I loved choir, but auditions always stressed me out. Not because I couldn’t sing my part — but because I couldn’t always stay confident in it.
During sight-singing tests, I’d hesitate. During rehearsals, I’d sometimes drift off rhythm when other sections entered. It wasn’t that I couldn’t sing. It was that I didn’t fully understand what I was reading.
After one audition, my choir director said: “You’re relying on memory more than understanding.”
That’s when I started music theory.
At first, it felt like math for music — intervals, scales, chord structure.
But then something clicked. I started hearing how melodies moved before I sang them. I understood how harmonies stacked together. Sight singing stopped feeling like guessing. It became logical.
In rehearsals, I started staying with my section without effort. I could hear where phrases were going — even when I wasn’t singing yet.
At my next audition, I didn’t feel lost once.
When I was placed in the higher ensemble, I didn’t think I had become a better singer overnight. I had become a better listener.