ABSTRACT
This chapter provides several guidelines for success in the practical matters of concert and festival preparation, travel, technology, and other challenges of the first year of teaching. The long-range planning exercise will give a very realistic understanding of how much music needs to be learned per rehearsal, assuring a steady progression to the goal, and avoiding the stress of ill-prepared music at concert time. As the new choral director prepares the choirs for adjudicated performances, attention must be given to those criteria upon which the choir will be judged. The experience of traveling and seeing new sights together is a bonding and life-broadening one for choristers, and is often the incentive for students to join the choir. Technology standards state that choral music students should be able to sing using computer-assisted instruction and assessment software, and to practice choral parts using music production and practice/accompaniment software.
