Singing together or being in a choir is one of the most egalitarian experiences we can have.
It doesn’t matter how much you earn, what your job is, where you went to school or who you know. Just add your voice to the overall sound.
I have a low boredom threshold. There are 100s of gorgeous new songs I want to teach and it’s hard to cram them all in.
But more often than not, singers want to sing the old, familiar songs they already know well. How to strike the right balance?
This post is part of a series of occasional Questions and Answers.
Just contact Chris if you want to submit a question.
Tim wrote in to ask:
“I have been trying to sing for a very long time but I feel I always get tight in the throat when I lose confidence, when I hear myself sound bad, or even if some people are around.
“I was in a chorus for a year and I could hit every note, I just can't exactly ‘sing’, do you know what I mean? I can’t hear myself out of a group.”
Well, Tim, there are quite a few things going on here! And I’m sure there are plenty of other singers out there who can relate to what you’ve written.
It’s the time of year when many people make resolutions, set goals and devise plans for the coming year.
But is this a useful thing to do, and if you do it, how likely are you to achieve what you set out to do?
First of all, if you’re reading this post on Christmas Day: shame on you! Can’t you leave the computer alone for just one day in the year??!!
But since you’re here, I thought I’d highlight the most popular posts of 2011 in case you missed any of them . . .
Everything in the concert is going brilliantly. The choir is firing on all cylinders. The audience are lapping it up, even your lame banter between songs.
Then you spot the one person frowning in amongst a thousand smiling faces and the doubts set in.
There have been grumblings in my choir of late. Some people are not happy.
But is it possible to keep everyone in a choir happy?
