Sing with Joy!
Written by Julie Taylor
Sing with Joy!
There is such a thing as musical therapy - singing therapy - because people are just starting to recognize the wonderful power of music. Musical ability is seated in the right side of the brain and during my injury I sustained damage to this hemisphere. Sure enough I was now completely out of tune, despite the fact that as a kid I was in the school choir and even sang the first part of Silent Night as a solo one Christmas when I was 12! For over 20 years I had avoided all singing - whether it was ‘happy birthday’ at kid’s parties, caroling at Christmas or let alone joining a choir! I was very anxious about the lack of control I had over the notes I produced when I opened my mouth to sing.
With most things if you practice, soft muscles get toned. Maybe if I could somehow work on that whole side of my brain, even my math would improve! I had an idea - one that would take me years to actually try…
My very good friend had been encouraging me for two whole years to join the same gospel choir, One Human Family Gospel Choir (check out the choir parts - full mix.) that she was part of. She had assured me over and over that no-one in the choir would even notice (not quite true!) if I was a bit out of key at the beginning. They were a great bunch of people. (After all I had been told that everyone could sing eventually, with practice and that the muscles of the voice are just like any other muscles and tone up with exercise?) My friend said she knew I would love choir. If only she knew just how much… To me it would be beyond wonderful to be able to sing and to be part of a gospel choir. I loved listening to music and the sound of beautiful voices singing in harmony in a choir gave me goose-bumps and sometimes brought tears to my eyes…
I decided I would try it! Everything came together: I found a babysitter and another friend offered to come with me on my first night: he was a tenor and I was terrible! Eventually I found the altos, the part I was most comfortable with. Everyone was so nice and welcoming and invited us to a local bistro for coffee afterwards. I had the best time!
Today - after just 8 weeks – I can sing in tune most of the time. I still find it really hard to find enough breath to hold long notes and I find it difficult to remember all the words and notes, but it IS working! In 4 more weeks the choir – with me – is hunkering down for a whole weekend of practice culminating in the production of a concert in front of just under a thousand people which is to be made into a live CD! I’m practicing hard. And I am so excited! Even if I have to lip synch some of the time…
The possibilities are indeed endless when we stop living from an anxious ‘stuffed tight’ place of ‘I can’t’, trust ourselves and those around us and just try…
Alone, I may be far from perfect or even whole but as part of an amazing Choir, with a hundred other voices, I can be a joyous part of the most beautiful, perfect, whole music.
Last week, with the help of my MRT (or Most Valuable Therapist?!) I learned officially that singing is a fabulous exercise and covers the Physical – breathing, posture and moving in time with the music; Cognitive – memory of words and notes and constant monitoring of our own sound and adjusting it to those around us; Emotional – practicing the skill of staying in ‘the present’, being part of a group (which is wonderful) and learning to accept the new ‘us’; Joyful – smiling till your face aches and being a part of something so uplifting.