The 12 Blogs of New Year 2020: Day 5, Singing Live

Getting topics to fit into our 12 Blogs of New Year 2020 has certainly been a challenge, but one that we are up for!  After all, if WE can't talk about what we have got/we are getting/we intend to get up to, then who can?  But today has been such a topical challenge...

Remember, especially if you are just joining us today, that we all had The 12 Days of Christmas, which we sang about at our Christmas Concerts (yes, we know it's not in the Official Programme, but we've never been short of an added concert extra!) and which mark a sort of 'traditional' Christmas Season linked with the Western Church ending around 6th January.    But what happens then?   Well, that's where our series of blogs, The 12 Blogs of New Year, comes in!  It's where we set our stall out for the forthcoming singing year which this year, happily, is also our 10th Anniversary Year, we having been established in 2010.  And it's all done to the tune of the 12 Days of Christmas!

So, what coincides with the 'Five Gold Rings'...???   Well, of course...!  (clears throat... ...all join in now!):

"In the 5th Blog of New Year, 'The Phoenix' gave to me: Five Singing Live, For Auld Lang Syne, Three Hearty Cheers, To All Men an Invite and A Calendar with Dates we can see!"

Singing Live: One of the great membership benefits we offer is that all of our Members can sing in all of our Concerts.  There are no auditions or selection criteria for Choir Membership or Concert Participation and even the newest member, if they are comfortable with what they have rehearsed, will be included within our singing ranks for our next concert events.  So we don't have members contributing their membership subscription, but having to sit on the sidelines...   ....that's not what our Choir is about, and it never has been.   That's why for our Day 5 Blog, we've got Five Singing Live representing all the different kinds of singers who make up our one Choir at any one time, and all of whom are welcomed equally:

1) Accomplished Singers:  Members with a long singing heritage, perhaps with previous male voice or other choirs, other singing disciplines e.g. opera, choral societies, musical group or a band musician, and/or have vocal coaching and support.

2) Hobby Singers:   Members for whom singing is an active pastime, so are likely to be members of several choirs, or choirs of different formats e.g. community choirs, mixed choirs, informal choirs, etc., as relaxation or a hobby, perhaps with other family members too.

3) Social Singers:   Members who like singing and being part of the group, who enjoy the camaraderie and sense of belonging by regularly meeting up at rehearsals, etc., and participating in concert performances.

4) Bathtub and Shower Singers:   Members who know they enjoy following a melody and are interested in singing, but are now going on to enjoy practising the additional formality and structure of choral singing as a new skill.
 
5) New Singers:   Members who have only just considered taking up singing, perhaps because they had been wrongly told in the past they 'couldn't sing', or they never realised they could sing, and/or because they are attracted by the body of information supporting the benefits to personal well-being of singing as part of an organised group.  It's amazing how many times we and other choirs have heard that the most competent members were once told they 'couldn't sing'...

So then, you lucky people, where do you get to see 'Five Singing Live'?  Just click on the link to see what's coming up in 2020 at a certain male voice choir near you!  www.norwichphoenixmvc.org/concerts2020.html