The Schola for Beginners

Do you aspire to join the schola at your parish? Or perhaps you’ve been asked to assemble a schola at your chapel so that you can have Sung Masses? This guide is for you!

This page contains everything I wish I knew when I first began chanting for the traditional Mass. It’s not an exhaustive reference, but it will teach you the jargon needed to get your feet off the ground.

This is a work in progress. Please email me with any corrections or suggestions.

Target Audience

This guide assumes that you have a general familiarity with the traditional Mass and liturgical calendar.

It also assumes that you have some existing musical skill. You should be familiar with rhythm, standard music notation, solfège, etc. Ideally, you have experience singing with choirs or playing a musical instrument.

I don’t mean to say that modern music skills are required to learn chant—sometimes it can actually be a stumbling block! But since most people come to the schola with some prior music experience, that’s who I’ll be writing for.