Yep, think about that. I’m in Symphonic Choir at lunchtime on MWF. The instructor is fabulous! And I get the opportunity to meet students and sing with them which reminds me why I work so hard on the support services at the college.

dance of the tides

So we are learning a sighing lullaby for the Winter concert. You know how it is, learning something by rote before you are able to give it the “flow” it needs. We were working on a lovely phrase and getting the harmonies very correct. And he said we should work on smoothing the motion out, that we sounded like “aural Tetris.” What a great description!

I’m singing tenor, which is a new experience for me. Yes, on Beethoven’s 9th Chorale years ago, I sang some tenor lines, but in that choir (and all of my life) I’ve been second alto. I didn’t realize how much I am conditioned to be an alto. During rehearsal, when he calls on the altos to sing, I still sit up straight and take a breath! It’s reflex! The tenor part has the melody more often than the altos, and I’m enjoying singing with the basses — picking up the chords from them instead of from the sopranos.

This choir experience is a blessing, total blessing. The instructor plays our parts for us instead of insisting we sight read the music. After we’ve started work on a song and get the general idea, he’ll play a recording for us and tell us how he would like us to sing compared to the recording. And his humor. This guy is a firecracker. The last time I had an instructor with that much energy and constant good humor was Mr. Cobain in Algebra in 9th Grade at Salk Jr. High in Spokane. (That was just a couple of years ago, eh?) Our warm ups are fun, and they sound really good too. And we do a lot a capella, which I also love. Halleluiah!