New Singer Information

Welcome to All Voice!

Here’s some important information for potential new members. If you’ve got any questions after reading this summary, please speak to one of the people on the welcome desk or a music leader.

We sing rock, pop and show songs in close harmony without instruments, and we’re always looking to improve our performances and have a good time along the way.

In your first week, one of the team will ask the Musical Director or SL to check your vocal range to suggest which voice part best suits your voice. This isn’t a final assignment, but is usually a good indicator of where you’ll end up in the chorus.

If you’d like to come back for another session, our Membership Secretary will take contact details from you including an email address so we can send you a singers agreement. Once you’ve agreed to this, we can give you access to our web site’s singer pages to download sheet music and teach tracks to help you to learn songs.

You don’t have to read music to sing with us, but we do give you a copy of the songs we’re singing during the rehearsal until you can access the web site. Once you're a member, you can either print your own copies, or buy one of our booklet copies for £1. The copyright licence still stays with the chorus, though, so this payment is basically for the service of printing them and having them stapled.

Every potential singer can come along to two free rehearsals to decide whether the chorus is right for them. Come along to the pub at the end of the evening to have a chat with the other singers!

After two free sessions, if you’d like to join the chorus we’ll email you a Direct Debit form to set up monthly payments; the current fees are on our “Visit or join us” page of the web site, available in the menu at the top of the site.

Once you start coming regularly, get hold of a folder to keep your music in and bring it, along with a pencil and a bottle of water, to all our rehearsal nights.

Once you start singing with us regularly, we can sort out your Wardrobe; you supply most of this, but we buy a shirt in the standard chorus colours for you, which you'll need to give back if you leave the chorus.

We learn around eight to twelve new songs each year. Although we work on the musicality of songs in rehearsal, it's useful if you can put in some time between rehearsals to keep your part in mind.

We do a variety of busking-style gigs each year, and will be taking part in Bristol A Cappella's larger concerts until we can start hosting our own.

We know that some people in our choruses want to work on their voice or music understanding, so we provide an optional training programme: the Royal School of Church Music's Voice for Life. VfL lets you look at all aspects of being in a choir, from first beginnings to leading a group of your own if you want to, and can lead to nationally-recognised qualifications.

Another opportunity is to audition for Bristol A Cappella, our sister chorus. Once a year (occasionally twice if there's a festival they want to try) BAC competes at the national level, which involves weekend preparation rehearsals and often a trip away for the contest. If you like the extra challenge, they could be the chorus for you. Our membership fee is for the whole organisation, so it doesn't cost any more to belong to both.

If you have any special requirements or medical conditions that you think we should be aware of, please contact the Membership Coordinator. We’ll make sure that this information is treated confidentially and only inform your music leaders if you're happy for us do this and only if it’s necessary.