It has been really lovely to see so much support for our choir for the last couple of concerts this autumn and Christmas. The concerts are a joy to put on after weeks of rehearsals. More than that, there are many health benefits to singing, particularly mental health. Even when you might not be getting it quite right, singing makes you feel happy. It boosts the feel good hormone dopamine, reduces that pesky stress hormone cortisol and helps relaxation through breathing. It also lowers the heart rate and blood pressure (although it may have the opposite effect on Adrian, our musical director). There have been may friendships made in our choir, there’s lot of encouragement and we also have biscuits. If you have liked anything you have seen and you fancy giving it a go, come and check us out for free for a rehearsal. Thursdays, 7.30 at Dilham Village Hall.

I love coming to choir and I love the challenge of learning about music. I feel a great sense of achievement when we reach our concert performance and hear the result of all of the learning and rehearsals and it is also satisfying to see how much the audience enjoys what we do.

For a long time I had wished that I could ‘sing’ and was scared to take the first step of joining a choir. When I eventually did it, I found that anyone can ‘sing’ – some can ‘sing’ better than others but ‘singing’ is there to be learnt. And once you get into it there is great pleasure in hearing the different voices making wonderful melodies and music.

I am not a great singer and don’t read music (oops!). Having said that I have surprised myself at how much I have learnt so far. When I am not sure I just listen before I give it a go. I try not to do wrong notes(!) but then, all of us do ‘wrong notes’ every now and again (some do it more than others!!) but there is no firing squad at the end of rehearsal (I don’t think!) and we come back the following week and have another go.
And anyway, a choir is a team – it’s not just a group of individuals and we all help each other out.

Also we have chocolate biscuits and very often cake at tea break – that’s really good for the voice.
This is the end of my confession but if someone like me, who is uncertain about giving Choir Worstead a go, but has read this and felt enough encouragement to call in on a Thursday night at Dilham Village Hall, then my confession will have been worth it.