Preparing for choir practice used to be easy. Choir leaders would simply get out the songbooks and have them waiting for choir members when they arrived. Most of the songs practiced were already familiar and it was just a matter of going over them to reinforce things like timing, intonation, and to make sure that all the parts were covered.
Those days are long gone! Today, running a choir is much like running a major musical production. In many cases, the music presented each worship service IS a major production and the expectations seem to get greater every year. But thanks to technology like WAV and MP3 files, as well as the increasing bandwidth of internet connections, getting rehearsal material to choir members is not nearly as labor-intensive as it was in the past.
Just a few short years ago choir leaders had to make copies of musical parts on tape cassettes and CDs, not to mention the countless minutes standing by the copy machine for the purpose of printing musical parts. But again, thanks to technological advances spawning from the internet, all that has changed. It is so easy to send an email -- which contains attachments such as a document with the words of a song and an MP3 file with the music – to a long list of choir members, all with just a few clicks of the mouse and keyboard.
Not only have technological advances helped choir directors keep their choir in tune and in time, but now there is a service that helps to keep them ON time as well. Voice messaging is such a service. With voice messaging, all a choir director has to do is record one message. This message could announce a changed rehearsal time or perhaps remind members about an upcoming performance or event. The voice messaging service will properly notify each member of the news simultaneously, quickly getting the word out.
Yes, changing expectations have increased the responsibilities and stress of a modern-day choir director, but thanks to innovations in technology some parts of the job have become much easier.
