A few weeks ago I decided to rebrand one of my choirs, specifically my Ladies Barbershop Choir. They were previously known as The Bellettes, but for many reasons the name wasn’t quite right. I also wanted to take this choir in a new direction and so it was decided that we should find a new name.
Choosing a name:
This process is far harder than you might think. First of all I decided to give my ladies the opportunity to choose a name themselves. Given there is only 8 members of this choir I didn’t imagine that would be too difficult. We put all the names into a hat (or more specifically onto a spreadsheet) and then took a vote to see which was the most popular. It turned out that out of the 30 or so names suggested no one could agree which one they liked the most, or indeed at all!
So as the choirmaster I decided to step in and come up with a solution. Of course this was potentially a risky idea as I didn’t particularly want to force a name onto the choir which they hated – that’s essentially what happened the last time! So there were many discussions. The basic criteria was a one word name which which was stylish but simple and yet conveyed in it exactly what the choir was about. In the end I came up with BlueBelles on the basis that Belles signified a group of ladies and Blue could sometimes be attributed to the style of music they sing. Additionally Blue is my favourite colour!
The New Choir:
Any choir, in my view, needs to have a clear purpose and always have something to aim for, usually a performance of some sort or other. In addition I think it’s important for any choir to know what it’s about. Some choirs are just interested in having fun singing together, some want to perform but only on a small scale and some like to join with other groups, go on tours or enter competitions. The BlueBelles have been formed specifically to perform publicly and hopefully in time enter competitions and go on tour.
Publicity:
The choir already have their own website and the next step is to sort them out with a uniform for performances and get some publicity photographs done. Later in the year I hope to record a CD with the choir which will really help open up new opportunities for them. Nowadays, marketing a choir is the key to being successful as there are so many choirs out there and some very talented ones at that!
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You can find out more about the BlueBelles on their website which has just been launched.