Chapel Choir

In the first semester of grade 11, I joined chapel choir. Since our school has chapel every Tuesday, chapel choir aimed to present frequently on Tuesdays. However the plan did not go well. From the first meeting, the practice was unsuccessful. Since the instructor of the group was Mrs. Yoon, the Korean teacher, who was very close to all the members, students did not look at the group seriously. I also did. Because the members were all Korean students, we were busy chatting around and laughing at each other singing the choir song. The first song we performed was “Blow the Trumpet in Zion”. This song was very difficult because it was high-toned and fast. However, because I had several experiences of joining school choir in Korea, I did not worry so much. After 5 meetings of practices, the day of performance finally came.

Unlike my confidence, our performance was terrible. We were far from ideal image of the choir. We were just individuals singing separately in a very quiet voice. After the chapel, we were called by Father Richard, who leads the chapel service, and were scolded by him because of our attitude during the performance. He told us to have some responsibility of performing in front of whole school students. He said that Chapel Choir is not just singing, but preaching the message of God in a different way. Even some students said that they could not understand the lyrics of the song. Whether I had experience or not was not a big deal. What is important was the teamwork within the group.

I think everyone thought as the way I did. During the practice after the performance, everyone seemed working harder. So did I. We decided to be more organized in order to keep the teamwork and responsibility to the club. First, we thought that we needed secretary to check the attendance of the members, because one problem we had was several people missing the practices. I volunteered for the secretary and suggested to drop people who miss the practice three times without any reasons. All agreed on it and finally there was a legit rule in our club. Our new song to perform was “Joy to the World”, which all members were familiar with. I think improved practice attitude and familiar song made synergy effect. Personally, I thought our harmony was awesome!

The performance went out well. Although we only had two performances throughout the semester, I think it does not matter. Through encountering several practices which were sometimes successful and sometimes a failure, it was a good experience for me to learn about the effective teamwork. Also, it was my first time to suggest a rule in a group in order to organize and aim for efficient result. Though at first it was such a failure, at last I gathered valuable learning. I enjoyed being the member of the Chapel choir group.