Are you sure?

When I began singing in choirs many many years ago, I joined the alto section. Maybe it's because my older sister had a beautiful soprano voice and I didn't want to be compared to her, maybe it's because that's where my mom sang so it allowed me to sit with her, or maybe it's because that's really where my voice felt comfortable.

But for whatever reason, I'm an alto. I always have been. And I looooove being an alto! Which is apparently unusual...

You see, there's a strange phenomenon that often occurs with female singers. Somewhere in the eons of time, singing high has come to be equated with great skill. Most girls want to be sopranos. They want to be able to sing the high notes--the higher the better. And they want people to recognize that they can sing the high notes.

I encountered this a lot while teaching high school choir. Here is what happens when you tell a teenage girl that thinks she's a soprano to sing in the alto section:
1 - There's an immediate tensing of the body and a hint of panic enters the eyes.
2 - You'll hear phrases like, "I promise I can hit the high notes, I was just sick during auditions," or, "I've never sung alto. I'm always a soprano," or, "I don't think I can hit the low notes," or just plain, "What?! Are you sure?" The shock actually makes it pretty easy to get through this phase as they are too stunned to do much other than stand there slack-jawed with crazy eyes. But then you get to the worst part...
3 - Within a few days, weeks if you're lucky, the student's parent will approach you to tell you about the mistake you've made. Never mind your degrees in music and years of experience, you've clearly got it wrong. Their daughter is a soprano. And not just a soprano, the soprano.

It's really kind of funny...after you've moved through the frustration. :)

Anyway, the point of all this is that I've never understood that mentality. Besides the fact that it has less to do with skill than with tone color, I don't understand why anyone would even want to sing soprano. You're stuck with the melody while the altos get the yummy harmony parts, if you make a mistake it sticks out, and the conductors invariably spend the most time with your section, trying to get you to stop sounding so whiny and shrill. It just sounds like a lot of stress and bother. Alto is definitely where it's at.

I recently went through choir auditions for the UW Chamber Singers. There was an initial audition, a callback, and finally the list was posted with my name on it (eat that BYU singers!). All good news, right? Yes.

But I'm having a minor identity crisis. I'm singing soprano. At first I didn't think much of it as I'm singing soprano 2, which is practically the same as alto 1. But then we had a rehearsal today and I sat with the sopranos and it totally weirded me out! It's stupid, but true. I just had this feeling like I was with the wrong group, like I was pretending to be a soprano and they'd soon see right through me.

But they didn't catch me today, so maybe I can keep up the ruse...