Every year, Brentsville District choir students audition for all-district choir. The students practice for weeks in order to try and get into all-district. Unfortunately, due to the pandemic, they are unable to hold the concert; so, this year, the students auditioned in order to be eligible for all-Virginia choir. This year every singer that auditioned for districts made it in.

All-Virginia choir is a huge event that only excepts the top two singers in each voice part per district; because of this, they must practice their piece more than they did for districts. This year the piece for All-Virginia is Deep River, a song Arranged by H.T. Burleigh.

There are different ways to practice for all-district, one being just to record yourself and fix whatever needs fixing. You can also send your recording to someone else because they may catch something that you overlooked. Then once you think you fixed what needed fixing, you can record yourself and compare the two recordings.

Another way to practice is to chunk out the song into phrases and practice it phrase by phrase. Playing your part on a piano or keyboard, if you have one, is a good way you can practice. By doing this, you can work on perfecting the phrases so that you can focus on the different phrases, so you do not have to focus on fixing everything through the song at once. By going phrase by phrase, you must focus on fixing a few things, and once you have them fixed, you can put all the phrases together and sing through the whole song.

Junior Anna Monfort has struggled with practicing too, “I have no idea what I am supposed to sound like because I don’t have anyone else to give me corrections.” However, Anna has found a way to overcome this struggle, “I record myself than listen back to give myself corrections,” she has also found a good way for her to practice. When asked, she said, “I record myself singing with the recording from Ms. Pulos so I can improve on the song.”

Everyone is different and has different methods of practicing their piece, and some of those methods may not work for others, so it is up to the singer to find what method works for them the best. However, they must practice at home on their own time in order to perfect the piece for all-Virginia.