Sing a song of sixpence
Pocket full of rye
Four-and-twenty blackbirds
Baked in a pie
When the pie was opened
The birds began to sing
Wasn’t that a dainty dish to set before the king?
Never mind the sixpence, the blackbirds, the pie or the king (They’re all from the 18th century or earlier…Shakespeare, maybe?), what I’m really promoting here is the “Sing” part.
Once upon a time there was a choir in nearly every church out there (not counting Quakers, no singing there, hardly any talking, for that matter). There were ensembles of every type and description–Mormon Tabernacle Choir to family gospel singers. Colleges and universities( especially those with denominational affiliations) sent their choirs out on tours across America and even Europe (not often to Asia or Africa–too far). People recognized many of the tunes and could hum along. No “pop” singer’s career was complete without an album suitable for playing at a worship service, especially Christmas, or even Easter. Where has all of that gone?
Vocal music lost ground to instrumental over the years, at least partially, I sorta think, because you really can’t sing “pep songs” with a choir/glee club at a football game, can you? Same mind set caused us to abandon school orchestras except in very large and affluent districts (My mother played violin in the high school orchestra in little Wellington Exempted Village Schools in the 1930’s. By the time that I graduated from there, the whole orchestra idea was long gone.
Luckily, the vocal music program was still thriving. We had a capella choir, chorus, boys’ and girls’ ensembles at every level from seventh grade on up. Never sang at football games though). Furthermore, whenever budgets had to be cut–which was frequently–musicians and artists, bless ‘em,got the short end of the stick (or conductor’s baton, if you like). Altogether too many people just say, “I can’t sing”, when asked to join in some vocal entertainment, because they think that they cannot duplicate the performance of some pop star or rapper. Well, “Thank goodness”, I say; a lot of that stuff isn’t, in my humble opinion (meaning not humble at all), very musical at all–not much of a melody, very seldom any harmony, frequently hard-to-discern words (some of the words that do come through, should not be allowed to); it’s all about loud…Loud…LOUD. Not my thing.
More people should give singing a try…choral singing, that is., which in the long run improves the chances of being better at solo performance. The voice, like any other individual talent, improves with practice, exercise and challenge. You don’t often see an individual walk onto a football/soccer field, a basketball court, a ball diamond having never practiced with the team, learned the rules or warmed up. Anyone who would like to become the next “Garrettsville Idol” or capture the next big lead in the school musical–Disney or otherwise–could do themselves a big favor by joining a musical vocal group in preparation. New kinds of music, a new director, new people to sing with, a new accompanist can make all the difference in the world to one’s personal accomplishment and enjoyment in the music. Sometimes the music even helps to clear a mental fog which affects one’s whole outlook…for the better.
One of my favorite things about a yoga class is the end, when we all lie on the floor and (Classic yoga take on things) sort of slowly chant, “Om”, “Om”, “Om”, however many times. The vibrations can be felt through the whole body ( an old wooden floor will help that), and it’s very soothing and invigorating at the same time–A two-fer!
No matter how many times you’ve ever said, “I can’t sing, “ give it a shot. It’s the classic, “Try it; you’ll like it, “ opportunity. Two church choirs remain in G-Ville, at St. Ambrose and at the Garrettsville United Methodist Church; either of them would be delighted to see you appear at choir practice. Heck, try both of them (Sunday mornings might be a little tricky to hit both services. Pick one.) You might be surprised to discover how much you will get out of it over the long haul. Find another group, if you like, just sing, it’ll do you good.
And about the blackbirds…once upon a time there really was a culinary fad of baking pies with live birds in them. Sound like something you’d like on your table?
