Have you ever wondered what a choir rehearsal looks like?
I have played for a number of choirs over the years - church, university, elementary school, junior high and high school, community, and professional - and they all run about the same!
You may remember grade school choir, where the teacher would help you warm up your voice by singing various exercises up and down the scales, perhaps on solfège syllables, and then you would learn your voice part by hearing it sung and then singing it in imitation. Maybe you were given music in a binder and were taught to follow the rise and fall of the notes on the page.
Many people return to choir as adults because they had some special moment in the past with music. They can remember being touched by a certain piece of music, getting inspired by a music teacher, or having sung in an incredible space. Often, these returnees are coming from professions other than music. They have chosen to study law, business, or medicine, or have become schoolteachers or homemakers. They may have some formal music training in voice or in an instrument, but career and family have taken over the majority of their time. These music-lovers have often retired from their career, so that they have more leisure time, but there are also those who, despite their busy lives, have decided to seek respite in a musical community.
For that is what a choir is - a gathering of people who love music and who dedicate time to its study and performance. But it is even more than that, because being a great choir means having a certain level of humility and willingness to work toward a common goal.
Most choirs outside of a church or school setting require their members to pay dues. These dues help to pay for the director and accompanist, and also function as an initial commitment to the choir. Beyond financial investments, choir members are strongly encouraged to sell tickets and volunteer on the board or take on a variety of volunteer roles in marketing, grant-writing, logistics, facilities, recruitment, concert dress, and so on. It may sound funny to pay and have to work for the privilege of singing in a group, but that is the reality of how choirs function.
Some choirs audition their members, which usually means the director will meet one on one with each person and have them sing while he or she plays notes on the piano, to determine which voice part the person is. Women's voices tend to sing soprano and alto parts, and men's voices tend to sing tenor and bass parts, although it is not uncommon to have women tenors, and in a children's choir you might see boy sopranos and altos. The director might also want to test a person's music-reading ability with a page of music. While not all choir directors expect members to read music well, generally they want people to have some familiarity with the notes on the page.
Adult choirs generally meet once a week, while school choirs may meet several times. After vocal warm-ups, the director usually gives the plan of rehearsal and starts rehearsing the music. Depending on the level of the choir, you may sing through a new piece of music all the way through, or you may start learning the parts by listening to them being played. Often, adult choirs will provide recordings of parts through .mp3 files so that members can go home and practice singing their parts with the recording before they return to choir the following week. Usually the music handed out is owned by the choir, and lent to the members for the quarter or the season.
Adult choirs are not usually required to memorize the music, but children's choirs often are. There may be requirements for attendance, especially if members desire to sing in the concerts.
If the rehearsal runs a few hours, it is not unusual to have a break in the middle. Sometimes refreshments are provided, and often announcements are given before or after the break. Adult choirs also generally have some form of communication (e-mail, social media) so that members can contact each other during the week for announcements, volunteer opportunities, information about ticket sales or concert dress, or arranging carpools.
Being part of a choir is a special thing. The choir is a microcosm of the greater community, including so many wonderfully diverse people. Choristers work hard to learn all kinds of music and bring it to a standard of excellence so that they can provide musical encounters that touch the hearts of friends and family. The magic of many voices blending together into a unified whole is an amazing thing to witness, but so much more exciting to be a part of!
If you are considering joining a choir, and would like to know more, check out these articles from ABC Classic:
Everything You Want to Know About Joining a Choir but Were Too Embarrassed to Ask
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