8th Grade Singing

When attending the Spring Choral Concert, it's important to have the right mindset before it begins. I was ready to appreciate the NDSU Concert Choir, I searched some information from the website and watched some videos. A choir is a musical ensemble of singers. So, singers are the most important part in the performances.

When I was an eighth grader in middle school, I joined IUSD Middle School Honor Orchestra. I played the viola in this orchestra and I was eighth chair violist out of sixteen violists. Many of my friends joined this orchestra and we had a lot of fun. I played different pieces of music with everyone in the orchestra and I learned many new things. Playing music pieces with different people that play different instruments have taught me a lot, and I learned that it is always important to work as a team. Joining this orchestra has given me the better understanding of music and teamwork. After the concert of this orchestra, we had a field trip to California Adventure and I performed there with the group of the first time.This is one of the best experience

This is a 1st grade class made up of 12 first grade students. There are 7 Girls and 5 Boys. There is 1 male student with general academic IEP that covers all subjects as well as 1 male and 1 female student that have speech IEPs. The classroom is arranged in table seating with a large carpeted area in the front of the classroom for group learning. This lesson will be taught in a group setting at the carpet.

As the name of the organization points out, you are a member of a choir and, therefore, are first and foremost there to sing and learn music. I speak

I love being a part of MYC because our conductors focus on learning, not just performing. The conductors choose many different pieces, from a victory chant from the year 1450 to 2014, and from French to Old English. The conductors help us learn, not just how to sing well, but also help us build confidence. If we are singing a piece in another language, we learn what the lyrics mean and how to pronounce

As I unlocked my jaw from my mouth, nothing came out. The director and the instructor stared at me with open jaws. They weren’t able to take me in because I had lost my voice. I was the quiet 14-year-old, who lost the ability to sing falsetto anymore. My only strength was my baritone voice, but the choir, at the time, did not start a boy choir in their choir yet. I auditioned yet again, but the same result happened; however, this time, they had troubadours for me to start my life in choir: The choir that is called the South Bay Children’s Choir (SBCC)

“Introducing Davenport West Connection!!!” This is how every show choir performance for west connection members starts no matter what the year. Show choir is one of the most fun activities I have ever taken part in. From back in 8th grade Williams Intermediate Show Choir, to now in Davenport West Connection I have loved every minute of it. The people, hair and makeup, performing onstage, and even the practices were full of fun and laughter. Throughout 8th grade to now there is an enormous difference between high school show choir, and middle school show choir causing one to exceed the other. The practice and rehearsals, fundamentals of the performance, and competitions widely contrast one another yet have surprising comparisons which contribute

“Any time you add numbers, it makes it more difficult to sing in tune and sound like one voice. But we work on this from day one in rehearsal, and hopefully our hard work pays off throughout the year.”

Middle school was a big transitioning time in music for myself. Those years began with the release of high school musical, the start to Hannah Montana, and the new era of Disney singers. The functions of music during this time also served community functions as well. Hannah Montana was a fixture at my house and in my life, my sister and I were either watching the show during dinner or listening to the music in the car. I remember during the early days of high school music there was a huge group of girls that would sit together outside after lunch and listen to the song assign Troy parts to half the group and Gabriela parts to the other half.

With every new choir season I auditioned, and with every audition I failed. Although the reasons for my rejection varied with each attempt, I always had trouble with pitch. As this became a trend into my high school years, I began to doubt my ability. Although I still enjoyed singing in the choir and felt I had a place there, failing the solo auditions over and over again hurt. No matter how hard I worked, my pitch control did not improve, but I was determined to get a solo part. After five years of work and on my tenth audition, I was finally chosen for a part. This reaffirmed for me that if I am determined enough, I can do anything I put my mind

On March 4th I went back home for the beginning of spring break to visit my high school, Smyrna High School. That weekend was I Love Smyrna School District Day where multiple events of all categories took place. I went there to see the performance of the music ensembles, but in particular to see my previous choir and how they were progressing. The choir was under its second year of instruction from one of the states most renowned instructors and the evolution of the choirs sound made that evident. Back when I was a senior the guys were vastly outnumbered so the female voice parts had to reduce their sound in order to create balance, but that wasn't enough since we only had roughly 5 tenors in an 80 person choir. This year was different though

Our first song was Silver Creek Lullaby. In this song I feel like we started and ended together as a group very well. For my section, the second sopranos, measure 12 through 14 was hard for as we practiced because the altos and first sopranos were louder than our own sound, but as we sang in the concert, I was proud of us because we sang and our voices were loud enough to be heard, but soft enough to make a beautiful harmony. On the other hand, our note for the beginning of sail on measure 24, took us a moment to find the right note, and in the process of finding the note we slid up the E. We also took time to find our note the second time through on measure 8. One other thing I felt like we could have improved was our rhythmic accuracy and our diction especially on the word sleep. Overall for this song I felt like there was much room for improvement but we did very well for our first concert.

When conversation with the older teenage boys I found it hard to ask them questions or to receive answers since not all of them knew English and I did not understand Creole. Two young boys I met surprised me with the fact that they spoke Spanish. It was fun to be able to engage in a conversation for more than a couple of minutes, but it was something I had done many times before. There was one boy in specific that knew very little English. I didn’t want anyone to be marginalized by me because they couldn’t speak my language and I theirs and so I had to figure out a way to communicate with him. I heard him humming at home point and I asked him, “Do you sing?” Another boy kindly translated, and he answered, “Yes.” I smiled, because I knew that this was the beginning to a new and stronger friendship. The next few days I spent singing to them or having them sing to me or singing together a English song they had learned in church or a popular Spanish song they didn’t understand, but knew the lyrics of. From that day I began to ask all those who I had more trouble communicating with if they wanted to sing and luckily they did. An exchange of songs, or a duet is another form of communication without words. Song can express emotions, singing them together is creating harmony, working together to sound as good as possible. Now, I don’t have the best singing voice at all but

I had never been a part of a choir, but the school gave me a chance to be a part of one. Not many would imagine a career starting in a small average school auditorium, a creaky cracked wooden stage and cold metal chairs, but I saw an opportunity. I felt at home in this space. This choir class was more than a part of the community, it felt like a family. From the wholesome melodies and vocal exercises that I felt from my head to my core, to the wardrobe decisions and endless practices for every concert, it was an irreplaceable

Sounds of crisp, clean harmonies with lots of diction crept into my ears when I was singing with a large group of students at a big high school. Over the summer I was able to participate in a theater camp that was called Upper Darby Summer Stage. This camp was located in Upper Darby. This is a camp that is for students going into 8th grade and all the way up to high school. This camp took place from July 18th to August 11th, since I was in their last show of the summer.