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Elizabeth Rieser
Andrew Pinkerton
September 10, 2018
Writing and Rhetoric I
More Than Just Singing

What is it like to be born into a family where music runs and influences our lives? It has

its ups and downs, but I couldn’t imagine my life differently without the musical influence that

runs through my veins. My mother was born into a family with pure talent, which led me to be

born into an artistic family. My grandparents were both involved in theatre and raised their two

daughters, my mother Wendy, and my aunt Gina to be involved in theatre and all things

involving the performing arts. Every member on my mother’s side of my family can sing and act

from my grandparents to my cousins.

My mother has been a part of many musicals and has been singing her whole life. Since

the age of 15 she sang the National Anthem at Mid-Ohio sports course for many car races

including the Honda Indy 200 race that is held there. She has been in productions including The

Wizard of Oz and Chicago. She also graduated from Ohio State University receiving her

bachelor’s degree in music. Naturally her profound experience and knowledge of music

influenced me by wanting to learn how to sing and perform.

At a young age my mom always encouraged me to sing. She would always take me to

musicals, listen to endless songs in the car from ABBA to The Phantom of the Opera. I would

always sit with her when she would sing in the church choir and I am pretty sure that I was the

loudest singer, even though I was three years old and not actually in the choir. The first musical I

ever went to see was Beauty and the Beast. Seeing all of these amazing characters come to life

and sing on stage was absolutely amazing for my little five-year-old brain. My mother is truly

the main component and influencer of why I wanted to learn music.

In grade school, I was not given many opportunities to sing at the small Catholic school I

attended, but I took advantage of any opportunity I had. I was a part of the children’s choir at my

school in which we would sing at Church services and I auditioned for all the musicals at my

school. This helped me get my start for the storm that was about to come my way.

With my love of music, and my mother’s strong influence, I started taking voice lessons

when I was in 8th grade. Voice lessons were quite dull and tiring, but I knew by taking these

lessons I would become more literate in music. I wanted to have proper technique when singing

as well as be able to read music. Voice lessons mainly focused on the proper techniques of

singing. Each lesson consisted of warmups, and learning the proper vowel sounds and mouth

shape for singing. I would sing many classical pieces as well as some musical theatre pieces.

When it comes to singing vowels properly you have to shape your mouth in very different ways

in order to obtain the mature sound you want when singing. For example, for singing a word that

had the “oh” sound such as boat, you would shape your lips into a tall and tight oval. Another

example is the “ee” vowel sound where you would shape your lips into a square like shape. I also

learned how to properly breathe while singing. Breathing while singing comes from the stomach

while using your diaphragm. Many of the exercises to learn this proper technique included

taking many deep breaths and holding one hand on my stomach in order to feel the air coming in

and out of my stomach. My mother, as one who is educated in the field of music, saw me grow

vastly in my technique and become a stronger singer with great breath support.

When I entered high school, a new world of opportunities for music entered my life.

These opportunities included choir and theatre. My freshmen year, I got to be a part of two

choirs: Mixed Chorus, my first semester, and Women’s Choir, my second semester. Mixed

Chorus was a preliminary choir where we learned to sing with a group as well as some general
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knowledge about music. My teacher, Miss Joyce, became a huge part on my journey to being

literate in music. She not only became my favorite teacher in high school, but she was also one

of the biggest influences I had in high school and the bond I created with her is one that I will be

forever grateful for. We learned how to write solfege which are music syllables that include do,

ri, mi, fa, sol, la, ti, do. Learning how to translate solfege with written music helps singers learn a

piece of music by being able to sight read it, which is the ability to read music without actually

hearing the notes beforehand.

In Women’s Choir I learned more about reading music. I learned the different types of

notes and rest, such as whole notes, quarter notes, half rests, whole rests, and all the other notes

and their values of how long you would sing out a note. I learned the different note names and

where each note is located on the staff and the location of the notes on a piano. My repertoire of

music terms grew and grew. I learned new words such as melody, decrescendo, fortissimo,

legato, and more. All of these fancy words are vital to music as well as speaking the language of

music.

After my freshman year of high school, I got to audition and be involved in Concert

Choir and be a part of this choir until I graduated. My journey and experiences I gained in

Concert Choir remain to be the greatest merit I have to being literate in music and the main

component to my literary success in this field. During Concert Choir the pieces of music we

were singing were at a higher difficulty and I got to sing beside the best singers in my high

school. Choir was the best class of the day. I made so many friends and we all shared a love of

music, learning music, and our amazing teacher Miss Joyce. We started each class with a series

of breathing warmups and then vocal warm ups. An example of a vocal warmup could include

going up the scale while singing what we would call a staccato “Ha”. Staccato means singing
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very short and with emphasis on that word, so a staccato “ha” would just include us singing short

“ha’s” up the interval and back down and continue to go up each octave on the piano. After our

warmups we would move on to learning the select pieces of music that our teacher would have

selected. Every time we would master a song we would start a new song. With each song we

would have to write solfege syllables and sight read the song. By my senior year of high school

solfege syllables were not even necessary and sight-reading music became a skill of mine.

Other skills that I learned in choir include reading and writing time signatures, how to

read the rhythm of the song, intervals in music, different markings in music, and all other

musical vocabulary terms. In order to be proficient in reading music you have to know all the

symbols in music and their meanings. This led to having many vocabulary tests in class.

Another skill we learned in choir is listening to different intervals and knowing what interval it

is. Intervals are the difference between two pitches in music. Each interval is made up of so

many half steps on a scale which can translate over to the keys on a piano. With lots of practice

and training, I was able to determine the interval just by hearing two different pitches and then

determining how many half steps were in between the pitches.

The skills that I learned in choir and through voice lessons have helped me grown into a

knowledgeable and literate person in music. My teachers and my family have had a huge impact

on my music skills and my ability to read music. With all of my years of choir and voice lessons

I can not only read music, but I now am able to write music. Many people think music is just

singing, but there is so much more than just moving your mouth and making noises. There is

proper technique, music notes, symbols, time signatures, rhythms, melodies, harmonies, and so

much more. People would always ask me how I would get graded in choir class. People would

ask if I would get graded on the quality of my voice, but my test were so much more than just
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singing. I had tests that ranged from sight singing to actually writing music based on what my

teacher would play on the piano.

I am so grateful for all the strong influences I had in my life that inspired me to become

literate in music. Although I am not pursuing a degree in music I still find it important to expand

my knowledge in other topics especially one that I am passionate about. Music is the thing that

bonds my family together and to be able to be literate in this important aspect of my family not

only makes me closer to them but more knowledgeable of this love we all share.