Current Events > Did you have a chorus class in grade school where you had to sing?

(+) Yeah! (+)

I never really thought about how weird this was. We sung Muppet songs like Rainbow Connection and also had to perform in front of the school especially during holidays.

Not sure what's allowed in schools these days but Christmas was always a huge thing and the chorus teacher made us put on some type of play singing Christmas songs.

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You know, I cant remember. It was an Arts school so I assume there was one but it may have been optional.

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Yeah, but it was part of a "music" class even though the only instrument we played was a recorder. We'd stand up on the risers and sing for around 30 minutes. Mostly it was getting us ready for our school plays

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Shablagoo posted...

You know, I cant remember. It was an Arts school so I assume there was one but it may have been optional.

I think it was optional in my school as well but my best friend's mom urged us to do it.

It was sort of like a class for people who wanted to be performers. Acting was involved and we'd write plays and perform them at various locations.

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How else are younglings supposed to learn GOAT songs like Drunken Sailor?

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We had music class all through grade school. Odd numbered grades would put on a Christmas concert and even numbered grades did the spring concert.
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I can't remember. My memory tells me I was taught to play a recorder but the room showed in the data does not match the original blueprints. One can surmise that this is a false construct that materialized to patch glaring issues in the the memory frame.

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bigtiggie23 posted...

We had music class all through grade school. Odd numbered grades would put on a Christmas concert and even numbered grades did the spring concert.

I remember it being called chorus in elementary school, then music in high school.

It just seems odd while reflecting on it now. But I liked doing it back then.

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LeoRavus posted...

I remember it being called chorus in elementary school, then music in high school.

It just seems odd while reflecting on it now. But I liked doing it back then.

For us chorus was in junior high, and it was optional. I was in it. I stood out since my voice deepened early, not many 7th graders could sound like Barry White.
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LeoRavus posted...

I remember it being called chorus in elementary school, then music in high school.

It just seems odd while reflecting on it now. But I liked doing it back then.

For us it was the opposite. You had music class in elementary school and band and choir in middle/high school.

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Yes, that was rolled into music class through fifth grade. In middle school, one of the music teachers had us sing the top hits in a given year (50s and 60s). That started my appreciation of oldies.

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You must remember that before I was anything else, I was of the Edema Ruh.

Contrary to popular belief, not all traveling performers are of the Ruh. My troupe was not some poor batch of mummers, japing at crossroads for pennies, singing for our suppers. We were court performers, Lord Greyfallow's Men. Our arrival in most towns was more of an event than the Midwinter Pageantry and Solinade Games rolled together. There were usually at least eight wagons in our troupe and well over two dozen performers: actors and acrobats, musicians and hand magicians, jugglers and jesters: my family.

My father was a better actor and musician than any you have ever seen. My mother had a natural gift for words. They were both beautiful, with dark hair and easy laughter. They were Ruh down to their bones, and that, really, is all that needs to be said.

Save perhaps that my mother was a noble before she was a trouper. She told me my father had lured her away from a "miserable dreary hell" with sweet music and sweeter words. I could only assume she meant Three Crossings, where we went to visit relatives when I was very young. Once.

My parents were never really married, by which I mean they never bothered making their relationship official with any church. I'm not embarrassed by the fact. They considered themselves married and didn't see much point in announcing it to any government or God. I respect that. In truth, they seemed more content and faithful than many officially married couples I have seen since.

Our patron was Baron Greyfallow, and his name opened many doors that would ordinarily be closed to the Edema Ruh. In return we wore his colors, green and grey, and added to his reputation wherever we went. Once a year we spent two span at his manor, entertaining him and his household.

It was a happy childhood, growing up in the center of an endless fair. My father would read to me from the great monologues during the long wagon rides between towns. Reciting mostly from memory, his voice would roll down the road for a quarter mile. I remember reading along, coming in on the secondary parts. My father would encourage me to try particularly good sections myself, and I learned to love the feel of good words.

My mother and I would make up songs together. Other times my parents would act out romantic dialogues while I followed along in the books. They seemed like games at the time. Little did I know how cunningly I was being taught.

I was a curious child: quick with questions and eager to learn. With acrobats and actors as my teachers, it is little wonder that I never grew to dread lessons as most children do.

The roads were safer in those days, but cautious folk would still travel with our troupe for safety's sake. They supplemented my education. I learned an eclectic smattering of Commonwealth law from a traveling barrister too drunk or too pompous to realize he was lecturing an eight-year-old. I learned woodcraft from a huntsman named Laclith who traveled with us for nearly a whole season.

I learned the sordid inner workings of the royal court in Modeg from a... courtesan. As my father used to say: "Call a jack a jack. Call a spade a spade. But always call a whore a lady. Their lives are hard enough, and it never hurts to be polite."

Hetera smelled vaguely of cinnamon, and at nine years old I found her fascinating without exactly knowing why. She taught me I should never do anything in private that I didn't want taked about in public, and cautioned me to not talk in my sleep.

And then there was Abenthy, my first real teacher. He taught me more than all the others set end to end. If not for him, I would never have become the man I am today.

I ask that you not hold it against him. He meant well.

We had a music class for a few grades and then also a piano class where everyone learned basic songs on a keyboard.

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All through grade school and it was mandatory. Thered be several plays every year. For the 5th grade finale we did this big routine to Crocodile Rock. It was the worst part of school for me at the time.

*The finale was John Lennons Imagine, but Crocodile Rock was there somewhere too near the end of the year.

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Yep, I had to do Chorus through both Elementary school AND middle school. Elementary school it was a rotation between art, P.E, and Chorus, so at least it wasn't that often.

Middle school though I had to take it every fucking day for 3 years. It blew my mind how stupid it was. And it was the same teachers too all three years. By the end they were just telling me to leave the room as soon as class started due to them hating me and I hating them.

4th grade: Our class and another 4th grade class did the Rocky Mountain High in the gym.

During Christmas we learned Christmas carols then performed it in the gym. I don't understand how we even got picked to do either of these but more than 80% of the students, including me, did not have English as their first language. But we performed like angels.

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Yes, we did a Christmas show and a spring musical every year. It was mandatory and you would get Saturday detention if you missed it (seriously).

It was a money-making fundraiser. They charged families to attend, and of course families were pressured to attend cause who would miss their kid singing? They also didn't allow recording because they had someone from the school record it and then they sold you the video of the show later on.

It exposed me to a lot of new music as there was usually some good variety in the spring shows. And around 7th or 8th grade they would tend to give me the lead parts since I hit puberty later than everyone else and was the only male that could hit the high notes by that time.

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I had music class in elementary school but it was just playing recorder, no singing

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Yes.

you know it would have been nice if they taught us to sing properly

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Damn_Underscore posted...

Yes.

you know it would have been nice if they taught us to sing properly

My chorus teachers actually tried to help us sing properly.

Mr. Biase (who turned out to be a child molester) was actually the best as far as teaching singing goes. I didn't find out about his fetish until I graduated and it was all over the news. Creeped me out that he'd ask certain students to stay over and practice.

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