What if I told you every high school theatre kid likely has access to an excellent training ground where they can grow their performing abilities, learn important music skills, and get valuable practice with performing, all for free?

School choir is a stellar opportunity for growth that all high school theatre kids should take advantage of! Here are five ways joining school choir will make you a better, more accomplished performer.

1. You learn to read music better

Being able to read music is an extremely valuable skill for musical theatre actors. Reading music helps you learn it faster and understand it better. This means easier music rehearsals and easier audition prep!

Whether you have no experience reading music or are a sight-reading expert, practice will always be necessary to keep your skills sharp, and the more practice the better! You’ll have plenty of friends and a choir director to assist you if you get confused. Since you most likely won’t have to learn any blocking or choreography (unless you’re in a show choir), choir is an opportunity to focus on the music. You’ll be able to digest complicated pieces without having to worry about anything else.

I know a lot of performers who wish they could read music better. It’s a useful skill, and school is the perfect place to learn it!

2. You learn more about your voice… For free

Voice lessons can be expensive and therefore aren’t accessible to everyone. School choirs, on the other hand, are usually free, unless they require concert attire purchases or entrance fees for music and other materials. If there is a price for participating in school choir, the value in return for those dollars is likely pretty high– whereas voice lessons will typically be $20-$30 per lesson minimum, a daily choir class for 180 days of school that requires a one-time concert outfit purchase would probably amount to less than a dollar per session.

Of course, the one-on-one training in voice lessons is indispensable, but working with a good choir director and learning all you can about singing and your voice within that setting is a fantastic alternative. If you have specific questions or want specific help, your choir teacher should be able to help you out.

Choir settings are specifically useful to beginner singers because choir singing can explore a variety of styles and musical concepts while emphasizing principles of vocal technique. Choir is the first place many young performers learn about breath support, posture, and the vocal process, and is therefore a great place to begin training. More advanced choirs and more difficult repertoire can provide advanced singers with adequate challenge to improve as well.

3. You get more practice singing and performing

All practice is good practice! It’s generally true that if you want to become a better singer or performer, then any extra singing or performing you do is probably beneficial in that regard.

Live performance opportunities are extremely worthwhile for performers. The more you perform in front of an audience, the better you learn to deal with stage fright and focus. Practicing singing in a group is also incredibly valuable, as it requires some different skills than singing alone does– group singing is all about listening and balancing with the individual performers around you.

One of the benefits to choir participation I found when I was in school was that each choir rehearsal was essentially a mandatory daily warmup. My voice was in great shape when I was in choir– I never had a real chance to get “rusty!”

4. You train your ear with complicated harmonies

Learning to sing with others is a challenging skill. Learning different voice parts can be really difficult, and some musical theatre composers are notoriously challenging in this regard.

Choir music is written in often intricate patterns of rhythm and harmony. If you can hold your own singing in a choir, you’ll build skills that will allow you to hold your own while performing shows by tricky composers like Sondheim. And again, since choir is about the music first rather than blocking or choreography, you have the opportunity to really focus on building the skills you need to tackle any complex voicing in a musical.

5. You might not get this chance again

There really aren’t that many opportunities to sing in a choir once you get out of school.

Church choirs can be found in almost any town, so this is an accessible option if you attend church. Many cities have various choral societies, but these are often by audition, and your participation isn’t guaranteed. Almost every school has a choir, and school choirs are some of the most accessible choirs you’ll ever come across.

I don’t particularly miss much about high school, but getting to sing with a choir is definitely something I wish I could revisit as an adult.

Take advantage of this opportunity while you have it!