It’s not about performance

Singing in a choir isn’t about being a wonderful singer, though we have some wonderful singers. We all learn and improve.

Singing in a choir isn’t about performing in public. We do enjoy a concert as an opportunity to share the music we’ve worked with, and to enjoy our singing with the frisson of excitement (or stage fright) that tunes our performance up a few notches. You – our audience – give us that fright and we love it.

It is being together every week

We get our true value from weekly rehearsals. We sing. Every week. Together. We learn something new. We practice something we should know, and we build up our skills and understanding.

We laugh. We share supper. We are happy for each other’s happiness (a new grandchild, a better job), and we support each other during ill health or sadness. We work together towards a goal. We become a community.


Here are some of the reasons I leave home on a hot evening or in the cold of the winter.

  • Singing something that we couldn’t get right last week – that’s worth it.
  • Laughing together at how bad we are sometimes
  • Triumph when we get it right
  • Suddenly getting the whole choir in harmony and feeling it deep in your chest and bones – that’s worth it.
  • That understanding of how music works that occasionally breaks over you is great.
  • Hearing music on the radio and suddenly thinking “semiquavers. That’s a run of semiquavers there”
  • Better yet – “Hey that’s Fauré’s Pavane. I’ve sung that. hmmm, hm hmmm, hm hum hum hmmm, hm hm.”
  • Going home with music running in your head.
  • Finding that you love a  piece of music. Hated it when you first heard it – but now you love it and all the twists and turns that you’ve mastered.
  • Knowing that I am expected to be there and people will notice if I’m not.
  • That when I arrive there will people to greet, questions to answer and jobs to do.

And that’s just me. Every choir member will have their own ‘fixes’ that bring them back to sing together every week.

Why Sing? Why Choir?