Randy,
I agree with you completely. All through college we were required to sing in
choirs, all of which were voice "dumbing" choirs. It was so unfortunate.
And when we would have 4-6 hours of choir a week, compared to 1 hour of voice
lessons a week, it was so difficult to "repair" the damage that was done in
choir. I feel that if I didn't have to sing in college-level choir, I could
have improved so much more quickly as a singer. Actually in my last college
choir experience, 2 girls came out of it with nodes and one with polyps. I
also felt extreme vocal fatigue which took many weeks to get over. This is
unacceptable, but after speaking with many people at the school I found that
there was no getting around it.
Now, many people have the argument that one must be in choir to learn how to
read music and learn to sing with a group. This is not the case for every
singer. I personally, have played violin all of my life, and was fortunate
enough to have played in nationally ranked youth orchestras for many years.
After this experience, it is ludicrous to say that i need to learn what it is
to be with an ensemble. Plus, don't most of us go through 4 years of
rigorous choir in high school? Before I even hit college I had sung in
choirs for 9 years and I was sick of it. So why should I be required to sing
in choir as late as in my masters degree where it is only harming singers????
ack!!!!!! Plus it is a shame that through all of this, I have a negative
outlook on choral singing. i can't even listen to choral singing without
cringing. This just isn't right.
Sorry, I'm just really adamant about this becuase of what went on at my last
school. Why can't we get this problem fixed???"???
Lauren
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