Choral speaking – losing, trying again, winning, losing, trying again, winning and winning – step by step victory.

Choral speaking – losing, trying again, winning, losing, trying again, winning and winning – step by step victory.

Definition: Choral speaking is speaking in unison with creative scripts and body movements. Usually, choral speaking groups consist of about 30 members.

Script: First, you need to have a theme for your choral speaking. It could be about the environment, or politics, or school. It can be anything. Then, you need a title. Make the title creative as possible so as to capture the audiences first hand. If it’s an interesting title, you will automatically have their full attention and therefore just have to only worry about winning their attention throughout your presentation.

After you have a good title that everybody agrees with, you need to write your introduction. If it’s a competition, greet the judges, teachers, your opponents and finally your audience. Then you introduce yourselves and your title. Even in your introduction, you can already start making certain parts funny. Have a line that is well known and suits your intro.

Now the first stanza. Introduce your theme with at least four lines. After that, you can write as many stanzas as you want but make sure you make them simple. And of course remember to put in some funny bits. There can even be some dialogue, some song lyrics and some famous sayings.

In the end, have your conclusion. Have a strong and powerful one-liner to end it and a ‘thank you’. Your draft is now done. Check all your spelling and grammar. Check whether it sounds smooth, whether it all makes sense and most importantly, makes sure every line has something to do with your theme and title.

Arrangement and editing: After you have finished your first draft, choose someone to be the conductor. The conductor has to be able to conduct and be in control of the presentation. Bring the draft to the rest of the team and let them read through it. Then read it together in unison. If everybody agrees with it and nobody has any difficulty pronouncing certain words, try to find a way to fix it. You can either change the word to an easier one or you can leave it and arrange who says what later.

Now the conductor should arrange the positions of each member. After that is done, start arranging who says what, how many people say it and how they say it. You can have some solos, and some in groups. Don’t have too many solos and small groups or else it will not be choral speaking anymore. Have a few but have more of the whole group speaking in unison and clearly. When you are arranging who says what and when, you can also arrange how they say it. They can change their voices; have certain accents in certain parts. This will make it all very interesting.

You can keep trying to perfect the script and the arrangement but do not take too long on that because you can always change things as you go along.

Practicing: Practicing is one of the most important parts of being the best choral speakers. You have to keep practicing over and over and over again. Practice towards perfection. Perfection is your goal when you’re practicing. Make sure everybody speaks in unison and speaks at the same wave length as everybody else. This is where the conductor comes in as the most important role. The conductor has to guide them along moving his/her arms and hands to control how loud, soft, long, short, fast and slow they are to speak certain words or lines, and to control when to stop and when to start again. If the conductor doesn’t count them in or stop them at the correct moment, the whole thing will sound terrible. The conductor must also say it along with his/her members so that he/she won’t forget the lines as well. Expressions and choreography is also very important. You have to be alive. Have strong and loud expressions. Use your face to convey your message.

In choral speaking you are aloud to use your hands and torso upwards to present your theme. If there is a dialogue, make them have eye contact. Turn your upper part of your body to look at what the person is saying. Reply. Make shapes and nice moves to entertain. Remember, throughout your presentation, everybody’s hands must be behind their backs and must return there after a move. Everybody except the conductor.

Keep practicing. If you get tired or stressed out, have a break, put on some music, dance a bit, make a fool of yourselves and have a bit of fun before starting again.

The last part of practicing is practicing in front of a crowd. Before the real day.

Competition day: Now it’s THE day. The first thing to do when you wake up in the morning is to recite the whole presentation in front of the mirror. Then when you get to the competition venue, get everything needed ready and of course rehearse once or twice again with your whole team and then just relax.

When it’s your turn, breathe in and out slowly and concentrate on your conductor’s hands. If you practiced enough, you will definitely have no problem. If any of you forget a line or anything goes slightly wrong, just pretend that it was all part of the show. Don’t show any sign of shock or nervousness. Just relax and carry on. Remember that nobody else knows your script.

Remember, if it’s your first time doing this, it’s ok to lose. I have done choral speaking for 3 years. During the first year, we lost at the inter-school competition because we didn’t really understand it fully. But we didn’t give up. During the second year, we had a better idea about it so we worked harder and put more effort in the script writing. We won first place in the inter-school competition. We were so happy and we were immediately asked to join the inter-state competition that was going to be held in another state. We were so excited. We practiced and practiced. Finally it was time to fly over the sea. We reached our destination but unfortunately we had no idea what was in store for us. We realized that we were nothing compared to the other teams that were competing against. We lost. We were heart broken but we decided not to give up. We had one more chance. The third year. We were given a BORING theme. At first we thought of giving up. But we discussed it and we decided to take up the challenge of making something boring into something wonderful and funny. We sat down and wrote the script. Then, we practiced and practiced until we were sooo tired. We practiced until we were perfect.

We were back at the inter-school competition and we won first place again! We were SO happy. We were all smiles and laughter. We hugged our teachers and took loads of pictures with our trophy.

We were back across the sea. We were so nervous about competing with the same teams that won last year. The day came and we were all having butterflies in our tummies. We watched the other teams go on and go off the stage. Soon it was our turn. We went on the stage and took 3 deep breathes and started.

We finished and we left the stage. The rest of the teams presented their choral speaking. Soon it was time for the prizes. First they announced the teams that didn’t get a place. We were jumping up and down when we realized we weren’t one of them. Then came the top 3 places. Our hearts were all pounding in our chests. They announced third place. IT WASN’T US!!!! Aaahhhh…. We were holding hands so tightly they were sweating. This was our last chance. WE GOT………………………… SECOND PLACE! We were announced second place the last year and now here we were second place!!! In the whole country! We were jumping up and down screaming and hugging each other. We were so proud of each other for doing such a good job! That was a good end to our choral speaking carrier. We had done it. Hahaha.

This is the video of our national level choral speaking. Hope you like it. =)