The power of singing!!!

In the past 6 months I have joined a choir in my local area. Singing in choirs was always something I did and loved throughout school and University – at one point I think I was in 3 choirs who all sang very different styles of music (this was at University when I was studying music, so maybe not that surprising). Once I entered the world of work, I found I had less time to sing in a choir – my job mostly involved working in the evenings and it was just not possible to commit to going along to rehearsals. I missed it very much and always vowed to myself I would get back to singing in a choir one day. And finally I have done. While I knew that I wanted to re-join a choir, I hadn’t really realised how much I missed singing with other people and performing in concerts.

Coming back to the choir has been wonderful, and such a brilliant thing to do. I love singing with this choir. I love that we sing a huge variety of music – we did a Christmas concert with a big choral work before Christmas and are now rehearsing for a children’s concert and singing such fun, catchy songs including a surprisingly tricky version of Baby Shark. - I do realise that half of you reading this now have Baby Shark going round in your head, and I do apologise! I am a huge singing enthusiast. I love the communal experience of singing together; we are all working together towards a common aim. I love that I have found a group of likeminded people. For me, as I am singing in a choir in my hometown, there are people in that choir who I went to school with, went to University with, have worked with in the past, it has been a way of re-connecting with people as well as meeting new people.

I love the commitment of turning up every week for a rehearsal. I love that the experience of singing in the choir helps improve my singing technique, and gets me to practise. I love that we work towards a performance. I love that my children see me going out to choir rehearsal, and that they hear me practise the songs we sing. I tell them they need to practise and it is a great excuse to model for them that they should do their own practice, and what that practice looks like and how it helps me to improve. I love everything about it, and would say that if you think there is even a small part of you that wonders whether you’d like to join a choir – do it. Give it a go. And if your children like singing, they will love singing with other people, whether that is a school choir or one outside school. If you don’t have a local choir that is easy for you to get to, then put your favourite song on at home or in the car and all of you have a good sing along to the music, you will all enjoy it!

Singing is something we can all do – either at home in the shower, in the car, with your babies and children, or in a choir. I don’t think it is any secret that playing a musical instrument can be an expensive thing to do – at the very least, you need to actually have an instrument – and the expense involved can be a barrier to many people from experiencing there joy of music making. But to sing, all you need is a voice – and if you can speak, then you can have a go at singing. You can, absolutely, find a singing teacher and get singing lessons to improve your technique, but you don’t need to do that to experience singing by yourself, or even with other people – one of the choirs I was in at University was a gospel choir where all of the parts were taught by ear, there was no sheet music involved and no need to be able to read music, just a willingness to listen and sing back what you heard. There is a choir out there for everyone.

I am going to spend a little time in the next few weeks talking all things singing with you, as well as talking a lot about choirs. Here is what you can look forward to in the next few weeks, not necessarily in this order:-

• A post all about the physical health benefits of singing
• A post all about the mental health benefits of singing
• A review of the absolutely fantastic experience of being involved in Young Voices – where children get to perform at a huge arena with some amazing professional artists as part of the largest school choir
• An interview with Composer Craig McLeish who wrote all of the musical arrangements of the songs for Young Voices
• A Composer of the Month who has written a lot of choral works, and a focus on their work for choirs
• A post on what is involved in being part of a Youth Choir, featuring the wonderful choirs from Birmingham organisation Ex Cathedra.

If you have enjoyed reading my blog post, thank you. I am always looking for ideas for the blog, so would love to hear from you with suggestions for topics you would like me to cover in the future. Also, if you would be interested in supporting me to keep this blog running, buying the books to review here, and supplies to make the DIY instruments, for example, I would be absolutely delighted if you would consider buying me a coffee using the following link: Buy Me A Coffee Thank you!!