John Lewis ENG 1101 November 18, 2013 Discourse Community Ethnography Assignment

Voices of Eden Ethnography The Voices of Eden (V.O.E) is the gospel choir of The University of North Carolina @ Charlotte. Our current director, Zachh Estrada-Peterson, was a student when he founded the choir eight years ago after the choir that he was formally involved in had ended. V.O.E consist of the choir (sopranos, altos, and tenors), musicians, and officers (president, vice president, secretary, and treasurer). The choir has made a huge impact in peoples lives that some members continue to be involved with the choir even after graduating. V.O.E has opened for a national recording gospel artist, hold concerts, tours the United States every semester, fellowships with other college choirs, sings at different events, and is actively involved in the community. Practice is held every Monday at 7oclock p.m. in Fretwell 121 and is conducted by our director. The choir welcomes all races and ethnicities. Observation When the choir meets for rehearsal their objective is to learn songs for the upcoming concert. The songs range anywhere from 8-10. The concerts are recorded so that when they meet for rehearsal they can look over the videos and see what improvements should be made. Rehearsal is held in a large lecture classroom. The director, along with the officers, is standing on stage discussing information while everyone files in. While everyone is coming in, the director plays the videos on the projector screen while everyone observes for approximately ten minutes. As everyone comes in they, automatically come in and sit in the section that they sing soprano, alto, or tenor. Rehearsal begins by everyone holding hands and praying corporately as a group.

John Lewis ENG 1101 November 18, 2013 Discourse Community Ethnography Assignment When there are new people interested in being apart of V.O.E, the director welcomes them and asks if they are a soprano, alto, or tenor. He then ask them to stand and introduce themselves by saying their name, major, and where they are from. The director then begins the warm up by having the choir sing their scales. Once they are done singing the scales, they then sing the opening song O Lord We Praise You. Someone different sings the solo each time randomly. After warm ups are completed, the director goes over the song list and any announcements. He then pulls up the music and lyrics to the songs and runs through it with the choir. As he plays the songs the choir listens and sings along with the song. Once everyone is comfortable with the song the choir sings along loudly with music. In order to make rehearsals productive, the choir has 3 leaders from each section appointed by the director. They meet prior to practice so that they know the material and can assist the director in teaching the songs. The director then has the section leaders to sing the song together and then the choir sings as a whole. Once the director is satisfied, they proceed to the next song. Throughout practice people are coming in and a few are leaving out due to other engagements. Once the director has been through all of the songs, he then goes over the announcements and expectations of the choir and community service for the weekend. Everyone join hands once again and pray corporately and practice is dismissed. Sometimes the section leaders are asked to stay over and they also meet at 7 on Tuesday at 7 p.m. to learn new material as well. I believe that V.O.E has opened many doors for the choir as far as meeting new people from different schools, touring the United States, and even people that supports the choir. But I believe that the choir has also helped birth great friendships as well. Prior to the observation, I noticed that a lot of the experts formed friendships with each other

John Lewis ENG 1101 November 18, 2013 Discourse Community Ethnography Assignment and even with the director. At the beginning of the semester the director brought pizza and drinks, and the novices along with the experts came together as a time to interact with each other. The experts knew each other so well that when a novice mentioned their major or even an interest in a job, they were able to direct them to another expert that was either in the same major, currently working at the job, or had previously worked a similar job. The most important written communication within the group is the emails. The emails contain all of the information the choir needs to stay updated on the upcoming events. At the beginning of the semester an email was sent to everyone with all of the events for the semester listing the locations and if they were a full choir event, section leader event, or small group event. Every Monday the director sends out an email that reminds members of rehearsal that night, the material that will be taught, attire for upcoming events, and community service for the weekend. Text messages are another form of communication used within the group, mainly for call time. Call time is when the choir is expected to meet at a set location on campus to transit to their destination. The director puts the call time in the e-mail with the time and place that everyone is expected to meet at. Text messages are also used to communicate with other members to fill them in on any important information that they have missed and to also see who is available during call time so non-drivers will have someone to ride with. An important lexis for the group would be the lyrics for the songs. While some members can remember the songs by ear some members need to see the words written out. Lyrics are also vital for enunciation of words because sometimes words are sang differently than they are pronounced.

John Lewis ENG 1101 November 18, 2013 Discourse Community Ethnography Assignment I decided to interview an expert in the discourse community and her name is Deanna. Prior to joining V.O.E, I watched their videos on YouTube and Deanna always stuck out to me and I instantly became a fan. Once I came to UNCC and met her I was amazed at how humble she was. When I asked her could I interview her she said absolutely. The first question I asked was What makes V.O.E unique. Her response was simply the vision. She expounded by saying that when the director founded the choir, he wanted to have an organization when people can join freely no specific Christian denomination (Baptist, Methodist, Pentecostal, Catholic, etc.), race, or regulation. The only thing he requires is to have a heart for God and for music. I then asked her to explain her experience and she said, there are some good days and there are some very bad days. She then added that she enjoys doing more than singing and that she loves when they go to the nursing home and sing to the homeless. When asked, have you ever felt like you wanted to quit V.O.E and if so how and why did you persevere she had a lot to say. Her response was many times. why? Every one does not take it serious and there is a lack of commitment. The lack of commitment puts a lot of work on the people who are committed. The reason I persevered is because of God and the souls that are won when ministered to. The reason that I stay is because of the feeling I get when we are singing and I look in the audience and I see someone crying. I then asked, What are some of V.O.Es best qualities. She did not have a long answer that consisted of many different qualities, she just said the performance always turn out very good. Some times the performances are not the greatest, but they are never horrible. When asked If you were able to change anything about V.O.E, what would it be, she said she would change the people shift some people around. I then asked, If you knew your time

John Lewis ENG 1101 November 18, 2013 Discourse Community Ethnography Assignment was limited in this group, what would you change/focus on? She told me something that somewhat inspired me to do the same. She said, The main thing I want to do is leave an impact. I want to leave my spirit with the choir, not because of who I am but because I who I represent and my prayer is that someone sees that and desire to do what I did. The last question I asked was, What do you see happening for V.O.E in the future? Her response sort of shocked me. I was expecting her to say that the only thing for it to do is grow but she said, It varies. Things are totally different from when I first joined and I have seen the choir grow and come a long way, but because of the lack of commitment it can go all the way up, or it can go all the way down. The artifact that I brought to class was a flyer for our concert entitled We Declare War. Our concerts are a huge deal to the choir because this is when we can invite our friends and family to come see us perform. Our director chooses the songs according to the theme of the concert. There is a lot of hard work that goes into the concert just from learning the songs and having enough stamina to get through all of the songs. The choir sings 8-10 songs during a concert. If the choir is singing 10 songs there is an intermission after the first five songs and then the choir finishes the rest of the song after. If the choir is singing only eight songs there is no intermission and the choir sings all of the songs back to back. In order to make it to the end of the concert, we have to make sure our voices are healthy by resting our voices three days before the concert and drinking plenty of water. Practices are expected to be took serious so that we can make sure that we know the material that we will be performing.