Tools To Motivate

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.