Hello!
My siblings and I joined a choir through a local homeschool co-op this semester, along with one of our friends. We met about three times a month for around 3 months. There’s been ups and downs but overall it’s been a really fun experience! I really love the songs we were singing and I love our teacher, she is so passionate about singing and choir and she’s a great leader but very encouraging and kind. I’ve enjoyed sharing this experience with my siblings and our friend. One of the moms of a kid in the group ended up being our teacher’s assistant so she was very helpful and it was nice to have another set of eyes on things. She is super sweet. A lot of the other kids are very kind and sweet too!
We recently had our main performance night for this semester! We were planning on singing that same day at a nursing home but when we got there we found out they had the flu so unfortunately we couldn’t sing to them. That night we sang at their Lutheran service (where their homeschool co-op and all these choir classes have been held) and then had a concert in the gym. We also recently sang at another nursing home, in two different buildings! That was fun!
The songs we’ve been working on and sang are…
- Dona Nobis Pacem
- You Are My All In All
- Peace, Peace
- Angel Carol
- You Are My Sunshine (which we also had actions for!)
- My Country ‘Tis of Thee
We did “Dona Nobis Pacem” and “You Are My All In All” during the service and then all of them during our concert and for the nursing home.
What’s something you liked about it (and why)? I love singing in choirs! When it sounds good! 😂 But it is so satisfying. My favorite songs were the ones that had two parts. I loved “Peace, Peace” the most (in fact we’re going to be singing that with our friend who was in choir with us at our annual Christmas recital!), then “Angel Carol”, “All in All” and “Dona Nobis Pacem”. It’s really fun to sing songs with two parts, or in the round! It’s fun and just sounds so cool, even with a couple people. I liked learning how to sing in a choir and things to work on as well.
I loved our teacher, she had so much joy and passion that she shared with us and it made it all so much fun. I also loved sharing this experience with our friend, I’m sure it has helped us all be better friends and it was a lot more fun with her!
Finally, I also liked how this brought a lot more singing to our house. There’s already a lot of it… but I liked it because these were more purposeful and sounded good, and it was fun and made the house more lively. My siblings and I would practice a lot and also just sing the songs for fun! “Dona Nobis Pacem”, I think, sounded better when the three of us did it at home, vs. the whole group at choir. I really like that one!
What’s something you disliked about it (and why)? I really wish the practices would have been more efficient. There were some kids who did not seem very interested and some that didn’t always pay attention or would misbehave. That made it not as enjoyable. I could have done better myself at paying attention and doing what she said- I chose not to at times. My siblings and I practiced the songs a lot at home, we certainly could have done better, memorized them sooner and gotten more technical ourselves but it would have been helpful if the other kids practiced more… maybe they did- and I should not be judging. But I feel like the actual classes could have been a lot more efficient, we could have gotten better at the songs and actually achieved some of the technique stuff too. And work in between classes would have helped with that as well.
I also wish I would have been more friendly and kind to the other kids, while we were there and also talking about them while we weren’t there.
What was your biggest takeaway or lesson? I learned so much! Maybe my biggest takeaway was just this really fun experience of singing in a choir, and now knowing that I really enjoy it!
But also, hearing more of our teachers story because she’s had a lot of serious health problems. I only just learned some of this the other day. So knowing her story and now looking back on how she’s acted this whole time… she’s been so joyful and kind. Even when kids were misbehaving, she’d treat them with such kindness while still being firm. And her joy- there’s very few people I know with as much joy as she has. Our friend’s mom who was talking to her about her health problems told us how she was saying that she doesn’t know when her last day will be or how long she’s got left so she just lives everyday like it’s her last. Wow. She is so inspiring. And just seeing her passion for singing, especially in a choir, and how she’s shared that with us, so amazing and cool.
On a lower scale, I also learned a lot of techniques and things to watch for and work on while singing a song, tips for how to warm up and just a lot of great experience!
It was also very interesting attending their Lutheran service! I knew that Lutherans were similar to Catholics but I did not realize how similar the service is to the Mass! It’s basically like they took the Mass and just changed things (which they probably did.). It was missing a lot of the meat, but I also was judging too much so I wish I wouldn’t have done that. It was very informative and interesting!
What is something you’re curious to learn more about as a result of this experience? I’m looking forward to doing it again next semester. It’s gotten me more into singing and I’ve really liked being a part of a choir! I’m hoping to learn more about singing in a choir in the future. I think it would be fun to eventually join our choir at church!
Thank you for reading!
Lucy