Ideas & such

As musical director at St. Monica Catholic Church‘s Sunday 5:30 liturgy these past 4 years, I have been given a wonderful opportunity to explore and implement weekly practices that strengthen the musical aspects of the choir & band, our sense of community to each other, and our connection with the assembly throughout the week.

Below is a list of ideas that have worked for me over the years:

Create a shared Google calendar for each choir, listing birthdays of your choir members and the upcoming schedule. Give your choir a handout explaining how to access the calendar and how to integrate this into their current personal calendaring system. Put an alert reminder on the birthdays.
Use a hosted online sharing service like Box.net or Dropbox.com to store MP3 audio and PDF sheet music for your group. Rather than emailing a 3-5mb MP3 audio file, you can use this service to simply give the choir members a link. Box.net also has a really cool iTunes App and allows you to control who downloads what. (I am using Box.net on my home page)
Most choir members will not go home and study their music, let’s be real here!! The reality is that our lives are already overpacked and full of clutter. Consider allowing choir members to keep their music folders at church, possibly in a sturdy rolling cart or choir room cabinet. Choir members should not be asked to return back to the choir room after Mass to return folders…they are an extension of the assembly and should use that time to visit with members of the congregation like everyone else! Hint: simply have a member of the choir be responsible to collect folders & return the cart…every month, switch to someone new…people want to be a part of the experience!
Rehearse and warm-up in a seperate space before the Liturgy, if at all possible. It is crucial that the choir thinks of itself as a small faith-sharing group, and thus be treated as such. Give them time to pray at the beginning or end of rehearsal AND be sure to include Sunday morning warm-ups! Avoid having a call time in the church just before mass for “sound check” and then going right into Mass. Call the choir 15 minutes earlier and meet in the rehearsal room. You will see a difference in the way your members interact with each other and the assembly during a Liturgy.
Provide recordings of “Mass Parts” and common responses. Don’t be afraid to ask the choir to memorize their music for the Mass Parts and common responses like RCIA Dismissals. They should be as engaged as possible during the Mass itself, and the assembly will surely respond to this. A pair of eyes looking up is much better than looking down into the music folder! Again, this doesn’t mean having to make 100 audio CDs. Put everything online into a document-sharing site like Box.net or Dropbox.com.
Take Attendance weekly. I think its important to show accountability in terms of attendance. Ofcourse each choir is different and each parish has a unique culture which might struggle with certain aspects of consistent attendance, which is why its good to set rules, and then “keep ‘em in check” from time-to-time, like any good parent (I mean…director) does! Try the iPhone App called “Attendance“. Sure it’s geared for school teachers, but it works just fine AND creates a Microsoft spreadsheet which can be emailed to an individual or group. Pretty cool! Also, don’t hesitate to pick your most consistent singer to be responsible for taking attendance. Too often, we directors think we must do everything ourselves…again, people want to be a part of the experience. I truly believe that.