Singing Stars

National Ambassador for Singing, Howard Goodall, considers what makes a good singing animateur

They are the lifeblood of all we do: they motivate, enthuse, cajole, invigorate and humour our young singers. They hum and jig about and smile manically for hours of every working day. They work ridiculously hard, they live on caffeine and chocolate and drive around in beaten up Polos strewn with random pieces of sheet music and cat hair. Who are they? They are, of course, singing animateurs, teachers and choir leaders.

I became a singing Tsar because of these singing stars. Watching them at work, whether it's rehearsing 500 children in a massed choir at the Royal Albert Hall, or in a tiny primary school classroom, they have been my inspiration. So I have been trying over the past couple of years to get to the bottom of what they have in common, what methods and techniques work for them all. Generally they have ended up where they are because of a charismatic, kind, bubbly choir director in their youth, but they come from many different backgrounds and traditions and have different tastes in musical style and approach. But surely there are some things that emerge as truths for them all?

I must know scores, if not hundreds, of singing directors, so in order to make my task manageable I picked just a handful to see whether there were lessons to be learnt from their various successes. My first thought was one that has probably occured to many people who witness dynamic leaders at work: is their skill a gift, a piece of generic stardust that was sprinkled on them at birth, or can their methods by replicated and taught? There is a serious side to this question because if we are dealing with something very special in someone's character, then our Sing Up task is a hard one. If, though, good leaders can be grown by good teaching and mentoring, then we will be able, theoretically, to redraw the musical map of the country and populate it with many more inspired singing leaders.

Many of these singing stars themselves would agree with Sophie Pascall of Leicestershire, who says that when it comes to repertoire, for example, you should be following some straightfoward rules:

• Be broad in your taste, mix up the menu, don't get hung up on either too much pop or too much from one classical period.
• Let the children have a say in the choosing, empower them and let their creativity loose.
• Approach challenging pieces in an unusual or unexpected way.

But ultimately it is the conductor's passion that will win them over. If you are lukewarm about a piece of music, for whatever reason, your singers will be too. If you talk to school children about performing music, they will more often than not have enjoyed, with passion and enthusiasm the composers presented to them by a respected, admired, popular teacher.

Hilary Meyer  of Coloma Convent School in Croydon, like my other leader-icons, believes in involving children in singing early, when they have fewer inhibitions, then putting effort and patience into keeping them enthused during puberty and adolescence as a 'top up'. Establishing a good relationship with the singers is rated more highly as an attribute than, say, a need to know or cover the whole repertoire comprehensively, or the ability to play the piano.

Hilary emphasises the need for landmarks and occasions - concerts, recordings, special events, even occasional competitions - so that the singers feel there is something to aim for other than the day-to-day mastering of technique, or ploughing on for the sake of it.

Colona's thriving (teenage) choirs perform in local primary and special schools, at charity events and at a host of community events and concerts. She notices how much her singers get out of the visits to other schools, how lifted their spirits are when their singing is appreciated and noticed. Consequently, being around one of her choirs as an onlooker is a life-enhancing feeling, because they exude a palpable warmth and generosity. Again, I think this kind of virtuous circle of activity could be taught to anyone of a willing disposition.

Caroline Gale of Guildford County School, whose 100-plus choir of teenage boys had me reduced to tears at assembly one morning earlier this year, makes the obvious point that you should never make boys (and often girls too) choose between playing sport and being in the choir. They can and will do both, but if you force them to choose they will default to sport, because they have to be seen by their peer group to be making this selection, whether they prefer it or not.  Far too many schools' senior management teams simply don't get the significance of this, lazily assuming that extracurricular activities all melt into one mushy, non-lesson-time blur and imagine that good choirs just 'happen', whereas a good choir, like a good football team, clearly needs practice, time commitment and hard slog.

Caroline is so persuasive and so captivating a teacher that she gets the boys on her side anyway, but the tip is a well-learnt one: find a common cause with collegues and allow children to have their cake and eat it. She also actively encourages pupils who sing in one or other of her choirs to support each other's performances. When I saw the boys' choir singing that morning in assembly they got a huge, rowdy ovation from all the girls present. The kick the boys got from being admired for their singing was apparent on all their faces.

What strikes me every time I see a great singing leader at work- Kate Courage in Bristol, Val Whitlock in Solihull, Shirley Court in Cheshire, James Lewis in Rochdale, Susan Hollingworth in Scunthorpe, or Rebecca Ledgard of Birmingham's Ex Cathedra, for example - is how emotionally open you have to be to enable others to engage with their voices. Singing is a soulful experience but it can take new singers ages to surrender to its power, to mean it when they sing. Young singers learn by example: from you. Do you mean it? You have to give in to the emotion yourself for your singers to transmit it to their audience. I believe that young people need the emotional release of singing possibly more than the rest of us because of the
helter-skelter pace of change going on in their lives, in their hormones and in their relationships, especially between the ages of 11 and 18. But they also need to be put in a position where their vulnerability is not exposed.

GOOD-NATURED BOSSINESS

I am glad to say that good singing leaders these days do not humiliate young singers, bully or pick on them like choir directors used to more or less routinely in previous decades, killing off many children's love of singing as a result. Young people don't have a problem with good-natured bossiness or discipline as such, but they do have a problem with unfair or aggressive behaviour. I am with them on this. Being in the room when the choir of St. Aidan's Harrogate are with their wonderful conductor Jo Leonard is like stepping into some sort of enormous family gathering.  She would no more tell a child in her school they couldn't sing than agree to go on Big Brother. It would be a ludicrous notion to her. There is no reason at all why setting high standards should not work successfully for all children without it becoming a stick to beat those whose voices need a little more help.

HAVE A LAUGH

All my singing leader stars agree on on things: humour. Keep it funny and light, and do not be afraid to look or sound silly yourself either. The best performances look good as well as sound good, and finding how best to express a song visually - through faces, movements, stage pictures - can often become an amusing and enjoyable voyage of discovery for all concerned.

Oh, and one other thing they all feel strongly about: less talking, more singing. So taking that hint I'd better wrap this up right now. Do I think these singing skills and qualities can be reproduced? Yes! Of course they can. When I think of Sharon Durant, who now works as a highly skilled and experienced vocal leader for the Sage Gateshead and Sing Up, I can also remember her when she was but a feisty, purple-haired student at Newcastle College, still not quite sure in which direction her love of music would take her. She learnt to be a great singing animateur and was brilliantly taught by Katherine Zeserson. Out there, in all those choirs and singing groups lurk tomorrow's Sharons. We need to find them, nurture them, train them up and send them out into the world. All hair colours welcome.