Kelsey Gates on starting a high school choir club

Attempted Harmony:  the trials of starting a high school choir club

Story by Kelsey Grace Marie Gates

I placed my hand gently on the cold, shiny doorknob and slowly rotated my wrist to ensure a silent entrance. But I tripped on my foot and ended up stumbling into the crowded classroom, pens falling out of my purse and my papers rearranging themselves on the floor in disarray. My face blushed Pepto-Bismol pink with embarrassment as a room full of eyes followed me to the front of the classroom. I was late to my own choir practice.

“Hello,” I said awkwardly.  “Thank you all for trying this out with me.”

Starting the first choir at my small charter high school didn’t make me feel nervous, but I was worried about how I was going to lead a group of singers when I had never led a choir before. I couldn’t even read music. What I did know was that I was good at singing, and singing with a group of friends somehow made me feel better about my day.

***
I have been singing since I was a little girl in Louisiana. Every couple of years we moved from state to state: my mom, Carrie, liked to keep things fresh. Our lives were always hanging: new school, new friends. We enjoyed the sense of adventure. But no matter where we lived, karaoke bars were always part of our lives. My mother would take my brother, sister, and me out to sing. My mom doesn’t always hit every note, but her ambition for singing has never faded.

During a day trip to Phoenix on a sunny, summer Arizona day, Mom drove me in our black Ford Escort. Gazing out the window, I watched Tucson slowly morph into Phoenix. Long, sheet-like clouds stretched across the blue mattress of the sky and spaces in between the clouds exposed the blue, looking like cigarette burns in a sheet. I stared into the sky as my mom flicked her cigarette ashes out onto the interstate. We were singing the Dixie Chicks’ “Wide Open Spaces,” a song I find calming. It is a song about choices, directions, crossroads. My mother and I were both singing, but we were not singing a duet.

***
Timid to be the one to start singing first, I suggested we establish a pitch we each felt comfortable singing in. We grouped ourselves into high, medium and low voice ranges in an attempt to harmonize. I then handed out ten copies of the lyrics to the song “Lean on Me” and we started to really sing, our raw voices struggling to sound complimentary.

By the end of the choir’s second rehearsal, we became comfortable singing together. We warmed up our voices by singing through the scales and then went straight to our vocal range groups (high, medium, and low) and sang for the whole hour-long practice. At the next practice we created a harmony group. At the practice after that, we kept practicing the harmonies until they sounded right. But at the fifth rehearsal, our progress stalled. I decided that we needed to hire a choir director—a professional—to help us progress. Within a few weeks, we’d hired a friend of a friend, Loren, who was working with a church choir. We started getting better again, learning more about timing and singing in unison.

When I started the choir, I had high hopes. I wanted us to sing at my school’s weekly assembly. I wanted us to sing at graduation. I wanted the choir to continue on after I go on to college in the fall. Right now, none of my goals have been met: we ran out of time to practice for the assembly and it turned out, I’m not experienced enough to lead a group of singers who are going to perform anywhere. But I’m not sad, and I don’t regret trying.

At the end of each rehearsal, we were more prepared for the school day. We were awake and we were less stressed. Most importantly, we felt good about ourselves.
City High Choir is currently practicing on Tuesday mornings.

(VOICES Photo/Fern Frias)

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