How to Start a Mass Choir
A mass choir is typically made up of dozens of members who are not aligned with a specific church, but are united by a love of gospel music and share similar spiritual beliefs. Mass choirs often perform in churches within their community or region, prisons, weddings, stage plays and special events. Starting a mass choir requires organization, talented performers and a venue for rehearsals.
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Instructions
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Find a choir director. Unless you have direct experience leading a choir, you will need someone who knows music, plays several instruments and understands how to motivate and guide a choir. Visit high school and university music departments to find a music teacher who might be interested. Advertise in newspapers or with online sites such as Craigslist, and visit local churches to see if their choir directors can recommend someone.
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Create an audition notice that requests singers of every ethnicity and religious background to join a mass choir. Put the notice online in the classified section of the local newspaper. Visit local churches and speak to choir directors to ask if any of their singers would be interested in auditioning for the mass choir.
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Obtain rehearsal space. Find a small music hall, a high school auditorium or a local church willing to rent out space. You need a place with decent acoustics that is also big enough to accommodate music equipment such as a piano.
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Hold auditions. You and your choir director should select the choir members based on singing ability, ethnic diversity and spiritual belief. Though choir members do not have to share the exact same thoughts, every member should have some type of strong spiritual belief.
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Choose the song list for your choir and begin rehearsals to learn the material. A good mass choir is judged on singing ability and the diversity of songs. Select a mix of classic gospel songs with some contemporary tunes so you can appeal to a wide range of musical tastes.
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Create a website for your choir to provide people with your vision and mission statement, increase visibility, recruit more members, accept donations and book events.
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Tips & Warnings
Though mass choirs typically consist of as many as 50 members, your goal in the beginning should be to recruit the best singers. If you only find 12, start there and build toward a larger choir.
References
Resources
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