What I’ve learnt from 20 years of creating scratch choirs

Twenty years ago, Warwick Folk Festival asked me to create a community choir as part of its education outreach programme. Singing Safari, Warwick 2007 I was reluctant to use the word “choir” because I thought it might put some people off. So I used a thesaurus and came up with “Singing Safari”. This is the story of that project. The idea was simple: create a choir from scratch and have it perform six weeks later at the Warwick Folk Festival. We met for six weekly two-hour rehearsals and learnt eight songs in three- and four-part harmony. There were no auditions, all teaching was by ear, and everybody was welcome regardless of experience. The songs were unaccompanied and sung a cappella. After six weeks, we performed a half-hour set in Warwick’s main square on the Sunday of the festival. There were plenty of people already milling around, so we ended up with a huge audience. The project was a success and I continued leading the Singing Safari in Warwick for five years. In 2010 my…