Join Us!

We are always on the lookout for male voices to join us.  If you can hold a tune and you're up for joining us in working towards excellence in a cappella singing, we'd love to hear from you.  We provide a full set of learning tracks for every song, so you don't need to be able to read music.  Our rehearsals are run in a relaxed atmosphere - they're fun, and they're very satisfying as we hear the improvement in our singing as a result of an evening's work.  We're from all sorts of different backgrounds, committed to working together to sing as well as we can.

Each singer makes a commitment to the chorus, planning to attend every Wednesday evening rehearsal (apart from the occasional unavoidable exception), occasional all-day rehearsals at weekend, and learning songs at home ready for rehearsals. All of this leading to singing with us on stage at the many very varied performances we do throughout the year from music festivals to barbershop conventions to shows and many more.

Our motto is "fun singing well".  If you're interested in finding out more with a view to joining us contact Peter Searle-Barnes: 07766524211,  and he'll be happy to answer any questions.
 

Visit us

The first step towards joining is to come and visit one of our Wednesday evening rehearsals.  Every rehearsal is an open rehearsal - visitors will always receive a great welcome.  If you want to sit out and watch you're welcome to do so, but we encourage visitors to join in with us for some or all of the rehearsal.  Although we sing from memory, we have sheet music for all our songs for visitors to use.  During your visit our musical director will hear you sing something very simple in private e.g. a scale or Happy Birthday. From that we’ll know which voice part you should sing.   If you like your first experience and are keen to come again, and the musical director is happy you have the basic skills to sing, we’ll give you the sheet music and learning tracks for the audition song.

Audition

In the month following your visit you’ll learn the audition song (in your own time) and you’ll be guided through the audition process. For the audition you sing your part in a quartet (three chorus members sing the other three parts alongside you, so you’re not on your own!) and will sing it firstly to your section leader and then to the MD. We really want you to be successful and will help you all the way.  Not everyone passes first time - it's ok to have a go, get some feedback, and come back in a week or two to have another go.  The pass criteria is to sing the audition song with accurate notes, words and rhythms, with a vocal tone that fits within a chorus sound, and to be able to make improvements based on feedback we'll give you during the audition.

You're a member of the Great Western Chorus!

Once you pass the audition you’re now a member of the GWC. You'll be asked to complete a number of simple adminstrative matters and you'll start to pay monthly subscirptions. You’ll already be singing with us at rehearsals and now you’ll start learning our repertoire.  As you learn each song, you'll record yourself singing along with a learning track and send it to your section leader or deputy section leader to check you know all the notes and words - every singer does this for every song.  Once you've signed off on each song you can sing it in public with us at our competitions and shows.  Congratulations! We can't wait to have you become an active member of GWC.

Brought to you by Making Music
Copyright © 2024 Great Western Chorus of Bristol