Hi everyone

I just wondered if the majority of people in a choir have singing lessons as well. If you have never had singing lessons (or played any instrument) and joined a choir how did you know what to do as far as things such as techniques were concerned and learning to sight-sing if you can't read music? How did you understand the score. The reason I am asking this question is that sadly I have to give up singing lessons but am hoping to continue going to choir. Having the singing lessons has helped me with choir and shown me what to do to reach higher notes. Also, has anyone auditioned for a choir without ever having singing lessons or other musical knowledge and got in?

The answer to this is it all depends on the choir! Many choirs will take all-comers and assume that most of these singers do not read well, if at all. For singers with good reading skills these can be very tedious as everything is learnt by rote, or in some cases, by practice tapes.
Other choirs will ask for voice tests and, as you have had lessons, this should pose no problems for you. Reading skills are an added bonus.
Choose a choir with a good reputation and contact them. They may offer you a trial or may not but if you don't ask you'll never know. A good choral trainer will teach on the job. Go for it!

I have sung in choirs and have never had a singing lesson in my life. Admittedly both of the choirs I've sung in were non-auditioning, but I was the sop soloist in one of them and so can't have been that bad. I was invited a couple of years ago to audition for one of the more prestigious choirs in my area, but I didn't audition because I knew that I couldn't commit the time that would be required for all the concerts.

I know of some people who have successfully auditioned for the above choir having never had any formal training. I also know of some grade 8+ singers who have been turned away from the above choir. One of the things that is important in choirs is the ability to blend, and it seems that some of those who have been more heavily trained so that their style is more akin to that of an operatic soloist struggle to blend with other singers.

The choir I was in most recently did include some people who either could not read music or were poor sight readers, and they had to learn very quickly how to pick things up by ear because we would typically do 3 or 4 new items each week in addition to keeping other music ticking over. Those who couldn't keep up, or were uncomfortable with the religious content of the music, generally dropped out. In a choir which spends longer on individual pieces of music, poor sight reading skills of a lack of familiarity with musical notation would be less of an issue.

Some choir directors will cover very basic technical issues in rehersals (i.e. open throat, singing from above the note for top G/A/B etc) - but this is nowhere near what would get covered in singing lessons.

I'd say go for it!

If you want to improve your voice too, though, do take private lessons - teaching voice effectively isn't possible in group situations (how can you solve 30 people's individual vocal issues at once?) - and use the choir as a great opportunity to build musicality and enjoy singing in harmony.

Have fun !