The Choir

I've been and had my lunch since then and can leave my post. Like many of us at the moment on GN I am feeling a bit touchy , just not in the mood for frivolity. Thanks grannyactivist

I think the kind of competitiveness on the BBC is awful. Whether its baking cakes, dancing or now choir singing, the good or the best have to be chosen and the worst - mostly people who have worked hard and done their best have to go.
I don't think normal choir singing is competitive. Most choirs want to sing their own choice of music and some day perform it for somebody or sing at a funeral or a wedding. People in choirs just want to sing but in Gareths choirs they do it for other reasons as well.
We'll see how Gareth proceeds, he is an extremely musically gifted person with absolute pitch and has suceeded in making a niche for himself in what is a difficult world to make a living in.

MargaretX don't be too disappointed in us, conversations on GN have a habit of wandering, but we usually come back to the point of the original thread.
With regard to competitiveness in choirs; is it really so bad? My lovely mother in law led a choir that got through to the semi-final of the choir of the year competition and I don't remember any comments from the time that were derogatory about the competitive aspect.

Margaret Given what the conductors of both the choirs I go to are like, I cannot think of anything more dreadful.

You cantake back your posts if you wish , Margaret x , contact GNHQ and ask for them to be deleted , just saying .

What is the point of trying to write about singing and being in a choir when the ladies are only interested in what colour the choir master's pubic hair might be. No hope for a serious note in GN then. I wish I could take back my post. it does not belong on this below the waist page.....

OK call me too serious of you want.......

Mishap What you have started!

It is lovely to sing in a choir, but like acting it has long periods of boredom waiting till the tenors finally get it right, and then over and over again. A weekly practice for a good choir nearing the day when they will sing before others is real hard work and tiring after a days normal work.

After 10 - 15 weeks of practicing you have to perform and then it repays you. I sang in a Catholic choir and we sang Mass at Easter and Christmas and sometimes when I was sitting on the contralto seats behind the professional soloists I felt quite faint with the purity of their singing, whether Mozart or Haydn. We in the choir sang the choral parts and that was after all that practice, a really lovely feeling.
I used to go home to cook the Christmas dinner feeling flat, as if the best part of Christmas was over! So that is what singing in a choir is like.

I had to leave at 65 as my voice gave up on me.

I was just thinking the same thing Mishap!

I apologise deeply for lowering the tone! Only Gransnet could go from choirs to pubes!

mishap not only thinking about pubic hair, but pubic hair belonging to viccars

I would love to sing in a choir, as I imagine it's really exhilarating when you all get it right and it sounds good. Unfortunately I have no musical ability. Even when I sing along to the radio when alone, I can hear how awful and out of tune I sound!

newist Me too!

Jeremy Paxman has recently grown a beard but it's rather disappointingly salt-and-pepper. Mishap, you have set my imagination racing. Now... it's just about time for Newsnight.

The Wonderful Man has white hair, but his moustache is still orange. I'm saying nothing about elsewhere!

I was born with ginger hair, which has faded now. My pubics were bright orange and still are. When my first DD was born they still gave you a shave. The Irish midwives comments where " OMG I have never seen one that colour before"

Well - it is intriguing when someone's head hair is a totally different colour from their beard - I once had to interview a vicar who had straight jet black hair and a very bright orange curly beard - I was unable to stop my mind roaming free!

I do not often speculate about pubic hair - honest gov!

Mishap do beards always make you think about pubic hair, or only Gareth's ?

Ha Ha, Mishap. I'm not saying

At least it makes him look slightly older than twelve.

The beard - now I have to admit my first thought, as the beard is ginger, was to wonder what colour his pubic hair is! - does anyone else have such puerile thoughts?!

Its a weird beard and doesn't suit his personality..he's lost that boyish charm - perhaps he wanted to. He seems less sparkly and enthusiastic now.
My choir once travelled to Italy to participate in an international competition. The competition side was unedifying - what was great was the camaraderie, meeting other choirs who shared the same repertoire and singing with them impromptu when we all happened to meet in bars and restaurants; practising our music on the beach. We didn't win and we didn't care..we had a ball.

I didn't like his beard very much either notso Although nothing against them (my DH has always had a beard since I've known him), just didn't think it suited him and it was so ginger compared with his hair. My brothers beard is ginger although his hair used to be dark, funny how hair and beard can be such a different colour

Beard? I never even noticed it. I know quite few men with beards, seems normal to me.

I love watching this and to see people finding not only their 'voice' but the confidence to sing in public.

The jury's still out on Gareth's beard though

I am with you there yogagran I used to sing in the church choir and loved it, but with hearing loss, I have difficulty finding the notes, let alone holding them, however, as I always said to my un-competitive daughter, you don't have to take part to enjoy something, those who are good at things like to have an appreciative audience, so sit back and enjoy what other people are enjoying doing.

I started singing in church choirs and school choirs at the age of 15 and carried on in Germany ending up at my local Catholic church( I am an athiest) because I love to sing. Singing the exquisite Masses of Haydn and Mozart almost brought back my beliefs, but I grew to accept it for the music alone.
I don't like the banal songs in The Choir but he does his best. You can't get a choir to singing Mozart in 4 weeks. His singing brings the people together and some of them need a shake up. Fancy driving to France 5 times a day and never stepping on French soil. What kind of people are they?
At least he will get them singing.
I don't believe the girl soloist has had proper classical training. She couldn't hold the note. If you can't do that then you shouldn't be singing solo.
But she is pretty, and good TV material.