Background

Singing in the background can be disconcerting when you’re used to being the sole focus of attention – as most choirs are. However, there are several lessons you can learn from being “background music” in performance.

  1. This is how many musicians work all the time. Performing their best, while knowing they are the secondary or tertiary focus of their “audience.”
  2. Excellence doesn’t require an audience. We perform to our best, whether or not anyone is listening.
  3. Any performance is an opportunity. You can make music for yourselves, learn and improve your art, with expectations that are very different than a rehearsal.

Go carol in a restaurant, or sing in an office lobby. You will get intermittent attention, followed by a respectful ignoring. And you will learn.