The Senses of Singing

I am sitting in my third block class, choir class that is and today students will be singing their solos to the class. The first girl to come up and sing is not very shy at all but as soon as she started singing, the noise was unbearable, almost like nails on a chalkboard. The next person to come up had been in the class for two years and he was very good at singing, but as he got up to sing he walked right by me and the bitter odor of his cologne filled my nose and made me sneeze. We only had two more solos left and I could tell you I was ready for lunch, my stomach gurgled and made all these weird sounds, telling me I was hungry. The next person just came to the class at the beginning of the year and no one knew if she could sing or not because we never heard her. But to our surprise she was not half bad but she did spit a lot when she sang. During the song I felt something hit my lips, so I stuck my tongue out and licked my lips and I felt like I was drinking salt water. I was disgusted after I realized what had just happened. The last person to sing was so eager that as she was getting up she fell over a chair and knocked over the whole choir. I had a person land one me and and his sandpaper like skin brushed against mine. It sent a shiver down my back and I ran out of the room.

The Mathematics of Singing

Singing is math. When you begin to learn math in school you first start of by learning how to solve the different types of problems. Lets use addition for example. You start by adding the two numbers together, which is part of the technique for mathematics. In singing you have to start off by learning the techniques too. When the note goes up the scale you sing higher and when the note goes down the scale you sing lower. The next thing in math is to practice what you have learned. The more you practice the math problems the better you will become and be able to do the problems with ease. Just like math, in singing you have to practice the techniques of going up and down the scale so that you will become better at singing. Singers use sight reading to perfect singing up and down the scale. Lastly in math you have to apply what you have learned in a math test. A math test is an assesment to see if you have understood what was taught to you and to see if you took the proper steps to practice the technique. Singing is the same way, you are tested with sight reading lines, so the teacher can see if you are making progress and understanding the techniques involved in sight reading. Singing is math because they both start off by learning the technique, practicing the technique, and the apply the techniques to look for progress.

Why do We Sing the Bad Note

I am sitting in a room where the chairs are encircling a piano. I feel a soreness to my throat and realize I might be getting sick. Looking outside I see the storm coming closer and the black clouds rolling in. With the approaching storm I feel the room getting colder and colder. I then realize more students are coming in the room and I feel my palms start to sweat and I start to get a little nervous. Today I will be singing a solo at the beginning of class. As I begin singing, there are no problems but then half way through the song I think of all the influences around me and I sing a bad note and not just one, but two or three. The sore throat, the approaching storm, the cold room, and the nerves are all influences on the bad note I sang during my solo. After hitting the wrong note, I did not want to finish the song but I kept going. When I was done singing I left the room and the outcome of the bad note showed anger at myself and the music, but on top of the anger I was really embarrassed. I had worked on this solo for a very long time and knew the notes but for some reason they notes came out bad. I had just decided the bad note also gave me the outcome of retiring from my solo career and to just stick with choral singing.

The Appreciation of Music

You may not realize but we all take appreciation for granite and the things we appreciate: everyday necessities, to family and friends, and even to our own personal lives. With appreciating we show how grateful or thankful we are, this is a virtue we all must understand. With this type of appreciation we would never want to lose these things and we would always want them near to us. I appreciate the talent of singing and many other people do not because they either think they cannot sing but they really can or they have not experienced the beauty of singing all together. I think the whole process starts with the appreciating what you hear out of the song. We hear singing around us all day from the radio, to live performances, to even people singing in Wal-Mart. When we hear the singing, some of us let the tune go in one ear and out the other and others let the music move them. They listen to the lyrics, the background music, the beat or rhythm, and then the whole thing overall, to really understand and appreciate what they are listening to. When you start to appreciate singing, you start to have a better outlook on life and have more of a positive attitude. So next time you hear a song come on, take time and really listen to the whole aspect and appreciate what you are listening to, just like Charlie Brown and his friends do when they sing.

The Do-Re-Mi of Singing is as Easy as 1-2-3

I am sitting on a mountain side in Austria where the Sound of Music was filmed, in exactly the same spot Maria was teaching the Von Trapp children to sing. But instead of Maria teaching the children to sing, I am. We start off with learning the solfedge of singing, do-re-mi-fa-so-la-ti-do. The children's faces are glowing as they learn the melodic scale. I continue with more exercises of going up and down the scale and as the day goes on, they learn to harmonize using the musical scale. But I see that one child in the back is becoming frustrated with the syllables, so I then teach the children the hand movements with each note. He seems to understand the process a little better but is still very confused. And then I thought of course I will teach the song that Maria sings in the movie, "Do-Re-Mi." The children immediately catch on and stand up and start dancing. We are all dancing down the mountain side into Vienna, laughing and singing and having fun. The children decide to perform their own rendition of the song and put on a concert for the crowd in the middle of town. After they are done performing I sit them all down and we discuss what we have learned about singing and the musical scale and they told me that learning do-re-mi is as easy as one-two-three!