And to think I could be singing . . .

I think I have mentioned before that I belong to a choir, well when I say choir that possibly gives slightly the wrong idea,  'singing group' might be a better description.  I have watched and fallen in love with the wonderful Gareth Malone since he first appeared on our TV screens and longed for the opportunity to join a group of people who get together to sing under the supervision of a talented and inspirational 'choir master' so in January of this year when a friend told me about Discord - I was there.

Following the previous year which had been personally sad and financially disastrous I went along on the first night a rather morose, bitter old bag and for the first time in months I laughed until I ached which was a relatively new experience.  We are incredibly lucky in our own 'Gareth' - Michael Dann who is, not only talented but week after week arrives with a laugh and a joke and turns each 'sing-a-long' into a party.  Over the weeks, in my head, I have starred in musicals, I've won x-factor, sung at Wembley and entertained Royalty.  Singularly, I still can't sing but I sound absolutely amazing when I'm being dragged along by another 40 odd people, the majority of whom can at the very least 'hold a tune' I come away with my heart lifted and each week Gareth's message that singing is good for the soul rings ever truer.  I believe singing should be available on prescription, it should form the basis of every political parties manifesto and every office, factory, school etc. should start the day with a song!!

I can however categorically confirm that if it was not your destiny to sing then no amount of practice will improve the noise you make.  I have put this to the test every week since I started.  I sing along with everyone else thinking 'God, I'm good' - we leave, I drop off the two friends I go with and as I turn onto the main road I go for it, whatever we were singing last I belt out my very own 'a cappella' version because each week I believe I've turned into Leona Lewis and every week I'm gutted to discover I still sound like the worst of the x-factor rejects.

This Saturday will be the first meeting of the 4 different Discord groups, they will come together, nearly 100 of them, in a little concert along with 5 ladies who really can sing, the Merely Divas.  they will be singing loads of Christmas songs and it will sound incredible - and me, well I will be squeezed into a very snug little black dress wishing that I didn't have quite such 'big legs' and wishing that I was there borrowing their combined voices to kid myself I can sing.

To anyone from Discord who reads this, I wish you lots of luck, but you won't need it because it will sound amazing, so have lots of fun, enjoy!

Viv xx