Our first rehearsal went really well and it had been a couple of weeks since I’d seen the guys in the choir. So now they knew what to expect… and they even bought some new people along too.
As I set up, a lady approached me to tell me that she’s been looking forward to this singing session all week. She also revealed some long term mental health issues and said that she’s felt so elated after our last singing session that she realised she hadn’t felt like that for a very long time. I was delighted that a) she felt this way and b) was able to share this with me (she has agreed to me talking about it and wrote it down for me as a testimonial)
What a power! What a difference this singing has made to this lady! And she’s not alone, nor will she continue to be the only one. I hadn’t realised that these singers (around 25 in total) didn’t actually know each other – there were a few people who recognised faces, some had come with one colleague, but they were largely strangers who happened to work in the same place. A quick session of ‘go and say hello to someone you don’t know’ had the whole room buzzing and filled with smiles and laughter. How easy was that!? I believe that the building of communities is key when forming choirs. I’ve always find that my community choirs have ended up being a great support network for each other aside from the actual singing. When friendships are formed and a group goal is achieved, the magic happens.
My physical warm ups are designed not just to break the ice but also to give my singers a real sense of rhythm and pulse. I learned that some of my ‘dance moves’ had been busted out on the shop floor over the last couple of weeks – I’m delighted!!!! This shows to me that the singers are engaging with what we are doing together and are able to take this into other areas of their lives – absolutely fantastic! The energy in the room after the warm up was brilliant and so we were ready to sing.
Already we are able to get into parts for some songs – with high harmony lines for the ladies that can get their voices high and some solo lines for some of the guys who have a seriously good time singing. We are able to work a bit more on dynamics and expression….. on the volume control and the articulation of the words… it’s all coming together. We sang each of our songs and started some new ones too. We even added in some legendary kari-ography’ here and there.
We have just one more rehearsal before we go off into the big wide world to sing and raise money for charity on Friday 6th December. We will definitely be ready and I can’t wait to get out and show the good people of Nottingham what can be achieved with group singing, to share the good feeling we are creating in the rehearsal room and to spread some Christmas cheer.
I asked the singers what the value of singing together was – these are their answers. I particularly like ‘life enhancing’ and ‘stress release’. Thank you for having me Hillarys and see you all soon!!!
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