choirmasters to panic when they have an approaching concert and frequently have additional rehearsals put in place. Nothing is wrong with this and obviously, it depends on the choir and the standards the choirmaster is looking to achieve. Some choirmasters have always desired to do this, but some among their members just cannot give up any more time than what they already do. Thus, it then all boils down to effective planning. If a choir meets every week and they know when their concerts are for well in advance, then it simply becomes a case of planning many rehearsals at once, to help make sure that their concert repertoire has been covered in excellent time prior to the concert.
Clearly, when you attend the performance of any amateur or professional choirs near you in California, understand that these are the key facts that determine the length of their rehearsals. Nothing is wrong with holding additional rehearsals, particularly leading up to a concert.