Hi all,
Last week I saw an article in the local paper about a guy that aimed to start local choirs all around Australia. Although he is a classically trained opera singer, his idea was not to form yet another pro style choir. Instead he wanted to revitalise the idea of community singing, strongly underpinned by the notion that EVERYBODY can enjoy singing, and would be welcomed to the choir, however bad they thought they were, or indeed actually were.
His idea was total inclusion, regardless of how nervous or awful you were, and then progress through joint enjoyment (no, maybe that was a bad choice of words...) through group enjoyment and learning. But no matter how good the choir got they must never lose sight of the focus, which was to keep welcoming new members with little or no ability.
He feels that singing is a natural thing to want to do, and that too many of us are talked out of it as kids and never get back to it. He also spoke convincingly about the overall health benefits, and bonuses in a general sense of well-being, that you get from being somebody who sings.
Now I usually say that I can't sing, but I'd like to learn. But I've been saying that for years without doing much about it. :roll: Yet it's a massive bonus to your guitar playing if you can sing and, obviously, if you fancy doing a bit of songwriting then it seriously hampers you if you can't have a crack at your own work. So I thought I'd go along.
Apparently they often start with as few as four or five interested people and then build up from there. Some of the choirs now have over a hundred members and have been going for ten years or more. The founder is currently touring the country, helped by a government grant, stopping at community halls, country towns, and so on, to see if there's any local interest.
Last night he came to a place near here so I went along. To my amazement (and his too, apparently) over a hundred people turned up. He spent about half the time telling us about the organisation, and about singing generally, and the rest of the time we just sang. I'm not going to pretend it was rock-n-roll, but, among others, there were songs by The Beatles, Cat Stevens, Neil Diamond, Paul Simon, and so on as well as some from earlier eras.
It was an absolute delight to be there. :D
The cost is minimal. Just a few bucks for membership to cover the books etc, and then two or three dollars each on choir night to pay for the hire of the room/hall and pay the pianist. So I'm in. We should start the week after next. Wish us luck. :wink:
Anybody else involved in community singing of any kind? Choirs? Harmony groups or whatever?
Cheers,
Chris
What a great idea.
I was in a church choir in my teens.
That was a nice experience . . . "Make a joyful noise . . ." and all.
Maybe you can teach them your Irish pub song.
I suggest that they be drunk first.
It lowers their inhibitions and they don't throw things with as good an aim as when sober.
It's the rock that gives the stream its music . . . and the stream that gives the rock its roll.
Thanks Ken, we might leave that until the second or third week.. :mrgreen:
One interesting aspect was that the women outnumbered the men by 4 or 5 to 1, so I might need to consider a bodyguard.... :wink:
if you want to sing, take some voice lessons. it's a lot easier than learning to play guitar, and you did that didn't you???
if you want to sing, take some voice lessons. it's a lot easier than learning to play guitar, and you did that didn't you???
Yep, started that too.... :)
Mostly, I've learned to play instruments by teaching myself. But a few lessons along the way were certainly useful. The hard part about following the same path with singing has been finding a teacher. Shake any tree round here and half a dozen guitar teachers fall out, but you seem to need a search party to track down a decent singing teacher...
In the meantime I've been doing some simple work on hitting the right pitches - using the piano for reference, and a basic 'teach yourself' book.
But, after a long hunt, I finally did find a teacher who has an approach that fits what I'm after and who also performs the sort of stuff that I'm interested in. The first lesson was last week (should have been earlier but he got sick...). At last! :mrgreen: :note1: :note2: :note1:
The choir people are still working out all the admin stuff, but, with a bit of luck that should get going either this week or next. :)
Cheers,
Chris
singing is a lot of fun. you'll like it. i'm still trying to play/sing. i can but only on very easy songs.
singing is a lot of fun. you'll like it. i'm still trying to play/sing. i can but only on very easy songs.
So have you been going to a teacher?
It's certainly been a lot of fun so far, as you say. At this stage I can sing bits of easy songs - like you, I guess - but there's a lot of work to be done before I can get it all accurate and under control. I spent the last few days grappling with computer software trying to get the knack of putting together backing tracks so that I can learn to sing right on the beats, and accompany a song properly rather than just doing a rough job in my own time. My teacher has a pretty decent studio set up and can put together backing tracks, but I want to be able to do it for myself too.
Sorting the software out has been quite a journey on its own... :shock: ... but I've got a handle on most of it now, so I should be able to get back to the singing itself this week... :mrgreen:
Chris
recording yourself playing/singing is a whole other thing. i can't do it. i especially can't do it in separate tracks. i don't know what the solution is, either.
I hardly ever look here. I suppose I should because of my posted songs have my singing attempts.
yeah, singing is great. it is harder than it appears. once you hear yourself you will either want to run or strive to learn and improve.
sorry for you all, I am going the second route.
back in American southern rural history, I'm not sure, 1930's ? in churches and sunday schools people learned to 'read' music by shapes. there were a set of standard shapes. each shape stood for a note. people would look at the line of shapes and be able to sing the notes. in the rural churches it was the sense of community when everyone had the shape reading skill.
it is an interesting story.
Interesting story about the community singing, Dogbite. :)
I once had a few lessons from a Conservatorium trained guitar teacher, and he used a similar idea (I think it was developed by the composer Kodaly). It was based on hand shapes though. When he was roughing out a song, he'd do these 'hand signals and it seemed to help him hit the pitches, or intervals.
First time I wrote a song for the SSG forum and tried to play on one track and sing on another it was a complete disaster. I had no idea when to come in or where I was in the song. :shock: But as I was just winging it, that's probably to be expected. So I just did a couple of very rough songs and then put it all on the back burner until I could have a better look at it all. That was about a year ago.
So now I've set up the computer so that it can play an accurate backing track, and also display a score with the words, and a moving line (accurate with the timing that is. Very basic musically). I've never tried karaoke, but I think that's done in a similar way - so that you know where you are and when to come in.
I gave it my first run this morning, and it went pretty well. It certainly shows up how much there is to learn though. Not just hitting the right pitches, but getting the timing spot on, the diction clear without sounding too fussy, putting some emotion into it, etc. One of the hardest things is the very start - hitting that first note at the right volume and pitch. But, at least I've made a start, and I can hear what needs a lot more work.
It's going to take a long time before I can sing like you or Nick (OK probably never, but it's something to aim at...) But best of all, I'm really enjoying it. :mrgreen:
Chris
BTW. I just had a listen to you singing 'Norwegian Wooden' and 'Ramblin' man'. Wonderful work. Give me another two lifetimes and I might catch you up...
In the meantime, here's the first take of my first step on the road - done this morning. Music courtesy of Finale Notepad, Midi, and Cubase.
Mercifully short extract.... :wink:
:shock:
I just tried to answer a question that disappeared again before I could post the reply. :?
Anyway, the answer was that no, it isn't necessary to have a visual cue for the score and, yes, I did wear headphones and follow a previously done backing track while I sang onto a separate track for the vocals. The reason for following a score on screen is that it just makes the job easier for a beginner, and on Day 1 you'll take all the help a computer can give. Having the words in front of you, and a tool that tells you exactly where you are along each beat and in which bar is a handy set of trainer wheels to have while the ears and brain are getting up to speed on the new skills required to sing on pitch and in time.
Chris
That would have been me.
I withdrew my question because . . . I was having a senior moment.
KR2 (Now, how do I get home from here?)
It's the rock that gives the stream its music . . . and the stream that gives the rock its roll.
Everybody should sing.
Community chiors are a great thing. I am about to form one here in Mile End which is a suburb of Adelaide in South Australia
The local Council are going to help with a practice venue and with getting the whole thing out there. Anyone will be welcome
regardless of age or experience. If you are in Adelaide contact me for details.
John
www.singinglessonsadelaide.com.au
Adelaide.South Australia
