The Choir Director Corner Podcast
The Choir Director Corner Podcast is dedicated to providing choir directors with practical resources to utilize in their teaching. Matt Walker, the creator of The Choir Director Corner, reveals the teaching strategies, methods, and workflows that he has used in building a successful choral program. Discover tips and strategies that will help you save time amidst your busy schedule, run more productive, engaging and efficient rehearsals, and help you tackle your biggest teaching challenges.
Episodes
104 episodes
101. Five Reasons Why Your Choir Recruiting Isn't Working
Maybe you got your class registrations for next year and thought, "Maybe I should do some recruiting!" But all of your time and energy didn't produce the results you wanted, resulting only in stress and frustration.In Episode 101 ...
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20:27
100. Celebrating 100 Episodes: Ten Top Episodes of the Podcast
It seems like just yesterday, I uploaded the first episode of the Choir Director Corner Podcast, not knowing where the road might take me. And here we are, at 100 episodes!In Episode 100, I'm going back into the podcast archives a...
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19:23
099. Diving into Music Literacy with Your Choir: Sound Before Sight
The question came from one of the members of our CDC Community Membership: "How, or where, do I start in teaching music literacy to my choir, when almost all of my singers are beginners when it comes to sightreading?" Our elementary gener...
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39:21
098. Using Choir March Madness to Cover National Music Standards!
As choir directors, we often find our teaching centered in the "Performing" set of the National Music Standards--it can be difficult to find ways to incorporate the "Responding" and "Connecting" sections of the standards. In Episode 98 of...
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26:59
097. Lessons that Choir Directors Can Learn from Ted Lasso
After several days off due to snow and dangerous wind chills, I knew it was going to be a challenge to get my singers back into our routine. As they started coming into the room, I thought to myself:"I'm going to have to go all Te...
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26:48
096. "My Choir is SO Unmotivated!" I Have Questions.
The social post said, in so many words--"My Choir is SO Unmotivated!" And this is obviously a widespread problem, because the responses were flying fast and furious, all from choir directors with the same problem! But most of the re...
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29:41
095. Tips for Translating Your Score Study into Rehearsal Techniques
Diving into a choral score is a big process, but also one that is critical in bringing the music we have before us to life. Once we have tackled our score study, a new challenge emerges–how does the work we’ve done in preparing the score ...
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23:14
094. AI for Choir Directors?
There’s been a lot in the news about AI recently, and more specifically, with ChatGPT. I myself have used ChatGPT for a number of things, for a number of purposes–usually as an assistant to bounce ideas off of, and to brainstorm ideas whe...
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19:23
093. Still Looking For Winter Choral Repertoire?
As choir directors, we always have to be one step ahead. Which means that even though it's fall outside, it's time to start planning for those much-anticipated winter choral concerts! In Episode 93 of the podcast, I share with you five ha...
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16:04
092. Dealing with Talkative Singers in Choir Rehearsal
One of the questions I most often get from choir directors is, "My singers are so chatty--how do I get them to stop talking?" Granted, I'm not someone that expects total silence in my rehearsal. But at the same time,...
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42:09
091. Episode Replay--What to Do When Your Singers Won't Sing Out!
I've run into numerous choir directors, just in the past couple of weeks, all describing the same problem--singers that won't sing out! The directors have tried everything, and are at their wits end. What do you do???...
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36:40
090. Key Elements to Setting Your Choirs Up for a Successful Year
I've had choir directors ask about a "Beginning of the Year To-Do List", but our jobs as directors can differ greatly, just because of the particular school district or organization we work for. However, I do believe there are some univer...
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30:05
089. Marketing Your Choir Program by Conquering Objections!
In order to market your choir program to prospective singers, you need to get the heart of what motivates singers to join your program, as well as the obstacles that prevent them from joining your program.When you talk to prospective si...
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49:35
088. Making a Recruiting Push for Your Choir Program!
While it's always a good time to recruit, the end of the year is the perfect time to recruit more singers to your program. Students are making plans for the following year and finalizing their schedules, so now is a great time to get pote...
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19:54
087. Is Your Choir Program Due for a Spring Cleaning?
Every year when warmer weather starts to roll in, there's one thing you can always count on at our house--multiple days of Spring Cleaning! The dusting, the switching out all of the clothes in the closets, cleaning windows, getting out th...
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43:31
086. Welcome to Choir March Madness 2023!
One of the activities I started with my singers several years ago was creating a Choir March Madness Bracket of choir performances. This activity gives my singers to listen to choral music from many different composers and musical styles,...
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9:38
085. Contemporary A Cappella 101 with Rob Dietz!
I have been a fan of Pentatonix, and contemporary a cappella as a whole, for as long as I can remember. I was a huge fan of The Sing-Off, and little did I know that years later, I would have an opportunity to talk with one of the arranger...
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1:02:26
084. Tips for Making Music Literacy Stick With Your Singers!
I had a great conversation recently via Zoom with Matthew, who is a member of our Choir Director Corner Community Membership. He wanted to pick my brain about a couple things, and we discussed a variety of topics, including how to improve...
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35:05
083. Creating Great Art at All Levels: Conversation with Ryan Main
Welcome to 2023! To get the new year started off, I'm sharing my conversation with composer and music educator Ryan Main. I talked with Ryan about how he became a composer, his compositional process, some of his recent compositions,...
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46:26
082. Ten Reasons to Play Kahoot with Your Choir!
If you are looking for a fun activity to do with your choir, Kahoot is one of the best options out there! And in today's episode of the podcast, I am sharing with you ten of my top reasons why you should play Kahoot with your choir. ...
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20:54
081. Playing the Game of Tones with Zack Durlam!
Yes, my friends...Winter Is Coming! But it's not the Game of Thrones--it's the "Game of Tones"! ;) In Episode 81 of the podcast, I'm talking with Zack Durlam, who serves as the Director of Choral Activities at the University of Wi...
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58:58
080. Discussing the Ten-Second Rule!
Growing up, we always had the "ten-second rule"; if what we were eating fell on the floor, we had ten seconds to pick it up and eat it. Otherwise, it went to the trash! Chances are, you have a similar rule in your household, dependi...
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12:00
079. How Sight Reading Can Solve (Almost) All of Your Choir Rehearsal Problems!
Ever wish you had a rubber stamp, so you didn't have to keep saying the same thing over and over again? I had that experience recently, as choir directors were detailing the different challenges they were dealing with in their rehearsals....
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33:50
078. Telling Stories Through Choral Music: Conversation with Tim Takach!
In Episode 78 of the podcast, I'm excited to share with you my conversation with composer Tim Takach! We cover a lot of ground in our conversation, talking about his time with the group Cantus, his growth and development as a composer, an...
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53:30
077. Five Reasons for Choir Directors to Add MuseScore to Their Workflow
Over the years, I've used a number of software programs for tasks involved with music composition. A while back a friend recommended MuseScore, and after trying it out, I've added it to the list of tools that I use on a regular basis.&nbs...
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20:27