Singing equipment

Equipment to take to rehearsals

Rehearsal pencils

Everyone should have a pencil at rehearsals, to capture directions from the conductor, and to mark personal reminders. The classic advice is to have 3 in your bag: one for yourself, one to lend your neighbour who forgot theirs, and one spare. Choose a soft pencil - I find 4B about right - to make it easier to both write and erase your markings. I typically buy a pack of 12 Staedtler 4B pencils * which lasts me a long time.

Rubber / eraser

For erasing the inevitable changes or mistakes! Again I like the traditional Staedtler ones, available in a pack of 2 * or pack of 4 *.

Water bottle

Can be useful for relieving a dry mouth or throat during longer rehearsals. If you bring one, choose a securely closing bottle that won’t spill, fall over, or roll away easily. (Pretty much every rehearsal you'll hear the clunk of a metal bottle being knocked over, but that's OK.) Avoid those noisy crinkly disposable bottles, and open cups - liquids and sheet music don't mix! And remember to take your bottle home with you so that your chairperson doesn't have to!

Equipment for use at home

Highlighter pens

Obviously DON'T use highlighters (or any other sort of pen) on a borrowed score. It's bad etiquette, and more than likely you'll be asked to pay for a replacement! But if you've bought your own score, you can go to town with your highlighter pens (see Marking your score in the Handbook for more on this.)

I use the 'chisel tip' variety; the wide tip makes it easier to highlight whole lines on the score. I use yellow for normal choral works, and orange for solos or small semi-chorus sections. I generally use Stabilo Boss yellow * and Stabilo Boss orange * but there are lots of different makes. Occasionally I'll use pink, blue or green if I need to highlight other things - this Staedtler 4-pack * gives a good range of other colours.

Index flags

These are the little sticky tabs that you can use for quickly finding each movement in your score. There are hundreds of different types, so find one that works for you. I find the 1-inch (25mm) wide ones about right: just enough room to write something (if a bit fiddly!) but small enough to fit them all along the top of the pages. I buy these: Post-It Index Flags, 100 Flags *. They come in other colours and quantities too.

Pencil Sharpener

You know when you're making enough notes in your score as your rehearsal pencils will wear down quickly! I use this electric pencil sharpener * at home to keep them sharp (note: batteries not included).

Paper clips

It's useful to keep a few paper clips handy in case the conductor makes any cuts to the work. You clip together the omitted pages, so you can turn straight to the next page that will be sung. See Marking your score for details.

Ruler

A transparent plastic 30cm ruler is useful if you want to highlight whole lines in your score. Bear in mind it may get stained by the highlighters so best to keep one just for this purpose.

Equipment to take to concerts

For concerts, your choir's concert manager or chair will generally remind you what to bring. For the actual concert you will probably only take onto stage:

• Your score(s)

• A music folder (if your choir uses them. See example above.)

• Concert dress (this varies from choir to choir)

• Your reading glasses (if you wear them)

But assuming you have a rehearsal or warm-up beforehand, you may also need:

• Your rehearsal pencils (for any last minute notes)

• Your rubber / eraser (particularly important if you're expected to remove your markings after the concert)

• Your water bottle (typically these aren't taken into the actual concert)

Other useful equipment you may already have

You're unlikely to buy the following just for choir use, but if you already have them they can be very helpful.

Headphones

Headphones allow you to listen to practice aids and recordings without disturbing others. It's also often easier to pick out your part when listening to a recording through headphones. There are countless headphones to choose from, but I can only personally recommend the ones I use. My Sony WH-1000XM4 headphones * are excellent for use at home: comfortable, great-sounding and very effective at blocking out external noise. (There are newer models like XM5 and XM6 which I haven't tried.)

Out and about I use TOZO T10 earbuds * which are much cheaper but still perfectly good and very easy to use. I wear them almost every day, in all weathers, so they only tend to last a few years but are cheap to replace.

Printer

A printer can be useful for printing rehearsal & concert information, and sheet music (where permitted). It's unlikely you're going to buy a printer just for this, but if you are going to buy one for other reasons, I'd highly recommend buying an ink tank printer rather than one that takes cartridges. They are generally more expensive initially, but much cheaper in the long run as you don't have to buy the expensive cartridges. I also find ours much more reliable; our old cartridge printers would often report an issue with the cartridge at the most inconvenient moment! I bought a Canon G3590 * - it's worth checking the price history and waiting for a sale as it's quite expensive when not on offer, but I can genuinely say it was worth every penny!

Other equipment

If you have suggestions of other items you've found useful, please let me know via the Contact form.