The Process

The process that I have observed for the last 25+ years of being a member of a particular singing organization has changed very little. You would think with the evolution of mankind/womankind that the anxieties and insecurities and superiority complexes of singers would have evolved upward - to a higher plain. I would like to say HA! to that.

You see, everyone knows better than the next person. It's amazing how singers who should know about sound and acoustics and the wonders of sound's movement through space can think their singular experience are others' experiences. The conductor, orchestra, audience - each have a better idea of what the "group" sounds like. Individuals get so stuck on criticizing their nearest neighbor that they lose focus.

Of course, people will tell you they aren't losing focus - they are just concerned about the sound. Honestly, that's what I pay the conductor to worry about. My job, as I see it, is to be the best I can be. If I'm good enough and have put enough time into study and learning my music I then become - shocking I know - a LEADER. Leader's have to be above the norm and with music that means putting in the study time, marking the score, noticing the changes in harmony - delving deeper than, "Oh, I know my part." Great, and necessary - but do you know the music. What about the composer? What about the way your part relates to another part? What about the sound you must produce - not your neighbor? What about when you make a mistake - and you do - looking at it carefully and not repeating it twice? What about a pencil. . .a simple pencil. .to write down your markings? What about listening when the conductor talks instead of talking?

Do I always follow all those rules? No. Do I TRY to follow all those rules? Yes. I've been active in choruses for 42 years. I still work very, very hard on my music. I read music really well - better than most - but I do not rest on that as a predictor of my musicality - I work at it darn it. And it kind of ticks me off a bit when people who don't are the most vocal critics in the room.

Ranting Rambler