On June 9, 2024, I sang in my first ever choral concert.
I joined this particular choir, Cantus Panamá, in February of 2024.
What an experience! And what an education.
Here are some lessons I learned from my first experience rehearsing and performing with a choir:
Lesson 1: All musicians should sing in a choir.
Even if they’re not singers and don’t want to be.
Few things have improved my ear quite as much as a few months of choir.
You have to clarify your inner ear so that you don’t lose your part while those around you sing their parts.
You also have to pay attention to the parts being sung around you so that you know what’s going on and don’t get completely lost.
Lastly, through exposure alone, you get to feel how musical notes work together to create harmonies, how different harmonies color different melodies, and how the architecture of music actually works.
Lesson 2: Singing in a choir is good for your health and happiness.
I have no research on this, but perhaps the only reason why the first half of 2024 was one of the few times I ever felt happy in Panama (where I’ve often felt at my worst, despite having grown up there), was the fact that I got to sing with others at least once a week for at least two hours.
There are times when I feel a bit alienated from people around me; I don’t have a lot in common with the general population of my own generation. But I do love the arts. And connecting with others via music and our voices is magical and fills me with joy.
Research does show that loneliness is more lethal than smoking, though, so if you’re looking for a creative way to connect with cool people, join a choir!
You’ll have fun, you’ll feel happier, and you’ll make lifelong friends.
Lesson 3: Music theory and sight-reading are important musical skills.
After my first-ever choir rehearsal, I realized how important music theory and sight-singing are.
Choir parts are mostly learned via sheet music, which means that, in order to learn your parts, it helps to know what you’re looking at on the page in relation to rhythm and pitch. That’s where music theory comes in.
Furthermore, while singing in a choir, it is at times difficult to remember every single note or to not get lost while hearing the other parts around you. So, it helps to be able to hear in yourself what you see on the page, and then to sing out what you hear. That’s where sight-singing comes in.
Lesson 4: Singing in a choir is a great way to get more comfortable with singing on your own.
I love songs, I love to write them, and I love to share them with an audience. Writing and playing instruments are pure fun to me, but singing is often more scary, probably because it’s more vulnerable.
After singing in a choir, I am insanely more comfortable with singing on my own!
I’ve had months of weekly singing in front of others. Everyone hears me, so I felt like I was performing for two to five hours each week in front of 15 people.
Trust me, that will make you more comfortable with your voice.
It could also make you more scared if you’re not ready, but that’s not the effect it has, because you’re not actually singing alone.
You’re singing with others! So you feel supported. You’re in a team.
You get to become a better solo performer with less risk or fear involved.
So cool.
Lesson 5: Singing in a choir will improve your ear for vocal harmonies.
This lesson is very specific, but if you’re a musician or are into music, you’ll know what I mean.
Singing vocal harmonies is a vast art and science.
If you grew up singing, it might be intuitive to you, to a point.
If not, you have to learn it via theory and practice.
In both cases, singing in a choir will help a lot!
Before choir, my ear for vocal harmonies was limited to the harmonies I hear in the song recordings I listen to, mostly in pop genres.
Now, thanks to choir, and thanks to singing, understanding, and integrating much more complex harmonies, I can hear someone else’s song, or my own original songs, and I can more naturally hear and sing vocal harmonies, or create more original vocal harmony arrangements.
I hope these lessons are useful to you.
Thank you, choir and Cantus Panamá!