I like to contemplate the mysteries of the universe sometimes. One of the biggest ones to me is church choirs. More specifically, bad church choirs. From what I understand, the purpose of church choirs- and music in church- is to praise God. Or gods or whatever you believe. I’m not saying which one is right, and thats not even the purpose of this post. Anyway, praising a deity with bad music seems… counterproductive. I think part of the problem is expectations. But on the topic of expectations, I have to admit that I have pretty high expectations. My school’s music program is really strong, so I’m used to hearing good music. My family- on one side at least- is very musical, so family gatherings almost always include music. More than that, its actually pretty good music.
You’re expected to have a church choir. It seems like a tradition thats followed in the literal sense, but the purpose seems to have been forgotten. Now I don’t know why exactly church choirs were started, but the reasons I can think of don’t seem to apply anymore.
1st, Having an organized choir to be able to prepare more complicated or more prepared music.
From my experience, it is far more common to have a small choir sound much worse than the full congregation. And there is never very much preparation. I think there are usually about 4 rehearsals before you perform the piece. They’re not even productive rehearsals.
2nd- this probably won’t make sense to a lot of you- to rehearse.
Sounds weird, right? Well I actually really enjoy rehearsals. Not so much the rehearsals right after you start music, but my favorite part of choir is right before the performance. Not like an hour before though. I mean the week or two leading up to the performance where you sound really good, but you’re not singing in front of anyone. You don’t have to worry about messing up because this is the big event or whatever. You can just enjoy the music you’re making.
That doesn’t happen in ward choirs. Rehearsals tend to be painful.
Now thats just the church choir experience I’ve had. I have heard good church choirs. I think I might have even been in one…. maybe. It was a long time ago so I don’t remember it very clearly. Either way, I hope you have/had a better time with church choirs than I did.
Blind Music 