THE PRINCIPLE OF 'NO PRACTICE NO ROBING'

The ‘headache’ of choristers not attending practice regularly but robing for Sunday services has pushed most choir directors to adopt a ‘No Practice No Robing’ principle as the best cure. But is this the actual solution’? Most choir directors have adopted this principle to ensure that choristers attend practice before they can robe on Sundays. By this, you need to be present on (at least) the last practice day preceding the Sunday you want to robe.

By adopting this principle, do we give choristers the chance to choose which days they will attend practice? Yes, we do. We give them no tangible reason to be present at practice even if they will really have to attend to an equally important situation on the Sunday; after all they will note robe on Sunday, so why attend practice. Assuming the choir meets two times a week, do we create an opportunity for some of them to only choose to attend practice on the last practice day preceding a Sunday?

In extension, do we also give the impression that we only practice for Sunday services only on the last practice day preceding a Sunday? Absolutely yes. What happens if there is no practice on the last practice day preceding a Sunday? Who robes for service? All choristers? If your answer is yes, then your choristers may begin to pray that should always be no practice so that they will all robe.

In some church choirs, Saturdays are their last practice days preceding s Sunday and mostly, these Saturdays are the days the choirs do much. What happens if there is a church activity, such as funerals, weddings, etc…, on that day and choristers will genuinely not be able to attend practice afterwards? What if the choir does not meet on Saturdays but on week days, and the church organizes a week-long activity/programme?

What happens if you get very few choristers, who aren’t that ‘mature’, attending the practice preceding the Sunday service? What happens if you’ve learnt a new song over the days to perform on a Sunday, and on the last practice day preceding that Sunday you get about 70% of choristers attending practice being ‘occasional chorister’, who probably might not even know the song?

What also happens is your strongest bets, with tangible reasons, obtain permission to be absent for the last practice day preceding a Sunday? The choir master/director, choir organist, and other technical men are all choristers, and so what happens if they are also absent on the last practice day preceding a Sunday? What also happens if a chorister attends practice on the last practice day but he/she is called to attend to an emergency, right before the practice commences?

I don’t support the idea of allowing just all choristers to robe because there was no practice or because there is an occasion at church. I don’t support the idea of some choristers only attending practice to robe on occasional Sundays. I

am not a fun of performing with just numbers, but performing with quality. And of course, choristers must know very well what songs are going to be performed before they can join the performance for quality. I am not speaking for choristers who absent themselves from practice, neither am I saying that choir directors should just allow anybody to robe even if the person obtains permission to be absent, but from a more technical view point, I believe there should be, and there are, much better ways of solving this issues.

Can choristers be made known that practices are not just for Sunday services? Can choristers be made known why they should always try and be present at practices, as well as arriving early? Can choristers be made known how the practice hours could be used effectively and how much it will cost if a practice is missed, intentionally or unintentionally? Can choir directors and choir masters also strategize or re-strategize their practice plans and approaches to make good use of the practice hours, which can take away much pressure and stress?

While this principle might have worked effectively for some choirs, probably a few, doesn’t mean it will work for all. All choirs don’t have the same features/characteristics; I wish choir directors will rather study the characteristics of their choirs and prescribe a better ‘medication’ for this ‘sickness’. Some choirs are just collapsing because of this ‘prescribed medication’.