Come-and-Sing Project – Our Experiences
Tideswell Male Voice Choir in our Haiti appeal concert at St John's Church, Buxton.
What makes this project exciting? Here's the story of one choirman:
Just over a year ago I went to a singing workshop run by Dennis Kay at Hope College. It had been fifteen years since I sang in a choir and I wasn’t sure that my voice still worked! Anyway I turned up, joined in and had a good sing. Whether I was any good or not I still didn’t know, but I did know that I enjoyed the group singing. When Dennis suggested that I came along to a few choir practices I thought I’d give it a go.
From my previous experience of three years singing in a mixed voice choir I thought I knew what a choir practice was all about. This was different. A rowdy bunch of characters barging about in a church hall in Tideswell, suddenly brought to order by a loud roar from some sergeant-major type hovering in a corner!
Then the work began – and I mean work. The Musical Director (Dennis Kay) started promptly on time and launched into what was effectively a two-hour singing lesson. He put the choir through its paces; if he wasn’t happy with a phrase or a passage he would explain what they were doing wrong, tell them how to get it right and then re-sing the phrase until he had knocked it into shape. (His techniques to achieve this ranged from outright comedy, through drama to specific threats of physical harm!)
At that first practice I could see just how committed the choir was. All sorts of people from all walks of life, but with one thing in common – they loved to sing and were prepared to work hard at singing better.
The sound the choir made was also different from my previous choir experience. Male voice choirs are something special. The quiet pieces can be breathtaking, making the hairs on the back of your neck stand up; the louder songs can crescendo to a solid, controlled and balanced force that threatens to knock walls down! Being a part of that sound is simply tremendous.
When the practice came to an end there was a resumption of the previous babble of conversation, this time with a repeated theme of ‘are you going down the road?’ This translated into a very enjoyable visit to a local hostelry where the quality of the ale was matched by the quality of banter, friendship and camaraderie.
A year on I’m still learning the ropes, but I’ve enjoyed every minute and wish I had started years back.
EJ 09/03/10
And here's another man's story...
"Hello, my name's Peter. I joined the choir in June 2008 aged 64. At that time I'd had virtually no experience of singing. No school singing other than (reluctantly) in the daily assembly, a few church services while a teenager, then nothing. Not even singing in the bath! Through all this time I didn't know whether I could sing or not. I was sometimes accused of having a tuneless whistle, so would my voice turn out the same? I could hear different notes, but I couldn't tell you what notes they were, and never having heard my own voice I didn't know where it sat in relation to other men's.
"Fast-forward to spring 2008, when I found myself being attracted into the social circle of the Tideswell choir in their post-practice gatherings at my local. Dennis and Co. talked me into having a go, so eventually I screwed up the courage to turn up at a practice. As I couldn't reach the upper half of the baritone register I was put in the bass section. There I put down roots and I've stayed ever since. It turns out that I'm definitely a bass. And with a good deal of help from my friends I've found that I do have a useful voice after all – phew!
"The next hurdle was to learn some lines. The choir has over two hundred scores in its library, and it seemed to me at first that they were intent on going through the lot before I could learn even the first! But with a bit of perseverance I did eventually build up enough confidence to be able to sing a few songs without the scores in hand.
"Then in spring 2009 the choir went on a tour of Cornwall, performing eight times in six days. This was just, simply... magical. The occasion was an international male-voice choral festival involving some 3,000 men and dozens of concerts. What an astonishing experience! I was unprepared for the sheer excitement, sustained day after day as we went to one town after another to sing alongside other choirs, some with next-to-no English. We even sang at the Minack open-air amphitheatre at Land's End. Mere words cannot relate the thrill of singing in this spectacular place.
"Perusing the pages of this website will show what other places we've sung in. Every one was special in its way of course, but two highlights stand out for me: the concert at the Octagon with choirs from Hope Valley College, who were wonderful to work with – such energy, enthusiasm and innate talent – and of course the incomparable thrill of singing at Buxton Opera House with Cantamus girls' choir in our annual Gala Concert. My mother was in the audience this time, and afterwards she seemed to float several inches above the ground, so proud and excited was she that her son had achieved such a feat. So within a year, and in spite of my having more difficulty than most in learning lines, the choir had brought me from nothing at all to being a bit of an asset. And if they did it for me, they can do it for anyone.
"Anyone joining this project will of course be free to leave at any time up to its climax next October,
but we all hope that some will want to go further and we hope they will decide to join us. The
choirmen are so warm and friendly, and the comradeship so fulfilling, the music so
rewarding, that I wanted to tell the men around Buxton what a wonderful time they are guaranteed
to have if they will gird their loins (so to speak), get themselves along and join up to have a go,
and —
"Come and Sing!"
PRH 28/11/09
Updated 10 March 2010
