Journal Entry 23: Sing a Song

I decided that I wanted to participate in one of the musical groups on campus so I joined my friend at choir rehearsal one evening. When I first entered the room, it felt very chaotic because there were so many voices singing at once. A man handed me the sheet music to an aria and told me to join in with the sopranos. They weren’t really on key, but I assumed it was because they were just learning the song and were trying to get the hang of the different changes in pitch.

The choir director then told us to break up into sections so that each voice part could have a chance to practice, so I went with the sopranos to his office. I noticed that he didn’t really count off the rhythm for us. Most choir directors would count off “1, 2, 3”, but he would just say “Readyyy, go!”. I also noticed he could barely play the piano, which wouldn’t be a big deal if he could demonstrate our part better.

One of the girls raised her hand to ask a question. I couldn’t remember the exact phrase she used, but she described the shape of the notes, asking if the “blank circle with the stem” was two beats and “the colored in circle with the stem” was one. This is when I realized that many of them don’t read music, which means it takes even longer to learn music. Afterword, we joined the other voice parts and practiced all together, sounding a little better than when we originally started. I picked up the song pretty quickly, because the melody was simple. Towards the end of rehearsal, the director stood in front of the room as the choir members talked amongst themselves. He put his hand on his chin and remained silent, waiting for everyone to settle down. I was immediately brought back to high school at that moment. Noticing that no one was quieting down, he began talking over everyone and giving announcements. Just before we left, the choir director asked us to join hands so we could bow our heads and pray. This was new for me because it was almost assuming that everyone in the choir was Christian (but I later on realized that it does have a religious background). I appreciated having this experience and seeing how the rehearsal functions, but I decided that it probably wasn’t for me.