Wooden guitar. Community Choir La Paz Valley Foundation

The Guitar

The guitar. The first two days that I went up to the community, there was no electricity, which made it difficult to give the class, since I had brought an electric piano. The third day I decided to bring my guitar. When I was in the Potrerillos community, several children told me they had never seen a guitar, so we played with it for hours. During a whole month, every time I went to class, they asked me to teach them how to play the guitar. I thought it was just a flash in the pan, until one day I got to class and I saw a kid with a guitar that he and his father had made. With strings made with fishing-line and its bridges pine branches. It was then that I understood that they did want guitar classes.

Guitar without guitars

Since there were no guitars but there was the desire to learn, I decided to teach them the position of chords using a cardboard base as if it were the fingerboard, and colors to distinguish the strings. I was sure that we would eventually have guitars. When they learned the do position, I showed them how that chord sounded in my guitar. Right after I strummed to get a good do, everyone did the same with their cardboard and intoned ―triiiiin‖ with their mouths.

Breathing

It really caught my attention that women talked inwardly; they would respond to “have a nice day” (and almost any question) while they inhaled. I asked myself how we were going to get the voice out to sing. The magic of singing lies in learning to control our breath. Little by little, wonderful voices have emerged in this community choir.

The Baton

On the other hand, men shouted instead of speaking; “Teacher, you’re in the way; I can’t see”. In order to balance volumes, we learned nuances (from piano to fortissimo). Thus, we can control when we need more volume to respond to a “have a nice day”, or when we need a pianissimo to ask for advice.

Playing in the cold

It’s touching to see how some kids make an effort to get to their music class despite the weather or some family obligations. “I was very cold but I brought the blanket to be comfortable while taking my guitar class”.

Microphone

This photo was taken in Guadalajara. It was the first concert we preformed outside the community. From that moment, I understood that a child facing a microphone to sing in front of 200 people will never be the same. That child becomes a person capable of overcoming their goals, small and large.

Listening to cello for the first time

Andrea Beck came up with her schoolmates to share activities with the community. She learned to play the cello as a young girl and asked me if it was a good idea to play something for them. The immediate response was “yes”. We sat down in a circle and she started telling us about the instrument. I realized the kids of the choir had never listened to a cello, much less seen it interpreted it by someone their age. The kids didn’t blink as they observed the bow, the hands, the strings… it was a magical moment. Since then, Andrea has come up to the community several times to give workshops and concerts along with some members of her family who are also musicians.

First Tutti Concert

The community choir is made up by the La Huerta San Agustín and Mesa Rica communities. During the first two years, classes and choir performances were separate, or some children were chosen to travel. In December 2018, we performed a Christmas concert with all the members in the La Huerta San Agustín lookout point. Not all the members of Mesa Rica arrived, but we were able to organize a choir of approximately 70 voices.

A Walk and Discipline

Yahir and his sisters have to make a long walk to get to their classes in Mesa Rica because they live in Conejeras, a community nearby. That day, Yahir’s group had no classes, but he knew that the choir teacher would attend, so he undertook the walk so as not to miss his guitar lesson.

First Concert

I am very moved when I think of our first concert and how nervous kids were to go on the stage that they built themselves with bricks from an ongoing construction. It was December, it was cold, and most of the songs were Christmas carols. I think back to the stage of our last performance, a little less modest, and I like to realize that the excitement of singing is still there, motivating us to keep learning more every day about our singing.