The horror, the horror.

What can I say about the Christmas concert? This is where I'll direct you to the title of today's post. The little kids (which consisted of grades K-5) were fine because they just sounded like a bunch of little kids singing. You know what that sounds like. However, it was an entirely different thing altogether for the sixth- through eighth-graders. The music teacher obviously thought that she could make the higher grades sound like actual choirs. You know, where they're split into parts--alto, soprano, tenor, baritone, etc. Wrong, so wrong. I sang in choirs pretty much my entire way through school, and I now know with complete understanding why you must actually try out for choir. I've never truly understood until now that sharps and flats and everything else thrown in together actually produces noise, not music. Not only that, it's painful noise. It hurts your ears. I don't want to put these kids down because I don't think it's their fault they didn't sound good. They looked miserable up there and it was really interesting listening to cheerful music sung with all the enthusiasm of a funeral dirge. That music teacher obviously has watched Sister Act too many times and thought, hey, if Whoopie can do it... Ok, that's why it's a movie. That can't really happen in real life. You can't actually take a group of kids who can't sing and make them sound good. I'll be curious to see if next year's concert follows in a similar vein.