Some of my fondest high school memories involve being in chorus, whether it was performing in a concert or my friend curling my hair backstage beforehand. Chorus was pretty central to my identity as a high schooler. That was the group I fell into. There were the band geeks, the theater kids, the honor students, the athletes, the engineering kids - and then there was us: the chorus kids. Chorus was cliquey at times, I will admit. But being in chorus taught me some valuable lessons and left me with some pretty useful skills.
1. Good things are worth working for.
I, as soon as I entered chorus my freshman year, knew I wanted to be in the advanced ensemble my sister had made it into for that year. I would wait until my junior year, audition, and get in, just like she had. I wanted to have the same experiences she had. Junior year came. I auditioned, and as could be expected, I didn't make the cut. I was pissed. The other juniors and even sophomores that had auditioned had made it. I was jealous. But I knew exactly what had gone wrong: the sight-singing part of my audition. I've never been good at sight-singing. It's the worst, honestly. So next year, I knew exactly what to practice. I spent the afternoons leading up to the audition shut in my room, practicing sight-singing. I wanted intothis ensemble. That second audition was probably one of the only things I took seriously in my entire high school career. Then auditions came. Then the list was posted. I'd made the advanced group. I'd made myself proud as well. Was it worth it? Yes, definitely. That experience showed me that good things, like getting into that ensemble, were worth working for.
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2. Music isn't easy.
It. Is. Not. Easy. It simply is not. It's hard. It's really hard. There are so many things to memorize and think about all at the same time. Things that happen in one situation that don't happen in another and key signatures and sharps and flats and how to count in different time signatures. Songs in a foreign language. Songs in English. It takes practice. Hours on hours of practice and rehearsal. It's tiring. Incredibly tiring. By the end of show week, I wanted to go to bed and sleep for a month. And there was always cold and flu and allergy season where multiple people would be out sick or unable to sing or fighting to sing through the phlegm. I went into chorus as a freshman sort of expecting it to be easy, like my middle school choir. I was in for a harsh awakening to the realities of being a musician. I'm glad I realized that before I went to college.
3. Sight reading.
"I love sight-reading," said no musician ever. It's a necessary evil and a pain in the ass for sure. But it does absolutely help you learn a piece of music faster. Thanks to chorus, I can now sight-read a piece of music. Go me! (And go music education!)
4. Posture.
Posture is a key element of being a vocalist (or really any musician, I guess?). Ever since I left chorus I find myself just automatically sitting up straight or walking tall with my back totally straight. If there's one thing I need to thank chorus for, it's posture. My posture is just amazing. So thanks for that.
5. Dancing is not my forte.
Just thinking about the songs we did choreography to makes me want to put them on and do the choreography. While I did enjoy doing said choreography...I was not so good at actually doing it. I am not a very good dancer. This I already knew, but doing choreography in chorus really cemented that in my mind. I am not meant to dance in front of people. There's a reason I'm a singer and not a dancer.
6. Beautiful, universal experiences.
Concerts could be a lot of work but in the end, we got to go home knowing that we had created something beautiful together, however momentary it was. It was one moment in time where a large number of people were doing the same thing and there was just something magical about that. Whether it was just a regular concert in my high school auditorium or performing on-stage at Carnegie Hall, those are experiences I will never forget.
