By Sandra Timmons, Volunteer, and Merrily Poth, MD, Pediatric Endocrinologist, retired

This article first appeared in SDCC’s September 2021 newsletter. It is the second of three articles discussing our findings from a recent survey that asked children who had participated in the choir for 4+ years to share how their choir experience affected them. Read the first article in this series here.

During an ordinary year in the San Diego Children’s Choir a chorister might spend 30 weeks in rehearsal and perform publicly at least six times. Because of this effort it isn’t surprising that choristers express comfort in presenting or performing in front of crowds. According to a 6th grade chorister who has been in choir for five years, the experiences in choir “definitely gives me more confidence and I don’t get stage fright any more because I’ve sung in front of a crowd of like 40,000 people.” 

While experiences of success certainly make up a large portion of self-efficacy development, the experience of responding to failure may also play an important role. This point was noted by many of the choristers we interviewed in our study on the impact of the San Diego Children’s Choir. Participants shared stories that reflected on how they handled making mistakes; and all choristers that responded reframed these mistakes as a learning experience.  

As one chorister stated, “Just being able to know, no matter how much you practice or  you work on this, something may still go wrong and you need to think on your feet and  you need to figure it out.” 

Choristers say they had a sense of self-accountability in meeting the demands of  training for each performance when faced with learning new repertoire and other training challenges. One chorister shared that she did not let failures get in the way of success saying, “[I have] confidence that even if I mess up, that not to come after myself…but understand that everyone around me won’t be upset. Everyone messes up, and everyone around me is supportive.” 

Many choristers also shared that the growth in their confidence translated outside of the San Diego Children’s Choir to school and other activities. One chorister reflected on their experience in the Choir, “Choir gives you a taste of how good it can be when you achieve something and it kind of makes you want to be just as good in other areas of your life.” Another shared a similar thought, “It gives me more confidence when I’m trying new things.”  

Choristers reported they usually or always felt comfortable trying something new even if they might not do it well the first time.  

Children and youth with a strong sense of self-efficacy are more likely to challenge  themselves with difficult tasks and be intrinsically motivated. These students will put forth a high degree of effort in order to meet their commitments, and attribute failure to things that are in their control, rather than blaming external factors. Self-accountability and resilience are results. These traits are highly correlated with academic success and consistent employment, so time spent in choir can increase choristers’ likelihood of success in school and in life.