I will start back from as far as I can remember. I started playing the violin in fifth grade at my public elementary school. I chose the violin because I was very little and I liked the sound of it. Most guys played the cello. The ratio of guys to girls in the class was like 1:5. I guess it wasn’t that ‘cool’ for a guy to play an instrument.
For sixth grade, I auditioned to go to School of the Arts in Charleston, SC. This was a school that focused on the arts, so there was a diverse population of both guys and girls in my class. Our bass player was actually a girl, believe it or not. My teacher was a woman. When I transferred to Moultrie, a public middle school, I was around the same sort of diversity. Entering into high school, I decided not to play in the orchestra because the teacher who was also the conductor (if I can even call him that) was terrible. I know this because he was the same teacher for Moultrie Middle School. I joined the choir instead. The choir was made up of various choirs such as Ladies Honors, Senior Show Choir, Junior Show Choir, Men’s Choir, Gospel Choir, and so on. Since our high school consisted of 3,000 people or more, there were plenty of boys and girls involved in the different arts. Since stringed instruments aren’t aloud in marching band, I stuck to choir. It was an audition process to go on to the next choir. I was in Ladies Honors for a year which was just women obviously, and then Senior Show Choir for two years.
I definitely enjoyed singing with Ladies Honors and the music that we created with our ranges was beautiful. Senior Show Choir was completely different. We sang show tunes, musicals, and of course the classics of Eric Whitacre, and more. We did a little bit of everything since we had the talent. We also danced and had partners.
Men give a whole different perspective to the arts. As I got more involved in different ensembles, I worked with more men. I appreciated the input and talent they gave to make the ensemble even better. I do think that different instruments appeal to men more than women or vice versa, but that should never determine if a women or man should or shouldn’t play the instrument. I have a good friend of mine who plays the fiddle with me and he recently started playing the penny whistle. He loves it and is very good at it. Plus it works out for the both of us to have another instrument in our ensemble. I play multiple instruments including the mandolin, bodhran, piano, and violin. Though the drums are thought of as a ‘man’ instrument, this never stopped me from trying them.
4 comments:
Show choir would have been so awesome! I wish that my school had enough money to and talent to have a show choir. Well,. we had the talent, but not enough. The opinions of other people should never get in the way of a decision.
I think it's interesting that you mentioned how more guys played in band at the School of Arts versus the elementsry public school you went to. It might be because music is taken more seriously at the Art School. It is also more honorable in the eyes of society to attend a school that has a selective music program versus a public school that does not. I think the diversity of students in public school music programs vary by region. I also think that it is very cool that you can play many different instruments!
Go for any instrument you want to play, Mary! Eric Whitacre's choral works are amazing!!
If I may respond to the post you left me (thank you, by the way) as I had stated in the blog entry, the Lucha Reyes you found was a different (well, similar) person with the same name who came a few years before the Reyes on the recording that I posted. It's all good, though.
The African dance song is quite catchy (unrelated, I know, but I wanted to say it).
You know, somehow I never realized that you were in a show choir--makes so many things fall into place! It sounds like a really great time.
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