Anyone can lead!
At a Round Robin, any singers who would like to explore the experience of teaching a song to our very supportive group are encouraged to volunteer. Leading a song is completely optional (and very different from knowing a song or liking a song!). If you’re on the fence, this is a supportive safe space to give it a try. It’s also a great time to just come and sing in community without leading.
We are very much looking forward to seeing and singing with you and creating beautiful music and community together!
For more about how to lead a song or choose a song to teach, read this fabulous resource from Tim Hartnett & Song Village, on their original (now archived) website:
Leading Songs (by Tim Hartnett & Song Village, used here with permission)
[In] “round robins”[…] any participant can offer to lead a song. If you volunteer to lead a song, please keep the following suggestions in mind:
- Make sure you know the song well. It is amazing how many people try to lead a song that they LOVE, but can’t actually remember. If you think of a song you don’t know well, you can ask if anyone else knows it well enough to lead it for you or with you.
- Make sure the song is easy to learn. Participants usually want to sing without spending a long time learning a song. Wordy songs are unlikely to be learned quickly. Song with complicated melodies can be tricky too.
- Call and Echo songs work well.
- Zipper songs work well. Zipper songs have a single refrain in which only one word changes each time it’s sung. (ie. She’s got the whole world in her hands)
- Rounds work well. Participants can stay with one part or learn all the parts, depending on the complexity of the song.
- Layered Songs work well. A layered song is like “acoustic looping.” Teach the group one part, and then add more parts on top of that, one at a time.
- Improvisational Songs can work well. As with a layered song, start with one part and allow participants to improvise additional parts. Many structured songs can open up into improvisational jams.
- Short verse songs work well (if the verses are truly short). Teach the chorus to the group and solo the verses with whoever knows them.
- Chants can work well. Chants are repeated with the goal of dropping into a trace state. The words provide a mantra. Harmonies provide richness. Some song circles will have chant singing as a theme.
- If you would like to lead a song […], try teaching it to a few friends prior [to the round robin.] Practicing leading it can help you figure out how to make it work smoothly in a song circle.