Do I need to audition?
Not at all! We don't audition people and you won't have to sing alone.
We have a relaxed, non-exclusive policy for people who wish to sing with us. We help you find your voice, and you will have the support of others in your voice part.
We are a four-part harmony choir (Soprano, Alto, Tenor and Bass voices), but we help you learn how to sing in harmonies and we learn our parts bit by bit. You won't be alone and we support you to find your confidence to sing.
Do you need to be able to read music?
No, you don't need to be able to read music.
However, we do use sheet music and purchase good quality sheet music because it's much more fun to sing beautiful arrangements. We support newcomers in following the dots and reading the music. Although reading music isn't mandatory, you'll be able to follow with your fellow voice part members showing you the basics.
We encourage members to record their own parts at rehearsals, however we also have audio files available to play on your computer via Drop Box to help learn your part.
Our publication ‘The ABC of Reading Music’, written for non-music-reading choristers, is available to all members and will teach you quickly and easily how to read music. Click on the ‘Learn To Read Music’ button above to download and print.
Will being a member take much of my time?
Members' time commitments aren't onerous.
We rehearse for just two hours each week. However, everyone benefits when members attend regularly and sometimes a little bit of practice at home between rehearsals will really boost your confidence. We also have audio files available to play on your computer to help learn your part.
How much does it cost?
We have annual quarterly fees, paid in line with school terms.
We are very lucky to have an experienced musical director (Suze Quinn) and a brilliant accompanist (Amanda Lee) who make rehearsals fun and effective in learning new songs. We also purchase all our sheet music and as a registered company, we are covered by equipment and public liability insurances. So, yes we do have expenses. Members of the choir pay a membership fee to help cover these expenses.
Our membership is quarterly installments of $90 or $80 concession. This equates to less than $5 per hour for quality tuition, choral comraderie and fun singing.
As a member you will also need to buy a black A4 folder to hold your music. We also discourage hole-punching the music, and recommend using clear inserts in the folder. We provide a Uniform shirt at a once off refundable deposit of $30, which must be returned if you leave however you will need your own long plack pants and black shoes.
What do you do to support new members?
We all wear name tags to help with introductions and memories! and the others in your voice part will provide support. After each rehearsal, we send a weekly email called the 'Monday Night Matters' to help people remember what they did at rehearsal or to let people who couldn't make rehearsal know just what they missed!
We have audio files of the songs we are learning, available on Dropbox to help with at-home practice, and the audio can be recorded onto cd for you if requested.
Our Facebook group has lots of examples of other choirs singing the songs that we do...so you can hear how others do it!
We also have a half-yearly newsletter that we share with members and a broader group of keen audience goers, called The Singing Snippets. You won't be left wondering, rather you'll be feeling left out if you miss out!
How can I find out when the choir is singing?
We keep a list of future and past events on our website!
Our audiences are mostly made up of our family and friends, so to ensure they never miss out on a concert or performance, we send electronic reminders to all choir members and to anyone who has requested a direct emailled reminder in a publication called The Singing Snippets.
The Singing Snippets sings out aloud about our past events and heralds coming events. Be first to reserve tickets at concession prices for our big events. There are no strings attached and no costs whatsoever (hard to believe these days!).
If you'd like receive The Singing Snippets, all you need to do is send an email with your name and address to our Secretary at tasmanian.song.company@gmail.com.