Social singing

I came across the A Folk Song a Day project today (www.afolksongaday.com). It's the work of Jon Boden, frontman of folk big band, Bellowhead: every day for one year Jon is posting a traditional song online to revive the art of ‘social’ (or communal) singing, now largely confined to football grounds and churches. And Christmas-time, when few can resist a Ding Dong Merrily....

Jon has started an informal monthly singaround in his local pub which is going well, though it hasn't always been plain sailing. As he says in his interview in The Guardian today, "You have to get people used to the idea. It's not the fault of the song, it's the fault of lack of song. People get paranoid about singing in public and I think it stems from parents telling their children they can't sing. It happens a lot. You wouldn't tell someone they have an awful talking voice or they have bad breath, but there seems to be no problem in telling someone they can't sing." (www.guardian.co.uk/music/2010/jul/28/jon-boden-a-folk-song-a-day)

I'm mindful of this experience as I gather up members for the Braunston Community Choir, which starts rehearsing on Tuesday 10 August (7.30pm, Braunston Village Hall) and whose first public performance will be to open the festival on Saturday 28th August. I'd say roughly 3 out of every 5 people I've talked to about the choir have initially been reluctant to take part because, they say, they can't sing. I've talked some people round, and I hope others will join in as time goes on. I think Gareth Malone's work on The Choir for the BBC has helped encourage more people to consider themselves singers, or at least, not to rule themselves out of the opportunity to sing.

We're delighted to have the support of some recent graduates of the Birmingham Conservatoire and also of Alexander Walker, conductor of Daventry Choral. More soon about the songs we're singing. In the meantime, to all those singers and 'can't singers' in Braunston and nearby, rehearsals are Tuesdays at 7.30pm and Saturdays at 4pm through August, all in Braunston Village Hall.