Sadly, I must agree. Mine was the one voice amidst the gaggle of perfectly harmonising altos that invariably shifted over to whatever it was the sopranos were singing. This would, of course, throw the rest of the altos off, earning me a proper reprimand from the conductor, and a lot of "ha ha you moron"s from the rest of the choir.
Harmonising is my bane. I bow down and pay obeisance to all of you to whom it comes easily.
I can’t even sing second soprano unless they have the main melody line. I am definitely a non-harmonizer. It annoys the heck out of me! The only thing that saves my butt in a choral situation is that I am a high soprano, and we always get the melody lines. 
Having done Figure Humaine earlier this year, I can report that it doesn’t really matter what part you sing – sometimes they’re all frickin’ impossible.
Jodi: hey, I’d invite you to audition, but the commute would be hell. 
Hey, don’t get the altos started… they’re dangerous when roused.
I need luck tonight - I’m auditioning for a solo in Ceremony of Carols. Probably won’t get it, I’m a bit too big’n’boofy and the part calls for pure.
G bass through tenor. Freakishly wide range, but quality doesn’t match…so I only sing solo when pressed. Much better quality in bass range.
Community and church choirs, musicals, and barbershop a bit.
Singing is great, but I’ve been out of the scene since I moved a year ago.
I always get a bit high when I sing with a group.
Hi all … I’ve been lurking here for a while, but this is my first post 
I’m definitely an alto. Can’t for the life of me understand how to hit anything above high F effortlessly. Fortunately I can sight-sing I’m in an amateur choir here and we’re now preparing for a year-end concert - this time it’ll be musical-based, singing selected songs from Miss Saigon and Les Miserables.
I’ve got a question … do you know where I could get a leather concert folio or sheet music folder or whatever the proper term is for the folders choirs use to hold their music? I’m looking for a birthday gift for a friend who also loves singing and would like to give him one of those folders. Hopefully I can get it personalised with his name embossed on the front … ? Anyone have any ideas?
Hey purplycow, welcome to the boards.
Since you’re in KL, you might want to check out Popular Book Stores for leather folders. The Populars in Singapore usually carry them. They may not personalise it, but smaller stationary stores might be willing to do that for you. Hope that helps.
I’m a mezzo soprano. I can usually hit a good chunk of the soprano 1 notes, and most of them if I warm up properly. Last year of high school choir, they had me as a tenor 1, but I can reach most of the tenor 2 notes that near bass. What an odd range I have!
I had a friend who had thought her whole life she was a mezzo – singing alto in choral situations – and it turned out she’d been badly mistaught and had a much higher range than she realized. This was highly irritating only because of the eight years the other teacher had been teaching her wrong. Some people have very wide ranges…
I miss my voice teacher. I hated having to leave her. 
usually sing tenor but I’m really bari
aasna, thanks for your help! Will make a trip there soon. 
Alto. Or tenor, if needed. Rarely soprano–I just can’t hit the higher notes. Most recent choir: The Messiah Association. We do(duh) the Messiah at Christmas each year. This year I’m not doing it, though, because of business travel conflicting with rehearsals.
Wow, the amount of talent, and talented people on this board never ceases to amaze me!
:not worthy bow:
I’m a proto-barytone who sings the melody in a tenor voice along with the sopranos at church in a 7 person choir, thus earning me an honorary birth in the sopranos . When people ask me what voice I sing, I say I’m a soprano…
Joey Soprano… :cheap rimshot:
Director said the men in the congregation need someone to follow to convince them that the sopranos are not way to high to keep up with…
That, plus the fact that I get hopelessly confused when trying to sing a bass line alone or a tenor line with only one other fellow (hi **assna & Eva Luna **) while the sopranos (all 3 or 4 of them) are belting out the melody… :o
I did sing bass in a Christmas amateur production of the Halleluja chorus, which was a pretty amazing experience. We were only 20 people or so, half of which were sopranos, 3 altos, 5 tenors, and 2-3 bass. It’s amazng how big a sound we were able to get with so few people. It was also there that I encountered the phenomenon of the “phantom tenor”: you can see them sing, their mouths are moving in time, you can hear them when they practice alone, but you can barely hear them when the 4 voices are singing.
I must say I’m much indebted to my voice teacher for teaching me how to get those upper D’s/E’s, but the arrival of tru-squirt a year ago has required that I suspend my lessons for a while…
oh, and Welcome to the board, purplycow !
& Keep on singing!
Wow, the amount of talent, and talented people on this board never ceases to amaze me!
:not worthy bow:
I’m a proto-barytone who sings the melody in a tenor voice along with the sopranos at church in a 7 person choir, thus earning me an honorary birth in the sopranos . When people ask me what voice I sing, I say I’m a soprano…
Joey Soprano… :cheap rimshot:
Director said the men in the congregation need someone to follow to convince them that the sopranos are not way to high to keep up with…
That, plus the fact that I get hopelessly confused when trying to sing a bass line alone or a tenor line with only one other fellow (hi **assna & Eva Luna **) while the sopranos (all 3 or 4 of them) are belting out the melody… :o
I did sing bass in a Christmas amateur production of the Halleluja chorus, which was a pretty amazing experience. We were only 20 people or so, half of which were sopranos, 3 altos, 5 tenors, and 2-3 bass. It was there that I encountered the phenomenon of the “phantom tenor”: you can see them sing, their mouths are moving in time, you can hear them when they practice alone, but you can barely hear them when the 4 voices are singing.
I must say I’m much indebted to my voice teacher for teaching me how to get those upper D’s/E’s, but the arrival of tru-squirt a year ago has required that I suspend my lessons for a while…
oh, and Welcome to the board, purplycow !
& Keep on singing!
waves to all
Can I ask a weird question? Is it actually ideal to have equal numbers of men and women/each voice type in a choir?
I apologize fo rmy lateness in posting, it’s been a rough couple of weeks.
I am, as apparently someone has heard, singing with the Antelope Valley Master Chorale (Lancaster, CA).
We are (drum roll please) scheduled to perform in NYC at Carnegie Hall in March 2004.
I would love to meet any NY dopers when I get there.
trupa!! Which church? I’m a displaced Calgarian!
I’ve never seen a purplycow… 
It’s not a weird question at all. AFAIK, most music requires a reasonable balance between the sections, lest the underrepresented sections get lost in the mix. In reality, of course, you take what you can get; virtually every choir is short of tenors, and thus has to make do with an unequal voice mixture.
Hi there cajela, i’m a fellow AICSA chorister!
I’m in QUMS at Uni of Qld (as well as all the other choirs around the edges).
I love the Britten smiles
I sight-sing, and they have made me stand in the middle of people who can’t keep pitch in order to keep them in tune a lot.
As for what I sing - well, when I was a girl, I was a mezzo. Now that I’m a boy, I’m a countertenor (at the moment, anyway… or a boy soprano) but I can sing first tenor if required. I’m hoping that once the hormones kick in I’ll be a nice warm tenor.
However, I’ve got a pretty wide range when well warmed-up (even if it is a little weak around the edges) which is from C one octave below middle C, to C two octaves above middle C.
I wish our post-rehearsal pub would allow us to sing - we don’t actually have post-rehearsal pub, we have post-rehearsal coffee.
Does anyone on here remember the old chorister geek code?
I can’t remember much of mine… I think it went something like
C S/A/CT/T AIB QAT S+++ IV- P+++ A!
oh, I’ve forgotten the rest now
alto, church folk group (much more fun than the choir in my parish with their stuffy, yucky director). Can sing tenor if needed. I’ve got your basic, in-the-middle voice. yay.