A woman singing with her eyes closed, other singers standing behind her.

Galm
Singing

Breath
Pitch
Nerve
Range

Put my name down

Almost nobody is tone deaf. Almost everybody has been told they are, usually once, usually by one person, usually before they were twelve. We start at the note you can already hold and work outward from there.

How the hour goes

Breathe

Twenty minutes on the part nobody teaches: where the air comes from, how slowly it is allowed to leave, and what your shoulders should not be doing.

Place

We find the four or five notes you already own. Then we build a song around them instead of dragging you up to somebody else’s key.

Carry

The last part is making it survive a room with other people in it. That is a separate skill, and it is the one most of us actually came for.

A choir and small band performing in a wood-panelled hall for a seated audience.

The hall on Grote Kerkstraat Thursdays, 19:30 Twenty-two chairs

Spring
Term

Eight Thursdays
20 March — 8 May
€ 180 for the term

Put my name down

A choir standing in two rows in a hall, singing from folders.

Eight
Nights

Twelve people, one room, one song learned properly rather than six learned badly

Before you ask

Do I need to read music
No. Nothing is handed out on paper except the words. Everything is taught by ear and repeated until it sticks, which is slower and works better.
Do I have to sing alone
Not in the first term. From the fourth evening there is a two-minute turn in front of the others if you want one. Roughly half the group never takes it.
What it costs
€ 180 for eight evenings, paid in one go or in two. If that is the reason you are not coming, say so when you write; four places each term are quietly free.
Missing an evening
Happens to everyone. There is no catch-up lesson and no refund for one night, but you can sit in on the same evening of the next term at no cost.
The recordings
We record the last evening on one microphone so you can hear the difference. The file goes to the people in the room and is deleted after three months. It is not published anywhere.
Getting in
One step of twelve centimetres at the front door and no lift; the side door on the alley is level and we can open it, just let us know. There is a loop system, switched on by default.
A conductor’s hands holding a baton above an open score on a wooden stand. An open song book held up in a dim room, with lights blurred behind it.
A woman singing with her head tilted back in front of a rust-coloured wall.
Hands holding an open music folder in a darkened hall.
A singer with closed eyes and a lifted chin, photographed in black and white.

Two mails a year

One when the next term opens, one before the concert. That is the whole list, and it is kept on one laptop.