By Amy Estrada/reporter
Laughter echoed in the choir room as students filled up the risers before it was time to belt out some tunes. Much like the show Glee, the students were very alive and ready to sing.
Casey Holder/The Collegian
Bobbie Douglass, NE assistant professor of music, led the choir in a warm-up ritual to get their singing voices ready. The students moved their heads from side to side, marched in place, brought their hands up in the air and then did a breathing exercise to work their vocal chords.
Rachel Berry, the diva on the TV show, and her fellow New Direction characters on the hit show, never warm up before singing a pop tune. They just belt it out like nobody’s business and make it seem like every singer is the same way.
Does the show Glee really reflect an actual glee club?
Encore, the TCC version of Glee, is a combination of three NE choirs: Collegiate Chorale, Chamber Singers and Community Choir.
“Encore has the same purpose as Glee, to get the music out there,” said NE student Ashley Ghent, Encore president. “We’re more the technical stuff behind the show.”
NE student Caitlin Varley, Encore vice president, admits she’s never seen Glee, but she loves music. She says it’s harder than it looks.
“When you listen to music, it’s easy to sing, but when you look at the actual sheet music, it becomes more technical and difficult,” Varley said.
The music Encore and all the choirs perform is the exact opposite of what the TV show puts on for its viewers, Ghent said. Encore sings the more classical or baroque route. The New Directions members take today’s hits and spice them up a bit.
“If you learn classically, you can learn anything,” Douglass said.
Singers who train properly will have the ability to sing anything from classical to modern pop, but if they do not get the proper training, it’s possible to hurt the vocal chords, Douglass said.
Even though the music on the show is quite different from what Encore and the choirs perform, they both have some similarities.
The show is full of vibrant characters, and each one brings something to the club. Ghent said her favorite part of Encore is also the group’s vibrant personalities.
“Musical people are some of the greatest people anyone could ever meet,” she said.
“People are coming together emotionally,” Varley said. “It’s a close-knit group.”
Just like any club, funds are raised to keep things moving. The Glee members in their first season decided on a bake sale to get a bus for Artie so they could all ride together to sectionals.
Douglass said last year the choirs and Encore participated in a service project. The students emptied out their pockets for loose change and put it in a donation jar.
By the end, they had collected around $75 for H.O.P.E. Farm, an after-school program providing a place for young boys who lack an older male role model in their lives to keep them off the streets and learn about Christianity.
Just like the episode when Rachel lost her voice and was starting to freak out that her career was over, all singers hate to get sick and especially lose their voices.
Feeling a little under the weather herself, Ghent said, “It’s no fun when a singer loses her voice!”
