Every Tuesday evening since early January I have rushed home from work, snuck in a quick run, and gobbled down a leftover dinner so that I could make it to the local community college for choir rehearsal. Yes, it's true, I joined the Dearborn Community Chorus. It has been 5 weeks or so and it has certainly been an adventure.
Like any good community chorus, the majority of people are older community members looking to keep singing. When I say older, I mean anyone under 60 years old is considered a spring chicken. That makes me a regular baby.
The chorus requires no audition, all you need to do is come to the first rehearsal, pay some dues to the city for rental space and music purchase, and then you hop into whatever section you sing. For me this is a section filled with older gentleman who like to over-sing, complain about notes above the middle of bass clef, and who almost always sing under the pitch. This is the bass section in a community choir.
My first day at the choir was an interesting one. I arrived and was immediately greeted by a very friendly tenor who introduced himself as Alex. He was the only other guy there that didn't have grey hair (or hair dye.) The room is a typical choir room, raised platforms with chairs, music posters all over the room with do, re, mi and a blank staff on the board. The piano sat in the middle of the room with the accompanist and the director who reminded me a lot of my high school choir director.
We started without warm-up and jumped into the music- jazz standards. For these men and women, jazz is not something they know. Their church choirs are generally songs that require straight singing, none of the fancy stuff in jazz. (Do we sing the full 'doot' and 'dot' when doing this scat section?) Imagine listening to Ella Fitzgerald enunciating her 't's. Its just comical to think about. Its comical to hear too.
After that first rehearsal I was a bit skeptical about the group. I chalked it up to the first rehearsal and decided that as time went on, we were bound to get better. As each week passes I've come to realize that the group struggles a bit. We've learned about what eighth notes and eighth rests are. We've talked about swing rhythm and how a flat is only a half step lower than the pitch that is written.
As I sat bored with the music, wondering when we would worry about breaths and phrasing and vowels and intonation, I began to realize that this choir just might not be as good as I remember choirs being. The community choir in Hillsdale had the elements of over-singing and basses under-pitch, but we could still make some pretty nice music. This choir seems to really struggle.
This past week was nearly the kicker for me. I sat listening to the director and listening to people in the choir who were doing all the things he asked us not to do. I listened to the bass behind me who reminded me of the kid in high school that was always at least 10 pitches under the real pitch. I found myself singing louder in places where I heard the bass section was wrong. I found another musician next to me who helped lead the bass section.
It was then that I realized I was back in high school choir. Instead of my friend Isaac next to me, it was this man Ray anchoring the basses. The kid behind me was that red head in my class who could never hit the pitch. The soprano who would always correct the director was that one girl who thought she knew more about music. And the mistakes that we had corrected a few weeks ago were still showing up this week when we returned to the music, counting errors and incorrect pitches and consonants in the right spots.
I was frustrated. And then I remembered that back in high school it wasn't about perfection in music. It wasn't about getting it right in the fifth rehearsal. It was okay that sometimes rehearsals just kind of sucked because you knew we'd get it in time. Music is always about the experience. Its always about spending the time working and working and doing things again and again and knowing that when the concert comes you're still probably going to make mistakes, but you were able to share music with others.
Recently I've been reading about living in the moment, experiencing the process, and sharing a moment with others. While I think this applies in so many aspects of life, this is especially easy to identify in this chorus. We won't be perfect. There will be a lot of things that I wish we could do a bit better. But right now, I'm enjoying singing again. I'm enjoying being a part of a choir and making music, even if it isn't always that great. Its fun to have a section of music that is tough because one day it will click. When it does, that whole process was worth it.
It isn't about being perfect. And it isn't about being patient for perfection to appear. Its about being patient with the fact that right now, at that moment, I am enjoying the music that we are making. I am enjoying the people I am with. I am enjoying the process of making music. And that process leads to a kind of perfection that we should all strive for in every moment of our lives. The fact that where we are and what we are doing is exactly where we are supposed to be and what we are supposed to be doing. Often it is difficult to figure out what that is until after the fact, but one day, it will all make perfect sense.
