Been to choir twice today
Morning songs, evening tunes
Now I’m tired and so I lay
On the chair, ready to sleep.
Music gave me a good day
Raised my spirits up in joy
Made me feel less dark I’d say
Summer returned
When that music did play…
Long day
Tag: Choir
Awful
What would your life be like without music?
I love singing harmonies in choirs.
Stiring sea shanties,
Soaring melodies
Deep, soulful folk songs,
Some pop songs from yesteryear.
Voices mingled
Low and high meld together.
Sopranos and Bass, Alto and Tenor
Winding and twisting around
Yes singing lifts me.
Singing
Do you sing for pleasure, to earn money, to learn something new? Or for mental or physical health?
Singing is good for lung health. It can strengthen both your lungs, chest muscles and help improve your voice. It helps with breathing and can help control your worries. I’ve found it helpful with controlling anxiety. It doesn’t cure it, but it calms it. Yes you could get stage fright, but singing with a choir helps because you are singing with others and that supports all the participants. You learn together and grow together. After about 20 years of singing with the group we sound pretty good. New people join and the group changes, but we all enjoy going or we wouldn’t be there
Some songs are earworms, rolling round and round in your head. Others are hard to pick up. We sometimes drop a tone or sing flat. It’s hard as a low singer to hit the high notes. Some songs are really annoying, but others in the group love them. But as we are all different then we all like a variety of music. Participating is good for you. I’d recommend it to anyone.
Get up, eat, go to bed? OK, Choir.
What are your daily habits?
Habits? What are they?
Life turned upside down when I started caring for my hubby. Everyday was different and it was hard to do things the same each day. Then he died and things got even less organised. Since then I’ve tried to regulate my life. Going to choir has helped. I’ve been in choirs for twenty years and that habit has helped my mental health. If the rest of the week is confused and mixed up I can hold onto the knowledge that I will be going to choir. Other than that I enjoy art and try and hold onto that habit. I would be lost without it.
Singing
Describe one simple thing you do that brings joy to your life.
I love singing.
When I’m anxious it helps regulate my breathing. Concentrating on the music makes my heart swell with joy when we get it right. Time seems to flow. Music and song are so simple, so inate to being human. It brings joy to my friends too. We got together to sing for a friend recently. I’ve not included my friends faces because I haven’t asked their permission to use their images.
That’s the thing about anxiety, so many rules to remember and think about. What can I do? What should I do? But singing calms me, pulls my mind up and out of bad feelings. I would recommend it to anyone thinking of coping with anxiety. If you can take the first step and keep singing. X
Sculpture
I went out to Audlem yesterday to sing with our choir. Thankfully I got a lift there and back because I can’t drive that far.
We sang really well at the Music festival and managed to drown out a band that was playing across the road from us!
We had sung inside Audlem Methodist Hall for the first half and then outside in the garden for the second half. That’s where I saw this sculpture of two birds, I think they were doves, carved out of two tree stumps. I really would like to have a sculpture like this done in my own garden where I had to have a tree cut down because it was dying. I think whoever carved this is very clever.
Longest days
I’ve just spent two days working with BArts and Growthpoint. They were putting on an opera show about Molly Leigh.
There were three scenes today, a church where a vicar was criticising a local woman called Molly Leigh and saying she was a witch, turning milk sour and having a blackbird as a familiar. A pub scene where there were customers and staff gossiping and talking about Molly saying good and bad things, like she borrowed money and didn’t pay it back, but then gave a family with a sick child several pints of milk so the child recovered. Then the final scene where a community choir came together to sing from her perspective bringing out the various aspects of her life. Each choir member was playing part of Molly as a whole.
The photo is of the cottage interior with a few of my bits of painting included. I have to say it was hard work, tiring, very intense and yet life affirming. I did more in two days than I’ve been able to for a few years and now I’m absolutely shattered.
I sing
What do you do to be involved in the community?
I’ve been in a couple of local community choirs for several years. Not church choirs, or ones where you have to audition or read music, but natural voice choirs where you choose where you want to sing depending on your voice. Sometimes I sing really low notes but sometimes I join in with the high parts if there is a shortage of sopranos.
I’ve got involved in local pantomimes and community plays as a Chorus member and even had a few roles in plays as a singer. It’s good for community cohesion and helps me mentally especially when I’m feeling down. It drags me out of the house when I would just like to ignore the world. I try and persuade people to join me as it’s been a big help to me over the years. It doesn’t solve all the issues but it ameliorates them.
If you want to be involved in the community I would recommend choir singing as an activity. Music helps calm you and can be very meditative.
Singing cheers me up
I was at choir practice yesterday and today. It cheered me up. I have to say I feel much better when I do go. I believe it helps to release endorphins in your brain? I know that when I’m feeling really down it helps so much. I would suggest if you can join a choir do it! A lot of choirs don’t have auditions, and are taught be repetition of the musical phrases rather than using sheet music. That’s how we are taught, the choir master sings a line and we repeat it. Gradually building up the song. We sometimes have the words printed off phonetically. We’ve learnt French, Zulu, Maori, Spanish, Bulgarian and many other languages learning that way.
I know this is a bit random, but I think its a great way af helping your mental health and also a good way of socialising.
Singing for health
I went to choir this morning. It’s one for lung health but I go because my friend goes and more and more for my mental health too.
I’ve been through a lot of crisises lately and I feel like I’m in the middle of a crescendo of music at the moment, will the wall of sound collapse and calm down, or turn into a tsunami of torment? Awaiting test results to find out.
I finally got a long awaited hospital appointment through, I’m hoping something will be sorted out, but I’m nervous of the outcome.
Meantime? I will keep singing at choirs, trying to keep my spirits and endorphins up. I will try and keep calm in the middle of a whirling cacophony of worry!
Mallaband-Brown 