By Vicky Anning
When I first joined Sing! Community Choir two and half years ago, I had just been made redundant and was adjusting to life as a freelance writer & editor – working at home on my own most days. I had been wanting to join a choir for ages, but juggling life as a widowed mum had made it difficult to manage. Joining Sing! was just what I needed – and I quickly realised that it wasn’t just about getting me singing again (which in itself was enough to lift my spirits every week). It was also about getting me out of the house every Thursday evening, whatever the babysitting challenges or overwhelming work deadlines, to create something communally with a bunch of inspiring and talented people of all different ages and from all walks of life.
There have been many toe-tingling moments over the last two and half years when we’ve nailed a song in our packed rehearsal space in Romsey Mill. Or when we’ve stood up on stage at one of our Christmas concerts and listened to the applause at the end of a song well sung. OK, we’re not all perfect singers (there are no auditions for Sing! and all abilities are welcome). But there’s nothing quite like that sense of shared endeavour to make your heart sing…
And so it was that I ended up pulling up on the gravel driveway in front of a converted 13th century church in rural Bedfordshire last Sunday morning to join fellow Singers at a singing workshop run by the most excellent Mark De-Lisser, who has worked as a vocal coach on The Voice and whose amazing ACM Gospel Choir in London were semi-finalists in the BBC’s Last Choir Standing.
Sitting in the nave of the church, with the bright morning sunshine flooding through the buttressed windows was another one of those toe-tingling experiences that being a member of Sing! has given me. As Mark deftly taught us the harmonies for Ed Sheeran’s poignant song Thinking Out Loud, some of us shared the story of what the lyrics meant to us. One Singer promised to tell his girlfriend how he felt about her more often. Another told us she had shared the song with her aunt and uncle on their 50th wedding anniversary. The words meant something different to all of us, but the sound that came out of our mouths that day was really special. Mark got us to really sing from the heart and many of us – myself included – were moved to tears by the shared emotion that reverberated through the harmonies.
But Mark offered us more than musical inspiration that sunny May morning. He also talked about the huge rise in the number of choirs around the country – and how choirs are becoming “the new church”, providing people with a sense of community that people used to find in the pews. Looking around the nave of the converted St Nicholas Church where generations of parishioners must have sat before us, I realised that the people surrounding me have become like my congregation. As a non church goer, the chance to catch up with fellow Singers over tea and cake (and lots of it!) during our Thursday rehearsal is almost as important to me now as the music we make together. It has provided me with a sense of community that I appreciate more than I ever imagined. I have met people of all ages and from all backgrounds, people from Italy and people from Romania, people of all faiths and none, people who have been unerringly welcoming and accepting of me and my daughter too (she comes along if I can’t get a babysitter)! These are all people who I would probably never have met if I hadn’t joined Sing! – and no matter how tired I feel on a Thursday evening before I get to rehearsals, I always come away at 9.15 with a spring in my stride!
So thank you to the fantastic people who make Sing! happen week after week – and to Mark De-Lisser for making our hearts sing out loud at the Chellington Centre last weekend!