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Views from the Choir Loft

On Mistakes (Part II of II)

Keven Smith · May 27, 2022

CHOIR MEMBER ONCE TOLD ME, “You know what I appreciate about you, Keven? You don’t give dirty looks when people sing wrong notes.” It made me wonder what kinds of choir experiences he’d had before. It also made me think about how we should all respond to mistakes.

In my last article, I analyzed the reasons for mistakes and offered some tips for reducing them. As I mentioned, though, mistakes are inevitable, so we and our singers should learn graceful and charitable ways of responding.

Two Extreme Reactions, and Why They’re Distracting

I’ve noticed two extremes in responding to mistakes: laughing, and beating oneself up. Some singers naturally respond to embarrassment by laughing, but they immediately stifle it and carry on singing. No problem. Unfortunately, I’ve seen singers make a mistake during Mass and then laugh for the next 16 bars. Yuck. That’s worse than any mistake.

And then there’s the singer who beats himself up. Suppose you’re singing through a motet and everything is going fine until one of your tenors comes in a beat early. He hangs his head, slumps his shoulders, and looks disgusted with himself. Even after you’ve finished singing the piece, he continues shaking his head.

This tenor, of course, is preoccupied with his own singing (as is the laugher described above). He’s the baseball player who’s dejected about going 0-for-4 even though his team won 10-1. All the self-flagellation looks like humility, but it can turn into a subtle form of pride: “How could I make a mistake like that? At my level? After all the practice I’ve had?”

We mess up because we have a fallen nature, and it makes us—all of us—do stupid things sometimes. It would be impractical to bar imperfect people from choir. So the next best thing is to turn the church choir into a place where it’s OK to make mistakes as long as we’re doing everything we can to make them rare. To build an environment like this, you need 100 percent buy-in: everyone—especially the director—must forgive others’ mistakes and be completely confident of their forgiveness in return. Everyone must also forgive his own mistakes. The focus on group unity and achievement then becomes so strong that individual mistakes become footnotes.

Thus, whenever we allow our own mistake to change our mood, we put ourselves ahead of the choir. Each singer must realize that he’s irreplaceable, but also anonymous. He’s irreplaceable because a good choir wouldn’t be quite the same without any individual voice. He’s anonymous because if he’s doing things correctly, his voice won’t stick out of the group sound. Because we’re irreplaceable, we must bounce back quickly from mistakes. Because we’re anonymous, we should take heart that many of our errors will go unnoticed.

How Singers Should Respond to Mistakes

The best response a choir member can make after her mistake is to keep soldiering on. It’s helpful if she strikes the chest gently, signaling that she’s aware she made a mistake. This reassures other choir members that they weren’t the ones who caused the problem. It also helps the conductor decide in rehearsals whether to stop the group and rehearse that spot. If I see a very reliable singer strike after making a mistake, I’ll probably go on because I know it was a momentary lapse.

How Choir Directors Should Respond to Mistakes

Whether you’re dealing with a laugher or a self-flagellator, the quick fix is to pull him aside and discuss the need for decorum in the rehearsal room and loft. But I think you’ll get better long-term results by emphasizing the team dynamic in your choir. Remind singers to listen to everything but themselves—from the warmup through the repertoire. Make sure everyone breathes together on entrances. And insist on good eye contact with your singers. Eye contact does much more than help ensure everyone will come in together; it also reminds singers that they’re part of a greater whole.

Now, I will give a pointed look if someone makes a mistake they can still correct. For example, a singer might forget to take a repeat. Or skip a verse. Or continue singing forte when the whole choir has gone piano. A conductor’s gaze often fixes these problems in an instant.

Although I’ve conditioned myself not to give dirty looks, I’m not perfect. I’ll occasionally feel frustrated when I hear a wrong note. This is natural for any hard-working choir director who’s trying to push his choir to higher and higher levels of proficiency. But we must banish these thoughts—or face the consequences. Every time I allow myself to think, “How could someone have sung a C# there? We drilled this in rehearsal!” I’ll soon make a mistake of my own. This always serves as my blunt reminder that choir isn’t about individual performance.

Where Wrong Notes Go to Die

The topic of mistakes came into perspective for me a couple of weeks ago on the Fourth Sunday after Easter (1962 calendar). As we were singing the epic Offertory antiphon Jubilate Deo, I noticed the remarkable energy, nuance, and togetherness of the musical line. Yes, we have the unfair advantage of using scores from the ingenious Graduale Renovatum website. But I give most of the credit to the enthusiasm and team spirit of my singers. I heard mistakes along the way: a missed jump here, an ill-timed change of syllable there. But these imperfections floated by in my peripheral vision. I wouldn’t have traded our spirited, fully engaged rendition for a technically perfect but boring one. 

I’ll leave you with something I told dozens of children at our parish Chant Camp a few years ago. As I reminded them not to get discouraged as they sang that day’s Mass, I quipped, “Don’t worry about mistakes. They’re over in a split-second. And after Mass, your guardian angel will gather them all up in a sack and throw them into that big dumpster in the parking lot.”

I’m not sure my idea has any basis in Scripture or sacred tradition. But I hope it helps flawed choir directors handle the task of leading choirs full of imperfect human beings.

Opinions by blog authors do not necessarily represent the views of Corpus Christi Watershed.

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Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: choir director, directing a choir, Latin Mass, mistakes, Simple Steps To Improve Parish Music, Singing the Mass Last Updated: May 27, 2022

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About Keven Smith

Keven Smith, music director at St. Stephen the First Martyr, lives in Sacramento with his wife and five musical children.—(Read full biography).

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Corpus Christi Watershed

President’s Corner

    Simplest “Agnus Dei” Ever Published
    Our choir is on break during the month of July. I needed a relatively simple “Agnus Dei,” so I composed this setting for organ & voice in honor of Saint René Goupil. It has been called the simplest setting ever composed. I love CARMEN GREGORIANUM (“Gregorian Chant”), especially the ALLELUIAS, INTROITS, and COMMUNION ANTIPHONS. That being said, some have pointed out that certain sections of the Kyriale aren’t as strong as the Graduale or Vesperale. There’s a reason for this—but it would be too complicated to explain at this moment.
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    14th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C)
    Our choir is on break during the month of July. However, on the feasts website, the chants have been posted for the 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C), which is this coming Sunday: 6 July 2025.
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    Bugnini’s Statement (6 November 1966)
    With each passing day, more is revealed about how the enemies of the liturgy accomplished their goals. For instance, Hannibal Bugnini deeply resented the way Vatican II said Gregorian Chant “must be given first place in liturgical services.” On 6 November 1966, his cadre wrote a letter attempting to justify the elimination of Gregorian Chant with this brazen statement: “What really gives a Mass its tone is not so much the songs as it is the prayers and readings.” Bugnini’s cadre then attacked the very heart of Gregorian Chant (viz. the Proprium Missae), bemoaning how the Proprium Missae “is completely new each Sunday and feast day.” There is much more to be said about this topic. Stay tuned.
    —Jeff Ostrowski

Quick Thoughts

    Pope Pius XII Hymnal?
    Have you ever heard of the Pope Pius XII Hymnal? It’s a real book, published in the United States in 1959. Here’s a sample page so you can verify with your own eyes it existed.
    —Corpus Christi Watershed
    “Hybrid” Chant Notation?
    Over the years, many have tried to ‘simplify’ plainsong notation. The O’Fallon Propers attempted to simplify the notation—but ended up making matters worse. Dr. Karl Weinmann tried to do the same in the time of Pope Saint Pius X by replacing each porrectus. You can examine a specimen from his edition and see whether you agree he complicated matters. In particular, look at what he did with éxsules fílii Hévae.
    —Corpus Christi Watershed
    Antiphons Don’t Match?
    A reader wants to know why the Entrance and Communion antiphons in certain publications deviate from what’s prescribed by the GRADUALE ROMANUM published after Vatican II. Click here to read our answer. The short answer is: the Adalbert Propers were never intended to be sung. They were intended for private Masses only (or Masses without music). The “Graduale Parvum,” published by the John Henry Newman Institute of Liturgical Music in 2023, mostly uses the Adalbert Propers—but sometimes uses the GRADUALE text: e.g. Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul (29 June).
    —Corpus Christi Watershed

Random Quote

“These liturgists protest that the choir must be encouraged, but in the same breath we are told its purpose is to lead the congregation in the singing of hymns and other unison music. These directions from non-musicians who have never created a musical sound—let alone direct a choir—are the cause of consternation among practicing musicians, both instrumentalists and singers.”

— Monsignor Richard J. Schuler (30 November 1967)

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