Choir Practice

It was Friday evening and Zuhua and I were finishing supper and she asked me if I was going with her to choir practice. I don’t go to practice singing, but to practice my listening. A Christian from the music school works with them each Friday evening. I really enjoy watching him take a piece they can hardly sing and listen to the progress he makes with them.

Last spring he worked from the piano as he led the choir, but tonight was different. At the piano he had a twelve year old with no music in front of her. It was simply Chinese characters with a row of numbers above the characters indicating the melody line. He would sing through the music for her, emphasizing all the inflections he wanted. She simply sat there, looked at him and listened. When he finished, she looked at the piano keyboard for a minute and then positioned her hands and started playing. I was stunned by what I heard. She played back using all the keys she could with both hands, just as he had sung it, with feeling that brought tears to my eyes. It was really special watching and listening to her and the choir director work with the choir. Often after church on Sunday, she would sit down at the piano and play classical numbers from memory. She is clearly playing at the college level.

The following picture is her at the piano on a holiday weekend when almost nobody came to sing.

At choir practice tonight was a young daughter of the mother that drives me home from class on Tuesday. She works her way over to me and offers me a piece of chocolate candy. She sits down next to me with a small electronic game in her hands and plays, trying to talk with me in English. She takes special English classes and also takes piano lessons from the twelve year old at the piano. In fact the twelve year old has several piano students.

After a while she leaves me and goes to another place in the church. About that time Joy enters the sanctuary and notices me sitting there. She comes over and sits with me and talks with me about several things. I mentioned to her how I felt the love of God in the music there at the church. It really stimulated worship. She completely agreed. We sat together for the rest of the choir practice and then we went up and talked with the twelve year old for a few minutes.

Zuhua and I left to go home, but were joined by a young lady that just graduated from seminary and now works with Joy at the church. She is learning English and wanted to talk with me. We walk together for about a mile having a great time.

Choir practice is such a special event. I always have a great time, but for some reason my singing doesn’t seem to improve any. Must be I am a slow learner, or maybe I am musically challenged. That twelve year old at the piano is sure good!