I, like most children where I am from, grew up playing sports through the local YMCA. Soccer, basketball, softball, cheer-nastics. You name it, I probably played it. But, all of that started changing in my last years of elementary school. I was introduced to choral performance through my elementary school's show choir. Ever since that fateful day in the fourth grade, I have been hooked on music. For me, being in chorus was always more than a class or an after school activity. I formed a bond with those people that I don't think I will ever find again. Here are a few things I realized over the years that a lot of other chorus kids can relate to.
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1. Solfege
If you don't know what solfege is you are probably not a chorus kid, but I will explain it to you. Solfege is the term used to describe the octave scale, from do (pronounced dough) to do. If you have ever seen the movie "The Sound of Music," Julie Andrews sings a song explaining solfege, "Doe (do), a deer, a female deer, ray (re), a drop of golden sun..." and so on. Well in chorus solfege kind of haunts you. Every time we got a new song one of our first tasks was to figure out the key it was in and solfege our part. We would also do listening quizzes, where my teacher would play a note, do, followed by another note and we would have to guess the solfege interval. We even had hand signs for each syllable. My freshman year of high school we called them our chorus gang signs.
2. Patching
This is our method of keeping time to the music. We used to count, using numbers one through four in simple meter, because most of the time there were four beats per measure (4/4 time signature), where each number represented a quarter note because it received the beat, and numbers one through six in compound meter, as the most common compound meter was 6/8, where there are six beats per measure and the eighth note gets the beat. Halfway through high school, my chorus teacher switched it upon us and made us all learn this new, strange way of keeping time through this process called patching. In simple meter each beat got one patch consisting of an downbeat, represented by your hands being low with the corresponding phrase "ta", and an upbeat, represented by your hands being up with the corresponding phrase "di." Compound meter had two patches consisting of three parts for the basic 6/8 time signature, where each part represented an eighth note. There was the low hand gesture with the phrase "ta", a middle hand gesture with the phrase "ki", and the high hand gesture, but this time with the phrase "do". Things got a little more complicated with mixing the two when you got into a funky time signature like 7/8 or 9/8. Anyway I know for a fact that many people in my chorus group, including me, would find ourselves patching along with the radio in the car or when we were listening to music at home or with friends. It's like we couldn't escape it.
3. Harmonizing
When you hear a song, the main part is the melody. Typically when you sing along with a song, you sing the melody along with the vocalist. In chorus, the soprano(high females) section usually sings the melody. I was an alto (lower females) for nine years, so I hardly ever sang the melody. Instead I sang the harmony. This would be like what backgound singers sing in pop music. Because I was so used to singing the melody in class, five days a week, for nine years, I would find it hard to sing the melody along wiht songs on the radio and often found myself attempting to harmonize with them instead. This something that I still do today.
4. Costumes
In most music performance classes, at least all the ones at my school, you go to contest. These contests had a certain dress code in order to make the choir look like a more uniform unit. In my choir in middle school everyone, boys and girls, wore tuxedo shirts, black bow ties, black pants, and black shoes. Let me tell you something, those shirts were the most uncomfortable things I have ever worn in my life. In high school the girls wore floor length black dresses with black shoes and he guys wore black tuxedos with black shoes. It was always the running joke in our choir that we were going to wear these outfits to prom because they were oh so stunning and flattering to the form. I'm sure we weren't the only ones.
5. Thinking In Song
Now this one may just be a me thing, but it definitely comes from being in chorus for what is now just under half of my life. I think in songs. I relate to songs on a more personal level than just listening for entertainment. I feel songs. If someone says something that reminds me of a song, it will automatically start playing in my head. This especially happens in church. If I am in a sermon or a bible study and the person talking say something that sparks a song in my mind I will right down the lyrics in my journal, because that evoked a feeling in me that can only be felt through song, to me at least. I also feel like music is one of the most personal art forms, because for me music is an emotional outlet. There are things I feel through song so much deeper than I ever could through spoken or written word.
6. Listening to Music
I no longer listen to music like a "normal" person. I listen for the vibrato, that little shake in a singer's voice. I listen for deep notes in a bass (low guys) voice or the extreme highs in a soprano. It's even more impressive when a tenor (usually middle to high guys) hits soprano notes using their falsetto/head voice, kind of like Adam Levine and Jason Derulo sing. In groups, I listen for the harmonies. I search for them really, because i love a god harmony part. If I get goosebumps within the first measure of a song, I know it is going to be a good one. I am really picky about what I listen to, because I was trained in understanding and performing at high quality songs. When I watch talent shows like "America's Got Talent" or "The Voice" sometimes I feel like I am more picky than the judges because of it.
7. Family
Because of chorus, my definition of the word family changed. No these people were not biologically related tome, or related to me at all, but through music we created a connection with each other that is deeper and stronger than the ones I have with some of my biological family members. I knew that these people would be there for me. We called each other our chorus family. The relationships had with our accompanist and director wee more like that of siblings than of teachers and students, but that can be attributed to their young age. One moment in particular where our family was really strengthened was my junior year. One of our members lost her mother very suddenly. This individual was a very active member within the group and this was a loss for all. Our choir got together at school on a weekend and prayed for this individual and her family. Most of us left school early and went to the funeral to be there for her and her younger sister, who was also involved in the choral program at our school. We were there for her and each other in such a tragic time of loss. If we can be there for each other through that, we can be there for each other through anything.
Within the walls of chorus rooms I became a part of something bigger than I could have ever realized at the time. I made connections and had such strong experiences that shaped who I am today. I traveled with these people. I experienced success and felt tragedy. I knew all the words to my high school's alma mater. I learned "Silent Night" in the original language of German. I performed some of the most complicated choral pieces a high school group has performed ("Water Nigh by Eric Whitacre).My senior year I was not really sad about graduating and leaving high school, but I was sad about leaving these people. I did not cry at graduation or when my parents dropped me off at college the next spring. I did cry at my senior spring concert during the senior slide show and senior song, because it was my last concert with these people who had just been involved in so much of my life. I almost cried looking through the pictures for this article, I am tearing up writing this paragraph, because I miss it so much. It is probably the biggest thing I miss about high school, and it is also one of the things that I am most thankful for. If you were also in chorus, I'm sure you can relate. Thanks for all the great memories.
