Choir Fun Facts #3

There's actually a fair amount of contention about whether conductors (for choir or orchestra) are really needed. Sure, everyone agrees that there needs to be someone who rehearses the group, but some would say that once the ensemble knows the music, the director is not as necessary.

I disagree (and not just based on job security)! I believe that the best "performances" are those where all of the musicians are not only bringing their best musical prowess and gifts to the table, but where wherein their vision of the music that they are playing is unified in the moment. I celebrate all musicians having their own view of the music - and that should be explored in solos. However, an ensemble, each interpreting the music to their liking, is like telling everyone in a business to do whatever they'd like to do to make the business run the best it can. Although the business may survive, there will be no real vision.

Also, conductors are like good insurance - when things go horribly wrong - that's when you wish you had one!

There are lots of musical clefs. You see a picture of a treble clef (on the left) and bass clef (on the right) here. Basically, a clef is put on a staff to tell you additional information about how high or low a note is. If we didn't have clefs, our staffs would have to be at least 10 lines tall! That would be confusing!

But, to address the most common clefs (treble and bass) - basically, treble is meant for higher notes and the bass for lower notes.

A church choir should always be striving to become a better choir and to grow spiritually, in commitment and otherwise. A choir that is satisfied with the status quo is not in any sense a church choir. Would we be satisfied with missionaries that are fine with the status quo? What about if we sent people on mission trips (say, for example to Haiti) that were satisfied with the status quo? We don't even want politicians that are interested in the status quo. So, why would we, as choir members, be satisfied to do a sufficient amount of work to be average, luke-warm and do little more than to satisfy the musical status quo of the church/community/Kingdom? Note: It's not ministry if you're not trying...