Show Choir
 

Was anyone here in show choir when they were in high school or college?

Can you please present a compelling argument that it is, in fact, not as lame as it looks?

Exhibit A

Don't get me wrong. I love musicals. I love theater. I even love choirs.

But show choir is just....oh my.

Discuss.

I wasn't in one, but they had one at a bigger school around where I lived. They were nothing more than a small cover band, they mainly covered rock songs, but they played the instruments and stuff, nothing like in the video.

All three of our kids were in show choirs in high school and had a great time.

They were pretty good.

Most of the show choir kids (and others, of course) were in the musicals, and they were main stage performers at the International Thespian Festival twice. That's a pretty big deal.

More than anything, I think it depends on the director.

A great director can get a lot out of marginally talented kids, and a bad director can screw up choirs with a lot of great talent.

^^^ So what's your honest impression of Exhibit A? (Knowing you will be diplomatic because they are kids :))

See, as someone who can dance but not really sing, I was always impressed by kids like this who would get up there and do it all. My biggest criticism is that they needed to make sure the vocals could be heard over the stomping on the stage. :) Hey, future Broadway stars have to start somewhere, right? This type of group seems like just the training ground for kids with that kind of interest, plus it gives them a peer group to hang with that enjoys all that stuff.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=0BoHqwGKpoo That one (Footloose medley) wasn't nearly as lame to me. I guess because it's actually from a musical. I liked it.

The same school rocked "Fame" too http://youtube.com/watch?v=-In1vSTyRDE&feature=related :)

I think it depends very much on the choir and the performance they've put together. In the first example that was posted, I wasn't really a fan of the choreography (or the thumping!), and the harmonies were difficult in such a small group of singers. Some sound adjustments and better blending of the voices, perhaps through coaching of the individual singers and changes made to their formation, may have done quite a bit in improving their presentation.

In my opinion, some show choir performances are very similar to large group numbers in musicals, which is enjoyable to watch. While I did a good bit of musical theatre in high school, for the most part my dance training and voice training was separate, so show choirs don't really appeal to me in that respect. Barring the more musical-theatre type numbers, I think that the biggest flaw can be the showcase of average dance routines undermining some really impressive singing- perhaps because members of competitive school choirs tend to have more extensive vocal training than dance training. My old choir director used to drill into us that "choir music is 90% visual"; while this is certainly debatable, I have heard some really stellar music arrangements sung by very talented choirs whose performance seems to be clouded by far less impressive movement.

I was in a regular gospel choir in college, but it sounds like we might as well have been a show choir. We did travel a lot to do concerts, often were in uniform/costume, and had a couple of songs that included dance steps and specific facial expressions. LOTS of dancing. We had lighting effects and whatnot. It was fun but that bit of lameness..we wouldn't have been caught dead. :rolleyes:

Actually, I didn't even watch the whole thing.

I pretty much agreed with Tiny Dancer. I thought the voices didn't blend well and the choreography didn't do much for me.

On the other hand, it's tough to judge given the video and audio quality. (That's the diplomatic part -- I pretty much didn't like it)

When I was in HS we didn't have a "show choir" persay, but pretty much every performance one of the groups had a "dance" to at least one song. Being that I was in the advanced women's chorus 10-12th grade, it was usually us who were "fortunate" enough for movements :D.

In all honesty, the songs that we did movements to were broadway medley's (or just individual songs from broadway), which wasn't what we got recognized for. We got awards for the more "formal" singing. (If that makes any sense).