Music 107: University Choir (SA)
I took this class with Dr. McDermott during the Fall of 2020. In response to this class occurring during the global COVID-19 pandemic, we were unable to have any public concerts or really sing all that much. However, in light of everything, I believe that Dr. McDermott truly taught us a lot about the techniques of singing and the complexities of music during this semester and I feel like I have learned a lot. Throughout the class, we studied different singing techniques and applied them to a few songs that we were learning.
I felt like I grew a lot more as a musician during this class than in previous semesters because of how focused it was on techniques and applying them to the few pieces we were learning. This class helped me realize that although things might not necessarily have gone as planned, one can still adapt, grow, and learn. This class gave me a lot of hope and I felt a lot of support for my struggles with the pandemic. As with past semesters of university choir, I felt like I really had people to fall back on and a safe place to just relax for a little while every few days.
We worked on a lot of written assignments this semester and a lot of them focused on relating music with the current social climate in the U.S. One assignment that I particularly liked was the one where we watched the movie “20 Feet from Stardom” and talked about how the movie made us feel as musicians.