When I was in elementary school in my public school, which was only for girls, The school director informed us that they had hired a music teacher to give us lessons and form the school choir.This was a big event among the students because in our community most of them had not had the opportunity to study music in private schools. That was my first experience with the musical notes that he teacher took from the piano to teach us and to place us according to our our voice registers. I was at that time studying fourth grade.
In the first class, he teacher sitting at a black piano made of wood so polished and clean that it shone, gave us a test. Each student went to the piano, but not to play it, but to repeat the sounds that came out of it. All the girls were very nervous,including me, because we didn't understand what the test was for.
"Try to repeat the sound of the piano with the syllable Do" he told me.
I started trying... as far as I could.
He pressed the piano key with one finger, I listened and said do, as best I could and so on, higher and higher, Do, Do, Do,Do, until my throat just squeaked, and I was silent.
"All right, put yourself in that group"
"Thank you" I said and with my head down I placed myself where he told me, while I looked sideways at my friends who were in the other group. I thought at that moment that my group was the one with the lowest notes and that I had not passed the test... and in a way I was right, although not from the point of view that my knowledge of music allowed me at that moment. And a little sad, I waited while the other students were evaluated.
And there we were standing in the classroom, waiting for what he teacher was going to tell us.
"The test I gave you is not to decide who gets to study music and who doesn't, don't be scared. What I wanted to know is how high or how low each of you can go in the musical scale Do Re Mi Fa Sol La Si, and that's why I separated you into two groups".
And coming closer he pointed to us
"You could not reach the higher notes, but you will sing very well with the lower notes".
I felt happy at that moment... and I breathed.
"And you girls, you have done very well with the high notes, but surely it will be less easy for you to sing in the lower notes".
After that test, I began to understand what it was to be a soprano and what it was to be an contralto like me. Those years of studying music at my school were full of learning and joy.
On the day of our first performance, the choir of the "Elías Toro" National School Group invited the mothers to a tribute on their day. In the school courtyard in front of a small auditorium where we did the school events, they had placed the chairs where the guests waited anxiously to see and hear the choir sing.
All the girls standing next to each other, dressed in school uniform, a blue skirt below the knees, white shirt, white socks and very clean black shoes, on the collar of the shirt and on the head a blue ribbon, waiting for the teacher's instructions. My mother was very proud, sitting in the front row, she kept smiling. My friends and I were nervous, he teacher in front of us, before starting the presentation, said to us
"We've already rehearsed everything they're going to sing, and they know how to do it. They just have to have fun and let the music inside them come out"
We began to sing and the music that came out of our mouths, coming from our throats driven by the air in our lungs, reached each one of the mothers, teachers, children and all the people present and surrounded them with that love that only music knows how to express. Because in music you have to put emotions.
Everything went as expected, and we received congratulations from the mothers, the director, the teachers and especially from our dear music teacher, whose name I have forgotten, many years have passed since that day. But I thank him for having awakened in me the love for music and choral singing, which sometimes I have left due to life circumstances, but which I have taken up again to continue enjoying and learning not only to sing but to share, to know that teamwork requires the commitment and effort of each one and above all to enjoy music.
Thank you very much for reading this story of my childhood that brought me beautiful and emotional memories while I was writing it.
