How do you motivate choral singers to reach their potential?
A discussion today in an online forum about offering college choirs for credit/not for credit had this answer: “Credit = accountability of singers. Which begets a trove of benefits.”
So, yes, grades can be a motivating tool. But not every ensemble has grades, and honestly, they’re pretty lousy motivators.
Here are some other ways to motivate choirs.
- Schedule performances.
- Have intermediate goals with check-ins/part tests/assessments. (You can assess without grades.)
- Increase buy-in to the ensemble.
- Choose music singers want to sing.
- Threaten people.
- Offer rewards for performance.
- Offer punishments for failure.
There’s lots of different ways to motivate singers.
But in the end, I think the most important one is this:
- Help singers see what they’re part of, what they’re capable of, and why they should care about the music and each other.