Singing makes your heart happy! It is such a feel-good, fun activity and there is truly nothing like the joy that comes with singing as part of a group. The best bit about becoming a part of one of our Pop Choirs is that you will be joining our little family. Whatever your reason for joining, we can make sure we put a smile firmly on your face, help you meet new people, and really give you something to look forward to on your weekly choir night!

We welcome everyone with open arms to our Cheshire Pop Choir groups. There are absolutely no auditions, and you don’t need the best singing voice to be a great part of the choir. Our motto is “if you enjoy it – do it!” We sing a whole range of songs from Motown to 80s classics to current pop charts, musicals and more. We describe ourselves as a Pop Choir mainly because we sing whatever’s popular. So, whether you’re a seasoned choir member of one of our groups, or if you’re just thinking of signing up, we thought we would put together a list of 10 songs we love at our choirs with some tips to help you practise at home!

On each song below we’ve put a link to the song – either a recording of one of our choirs singing, or a YouTube clip of the song. Why not have a listen and pick out your favourite? You can see a whole other range of songs on our youtube channel and our individual Facebook pages too! Once you’ve chosen the song you love and want to practise, read below for our top tips on practising at home.  

10 Pop Choir Songs We Love At The Moment!

1. Never Enough
2. This is the Greatest Show 
3. River Deep Mountain High
4. Believer 
5. Like A Prayer 
6. Too Good at Goodbyes  
7. Feel It Still
8. Faith
9. Don’t stop Movin’
10. Shake It Out

How To Practise Singing At Home 

Singing with us is all about having fun and enjoying yourself. So, our number one practise tip is to make sure you’re in the mood for a good sing-along before you start. Get yourself comfortable and choose a song you like from the ones above (or any of your other favourites!). 

As a member of our choir, you will be given access to downloadable rehearsal tracks to help you practice just your part. Listening along to the tracks and following along with the sheet music you will be given at the choir session is the best way to keep the songs fresh in your mind. Really, we just want you to enjoy your time with us and not worry about getting it perfect – but, if you do want some tips to try out and are keen to practise, then read below for a few handy tips!  

Find Your Tessitura & Warming Up 

Your tessitura is the most aesthetically acceptable and comfortable vocal range for your unique voice. In our choirs, we break all our songs into parts and have these as ‘Top, Middle & Bottom’ rather than the traditional ‘Soprano, Alto, Tenor and Bass’. You can decide which group you think you’d best fit into before coming into the choir, or we can help you find your tessitura when you begin. 

The first step to practising songs at home is to warm up your voice. A quick and easy vocal warm-up is to try out the lip bubble! All in the name of having fun, this is very similar to blowing a raspberry. So, push your cheeks in just below your lower lip and then blow air through your lips as you keep them relaxed. You can begin to introduce a tone to the lip bubble to add your voice too and begin to vocalise. To warm up you really just need to make sure you vocalise for a few minutes and sing gently. You can sing up and down the scales, elevator slides or arpeggios or even sound out the vowel sounds. Just work your voice a little and get it ready to sing! 

When singing, to properly warm up our voices each of us would need very specific exercises designed for our personal vocal tendencies and habits. At choir, we use the 3 main sounds below to balance out as many voices as we can to warm everyone up together, and this is something you can try out at home too! 

• A Lip trill (as above)
• A ‘Nasty’ “Nay Nay Nay”. 
• A ‘Cried’ “Gug Gug Gug”. 

In our choirs, our biggest vocal goal is to engage our ‘chest voice’. This is because of the nature of the songs we do and because we are trying to produce a ‘pop’ sound rather than a traditionally ‘choral’ sound. When you think of Pop Choir think more Gospel less Chamber choir! 

Print Off & Read Through The Lyrics

Once you’ve chosen a song you want to practise, it is always a good idea to have a read through the lyrics. This should help you to get a feeling for the meaning behind the song you are about to sing. When you know what the song is about it can help you get into the passion and tone of the song more easily. For example, is it an upbeat, cheery song, or is it more empowering and serious? Printing the lyrics out is a great way to help them stick in your mind, and it means you can grab them and practise whenever you have a spare moment! 

We also give out sheet music to most of our songs so you can get used to following the notes up and down to help guide you to stay on your harmony and not just sing the tune. When you join up with the choir we can happily guide you how to do this so that you feel completely comfortable when practising at home on your own.  

Listen To Yourself Singing!

One top tip for practising songs at home is to try singing along to a song that you like with a voice recorder nearby. Even though it might seem a little strange at first, listening back to yourself singing can be an excellent way to figure out where you may need to make small tweaks. Although you will want to spend most of the time singing your specific part, you could even have a go at singing the other parts of the choir too! If you can get hold of a recording, or just try singing the separate parts to the song it can help. This will ensure that you won’t be put off when you are back with the choir listening to the other parts and will also allow you to feel how the harmonies work. 

Multi-Task

If you are going to be singing along at a concert with one of our choirs, it can be a really great idea to practice singing at home while doing other things. Why you ask? Well, often when we only ever practise in a calm environment that we feel really relaxed in, it is easy to recall the lyrics and feel confident in your part. However, sometimes it can feel a bit strange to be in a new place, and you might find you’re not as sure in the song as you have been in practice. But, don’t worry! To prepare yourself for the concert and singing in front of an audience you could try singing in a few different environments to change things up a little. Why not try singing your part while washing up, driving, cleaning the house or going out for a walk? This can help you to multitask and remember your part even when your mind is on other things! 

Have Fun & Happy Singing!

For more tips make sure to speak with your choir leader. They will be happy to give you more technical advice or talk you through other methods you can try out too! But remember, the most important thing is that you are having fun!

If you are not yet a member of one of our Pop Choirs, but you would like to be then you can find out more by visiting our website here, sending us an email to info@cheshirepopchoirs.co.uk or phoning up using one of the numbers below!

Congleton: 01260 725 195

Northwich: 01606 601 251

Lymm: 01925 568 238

Nantwich: 01270 350988