Step 1: Invite People (ANYONE) to Complain*
- Distribute flyers, spread posters and write a press release to get people from your city, organisation or other community of interest to submit a complaint (or more!) and sign up to the choir.
- The more diverse the participants, the better! No singing skills required.
Part of the online invitation to find Dresden choir participants.
Step 2: Find the Right Musician
- Since the song has to be composed within only a few days, and is subject to amendments in rehearsals, make sure you find a proficient musician who can create a solid song!
- Ideally, the musician should also lead the rehearsals and be able to help any amateur members sing loud with enthusiasm and confidence, or otherwise work closely with a conductor.
Step 3: Group the Complaints
- Group all submitted complaints into appropriate categories (such as technology, money, things that can't be changed etc.) and print them on separate papers.
Step 4: The First Choir Meeting: Making the Lyrics
- Start with a warm-up complaining session (that's why people have come!), which may produce useful extra material.
- Show them the chosen categories and read out the best ones from each.
- Ask each member of the choir to choose any category they feel most excited about and divide them into 'expert teams' based on their favourite categories.
- Have these teams go through all the complaints within their category to reformulate and combine them. They should then glue their results to cardboard.
- Come together at the end and get each team to share their suggestions with the other teams.
Step 5: Making the Song
- A few volunteers from the choir then finalise the lyrics by combining the ideas of the expert teams with the musician, who then combines the lyrics with music.
Step 6: Rehearsing
- Organise rehearsal times.
- Between 3-5 rehearsals should be sufficient to learn the song.
- Be open to integrate new ideas that pop up during rehearsals.
- Encourage people to enjoy themselves!
- Serve food and drinks at the end of each rehearsal.
- Since the song has to be composed within only a few days, and is subject to amendments in rehearsals, make sure you find a proficient musician who can create a solid song!
- Ideally, the musician should also lead the rehearsals and be able to help any amateur members sing loud with enthusiasm and confidence, or otherwise work closely with a conductor.
Step 3: Group the Complaints
- Group all submitted complaints into appropriate categories (such as technology, money, things that can't be changed etc.) and print them on separate papers.
Hamburg-Wilhelmsburg
Step 4: The First Choir Meeting: Making the Lyrics
- Start with a warm-up complaining session (that's why people have come!), which may produce useful extra material.
- Show them the chosen categories and read out the best ones from each.
- Ask each member of the choir to choose any category they feel most excited about and divide them into 'expert teams' based on their favourite categories.
- Have these teams go through all the complaints within their category to reformulate and combine them. They should then glue their results to cardboard.
- Come together at the end and get each team to share their suggestions with the other teams.
Step 5: Making the Song
- A few volunteers from the choir then finalise the lyrics by combining the ideas of the expert teams with the musician, who then combines the lyrics with music.
Step 6: Rehearsing
- Organise rehearsal times.
- Between 3-5 rehearsals should be sufficient to learn the song.
- Be open to integrate new ideas that pop up during rehearsals.
- Encourage people to enjoy themselves!
- Serve food and drinks at the end of each rehearsal.
Stretching and drinks break at Budapest!
Gabriola Island
Step 7: Preparing the Grand Performances
- Decide the locations of your performances together with the choir. You can either advertise the performance and invite an audience or surprise people with a spontaneous performance at a public place, similar to a flash mob.
- Ensure there is a video recording of each performance and one quiet location where you can make an audio recording.
Step 8: Go Out and Sing Your Complaints Together!
- Make sure the choir have food if there are many performances on the same day (hungry complainers won't sing well!).
Step 9: The Video
- Sync up the audio recording with clips of the various performances.
- Share the video and spread the word!
- Give each participant a DVD of the performance.
Promotional Image for the Complaints Choir Documentary
DVD
*Tellervo and Oliver ask that you credit them appropriately by placing a link to their site (complaints choir.org) when the video is shared. It would also be good to let them know if you are planning to organise a choir (via their email: kochta@nexgo.de) so they can document it.
- Decide the locations of your performances together with the choir. You can either advertise the performance and invite an audience or surprise people with a spontaneous performance at a public place, similar to a flash mob.
- Ensure there is a video recording of each performance and one quiet location where you can make an audio recording.
Hong Kong
Step 8: Go Out and Sing Your Complaints Together!
- Make sure the choir have food if there are many performances on the same day (hungry complainers won't sing well!).
Florence
Step 9: The Video
- Sync up the audio recording with clips of the various performances.
- Share the video and spread the word!
- Give each participant a DVD of the performance.
Promotional Image for the Complaints Choir Documentary
DVD
*Tellervo and Oliver ask that you credit them appropriately by placing a link to their site (complaints choir.org) when the video is shared. It would also be good to let them know if you are planning to organise a choir (via their email: kochta@nexgo.de) so they can document it.
