Public Business Venue:
This venue was hard to fill. Not
at first, but it was down to the wire in the end.
We had too many carolers signed up at first--that was when I made a mistake that I will not repeat. I dropped some singers--I should have waited to do that until the day or hours before the venue. It won't happen twice.
After setting up who will sing (we only needed 8 singers--but actually we could have had more at this venue), I heard from 4 of them ---that's half--that they couldn't come!
I worked hard on not getting too stressed about it--one thing I've learned with teenagers--they make you sweat but then they come through at the last minute!
We were able to pull together a group of 6--no tenors. So instead of two groups of 4, we remained one group.
The group resisted the idea of singing in unison for the first verse. One of the carolers later told me that it is hard to sing the melody when you've learned the carol in another part. When the group is small it does give volume to them when they sing in unison. You could hear it when the would sing Jingle Bells, which begins in unison.
The two basses actually switched off singing tenor during the caroling. I thought that was pretty neat, that they could listen to each other and adapt to their own singing so well. I think we could have had 8 singers or more; there really wasn't a space concern and then they could have been heard a little better. But the customers applauded each song and the carolers gained confidence as they sang.
It helped this smaller group to have the pitch given on an ipod (the app we used is called virtuoso piano--it's just a piano pitch). No one in the audience even knows the carolers are using it, but it gives them the right pitch so they can begin the carol strongly.
The caroling experience is a learning one; at the small venues the carolers have to overcome their nerves or shyness and sing confidently. I know that these singers will go into their next caroling venue with more assurance and assertiveness because of this experience.
Even the chaperones are learning as we go. We have to be patient with our group of teens; we have to let them lead themselves during the singing. We have to remember to encourage them and praise them when they worry about how they sound. We have to let them learn and experience what they need to at each venue, just as we would in a classroom or home school setting.
We had too many carolers signed up at first--that was when I made a mistake that I will not repeat. I dropped some singers--I should have waited to do that until the day or hours before the venue. It won't happen twice.
After setting up who will sing (we only needed 8 singers--but actually we could have had more at this venue), I heard from 4 of them ---that's half--that they couldn't come!
I worked hard on not getting too stressed about it--one thing I've learned with teenagers--they make you sweat but then they come through at the last minute!
We were able to pull together a group of 6--no tenors. So instead of two groups of 4, we remained one group.
The group resisted the idea of singing in unison for the first verse. One of the carolers later told me that it is hard to sing the melody when you've learned the carol in another part. When the group is small it does give volume to them when they sing in unison. You could hear it when the would sing Jingle Bells, which begins in unison.
The two basses actually switched off singing tenor during the caroling. I thought that was pretty neat, that they could listen to each other and adapt to their own singing so well. I think we could have had 8 singers or more; there really wasn't a space concern and then they could have been heard a little better. But the customers applauded each song and the carolers gained confidence as they sang.
It helped this smaller group to have the pitch given on an ipod (the app we used is called virtuoso piano--it's just a piano pitch). No one in the audience even knows the carolers are using it, but it gives them the right pitch so they can begin the carol strongly.
The caroling experience is a learning one; at the small venues the carolers have to overcome their nerves or shyness and sing confidently. I know that these singers will go into their next caroling venue with more assurance and assertiveness because of this experience.
Even the chaperones are learning as we go. We have to be patient with our group of teens; we have to let them lead themselves during the singing. We have to remember to encourage them and praise them when they worry about how they sound. We have to let them learn and experience what they need to at each venue, just as we would in a classroom or home school setting.
Nursing Home Venue:
When you go to a nursing home facility with teenagers, you see the contrast of young and old quite clearly. There were some laughs as the kids warmed up, that reminded me that young people have a unique perspective on how they see old people. These teens are comfortable with talking and interacting with the old folks, even people they don't know, because they know what it means to them. The group sang in an entry way with senior alzheimer's patients (some with visiting family) on either side. It was a little difficult for the group to make eye contact because of where they were positioned. But they had a good sound and the audience sang along with them on many of the carols. At the end of the singing, they were asked to sing Silent Night once more, but accompanied by a resident. This lady was singing along with them throughout their caroling. She came up and stood with them, hanging onto the arm of a caregiver, and blessed us with her singing as she sang soprano, then alto, then soprano. She had a beautiful rich voice. I couldn't help but get teary-eyed watching our group of teenagers sharing their love of music with her and the other residents. |
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