How can we keep from singing?

I started singing in church choirs when I was  a teenager. There I learned to read music and find acceptance among the grown up singers. It was my church’s choir director who helped me find my spiritual voice again after a car accident that fractured my larynx. I went on to study vocal music, compose hymn lyrics and sing in choirs at my college, seminary and several churches over the years.

There is a special kind of relationship that forms among choir members. Something about those rehearsals, with their jokes, irritations and prayer rituals, creates a spiritual bond that can’t be replicated anywhere else. (Here’s a great movie to watch about the importance of singing together.)

But my view of the traditional church choir has changed over the years. One time, I watched a song leader, without any written words,  notes or accompaniment, teach a room full of people to sing a simple hymn in parts.  The effect was electrifying. I have sung improvisational jazz in groups, never sure exactly what note might come out next, or who it will come from. I have even been to a “tunnel hum”, standing shoulder to shoulder with wanna-be druids and aging hippies, humming placidly until we all found a common, harmonic drone. I’ve learned there are a lot of different ways to make sound together, but what really makes it groove is when everyone is engaged in the making of it!