“I haven't had so much fun as an adult that didn't involve the use of a condom”

This was how one of the participants expressed her response to the previous week’s Sing Out! workshop. Those of us who suspect that community choirs and enthusiasm by adults for choral singing may be on the wane, should read on to find out what’s been going on in Harlow.

The idea of Sing Out! emerged from a desire to recruit more singers to Harlow Chorus’s ranks. For many people who wanted to sing with them, the principal barrier was lack of confidence and a real need for practical help with skills such as sight- reading and vocal technique. The Project had two parts. The first was a general one-day singing workshop with the emphasis on fun and enjoying singing with others. The second part comprised an eight-week course that aimed to refresh people’s singing and music reading skills so that they could attempt the choir’s audition. In addition to funding from the local council, Harlow Chorus applied for and received funding from Awards for All, reserved additional rehearsal time at its usual venue, St John’s Arts and Recreation Centre in Old Harlow and the rest, as they say, is history.

In September 2006 over 90 people aged 18 to 80 turned up for the one-day workshop. The sessions were led by the then Harlow Chorus conductor Sarah Tenant-Flowers and Janette Ruocco, Vocal and Choral Development Manager for Essex Music Services. Some members of Harlow Chorus joined in with the singing sessions, and found going back to basics very rewarding. Sarah and Janette had planned a number of musical challenges. These ranged from lively physical warm-ups to an exploration of different vocal effects via a home-grown version of the Honda Civic advert, learning by rote and practising sight reading. Participants were very positive about the experience and there was much laughter and spontaneous applause.

The workshop leaders optimistically turned up for the first session in January armed with a general plan designed to identify what sort of a mixed ability group presented itself. Numbers signing up for the January — March 2007 course had gradually been increasing in the months after the one-day workshop. However, no one dreamed that over fifty adults would sign up.

The aim now was to refresh and embed the necessary skills for potential members to pass the Harlow Chorus audition, but how to develop one curriculum that would meet the needs of all. Inspiration took hold with the idea of a framework based on the pattern of a normal choral rehearsal. Participants would be taught, using material appropriate for beginners, vocal technique and do physical and vocal warm-ups before going on to sight-read music, and to practise rehearsing — not just passages of music and whole pieces but also the business of practising performing. All these elements mirror exactly what the singers would experience if they attended a Harlow Chorus rehearsal. Without realising it, their eight weeks of training, gradually getting more complex, would fit them to be able to relate to both the process and the content of actual choir rehearsals. Feedback from the participants informed the detailed planning for the subsequent week.

The one-hour workshops took place 90 minutes before the scheduled Harlow Chorus rehearsal. Participants were invited to stay on for the main choir rehearsals from the fourth week. Those who stayed sat with a singing ‘buddy’ from the choir in order to smooth their transition from the supportive small-scale workshop environment to a ‘proper’ choir rehearsal. Harlow Chorus already has two new members from their ranks, and several more are working hard on the necessary skills. Not all will go on to attend an audition and not everyone who does will necessarily pass. However, one thing is certain: having found or in some cases, re-found their voices, they are going to keep on singing out!

from an article by Janette Ruocco