Why not come and sing with 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, 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 varied performances throughout the year from music festivals to barbershop conventions to shows and many more.

 

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.  We particularly encourage prospective members to come along on the first Wednesday of the month but you are welcome to visit us anytime. 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. Once you pass the audition you’re now a member of the GWC. Congratulations! We can't wait to have you become an active member of GWC.

What's in it for you?

• Two and a half hours of quality singing and coaching every Wednesday
• Written music, teach tracks and recordings of all our songs to help you learn them
• Support from your Section Leader and the Music Team to help you improve your singing
• Group coaching with external coaches from around the world
• Access to the members' section of our website and our internal communications (like WhatsApp) to further help you progress and feel like a member of the choir
• The opportunity to sing in our regular performances, locally and around Europe
• An annual weekend "retreat" where we spend the weekend together in a hotel with an external coach honing a couple of songs and getting to know each other better (accommodation charged at cost)
• Compete with us in Music Festivals and our annual "Convention", with a possible invititation to compete in the International Convention in the USA (additional cost)
• A whole load of new friends that take the same pleasure in singing well and performing for audiences and judges