ChoirBites Interactive Slides: Creative Ways to Build Choral Skills

ChoirBites originally began as a blog I created to help choir directors/singers enhance their rehearsal process. Students and colleagues have told me for years that I come up with interesting analogies in rehearsal. I can't tell you how many times I heard, "you should put those in a book!" But the truth is... I wasn't sure how to put a lot of short, odd analogies together in a book.

At one point I decided to start writing blog posts. Those seemed to go well, but I was really forcing the issue - trying to create some "life-changing content." No one needs their lives changed. Then I started writing articles for Choral Director magazine. The long format just didn't fit me, but along the way I kept a list of potential writing topics. The list got longer because each idea was too short for an article, but too good to throw away.

Then it hit me... what if I just didn't care how long or how perfect these things were? I could just throw them out there, and people could take them or leave them. Social media made short-form content desirable. I decided to make my graphics Instagram square, keep the posts to 2,200 characters or fewer, and cross-post on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Perfect!

ChoirBites are non-formal thoughts, little ideas that can help inspire thoughtfulness in rehearsal. They are metaphors and analogies that address common problems from new angles. They're just kind of unstructured and fun. There's no big system, no pedagogical diatribe. They're just accessible and maybe useful. Each one will strike different chords with different folks, and that's okay. There's a lot of them, so if one doesn't suit you... try another. And another. Pick and choose day to day, week to week, whenever you need a little something. Just see what helps. Take a bite. No worries!