To Glee or Not To Glee

Being a high school choir director, I’m asked all the time: “Do you watch Glee?” I’ve been a hold out – I do not watch Glee. I usually make up the excuse that I do high school choir all day so why do I want to go home and watch it on TV? I generally follow up with “do doctors go home and watch ER?” (nevermind that ER’s been off the air for years – kinda like referencing WKRP in Cincinnati with my teenage students)

In actuality, I love my life of choir. I love it so much that I leave one choir rehearsal just to rush off to another choir rehearsal across town. I really can’t get enough of it. And, I do watch TV about choirs whenever I can.

I love the sound of people singing – real people making music. Genuine music. Music with mistakes, out of tune chords and random voices sticking out of the choir. I remember my father talking about a piano record that he listened to growing up where you can hear the pianist play a wrong note. I always thought that was cool – a real person at the other end of that recording. I love handmade pottery most when I can find a fingerprint in the clay. That’s art. Evidence of humans striving to create something that satisfies themselves and others. Perfection is not the goal. What is artistic perfection anyway?

I avoided Glee because I was afraid of what I would find. Well, I gave in. I watched an episode. It was perfection, actually, in a way. Not a note is out of place in their musical numbers. Nobody’s voice cracks when they go for the high note. The school piano is not out of tune. (?!) Everybody knows all the moves, they’re not out of breath and they look fabulous.

Music minus the art. Where are the mistakes? Where are the real voices? What I saw was over-produced, manipulated, studio-created music.

Dove Corporation has created a “Campaign for Real Beauty” that highlights the negative effects of the unrealistic image of physical beauty propagated by the media. They have been featuring normal, un-Photoshopped, beautiful women in their advertisements. We need a “Campaign for Real Music!” Let’s celebrate and encourage the kind of music that real artists make in real choirs around the world. Real, human art. Mistakes and all.

CODA: Here’s the Dove “Campaign for Real Beauty” video, Evolution:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYhCn0jf46U

For real choirs on TV, check out Howard Goodall’s Choir Works series. (available on Netflix)

For real choirs in person – come see the Fairfax Choral Society youth and adults!

- Molly Khatcheressian, Youth Chorus Musicianship and AP Theory teacher