Comments

Hey, congrats on completing your concert, fellow singer! : )

And on this comment:
>It just surprised me to hear vibrato come so naturally to someone who struggles with pitch.

Oh, I KNOW!!! That is precisely what I was talking about in your other thread, and why I think vibrato is independent of craft. We've got one of those sopranos in our choir. First soprano, at that. Beautiful vibrato, but she doesn't hear herself going flat. I find myself almost sharping during the a capella pieces to try and keep the soprano section "up." Occasionally the choir director will have the accompanist play the note we were supposed to end on, and it's just shocking - sometimes an entire note flat. And all the other sopranos look so shocked and dismayed and I feel like saying, "Well DUH. Can you not hear it?" But as I am only a seasonal member, I just duck my head in my folder and shuffle pages around.

Funny, though. I will continue my argument that the best choir member is someone who can stay in tune, take direction, sing well with others. And if vibrato comes into the equation, well, that's nice icing on the cake, yes? (In fact, that's all it should be in a choir! Delicate icing, at that.)

Anyway, Karen, fun to hear your choir musings. No one in my choir plays the violin, so it's enjoyable to converse with someone who speaks both these musical languages. : )

>With all the other holiday hoo-ha, I'm feeling like I don't need this, too. But then on the other hand, it's a way to concentrate and shut it all out and make Christmas about something other than trying to be organized and cross things off my to-do list.

That's exactly why I, too, find time to fit extra music into my December (including that concert). You said it well!

Thanks for referring to me as a singer! I was recruited into a church choir about 10 years ago by the person standing next to me in a church service. She heard me singing the hymns and said she thought I could add something to the choir. I was so flattered to have been asked that I went to the next rehearsal. I've moved hundreds of miles since then and am in a totally different church and choir now, but that's still why I'm there.

Before that I was pretty self-conscious about my voice and about singing at all. Those comments, meant to be helpful, where they tell you to play something on the violin like you were singing it, would always bring me up short or make me feel self-conscious. I'd be like, "no, really, you don't want me to do that. Have you ever actually heard me sing?" In music theory, we had to do some sight-singing and I was just a basket case before those tests. It was weird, in retrospect. Here's to second chances and music learning as an adult!