In addition to our weekly function as offering servants, chorus members also learn basic musicianship.  We define basic musicianship as:

1.  The ability to properly perform a piece of music, with correct rhythm, pitch and pleasant tone.

2.  A basic understanding of music theory: how to read and write musical notation in creating rhythms and melodies and scale construction and identification.

3.  The ability to understand and reproduce music on your given instrument on sight (sight-reading).

It should be noted that these skills are not something unique to our chorus or me as a teacher but are basic to every area of musical study: learning an instrument, musical composition, and even understanding the music we listen to.  Learning these skills is not meant to make choir hard, boring or like school but to improve each individual as a musician not just let them be lost in the group.  More importantly, learning basic musicianship is the key to being better at music.  Music can many times seem frustrating, confusing, and too complicated, but understanding how music works is the key to understanding your music and making reading the musical language easy and enjoyable.