Young Voices of Melbourne - Workshops Introduction

The Young Voices of Melbourne runs professional learning workshops for music teachers and choir conductors around the country. Mark O'Leary has presented more than 150 workshops for YVM in every state and territory of Australia since 1996. Most popular workshops are Primary Choirs for Beginners, How to Run a (better) Primary School Choir and Just (Choral) Conducting. Workshops are held each year in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane and periodically in other cities and regional areas. See the Calendar for workshops soon.

How to Run a (better) Primary School Choir
This is a full day workshop for those working with Primary School choirs or with young choirs in the community. The workshop covers a wide range of areas including :

• Getting started (decisions that need to be made, planning for success)

• Keeping up momentum (administering a good programme, keeping kids motivated)

• Planning rehearsals

• Teaching kids to sing (vocal development)

• Selecting and obtaining appropriate repertoire

• Developing music reading skills

• What to sing?

• Songs and singing games for beginning choirs

• Songs for established choirs

• Developing part-singing

• Dealing with copyright issues

Full workshop notes are provided, and participants have the opportunity to sing through much new repertoire. Participants also have the opportunity to meet with others interested in young choirs working in their areas.

Just (Choral) Conducting

A full day workshop for those who would like to improve their choral conducting technique and increase their understanding of the conductor's role in the art of choral music making. Topics covered will include:

This workshop is designed for those working with primary school or primary aged choirs who have little or no experience. If you are full of enthusiasm but are not sure if you are doing it quite right, then this workshop is for you. This is a practical workshop covering areas such as how to get kids singing, how to teach songs effectively, how to make it fun and how to make it sound good. We will also look at what songs to sing in the first year, how to plan a rehearsal and how to make the choir look good on stage. Lastly we will learn some basic conducting tips so that you will feel more comfortable about waving your arms around in the front of the choir.