KOTA PADAWAN-St Ann Parish, Kota Padawan, with the help of Mr Benedict Lo and his team members from the Choir of St Joseph Cathedral, have organised a 1-day singing workshop on June 23rd, Saturday, at St Lukas Centre, and invited all the choir members from the rural villages under the pastoral care of St Ann Parish.There were about 230 people attended the event and Mr Benedict Lo and his team members conducted the sessions with a lot of fun and laughter and everyone enjoyed and benefited from the singing workshop.
In the morning session, Mr Benedict Lo began the session from the reflection of the Bible with word “worship”. He said that the spirit of worship began from the heart and it was the soul of the person who bow down and worship the Lord in spirit.
Later, he explained that the role of the choir was to motivate the whole congregation to participate to worship the Lord through singing. He reminded the choir and musicians must not perform at the Mass, and therefore the volume of the music and the singing must be in harmony with the liturgy of the Mass.
In the afternoon session, Mr Benedict Lo highlighted some important tactics in singing, such as, to warm up vocal voice, the control of breathing when singing. He encouraged the participants to practise in mastering the skill of diction and also changing the vocal volume from soft to loud and back to soft, and many others skills.
Lastly, Mr Benedict Lo demonstrated how the different musical instruments of the band must not compete with each other, but rather to co-ordinate together to reach a sense of harmony by listening the rhythm of each other. He stressed again that music in the liturgy is not a band performance but rather to create the atmosphere of prayer and worship. The singing workshop was so successful that the participants requested a similar kind workshop should be conducted next year.
-Fr Moses Yap OFM
