Choir Disaster!!!!!!!!
 
Recently, our choir mistress has gotten quite worried over the performance of some of our choir members, esp when our Brunei trip is really in akan datang mode. Some of them still have not gotten most of the notes and pitch correct, and that is like the most basic thing we have to master. Its only when we can fully grasp the notes, then our choir mistress can impart to us the finer details of singing, such as working on the tone and blending/or adjusting the volume of the song. I can safely tell you, as my choir's pianist, some of our members are, ironically, and DEFINITELY tone (and pitch) DEAF!!! You can play a note on the piano and ask them to just sing this note...and they can try till the cows come home, but still not manage to get the correct note! Then you ask, why in the first place did we accept them, when they've failed their audition. Cos WE ARE KIND PEOPLE!!! My conductor is kind, the top mgt. is kind....EVERYONE is kind!!! In the first place, when we were setting up this choir, our top mgt.only wanted to see quantity...they wanted to see a BIG IMPRESSIVE choir! And so, big yar, but impressive...BLEH!!! Its only recently, when we've become somehow slightly more established, that we started to get stricter in our choice of new members. However, the old ones are stuck here, and no one has the heart (or face) to ask them to leave.

I know its cruel to have to bring this up, esp when some of them were part of the founding choir group. But,as our choir mistress pointed out, she would rather have 20 good singers, than a choir of 40, consisting of good and bad singers. I totally agree with her, cos with the not-so-good singers, when they sing a different pitch or note, they can really affect the entire quality of the choir's performance, and cause other good singers to lose their pitch and concentration as well! Our choir mistress also suggested that we should carry out another audition for each member, before our performance, to see if everyone is prepared for it. It seems that many good choirs outside also practise this tradition. If you fail this audition, you would not be allowed to perform then. My conductor and I would love to do this, but problem is our top mgt people do not understand this still! They would still want to see more people in the choir, cos if we ever carry out the audition, I'm pretty sure we would only have about 20 members left in the choir....and I'm sure the top mgt people would not be happy and start questioning the capability of my conductor and choir mistress! So its like the chinese proverb....jin tui liang nan!!! But I also feel sorry for the not-so-good members lah, cos its not like they did not practise hard, but sometimes, I think, being able to hear and sing pitch perfectly, is a inborn thing. For some, they may be able to get it after a while, but for others, they may not be able to get it forever!

I don't know what to do! Really! My choir mistress says she doesn't mind being the 'pai lang' and force certain members not to perform for the coming event. They would still travel to Brunei, but will watch the performance from the audience stand instead. But I think this is not really possible, as my conductor would not be able to allow it. Not that he wouldn't want to, but I think he would have a very difficult time explaining this to the top people! And i tell you, I'm quite sure those who are forced not to perform will definitely complain, complain and complain about it, as well as badmouth my conductor, choir mistress and the entire choir at the same time. You may be surprised, but after being in the choir for around 3 years, I've found out some adults really behave like childish kids at times, sulking, complaining, and not being able to think for the betterment of the choir as a whole. They only care about themselves! I used to have members who quitted the choir, just becos for the previous perf, they were made to stand at the back of the choir. Well, they weren't good, and my conductor couldn't have them standing in front of the microphones and spoiling the entire perf! They were really so unprofessional! ARGH!!!