Choir Sign Up Sheet: Fill & Download for Free

I’d been in the choir in high school, and though I didn’t want to study music in college, I decided to sign up for a 1-unit choir class halfway through college, since I missed singing in a large group. I decided to sign up for the one that wasn’t audition-based, since I knew I wasn’t of the caliber of the music majors, but thought that this would be made up of other people who had been good enough for their high school or church choirs but didn’t want to pursue music as a primary focus.I was wrong; it turned out that my class was filled with music majors who needed a credit for an ensemble outside their primary instrument. The non-music majors who had sung before were actually in the audition-based choir, which would have been a much better choice for me. I found this out later.The first day of class, we each spoke briefly with the professor/conductor, who assigned us to vocal parts. I’m a baritone, and end up being assigned to first bass (which is fine; in an SATB choir I’m about equally likely to be put in 1st bass and 2nd tenor). He handed out the sheet music as he assigned us, which was done in the order we showed up.When class began, he announced “Alright everyone, scales in G. Go.”He didn’t provide a starting pitch, either from a pitch pipe or a piano. He therefore expected all of us to have, essentially, perfect pitch.I don’t. I have good relative pitch as an adult, but lost my absolute pitch when I stopped music for a few years during my voice change. I was about 1/4 note off on the first note, but adjusted by the 2nd.When we finished the scale, he called from across the room “First basses, one of you was off on the first note. Do you know who you are?” As my section turned to look at me, I raised my hand and said “Me. I have relative pitch, not absolute pitch. I need a starting note to tune myself.”The professor walked across the room, picked up my sheet music, and handed it to another student. He said “There isn’t enough sheet music for everyone, and it’s less useful for you than the others.” Without looking at me while saying this, but loud enough that it was an announcement to the class.I dropped the class the instant I got back to my dorm. There was just no way I was going to put up with a professor like that for a non-essential class I was doing for fun.

My daughter was going to a co-op, (so there were only up to 12 kids in the class), and was taking a “Musical Theater”, which was actually a choir type class. First the teacher couldn’t decide what songs to do, (after complaining that doing two songs for the winter show and two for the spring show, was asking too much). She would tell the kids, (ranging from 11–16), they were doing this song, play a recording, have them sing along, no lyrics and no sheet music. Halfway through the semester she added a new song. Three weeks before the performance she decided that everyone needed costumes for each song and the choir could just change on stage. She wanted white full length, turn of the century dresses to transition to 80’s rock costumes. For the second semester, she said “We’re doing songs A and B.” The next week, she would say “No, we’re doing song C and D instead.” They would watch recordings and try to sing along. Third week, new songs. Some of the songs were racially insensitive, some were religiously insensitive, (“Oh My God!” from Legally Blond, only the white people part of Ragtime, a song from Book of Mormon, I can’t remember the name of, among others), but most of them were just not acceptable for the age range. The final choice was a series of songs, (not a medley because she had to have them stop and act out little exchanges between songs), from Hair in hippy costumes and carrying protest signs the kids made that she had another teacher come up on stage to destroy. But she told them that it wouldn’t be a “real” performance of Hair because they were required to be clothed. The performance was scheduled to be in the chapel in front of all the families that attended the co-op, with kids from preschool and up. Why would performing nude even be discussed?Needless to say we didn’t sign up for her class the next year.

I have three experiences which are burned into my brain. My first grade teacher had her pets. They both had long braids with ribbons on the ends. This was 1956. I still remember glancing up at the teacher’s desk and seeing her absolutely glow towards these two.One day I had an eraser with me from home. I was showing it to the boy in the next desk. His name was Curly! She became really angry and made me sit in the coat closet. I still remember what it smelled like. It is not as bad as it sounds, as it was a kind of cloak room. It was a very old building. My mother and grandmother had attended the same school! Her name was Miss Fiaco.The other two are nameless because I can’t remember. In the second grade my handwriting exercise was hung on the board as being the ‘worst’ of the day. It was hung next to what was the ‘best’ of the day.My third experience was in 6th grade. There were to be auditions for choir. We signed up on a sheet of paper. The next day the same list was hanging to show who got in. My name was the only one crossed through. That was painful!It is interesting that these three negative experiences stand out. There were certainly many many positive ones!