How to Learn a New Choir Song: A Simple Plan for New Choristers

New to choir and trying to learn songs quickly for Mass, weddings, or concerts? This step-by-step plan shows you how to learn a new choir song with confidence, even if you’re just starting out.

How to Learn a New Choir Song: A Simple Plan for New Choristers

You’ve just joined the choir. The director sends a new song into the WhatsApp group, or drops a fresh score on the stand at rehearsal and says:

Everyone else seems to pick it up quickly.
You, on the other hand, are wondering: Where do I even start?

The good news is this: learning a new choir song is a skill, and like any skill, you can follow a simple plan and get faster over time.

In this guide, we’ll walk through a clear step-by-step process you can use for almost any song – especially when you’re using a clean tonic solfa score from ChoirScript.

1. First, be clear on your goal and time frame

Before you start, decide what “learn the song” means for you this week.

A realistic goal for a new chorister is:

You don’t have to be perfect or sing completely from memory yet.
Confidence and accuracy come first.

For most parish choirs, a healthy target is:

• 3–5 short practice sessions at home before the next big rehearsal or Mass
• Each session is about 15–20 minutes

That’s only about one good episode of YouTube worth of time spread across the week.

2. Step One: Listen before you sing

Many new singers jump straight into singing and get overwhelmed.
Start simpler:

1. Listen to the song 2–3 times without singing.
   • Use a practice audio from ChoirScript if it’s available,
   • Or a rehearsal recording / demo from your director.
2. While listening, notice:
   • Where the song feels calm vs. strong,
   • Where it gets higher or lower,
   • Where it seems to repeat.

At this stage, don’t worry about getting your notes right.
You’re just letting your ear become familiar with the shape of the song.

3. Step Two: Open the score and get the “map” of the song

Now take your ChoirScript score (or whichever score you have) and spend 3–5 minutes just understanding its structure.

Look for:

• Title and composer – just to know what you’re singing.
• Your voice part – Soprano, Alto, Tenor, or Bass.
• Form – Does it have verses? A chorus? A bridge? Repeated sections?
• Key & tonic – In tonic solfa, where is d? In staff notation, which key signature?
• Time signature – Is it 3/4, 4/4, 6/8? This affects the feel and counting.

You’re basically saying:

This “map” makes everything less scary before you start learning actual notes.

4. Step Three: Learn the melody of your part in solfa

Now we zoom into your voice line only.

If the score is in tonic solfa, you’ll see something like:

Or similar patterns.

Here’s how to approach it:

1. Break your part into small phrases.
   • One line or one bar at a time.
2. Read the solfa slowly out loud, without singing:
   • “do re mi fa | mi re do…”
3. Then sing just that phrase slowly on solfa.

If staff notation is also shown, you can still think in solfa but also watch how it moves on the staff. Over time, your brain will connect the two.

Don’t rush. If one small phrase is confusing, repeat it several times until it feels natural.

5. Step Four: Add rhythm – clap, speak, then sing

Pitch (high vs low) is one thing; rhythm (how long you hold each note) is another.

To avoid getting lost in timing:

1. Clap the rhythm first for that phrase:
   • Ignore pitch; just focus on when notes start/stop.
2. Then speak the solfa in rhythm:
   • Clap and say: “d r m f | m r d -”
3. Finally, sing the solfa in rhythm.

If the score uses dots and hyphens, remember:

• A dot after a note makes it longer,
• A hyphen - means keep holding the note,
• The bar lines | help you feel how many beats are in each measure.

Taking rhythm separately for a moment makes the full line much easier to sing correctly later.

6. Step Five: Add the real words

Once the solfa and rhythm feel comfortable, it’s time to add lyrics.

Do it in two stages:

1. Speak the words in rhythm
   • Keep the same clapping or counting,
   • Just speak the words clearly as if you’re reading a poem.
2. Then sing the words on the melody you already learned.

If a particular word always throws you off (for example a long phrase or a language you aren’t used to), practise that section alone a few times. Sometimes the difficulty is not musical—it’s pronunciation or breath.

A useful tip:

7. Step Six: Use a simple 4-day practice plan

Here’s a practical way to organise your week when you have a new song.

Day 1 – Get familiar (15–20 minutes)

• Listen to the song 2–3 times.
• Skim the score and find your part.
• Learn the first section of your part in solfa (maybe the first verse or first 8 bars).

Day 2 – Complete your part (15–20 minutes)

• Review yesterday’s section.
• Learn the next section of your part in solfa.
• Clap and speak the rhythm for both sections.
• Try to sing from the beginning to where you’ve reached.

Day 3 – Add lyrics and clean up (15–20 minutes)

• Add the words to the sections you know.
• Fix any spots where you always guess or slide off pitch.
• If there is a chorus, make sure you can sing it confidently – the chorus often repeats a lot in the actual performance.

Day 4 – Run-through (15–20 minutes)

• Sing your whole part along with:
  • A practice audio,
  • Or a piano/organ recording,
  • Or a rehearsal recording from the choir.
• Mark any mistakes you notice:
  • Notes that feel too high/low,
  • Words you rush,
  • Places where you lose the beat.
• Sing those tricky spots very slowly, then at normal speed again.

By the time you’ve done this, you won’t be perfect, but you’ll be:

8. Step Seven: Make rehearsal work for you

When you finally sing the song in full choir rehearsal, a few habits will help:

• Keep your score open and mark corrections.
  Circle any place the director corrects your part or asks you to watch something.
• Listen to neighbouring voices.
  Don’t try to sing over everyone; blend in.
  Tenors should hear the basses under them; altos should hear the sopranos above them, and so on.
• Watch the director.
  The cues for entries, cut-offs, dynamics (loud/soft) come from their hands and face.
• Stay relaxed.
  If you’ve done a bit of preparation at home, you don’t need to shout or force your voice. Confidence grows with each rehearsal.

9. Common mistakes new choristers make (and how to avoid them)

9.1. Trying to learn everything at once

They try to sight-read the whole song from beginning to end, get confused, and feel discouraged.

Fix: Always break the song into small phrases and master one at a time.

9.2. Ignoring rhythm

They get the notes roughly right but always come in late or early.

Fix: Spend a few minutes just clapping and counting each section before singing.

9.3. Only copying others’ voices

They never look at the score, only listen and copy. If the strong singer in front of them is absent, they are lost.

Fix: Use your ChoirScript score actively. Let your eyes and ears work together.

9.4. Waiting for rehearsal to learn everything

They do zero practice at home and hope to learn in one or two rehearsals.

Fix: Even 10–15 minutes at home makes a huge difference. Rehearsal is for blending and polishing, not learning from zero.

10. Connecting this plan to ChoirScript

The steps we outlined become much easier when:

• Your score’s tonic solfa is clear and accurate,
• The layout is readable,
• Practice audios and good engraving support you.

That’s exactly what ChoirScript is trying to give you:

• Clean solfa lines for each voice,
• Consistent rhythm notation,
• Pieces organised by difficulty and use case (Mass, competition, wedding, etc.).

So the next time your choir picks a new song:

1. Open the ChoirScript score for your part.
2. Follow the 4-day plan above.
3. Walk into rehearsal already familiar with the sound and shape of the piece.

Over time, you’ll notice that:

• You need fewer days to feel comfortable with a new song,
• You start recognising common patterns (“this chorus feels like that other piece we sang”),
• And you move from just “following others” to being a confident, reliable voice in the choir.