When you don't have enough choir singers - what to do in general and for the performance

[@lizziesmusicmaking]

I would LOVE to have a choir-singer tree! If you find a source for choir-singer trees, let me know;) I recently started running the worship team at the very small church I go to, which has worked out to be a mini choir of four people, with me accompanying on harp as well as being one of the singers. I'm having some issues to figure out with vocal range - there's two altos neither of whom together or separately are comfortable with holding a part, a mezzo soprano who isn't there all the time but is a strong singer, and a soprano who is spending most of her brain power on playing the harp since harp isn't my main instrument. As such, we generally sing in unison, but we're running into problems with the altos really not liking C5 and up, and my lower vocal break causing me major problems below about B4. One of the altos has a tendency to slip into the octave below for brief periods when things get to B5 and C5. We have tried singing with them and the mezzosoprano in one octave and me in another, but that only works if the mezzosoprano is there and tends to put both me and the mezzosoprano in not the greatest vocal ranges for us in opposite directions. I am about to start taking singing lessons which I hope should help me learn to project while sitting down and sing decently across and below my vocal break, but... do you have any suggestions for me on how to handle this situation? We are a lot better than when we started last year, but I'd really like to be able to improve things further.

[@samperlman3028]

What does a synagogue choir do if there's no cantor