Descubre Por Qué Cantar en Coro Transforma la Música y la Vida

Why do we sing in a choir? Why does it feel so good when we are together with other people and we are, well, singing, simply together with someone? And they can be choirs of any level. If we are in a choir where we are all singing in unison, or when we sing if there is harmony, or when it is a professional choir or semi-professional, but there is always that feeling of achievement that is so incredible that it is achieved when we are in a musical group and especially when it is a choir. A friend told me that in the choir and the orchestra, it is great because everyone does a little bit and when you put it all together, you hear something great. And it is true. When we are in a choir that is done in four voices, suddenly you have, instead of having something as simple as this, you can do something like this. And it sounds different, even if you only have two voices that are playing. Working in a choir is something that we do a lot in our work as music teachers. And what I tell you right now, for example, I work a lot with my students, is to tell them that the work we do has a goal and it is not just the final concert. We are not just doing the work in choir so that we can sing at the end, but we do it with a very particular goal. This very important goal is to learn to work together. We talk a lot that in music we have that ability to learn about discipline and teamwork. We say that all the time and in all our justifications to form a choir, an orchestra, an ensemble, whatever. But how are we doing that work explicitly as a team? How do we make that discipline explicit? That development of the inner ear, which should also be a very important point in those justifications. Well, we do it with rhythmic exercises of the cross. We always start with an individual effort, then an effort in a couple or in small groups, and then a group effort. And I'm going to give you a very practical example with this tennis ball. First I'm going to walk at a speed and every time I say hop, I'm going to throw the ball once in one step and I'm going to catch it in the next step. Hop, hop, hop. And now I'm going to do it, but with music. This represents a little bit how I really do the individual effort and how I then attract it to a group effort or how I also start working the ear. Da da dum dum, di di da da dum, bum hop, da dum dum, bum. Dum da dum, hop, bum. Da da da da, hop, bum. Di di da da dum, bum. Da da dum, dum, hop. Di di dum, bum, bum. So I already have a beat, I have music, and also if I'm singing and doing it at the same time, it's another exercise. But normally the one who is singing or playing the piano is the teacher. And the teacher is the one who is leading the activity. After this, we already did the work, let's say, individually. Now we are going to do it in pairs. And we have someone with whom we are going to be doing the work. Every time I say hop, I stand in front of a couple and I throw the ball to my partner. With this I already start to see that I'm working with someone else. There is already an awareness of the other person. Then I do it in small groups. In groups of three or four people. I say, now we are going to do the same thing, but we are going to pass the ball to the person on the right. And we start doing the same thing. So we have to throw the ball to one person and we receive it from another person. But we are doing it at the same time. So it's already a very tenacious work, but very important and very productive. That's when I make the explanation. And this explanation is very important. You are not responsible for what comes to you. You are responsible for the ball you are throwing. So you have to pay special attention to the ball you are sending. And you are only waiting for the one that comes from the other side. If the one that comes from the other side comes crooked, or comes from the other side, no way. It went the other way, it flew, whatever. That doesn't matter. What matters is that you take responsibility for the one that goes. And that you also learn to let go of the one that went the other way. Because in what you are going to pick up, another ball is coming, and it's gone, and everything falls. And this is like, let's say, the representation of what the musical piece is. The individual notes, the sounds, are the balls. And we are always transmitting it. If suddenly there is one that goes, it's gone. But if we keep the pulse of everything, then we will be able to keep the musical piece going. And this looks better in the next example, which is when we do it with the whole circle. For example, if I have a group of 20 people, there are 20 people in a circle, passing the ball to the right or to the left. But be careful, first I always start on the right. Always, always, I always start on the right. Once they have done it very well, and they feel sure that they are doing it well, then I introduce them to the left. And why is that? Because the laterality changes a lot. But if I start working on it from before, so that they realize how difficult it is, then I will only be diminishing their confidence that they are doing a good job. When they do the work very well on one side, then it will be much easier to do it on the other. And not start training one and the other, one and the other, one and the other, one and the other, because that, at least in my experience, has not worked for me. So this exercise will help you a lot so that they understand, so that your students understand very well, precisely these values that we always talk about in the music class. Discipline, teamwork, listening to others, and how we can really harmonize. And we are not doing it with a musical piece, we are only doing it with a tennis ball.