Singing in a Choir is Fun

Singing in a choir is fun!

In fact, it is the most fun you can have. This isn’t just opinion, the concept of fun and what makes things fun is something that has been studied extensively, particularly by game designers. Video game designers have a useful way of thinking about fun. In game design, there is a framework called the “Eight Kinds of Fun”, eight different ways that an activity can be enjoyable and engaging: sensation, fantasy, narrative, challenge, fellowship, discovery, expression, and submission. As a huge video game nerd, I’ve been thinking about this because music does all of these things.

1. Sensation: In games, sensation is the pleasure of engaging the senses: the sights, sounds, movement, and physical experience of the game. There is the same kind of pleasure in singing: the vibration of sound in your body, the feeling of a musical phrase, of many people breathing and singing together. Music is something we experience in our bodies.

2. Fantasy: In games, fantasy is the pleasure of inhabiting a world or identity different from our everyday lives. A role playing game can invite players into a world of magic, adventure, and heroes. Music lets us do something similar: we can inhabit another time, another place, another perspective. We can imagine ourselves into a poem, a story, a ritual, or a world that doesn’t yet exist.

3. Narrative: In games, narrative is the pleasure of following a story and seeing how it unfolds. The pleasure comes from the story beats and finding out what comes next. Songs carry memories and take us through emotional journeys, music tells a story, even if it is an abstract story of the tension and resolution between chords or different musical themes: an idea unfolds, conflict develops, we arrive somewhere different from where we began.

4. Challenge: In games, challenge is the satisfaction of developing a skill, overcoming an obstacle, and getting better at something. A game like Tetris is almost pure challenge: the pleasure comes from improving with practice, increasing your high score every time. Learning music works the same way. There is real satisfaction in finally nailing a rhythm, memorizing a passage, finding that one tricky note in a chord.

5. Fellowship: In games, fellowship is the pleasure of cooperating and building relationships with other people. That’s choir. That’s chamber music and ensemble music. You’ve got to listen to other people. We learn to depend on one another, make mistakes together, laugh at those mistakes, and accomplish something together we wouldn’t be able to do by ourselves.

6. Discovery: In games, discovery is the pleasure of exploring, finding something new, and uncovering possibilities you didn’t know were there. Much of the appeal in a game like Minecraft or World of Warcraft is in exploring a new world and its endless possibilities. Music is also full of discovery. There are always new sounds, new songs, a new thing about your own voice and instrument. One of the greatest joys I get in music is in discovery, every time I have to pause because “I didn’t know I could do that.”

7. Expression: In games, expression is the pleasure of creating, of communicating something that reflects who you are. A game like The Sims gives players a world to tell their own stories, to create something that is true to them. Music is creative expression. A choir, if done properly, doesn’t erase individuality; a choir makes many individual voices audible all at once.

8. Submission: In games, submission is the pleasure of becoming absorbed in an activity simply for its own sake, without needing to accomplish anything else. It’s a respite from the grind. A game like Animal Crossing can be just about hanging out and being, with not real agenda. Some of the best musical experiences happen when you stop thinking about whether you are doing it right and simply become part of the sound. You lose track of time and there is nothing to accomplish except being present.

When your job is music, it can become stressful and a bit of a grind, and it’s good for me to remind myself why I do this. It’s fun. At its best it can be so much fun. We’re about to start a new choir season at Unity Church, and my hope is that folks take a second to think about what it is about choir that makes it fun for them. Is it the challenge? The community? The play? Maybe a bit of all eight elements? For me it’s different every day. If you’ve been enjoying the music from the pews, give one of the choirs a try! Come to a rehearsal and find out what happens when your voice becomes part of something larger than itself. Choir is fun. Not just fun. It’s eight kinds of fun.