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I'm no expert on this, I'm only speaking from my own experiences singing in choir. d One of our conductors did this to help our voices blend better. He would ask individuals from a section to sing their part, and he would choose the one he thought had the most suitable sound/tone for the song. Then he would bring the other section members one by have them ...

@Matthew Read gave some good suggestions, to which I'll add: Try rehearsing the problem sections at a wide variety of tempos, particularly ridiculously fast (once the choir knows the section reasonably well). Unwanted tempo changes become habitual. One way to break that habit is to go much faster (or slower, if the problem is acceleration) than desired, ...

I've found rounds especially good as warm-up pieces, as they can be taught to a mixed ability group without sheet music (and it doesn't matter what your ratio of male to female singers is!). There are some excellent rounds and simple part-songs in the Voiceworks series of books (Peter Hunt) - my favourites are in Voiceworks 2 and include: Ba-nu-wa ...

You mention "Unison pop tunes" -- have you considered writing/finding harmonised arrangements of pop songs? Lots of pop/rock songs have harmonised vocals. Almost every boy band / girl band is a "vocal harmony group". Pretty much any song can have vocal harmony retrofitted onto it. You're not going to engage these kids if you're dismissive about the music ...

I can't speak to the psychological reasons or addressing them, but there are a couple things you can try that basically apply to all types of music. 1) Have the weaker members listen to and follow the stronger ones. Ensure they can hear them, of course; don't put them on opposite sides of the stage. The mediocre members will probably do well enough if the ...

If you're absolutely sure that this is occurring, I'd guess it has something to do with the voices of the singers in your particular choir: there are areas called "breaks" in the human voice, and around those particular pitches, it can be easy to allow yourself to slip flat or sharp. I suspect the pieces you're singing stay close to some singers' breaks, and ...

I would strongly disagree with the notion of "pushing kids out the door if they don't have the bug". If choir is an elective class, the fact that they're in your door in the first place is enough! It shows that they have an interest, and if you're trying to build a program, that should be your only criteria! The only caveat to this that I'll mention would ...

I would like to preface my response by saying that no one here is going to be able to solve your problem, nor should they. Part of being a teacher is figuring these things out on your own - what works for your particular school or district. Golden advice from one teacher can be meaningless in a different culture or situation. Some thoughts: Get to know ...

I'm not a music educator but my wife of 13 years is an English as a second language (ESL) teacher, and also teaches Spanish and French. And this is what I've observed from her: Go out of your way to understand the native culture of your students and show them that you respect their culture. Come up with teaching activities that let them explore their own ...