CSUN Course a Gospel Experience : Choir: The instructor has her 14 students singing when they’re not studying in Pan African Studies class.

It was a quiet afternoon in the hallways of the Cal State Northridge Music Building. A trumpet player could be heard quietly practicing a jazz riff, a pianist was somewhere playing a Baroque piece and a drummer sat on the floor practicing with his sticks.

And then suddenly, the calm was shattered by the sound of a gospel choir.

“Step by step!” began the syncopated refrain coming from Room 105. “Walking up. Closer to my goal.”

The refrain kept repeating, sometimes accompanied by hand claps as it got higher in pitch and faster in rhythm. And then, at the height of its frenzy, it stopped.

Welcome to Pan African Studies 331, a course formally titled “African-American Religious Music: History and Literature.” It’s an academic-sounding title, but the 11 women and three men in the class don’t learn just by studying.

“If you are going to ever know something about this music, you have to sing it,” said instructor Wendy Barnes-Farrell, a professional singer.

The students have been meeting three days a week for almost three months. On Monday they will give their first performance as the PAS Unity Choir (the PAS stands for Pan African Studies). The concert, for which they share the bill with a vocal jazz ensemble, is part of the CSUN May Music Festival that begins Sunday with a concert by the university symphony.

“In this class we study jazz and blues, because they are interrelated to gospel,” said Barnes-Farrell, 36, who sang for more than six years with Stevie Wonder and for another three with a touring company of “The Wiz.” Barnes-Farrell, wife of L.A. City Councilman Robert Farrell, now does studio work and private coaching.

“I want them to know the history of gospel, about people like Thomas Dorsey and Bessie Smith,” she said. “We look at videos and I send them to the library to listen to records.

“But mainly, we sing.”

There are no prerequisites or auditions for the three-credit class, but most students have had some experience singing in choirs. Some even have professional experience and hope for singing careers.

Senior Alyse Manning, 22, sings in the choir at the Evangelistic Church of God and Christ in Los Angeles and has been featured on several gospel recordings. She also sang for the soundtrack of the movie “Penitentiary.”

Although a sociology major, Manning, a contralto who sounds like an in-tune Diana Ross, hopes to have a career as a singer. “I want to be a well-rounded woman,” she explained with a laugh.

Some students, such as Tina Mata, 31, had no chorus experience. Although her voice now blends in seamlessly with the PAS choir, it’s easy to spot her in the group. She is the first white person to take Barnes-Farrell’s class.

“I just really enjoy gospel music and so I signed up for this,” she said. “I started out a bit behind everyone else here because I didn’t get this music by osmosis, growing up. I had to go to the library to listen to records, probably more than anyone else in the class.”

She admits she was shy, at first, about singing. Her breakthrough came, Barnes-Farrell said, “when she learned some attitude.”

“I had to learn to moan the songs,” Mata said with a laugh. “You got to moan the blues.”

The PAS choir might not be as polished as ensembles with long histories, and that’s not entirely a detriment. In an age when a lot of gospel has gone slick, the ragged edges gives this choir a fresh, lively sound.

Barnes-Farrell had the students sing “Step by Step” again, this time reducing the tempo to make the cadence even more haunting.

As the song continued its repetitive line, she signaled for variations. The tone moved upward, Manning unleashed an improvisation and the tempo doubled. The sound was joyously raucous.

With a quick wave of her hands Barnes-Farrell cut them off and the room was deathly quiet.

“That,” said Barnes-Farrell, delivering her first compliment of the day, “was serious.”

The PAS Unity Choir will sing at 8 p.m. Monday in the University Student Union , 18111 Nordhoff St., Northridge. Tickets are $12. Other groups appearing at the May Music Festival include the CSUN Wind Ensemble, Valley Master Chorale and Mariachi Aztlan. There will also be a concert of works by student composers. For information, call (818) 885-3093.