Paris Blackwell Rebecca Agosta English 1101-019 November 18, 2013

Voices of Eden: A Group That Goes Beyond JUST a Discourse Community The term discourse community can be tricky to define; however, John Swales figured out a way to properly define the complicated term. He states that A discourse community has a broadly agreed set of common public goals and mechanisms of intercommunication among its members. It uses its participatory mechanisms primarily to provide information and feedback, utilizes and hence possesses one or more genres in the communicative furtherance if its aims has specific lexis. A discourse community also maintains a threshold level of members with a suitable degree of relevant content and discoursal expertise (Swales 571-73). When I read that this is what a discourse community really was, I immediately thought of my gospel choir, Voices of Eden. It held every aspect that a discourse community had. Then my English class read Coaches Can Read, Too: An Ethnographic Study of a Football Coaching Discourse Community by Sean Branick. This article gave discourse communities certain characteristics. These characteristics were held under the subtitles: Goal focused Coaching, Characteristics of an Effective Coach, and Confidence in Coaching, Methods, Results, and Conclusion. I also saw evidence in this that Voices of Eden was definitely a discourse community. The pure and genuine love that I have for the choir is the reason why I can honestly go on and on about it. The true function of this choir is not just to sing but it is so much more and complex than just meets the eye. Before explaining how my gospel choir is a discourse, let me first explain what my gospel choir is. We call ourselves Voices of Eden. The choir was founded in 2005 by our director Zaach Estrada-Peterson. In an interview I had with Zaach he states that he founded the choir because He felt like the campus was missing out on not having a really active gospel choir

Paris Blackwell Rebecca Agosta English 1101-019 November 18, 2013

like before (Zaach). We are an open choir that is easy to join; essentially all one has to do to become a member is show up to the practices on Mondays and pay dues of ten dollars. We consist of many different people, and do not prey fall to the typical stereotypes that all we do is preach at people about God and only sing gospel. We all share a broadly agreed set of common public goals In V.O.E we all want to bring people, particularly young people closer to God through song. When I observed the choir I noticed how much fun everyone would have singing and praising the Lord. I recently went on tour with the group and at the last event they sang for a younger gospel choir consisting of members the age of twelve through eighteen. I noticed that at first the younger choir did not want to stand, I figured they thought we were going to be boring. However when the upbeat music started to play and V.O.E because to dance and praise God in a more fun and youthful way, the younger choir began to stand up and sing and dance along. This is exactly what Voices of Eden wants and stands for. Voices of Eden has mechanisms of intercommunication among its member Voices of Eden meets every Monday and Tuesday. Even though we meet regularly, theres always something that needs to be expressed whether thats songs for the next concert, or concerns. These emails keep our group very organized and running smoothly. Our emails are usually very detailed and reflects the choirs values of structure, communication, preparedness, and ability to follow directions. These values are always stressed in the emails. We use our participatory mechanisms primarily to provide information and feedback Voices of Eden is like a family. When one of us mess up, its like we all mess up. We help and guide one another. When one of us is off, someone will usually figure out a way to tell them that

Paris Blackwell Rebecca Agosta English 1101-019 November 18, 2013

its them without being mean or embarrassing them. This usually involves stepping closer to the person and singling extra loud or Zaach will call out the section as a whole and make the entire section repeat the part until the one person realizes that it is them. During regular Monday rehearsals, when the rest of the choir learns the songs, Zaach would dissect the parts. This means he would take apart the song into the three parts that the choir sings: soprano, alto, and tenor. If while learning the song, Zaach or any other section leader hears something wrong in the harmony or in specific sections, they would handle the situation in different ways. Sometimes if they could pin point the source, one section leader may stand extra close to the person singing incorrectly. This would help the person to see that they were not singing the same thing as the section leader and personally fix themselves without everyone else noticing. Zaach would sometimes do the same if he could not pin point the particular person singing the wrong parts. Other times due to the closeness of the choir and the comfortably, Zaach or another member may call the person singing wrong out. It would all be in fun, but the point was made. There were times when someone would mess up during a performance. This little situation was and will always be handled discreetly. One might just tap the person or simply turn ones head as so to sing more towards the person singly wrong. This usually gets the job done. More or less, in my discourse community we always use participatory mechanisms to provide information and feedback. A discourse community utilizes and hence possesses one or more genres in the communicative furtherance of its aims. Basically all this is stating is that a real discourse community can adopt to different ways to obtain the desired goal. Before I joined the choir, through trial and error, Zaach discovered that it was too much of a hassle for the entire choir to

Paris Blackwell Rebecca Agosta English 1101-019 November 18, 2013

learn ten or so songs on the one day a week that we have practices. Instead of burdening the entire choir he decided to designate section leaders for each part. These particular members would hold more responsibility and have mandatory practices before each main rehearsal. At these practices, the chosen section leaders would go over the songs picked for the concert and learn them in detail. These people had to be able to hear their parts in the overall song. With the extra practice, it was less straining for Zaach and the other members. The section leaders were strong and confident singers who could make up for any lack of the other members and also be able to assist Zaach in the teaching process. Just as the criteria for a discourse community states, in addition to owning genres, Voices of Eden also has acquired some specific lexis. Lexis, a fancy way of saying certain slang that only people of that community would understand. Voices of Eden may be a discourse community of our own but we share lexis with basically all of the music communities. If someone has any background in music then the certain terminology that we use would not be so difficult to understand. For example, when Zaach is talking about a certain part being flat or sharp, people without any background in music would not honestly know what he was talking about. Yes, many can use common sense when it comes to our lexis such as call time, warm ups, Alto part, or the Tenor part; however, they would not know what we do with some of these terms. When outsiders hear us say were about to warm up they might assume correct when saying we are about to warm up our voices but if someone asked what our warm up actually was they would not know. We have a specific warm up that most other choirs might not do. This allows us to have specific lexis just for our personal community.

Paris Blackwell Rebecca Agosta English 1101-019 November 18, 2013

Lastly, we have a threshold level of members with a suitable degree of relevant content and discoursal expertise. When saying this Swales was basically saying that in discourse communities you need to have a range of novices and experts, which is essentially old and new members. Voices of Eden has a large range of members, varying from first year members like me to members whom have already graduated from UNC Charlotte. The novices or new/unexperienced members are not always first year students like me. Some first year members are juniors and seniors that have just recently decided to join the choir. They may have musical background; however, they are inexperienced to the rules and different aspects of the choir. The experts are people who have been dedicated to the choir for multiple years. Experts know all the end and outs of the choir and can answer just about any question that a novice has. Sean Branicks example of a discourse community through his article on coaches showed his Methods (Branick 562). Here he described his all the different things he did in order to provide information for his initial thesis. He recorded coaches of colleges and conducted interviews with them. Just as Branick I also set aside two hours to observe, take detailed notes, and conduct interviews with my discourse community. During my interview I sat down with Zaach, the founder, and also the alto section leader Ranada Hewitt. In my interview with Zaach I asked a range of questions. When asked did VOE change his experience here at UNCC he said it did not really change his experience, it more or less helped him be more mindful of his actions and being more active and visible on campus. (Zaach) He also went on to tell me that for the first three years of his attending Charlotte that he actually belonged to another gospel choir all together. Due to this choirs leadership or lack of, the choir began to decline causing him to

Paris Blackwell Rebecca Agosta English 1101-019 November 18, 2013

remove himself from the choir, while unfortunately also removing something dear to his heart. This, as I mentioned earlier, was the ultimate reason for the start of VOE. Due to my other interviewee being a section leader I also asked Zaach how he decided which members to select as section leaders and if it was solely off pure skill/talent or leadership qualities. Zaach smiled at this question; he said Being a section leader has to be a combination of both. (Zaach) Skill plays an important part in the decision process. One has to naturally have the ability to hear and pick out parts, and the comfort ability to sing out in the group. Zaach goes on to say that although the skill is a major part, leadership cannot take a back seat. You have some of the best singers who have not been leaders, either because their attitude, character or reliability poses an issue. (Zaach) Ranada Hewitt was one of the ones chosen to become a section leader, having both the skill and leadership qualities that Zaach stressed for. Although Ranada may have transferred to UNCC from Howard University, she immediately found her place in VOE as one of three alto section leaders. Being that the section leaders are second in command next to Zaach, I felt it was appropriate to have an interview with her. I wanted to really dig into unspoken of territory when talking to Ranada so that I could have the ins and outs about Voices of Eden. When interviewing Ranada, I asked was it hard to stay committed to VOE while also being involved with other organizations on campus. She replied that at first it was not, simply because VOE was her only involvement. However, with her determined decision to pledge on of the eminent Divine Nine sororities and fraternities, Sigma Gamma Roe Sorority, and also having two jobs, it has gotten hard. Sometimes she has had to make sacrifices, limiting her from a lot of VOE events; however, she does make time for the more important ones such as tour and concerts. (Hewitt) I

Paris Blackwell Rebecca Agosta English 1101-019 November 18, 2013

furthermore inquired if the choir was really worth all the time that has to be put into it. Her answer was truly genuine, testifying that the relationships that you make with people make it all worth it. The choir is like family to me. Being around the same people on a daily basis allows you to learn and grow with them and build lasting friendships. I love doing so, its all worth itI will definitely miss it when I graduate (Hewitt) The last thing I asked Ranada about was her position as an also section leader. She explained how her being a section leader created a bigger love for the choir. She considers the other section leaders brothers and sisters, describing how they do so much more together outside the general choir. She claims them as the closest thing she has to family in Charlotte considering the fact that she is from DC and that is where the majority of her family lives. A true discourse community is a complex measure, only being made into simpler terms by Sean Branick, John Swales and many others. My discourse community is the Voices of Eden gospel choir here on campus, meeting every characteristic mentioned by Swales. Although my ultimate goal was to explain the overall aspects of VOE, I feel as though I have shown VOEs true value. Voices of Eden is more than just a choir. Voices of Eden is a giver to the community, a transmitter of enthusiasm of the Lords word, a form of praise and lastly, a family. VOE allows people, such as myself to be filled with a feeling of belonging. A feeling that only being a part of the choir can bring.