music history

It's croak out a singing note Wednesday. Early in the morning over a cup of coffee, I tried "Time to Say Goodbye" again on the online karaoke website. I sounded like a frog trying to tune up an engine motor. Fortunately, not a loud frog first thing in the morning. Recalling my past, singing life revolved around church choirs. I learned harmony and by listening to other singers. I could read some music, because I had taken piano lessons, but I didn't stick by the book and the note structure didn't stick with me. The ability to count quarter notes and half notes was not embedded in my soul. They should have been, but I got by with the ability to listen to other singers and hear the way they sang the music. I even had one of those ticking clock things that helps keep a beat while I practiced my piano lessons. It was a useless instrument, but a playful toy.

I sang in Catholic choir, Presbyterian choir, and Baptist choir. The Catholic choir with other small kids like me sang mostly update modern Christian songs. I don't remember if I had to wear a choir robe or not. That was a long time ago. Later came the Presbyterian choir where I did have to wear a choir robe every Sunday for service. I sang alto and blended in well with the other singers. I felt the altos needed the volume support, and I sat next to someone who really read music well; I could pick up on her singing if I sat next to her. The choir instructor was into traditional music with all sorts of runs. It wasn't a matter of just blending the chord parts, but also delayed timing of when a section of music was sung. I also did a lot of volume control. I learned on sheet music when to widen the sound and when to retract the sound. I also learned to watch the Choir Director's hand gestures. She gave hand signals on when to increase and decrease the sound. I also just loved the way she handled the organ. I felt like I was well schooled in the musical culture of classical type songs. Unfortunately, the Choir Director moved on to an Episcopal church.

The Choir Director was replaced by my high school Choir Director. I would never believe this in a million years. He had his fiance sitting in soprano section. She was young, nice looking, proper and trendy. He was semi-good looking who needed a hair cut and to give up his smoking habit and bad temper. He did control his temper while at church choir, but when he was at high school he did yell too much along with a little bit of cussing. In the high school choir, I joined the altos again because some of the sopranos thought I was uncool. I didn't round my voice out like an opera singer. I joined the cool altos because they accepted me for another volume singer plus I could blend in and even up the level of the harmony of the choir. My high school Choir Director took the choir group to competition in Daytona. After this the whole choir went on to state competition at Florida State University. The girls had to wear peach draped dresses which were sewed from a pattern. The guys wore dress shirts and pants. The trip seemed exciting because we actually got to stay overnight at a hotel which I don't remember much about. I do remember the competition and how we lost. The choir lowered its' chord, because the lead soprano lowered her chord and the choir wanted to match her singing. The lowering of the chord was recorded on tape but the lead soprano singer wasn't brought out as being responsible for dragging the choir down with her. It is true the choir could have fought her singing by trying to stay with the original tune. However, it would sound worse on tape. The tape would have picked up on the difference of singing styles. I truly believe the choir did quite well in keeping the harmony level under such difficult times.

After high school, I moved on to the Baptist choir. I also made the switch to soprano. I loved singing with them because they were free to belt out a song. There was one singer who didn't stay long with the Baptist choir who tried to get me to go sing alto. He was also in my high school choir. The Baptists squashed him, by saying I was alright to sing with the sopranos and I was happy. I also took singing lessons and found out what I knew inside that I was a soprano and could sing whatever part I wanted to sing.

Many years later, I had that one shining moment of glory. I won a couple of tickets from the local television station to see "Phantom of the Opera" at Bob Carr. I had to sing a melody from "Phantom of the Opera" for 30 seconds in front of a television set at the mall and the television station awarded me two tickets. Mom and I loved the Broadway show. I especially liked the hanging ball which travels towards the audience and the fancy costumes the actors/singers wore and the fancy musical number they sang together descending down the stairs.