Members of Sounding It Out went to a Choirs Meet in Sedburgh on 11-13 June. We met up with choirs from Slovenia, Lancaster and Northumberland. We had a wonderful 2 days, singing together, eating, laughing, walking and getting to know each other. The Slovenian choir did not speak any English, and we certainly did not speak Slovenian. We nevertheless got on fine, it almost did not matter. As Shelagh said - we can't exchange a word together, but we still feel a bond because we've sung together.
The Slovenian choir is made up of 7 members of the same family- 3 sisters, 2 husbands, 1 daughter and 1 neice. They sing their traditional Slovenian folksongs. When they came to teach us a song, they found that they could not teach 1 part without the others singing at the same time. I interpreted this that singing for them came from such a natural place, that they had never analysed what they were doing, hence could not separate one part from another. So different from our culture, where those of us teaching choirs have to build up our knowledge of songs from others, books and CDs. Very few families in UK have their own repertoire of passed down songs.

Singing Towards Change with Students

My friend and colleague Martin Sandbrook has been teaching a module at the University of Bath Spa, about Sustainability in Business, exploring deep ecology, and how our ways of thinking have to change in order for us to address the environmental crisis. He asked me to come in on their final session to do some singing with the students. We wanted them to experience singing as a tool for reconnection- both to each other, but also to our struggling planet and environment. Their feedback from the session amazed us both – see quotes below. It’s as if his ongoing work throughout the year came to a final “a ha!” moment with the singing. They really GOT IT.

Martin, I and others are aiming to further this work together in business settings. Contact me if you are interested.

"Singing is truly linked to the prosperity of the inner soul and its well being, throughout my whole university career that session well and truly took me out of my comfort zone, and I can say with 100% conviction that I am glad that I did. Life is so fragile and we have to remember that sometimes the most basic of actions such as taking a few minutes out to sing, or meditate or something similar can be invaluable to our well being."

"To conclude this review, I will discuss the moment when my worldview changed, this was the moment when I went from dispair to belief. It was through the final session of the sustainabiltiy module with Candy Verney that I felt really had the most impact on my future direction and the way that I now view the world.

The final part of Candy's session was on singing, and its role within a society. It was this part of the session that will never be forgotten because of the constrained thoughts and feelings that it managed to release inside me. When Candy discussed why western society, who have a high standard of living in terms of resource consumption, suffer from more depression related illnesses than some of the poorest countries, which Candy put down to, among other things, the freedom of expression of sound, in terms of singing. This was something I felt very sceptical towards, as singing to me, as a member of western society is something that I met with anxiety, as it has been repressed within me. However once I felt I had overcome my anxiety, I really started to embrace the session and as I looked around my fellow peers, who like me had started the session looking anxious, I noticed that they were all smiling. This really brought home the power of sound, and as I stood within the class I began to think, maybe we can change. My previous thoughts of its too late and we can do nothing to change, seemed at that moment to be quashed, this was the 'extraordinary event' I had read about in Senge, et al (2003), the moment my worldview changed.

My 'extraordinary event' was triggered when I looked around the room, as I was reminded of the key characteristics of mankind's survival on planet earth, the ability to adapt and change to the environment we find ourselves in. We as a group had overcome the social boundaries we had created by embracing the power of song to join us in unison. It was this that gave me hope as I now believed that to a degree the beliefs of society can be changed, therefore a sutainable future can be achieved. I acknowledge it will not be ab easy process, it may take time and like the group that Candy managed to get singing, people will change at different rates. I now haveidentified my role as an example to others, I will be the one who starts singing first, so that others will hopefully follow.