Music- The Basics

When most people hear the word choir, they picture a group of people dressed in robes, all in rows, watching someone in front of them wave their arms, magically extracting sound from the singers. Sure, if you don’t appreciate music, that’s exactly what it looks like. But oh my goodness is it so much more than that. It’s style, it’s technique, it’s a work of art. People come together and use their vocal chords to create a gorgeous array of sounds. I like to think of the sound as milk chocolate; smooth, creamy, delicious. Yes, delicious. When the right sounds come together, it’s like nothing else in this world. As you might’ve guessed, I’m a choir student, and hope to be a successful choir director one day. I see so much more than just voices making music. I see a clean, blank, white canvas, and each individual voice is a different color paint. They work together to make the most beautiful piece of art you’ve ever seen; or in this case, heard.

            There are many different types of choir. Chamber choir, for example, tends to do classical music and is a larger group. A jazz choir is most likely smaller in numbers, and does all sorts of jazz songs; up-beat, slow and sultry, etc. A show choir is very different from the rest of the choirs. There’s still the four to eight part harmony, but the choir dances as well. In a show choir show, there are usually four to six songs, including a catchy closer and a heart-felt ballad. The type of music is different, too. The audience is looking for a show that’s not like a chamber choir concert or a jazz choir concert. The shows are fun and unpredictable.

            There are a minimum of four voice parts in choir. From lowest pitch to highest pitch, there’s bass, tenor, alto, soprano. In more advanced choirs, the voice parts extend beyond that. Once again in the order of lowest pitch to highest pitch, bass, baritone, tenor two, tenor one, alto two, alto one, soprano two, soprano one. Females are on the soprano and alto parts, and males are on the tenor and bass parts. All these parts work together to harmonize and become one voice. There are times when a choir can have singers it in with such similar sound and shape that the choir itself sounds like one person singing. This isn’t always the goal, but it’s fascinating when a choir is able to achieve that.