“We Just Like to Sing!”: small singing groups having a big impact!

By Jane York

When I started working with CMVic as the interim Local Catalyst for Inner West Victoria I didn’t expect to spend my Saturday line dancing to the 1990s pop country hit Achy Breaky Heart, but that’s exactly how last month’s Cairnlea Community Sing-Along event kicked off (quite literally)!

While not formally on the event run-sheet, one of the group leaders Antoinette Camilleri casually mentioned that it’s a popular ice-breaker with her Cairnlea Sing-Along Group and everyone immediately agreed we had to see it in action. It may not be the sort of activity you first think of when you think about choirs, but this fun and super silly warm-up, full of hip bumps, giggles and missed steps, was a perfect example of the types of things community music leaders do to keep their groups engaged and bring them into the space. For the types of groups this Community Sing-Along event was targeting, togetherness was the priority over formal introductions and extensive vocal warm-ups.

The concept of the Cairnlea Community Sing-Along sprang out of engagement and research throughout Melbourne’s Western suburbs and beyond in the second half of 2023 as part of CMVic’s Growing Community Music project. It became clear that there was a significant portion of participatory singing happening that didn’t fit neatly into traditional understandings of community choirs. And while those of us working in the space understand ‘community choir’ is a broad term that involves many operational models, sizes and abilities, this cohort of groups had some things in common…

• They strongly prioritise participation and connection over musical output
• They may not identify as a choir, instead a singing or sing-along group
• They may not meet once a week in the evening, some meet fortnightly and during the day
• They rarely use sheet music and mostly sing in unison or rounds
• They are often operating out of a neighbourhood, community house or health centre 
• Entry is either free or affordable with sliding scales
• They are sometimes led by volunteers who may not identify as career singing leaders
• They may not have the size, reliable attendance or musical capacity to perform on their own outside their regular meeting time

These types of groups gather all across Victoria and serve their local communities, many of which could be described as disadvantaged or marginalised and at risk of social isolation. These group sessions are designed for maximum ease of participation, for people to be able to rock up, join in and experience joy and connection in a low pressure way. Some of them, like the Cairnlea Sing-Along group, sing to backing tracks with their leader taking requests and finishing on What A Wonderful World to “combat the blues”! During our sing-along event Elly McKinnon from With One Voice Sunbury leads us in a round but first asks if anyone doesn’t know what that means; one person doesn’t and she warmly explains. No prior musical knowledge is assumed and no one is shamed or made to feel unworthy of joining in.

The aim of the Cairnlea Community Sing-Along event was to bring together some of these similar types of groups in a relaxed format that addresses the barriers to them engaging in other performance, workshop or development opportunities. Over 30 singers joined us on the day from 7 different groups, with leaders from our 3 host groups teaching and leading a few of their groups favourite songs for the whole room to sing together.

Preparing for performances, working on tricky repertoire and having the size and confidence to sing parts is beyond the reach of many of these groups. The main goal of their regular sessions is providing access to everyone to enjoy singing and nothing beyond that. When planning our event leaders didn’t know until the day how many singers were going to make it, they couldn’t get much in the way of firm commitments and while group members did happily show up from each group, it highlighted how challenging it is to even begin thinking about a performance or workshop event outside of rehearsal time for these groups.

Although a lot has changed in the past few decades in the perception of what a community choir is and does, thanks in no small part to the work of Community Music Victoria and Creativity Australia and With One Voice, assumptions and expectations still exist around performance and musical output. The idea that all music groups are performance groups is just not the case for some of the groups and programs serving our most vulnerable community members. 

In Brydie-Leigh Bartleet and Emma Heard’s recent research paper “Can Community Music Contribute To More Equitable Societies?” It’s clear that the positive outcomes of making music together are multiple and most of the studies included reported “positive outcomes for individual participants experiencing disadvantage including wellbeing and social connection, identity formation, self-acceptance and reimagined futures, and confidence and empowerment”. 

The importance of casual, local and welcoming music making opportunities are a key piece to growing participation in community music. Understanding, supporting and sustaining these types of groups into the future should be a priority for community organisations, Councils and Neighbourhood Houses and requires funding, leadership development, tailored programming, education, partnerships and advocacy. We need to ensure we aren’t trying to squeeze a round peg into a square hole so that they can continue to offer accessible music making to the community in their own way, as one group member commented at our event “we just like to sing”!  

5 ways singing helps humanity

Professor Jane Davidson, Head, Faculty Research Centre; Chair, Creativity and Wellbeing Hallmark Initiative, Faculty of Fine Arts and Music, University of Melbourne

We all know that singing is fun – just think back to the last time you belted out a rock tune on a family road trip, or sang along with friends, and strangers, at the pub or a music festival.

There’s also the spiritual experience of singing hymns at church, or an Indigenous sacred ceremony, or in perfect harmony in a mass choir.

Singing is fun, and brings people together. Photo: Getty Images

But it goes deeper than that.

Our researchers at the University of Melbourne’s Faculty of Fine Arts and Music working through the Creativity and Wellbeing Hallmark Initiative, the Creative Arts Therapies Research Unit and the Wilin Centre for Indigenous Arts and Cultural Development are seeking to understand the value of singing from cultural, emotional, social, and health perspectives, as well as developing programs to implement its benefits.

Here’s just some of what research has found over the past decade.

The brain benefits of music

1. SINGING CONNECTS US FROM BIRTH

Singing increases oxytocin levels (aiding bonding) and decreases cortisol (lowering stress). It can also rapidly result in feelings of connection and flow – improving our mood, strengthening sense of identity and helping out long and short-term memory.

For many of us, singing plays a key role from birth. In fact caregivers and infants use melody, harmony, pitch, timbre and tempo to bond and provide comfort in a mutually beneficial interaction.

Singing with a slow-paced, medium pitch inflection using a soft timbre – lullabies typically use this type of vocalisation – can gently connect with and pacify infants, while the cooing responses of the infant can equally engage and soothe the caregiver.

The mutual benefits of this bonding through song can persist throughout life.

Lullabies can pacify infants, while the cooing responses of the infant have a similar effect on the caregiver. Photo: Getty Images

2. SINGING CONNECTS US TO OUR CULTURE

Singing contributes to the development of our thinking and language and, in turn, to our cultural identity, as well as general quality of life and opportunity.

Children as young as five have been shown to already know dozens of songs, connecting them to cultural knowledge about ritual significance, social etiquette, facts about life and lifestyle, skills like counting, techniques for making and doing things, and so on.

Indigenous ceremonial performance opening up intercultural dialogue

Sometimes the only way this information is shared and understood is through song.

The core elements of songs include repetitive melody and rhythmic structures which work with the words to produce powerfully mnemonic effects that can re-enforce knowledge, support memory and capture history.

Songs connect us to our culture, and the stories within songs can help shape our identity and build meaning within society. Important First Nations work at the University has found that singing and songs not only foster community knowledge, but can revitalise it, acting to strengthen political agency, pride and resilience.

This shows how vital it is to repatriate songs lost to communities.

Core elements of songs include repetitive melody and rhythmic structures. Photo: Supplied

3. SINGING MAKES US HAPPY, EVEN IN LOCK-DOWN

During the first waves of COVID-19 across 2020, singing was both popular and successful in passing time and connecting with others. Online ‘choirs’ brought joy to millions, even though these activities were principally asynchronous and required extra effort to record and multitrack to generate the choral effect.

Womin Jeka: A choir with the desire to inspire

Our research found positive mental wellbeing impacts for participants and the popularity of Couch Choir, the lockdown version of the now globally popular Pub Choir, is testament to this.

And you don’t even have to sing to get some benefit from singing. We found that songs feature strongly in emotional regulation, even when passively engaging through listening.

4. SINGING CAN IMPROVE OUR PHYSICAL HEALTH

Our music therapy researchers have shown that singing has multiple benefits in managing degenerative conditions like Parkinson’s Disease, where volume of voice and mood improved after an intensive, researcher-designed singing program.

For people with dementia, and their carers, singing can improve lucidity, focus and enjoyment.

Singing can improve lucidity, focus and enjoyment for dementia sufferers and their carers. Photo: Getty Images

A recent landmark clinical trial by our researchers, published in the Lancet, found that recreational choir singing decreased depression and dementia symptoms, particularly among those people with more severe dementia.

The behavioural aspects like group social dynamics, an emphasis on fun and less of a focus on the individual are likely to feed into the positive outcomes for those with dementia.

5. SINGING UNITES PEOPLE

The arts and Australia’s mental wellbeing

Singing can enhance feelings of empathy and build intercultural social cohesion, vital in the complex area of intercultural relations and community resilience.

In one project, our researchers collaborated with adults in a multicultural workplace to explore how a workplace choir could strengthen culture, identity, and positive emotions. The team did this by focusing on lullabies – reconnecting participants to some of those earliest musical bonds.

The study generated strong social bonding, providing a platform for cohesion and understanding while mantaining the expression of distinctive identities that are understood and valued across cultural, linguistic and religious differences.

Singing has also helped people manage trauma, grief and loss including illness and disaster, providing emotional sharing, catharsis and resilience.

Without a doubt, singing can helps us to maximise our social and emotional potential. Photo: Supplied

Our researchers continue to collaborate with communities to develop knowledge and programs to use singing for people of all ages and backgrounds, in community and specialised medical settings to support their diverse needs throughout their lives.

All of this tells us that without a doubt, singing can help us to maximise our social and emotional potential.

So, whether it’s in the shower, the car or on stage, on your own or with a group, try bursting into song and see how you feel afterwards. The evidence suggests it’ll be good.

This article was first published on Pursuit. Read the original article.

Banner: Getty Images

Open House; Open Hearts: Travelling as community music makers

‘Playing music with people from other cultures is more than just communication, it’s an act of love’ believes Brian Strating, leader of mens’ singing group, Homebrew Verandah Music and Brunswick Old Time String Orchestra. (BOTSO)

Strat and his partner, Lyndal Chambers, have played music with community musicians in many different countries, something that’s proven a highly effective way to experience the culture of those musicians and forge firm and lasting friendships.

Brian ‘Strat’ Strating

BOTSO and Homebrew Verandah Music operate on a non-virtuosic model of inclusivity, creating a space that’s free of judgement that allows those within it the freedom to experiment with their skills. Tunes are taught aurally, improvisation is welcome and mistakes are embraced. In order for this to work effectively, listening to those around you is paramount, and knowing when to start and when to stop, is also key.

When you think about it, the same skills and values are directly transferable to our lives and how we live. They have the potential to positively impact the equilibrium of society and influence a harmonious co-existence between people from different cultures, backgrounds and beliefs based on mutual respect, acceptance and understanding. After all, knowing when to be quiet can be as important as knowing what to say.

It is these same values that Strat and members of his groups will be carrying in their hearts and their heads to the Palestine Choral Festival in August. The group have been invited to participate in the festival by The Choir of London, and will be travelling as part of The Open House Ensemble, a musical and visual arts collaboration between Homebrew Verandah Music, BOTSO and Motherworks.

The aim of the festival is ‘to bring together Palestinian and International Choirs to celebrate the world in song’ and the opportunity will provide the Open House Ensemble a chance to experience the lives and culture of the many communities in Palestine using music and visual art to introduce themselves and engage.

The trip will enable them to experience this country away from the fog of the media lens, and will be made in the spirit of peace and free of any political or religious agenda. Travelling under the banner ‘Musicians not Munitions’ the group will work to plant seeds of collaboration and further communication, using music to develop and broaden connectivity. They will then share their experience through music and visual arts in recordings, performance, exhibition and workshops, here in Melbourne and Victoria.

“This is about inclusion and a celebration of Palestinian culture. The Choir of London and the Palestinian Choral Festival are about bringing cultures together and that is how we came to be invited… it’s about participating without fear of making mistakes and without judgement.”

The invitation from the London Choir came via a young English fiddle player called Alice Howick who played with BOTSO while working as part of the MSO’s outreach program in Broadmeadows. Inspired by her work with young kids from disadvantaged backgrounds, she returned to the UK to start teacher training where she is also involved with planning the program for the London Choir’s Palestine Choral Festival.

“Alice clearly loved the model of BOTSO. She’s a classically trained violinist and was gaining inspiration from learning tunes by ear, having to learn tunes aurally and also the philosophy of not being fearful of making mistakes, of embracing the mistakes and the process of learning in an environment that is non-judgemental.”

members of the Open House Ensemble

After returning to the UK, Alice got in touch with Strat, having had ‘a crazy idea’… It had occurred to her that what was needed as part of the festival was something along the lines of BOTSO and Homebrew Verandah Music: the representation of a community music model which celebrates inclusion and participation above all else, and the creation of a safe and fearless space in which to make music.

It’s been a slow burn, and the decision to go to Palestine wasn’t one that Strat and the group rushed into making. There have been many conversations with many different people, gradually unfolding to the point where the Open House Ensemble are now preparing to pack their bags and head off to Palestine at the end of July.

“We are taking the community music model of inclusion in which to explore your music making and we’ll be doing that collaboratively with Palestinian musicians and community music groups, and it’s such an exciting prospect.”

An incredible essence of music making is how what you feel in your heart is expressed through the sounds you create. This energy is capable of transcending differences in opinions, backgrounds, cultures and language. This is not ephemeral. It seeds the potential for mutual respect and understanding between yourself and those with whom you sing or play. In this way, it should be able to take you everywhere.

Strat and the Open House Ensemble are extremely aware of the political tension and the sensitivity of the region and are keen not to alienate anyone, either by their decision to visit or while they are there. The emphasis of the trip is cross cultural connection and collaboration.

“We are taking peace, love and healing with us. It’s a philosophy we are taking to play through our music… we’ll hold this in our hearts and it’s moulding the repertoire. Carrying this intention with us, we’ll be peddling peace through community connectedness, through the celebration of culture and the sharing of culture through the act of collaborative music making.”

Article by Deb Carveth with Brian Strating

The Changing Tune of Choral Singing in Germany

This article was first published in Sing Out: the Journal of the Australian National Choral Association (Vol.32, No.2, 2015). It is reproduced here with kind permission of ANCA⁽¹⁾

Figure 1: The Nogat Singers, Berlin (Neukölln). Photo (c) The Nogat Singers, 2014.

I arrived at Rathaus Tiergarten, a local town hall of Berlin on a sunny spring afternoon in May, just in time for a celebration. Assorted stalls, abuzz with colour and activity, promoted organisations that support people with disabilities and their carers. On the town hall steps a rock band called Handiclapped was setting up shop as a carload of nervous and excited singers arrived. They were members of the Nogat-Singers (Figure 1), a neighbourhood choir from the Neukölln suburb of Berlin who were star performers for an event to promote, celebrate and advocate for the rights of people with disabilities. Their performance was a vibrant and colourful mix of popular German folk songs and Schlager (there is no equivalent to the Schlager phenomenon in the English speaking world, but think Eurovision or Germany’s answer to American country and western music!). Having joined their dress rehearsal earlier in the week, I was impressed by the choir’s energy and its commitment to fostering a sense of community.

Founded by disability support organisation Lebenshilfe Berlin, the Nogat-Singers rehearses weekly in a local supported accommodation service, and most members live with intellectual disabilities. The choir receives funding from a social inclusion project grant of the European Union for its close neighbourhood ties. This made sense to me – a choir that sings with neighbours in its little patch of Berlin while at the same time fostering social inclusion for people with disabilities. Here was a great example of community music-making in action (or musicking as Christopher Small (1998) describes) and an ideal starting point for my study of choral singing in Germany.

The Nogat Singers is just one of a vast number of choirs singing regularly across Germany. They range from church choirs, to community choirs (defined loosely as amateur or non-professional choirs that perform publically) who perform in local pubs or municipal halls, through to professional choirs employing full-time salaried singers (there are eight at last count, from smaller chamber choirs to large radio choirs). My time in Germany in 2014 as a fellow of the Australian German Association and the Goethe-Institut allowed me to visit many and to explore the rich practice of choral singing in Germany today. Inspired, I returned with ideas for our choral movement in Australia. In this article I set out just a few impressions from my trip.

Support for the Arts and amateur music making in Germany has a long history. I once heard a passing comment about the three historic features of German village life: a shooting club (Schützenverein) for community defence; a fire brigade (Feuerwehr) for community safety; and a choir (Gesangverein or Liedertafel) or brass band (Kapelle) for community wellbeing! In 1871, 38 territories and free cities united under a common German federation. Most brought with them their own opera houses, concert halls and musical ensembles that had serviced the historic royal courts. Churches too played a crucial role in preserving musical traditions; in smaller communities church musicians were often school music teachers and community choir leaders too. One contemporary example of this long-held tradition is the St Thomas Boys Choir (Thomanerchor Leipzig) – perhaps the most famous boys’ choir worldwide – that celebrated its 800^th anniversary in 2012 (Wydra, 2015).

Germany’s historical experiences with music – both negative and positive – have shaped its contemporary community singing culture. The atrocities committed by Germans during the period of National-Socialist (Nazi) government from 1933 to 1945 overshadow German attitudes toward music, singing and cultural practices. The Nazi government’s approach to music education, known as Musische Erziehung, manipulated music to suit its own agenda (Kertz-Welzel, 2008; 2013). This period defines to this day the parameters of “acceptable” music making. As Germans distanced themselves from the Nazi period after 1945, therapeutic uses of music were restricted to clinical settings rather than practiced out in the community. This was particularly the case in former West Germany and came at the expense of practices and initiatives that supported community wellbeing. Key scholars at the time supported this position. Theodor Adorno, in a series of speeches and public discussions between 1959-69, argued that after the manipulation of the Nazi period, music could not and should never be used to pursue goals of healing or social transformation (Kertz-Welzel, 2005). Adorno argued instead for the pursuit of musical excellence and individuality and against collective, community-minded music by amateur music-makers with transformative goals. Rather than teaching and enjoying singing with explicit goals such as community wellbeing in mind, music in West Germany was increasingly seen as an activity for its elite musicians, professionals, and with learning focussed on musical excellence. In the former East Germany, community singing was more widespread with its community wellbeing benefits recognised, but it frequently also served a propaganda purpose for that government. Opinions across reunified Germany in recent decades have shifted. Music education scholars are once again discussing the place of community music and the potential extra-musical benefits of music in schools, including for community wellbeing (Kertz-Welzel, 2008; 2013).

Yet the emphasis on the aesthetics of music across post-war Germany (East and West) preserved and nurtured a vital and historic cultural asset. Culture and the creative arts remain highly valued and comparatively well funded within German society and by all levels of government (McCaughey, 2005). A 2007 federal government report reinforces this view, arguing: “Culture is not simply ornamental; it is the foundation of our society and the platform upon which it grows. The role of politics is to safeguard and strengthen culture[i]” (Deutscher Bundestag). A total of EUR11.2 billion was spent in 2011 to support Germany’s cultural activities, including EUR8 billion from its federal, state and municipal governments, with the remainder from its Christian churches[ii] and private funding. Germany’s 16 States (Länder) together contributed more than one third of this total (EUR3.4 billion). The Länder retain powers in educational and cultural matters and a large say in preserving Germany’s many cultural identities.

Musical life in Germany today is “noted for its diversity, high quality and geographic density – keywords that continue as ever to define Germany‘s special reputation as a land of music” (German Music Information Centre, 2011, p. ix).

There were at last count 133 publicly funded symphony and chamber orchestras, 83 music theatres, nearly 500 regular music festivals, and thousands of amateur, semi-professional choruses, orchestras and ensembles (GMIC, 2011, ix). It is not surprising then that community music making is the largest civic movement within Germany (Reimers, 2012, p.1).

Choral singing today is an opportunity for many to partake in some of the musical delights and masterpieces of Germany’s rich choral music history. A leading scholar of German choral singing (Brusniak, 2003, p.69) suggests choral music and a vast and diverse tapestry of choirs are essential and integrated parts of its public and private musical life. There are nearly 59,100 associated choirs and choral organisations in Germany, including about 29,900 secular and 37,200 religious organisations. These choirs engage nearly 2.3 million singers regularly (Reimers, 2012, p.2). There is a large audience base for choral concerts too. A 2004 study estimated about 60 million people attend some 300,000 choral concerts annually in Germany (reported in Reimers, 2012, p.1). These formal choral activities do not include the multitude of established and ad hoc choral groups and public singing that is an increasing feature at large gatherings – the 2014 World Cup football tournament comes to mind!

I was interested to find out who spoke for choral music in Germany. At first sight, the coordination and advocacy of choral music across Germany evoked images of Franz Kafka’s writings: a confusing landscape of overlapping organisations, funding bodies and responsibilities all claiming to represent and advocate for the interests of choral music. Yet when viewed through Germany’s unique historical lens this overlap, it seems to me, provides safety in plurality (Vielfältigkeit). It avoids a single, central point of control for a mass movement and all the negative consequences this represents in many German minds.

Germany therefore sings with two voices when it comes to choral singing. Two peak bodies represent choral singing nationally: the Bundesvereinigung Deutscher Chorverbänder e.V. (BDC) and the Deutscher Chorverband e.V. (DCV). Together they include and advocate for the vast majority of German choirs. The DCV is the world’s largest choral association and represents the vast majority of Germany’s non-religious choral associations (including over 30 state-based and regional associations). DCV designs and oversees a host of innovative programs and schemes for its member choirs and leaders, supported by a paid, full-time staff. It also publishes Chorzeit, Germany’s monthly national choral music magazine with 35,000 subscribers and on sale in newsagents across the country (DCV, 2014).

The BDC counts among its members Germany’s peak catholic (katholische) and protestant (evangelische) choral organisations, those representing youth music, and its 500 concert choirs. The Federal President of Germany bestows the Zelter Plakatte to choirs that reach 100 years of age – an important initiative administered by the BDC (2014).

In 2014, Germany’s choral music culture is in transition. When I talked about my research project to non-choral music enthusiasts (or better said, yet-to-be converted choral music enthusiasts), many pictured the all-male Liedertafel choir, Germany’s dominant historical choir model. Yet this traditional picture of “choir” is rapidly changing. A 2012 New Zealand film/TV documentary about folk singing in Germany, Sound of Heimat – Deutschland Singt (http://www.soundofheimat.de/), helped to raise awareness about the diverse types of music out there. The sheer variety of musical styles and the ability of singers to seek out choirs according to their musical tastes and less limited by their location have fundamentally changed Germany’s choral community. Children’s, youth and women’s choirs are growing while the more traditional choral organisations (such as the Liedertafel) are in decline. Mixed choirs have grown in popularity and now outnumber male choirs (Arit, 2014) and there has been a boom in jazz and pop genre choirs (AlumniPortal Deutschland 2014; Tip Magazin, 2014). Singing-related talent competitions, television series and films, as popular in Germany as in Australia, have contributed to this popularity.

Figure 2: Die Rheintöchter, lesbian comedy choir, Cologne. Photo (c) Magdalena Hutter, 2013.

I took particular interest in community choirs with members who may have experienced social exclusion at some point in their lives. I observed many choirs of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Intersex and Queer (LGBTIQ) communities (Figure 2 for example), choirs for people with disabilities, church-based choirs supporting new migrants to Germany and choirs for people experiencing homelessness. I led a rehearsal of Hard Chor ELLA (Figure 3), an innovative school-based community choir based in Pankow, a suburb of the former East Berlin. I was also fortunate to observe Berlin’s two professional choirs in rehearsal (RIAS Kammerchor and Rundfunkchor Berlin) and the Rundfunkchor in performance. You can find a full list of choirs, interviews and more detailed case studies in my report.

Figure 3: Hard Chor ELLA, Berlin (Pankow). Spring Concert. Photo (c) Inés Weinmann, 2013.

Ideas for Australia’s Choral Movement
I believe Australia can enhance its choral music movement by strengthening its supporting institutions and drawing upon innovations and ideas from Germany. I offer ideas for policy-makers, committees, and musical and administrative leaders who work with community choirs particularly. My report aims to complement recent reviews of other aspects of music in Australia including state and national music education reviews. Here are just a few ideas:

• Create a vocational pathway with appropriate professional development and recognition for community choral leaders
• Establish a national community choir awards scheme, including a “long service” citation for choirs that reach a certain age (similar to Germany’s Zelter Plakatte)
• Appoint a high profile patron to promote and advance choral music within communities
• Lighten the reporting load for committees and choral music staff by negotiating an agreement with the Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA) for a single annual fee that covers all choir arrangement and performance rights across a pre-approved list of songs (similar to an agreement reached between DCV and Germany’s APRA equivalent: http://www.deutscher-chorverband.de/leistungen/gema/)
• Create an accreditation program in early childhood education (similar to Germany’s Die Carusos: die-carusos.de/) where choir leaders “teach the teachers” to ensure young children receive high quality and pedagogically sound singing experiences from an early age
• Establish a national professional choir that includes within its mandate significant outreach work to choirs and communities of all ages.

To achieve these things we would need to first properly resource our expert national organisations already doing such great work in the area – the Australian National Choral Association (ANCA) and Music Australia – along with state-based institutions such as Community Music Victoria. Let’s start this conversation and draw upon lessons and ideas from countries such as Germany to give us a head start.

Choral music in Germany, a celebrated and treasured cultural asset, is gradually changing its tune to include people of all abilities and backgrounds and in a way that improves community wellbeing and cohesion. My time there provided refreshing ideas, valuable lessons and ongoing inspiration for my practice as a choral leader and researcher in Australia. Above all, it was a reminder to celebrate both the act and the art of choral music making and the joy it brings to communities here and in Germany.

(1): My thanks to Dr Alex Crooke for his insightful comments on earlier drafts of this paper.

Article by Ben Leske

Ben Leske is a Melbourne-based choral conductor, community music facilitator, and PhD candidate in the National Music Therapy Research Unit in the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music (The University of Melbourne). Ben’s thesis explores choral singing and social inclusion for young people. From 2009-2014, Ben was Music Director of the Melbourne Gay and Lesbian Youth Chorus (now shOUT Youth Chorus).

Ben is passionate about all things German and was awarded the Australian German Association and Goethe-Institut Fellowship to explore choral singing in Germany in 2014.

You can read Ben’s full report at: http://www.aga.org.au/fellowship/past-winners/.

You can contact Ben by email: benleskemusic@gmail.com or benleskemusic.com

References cited in this article

Arit, Alexander. (2014, 1 July). Graphical statistical reference of number of choirs by type (historical) – 1951-2005. Unpublished data provided to author.

BDC (Bundesvereinigung Deutscher Chorverbände e.V.). Die Zelter-Plakette. Retrieved from http://www.chorverbaende.de/de/zelter-plakette.html

Brusniak, Friedhelm. (Ed.). (2003). Chor – Visionen in Musik. Essener Thesen zum Chorsingen im 21. Jahrhundert..Arbeitsgemeinschaft Deutscher Chorverbänder.

DCV (Deutscher Chorverband e.V.). (2014). Chorzeit: Mediadaten: Anzeigenspreizliste 3/14. Retrieved from http://www.deutscher-chorverband.de/fileadmin/media/downloads/neue_chorzeit/Chorzeit_Mediadaten.pdf

Deutscher Bundestag. (2007). Schlussbericht der Enquete-Kommission: „Kultur in Deutschland“. (16/7000), author’s translation.

German Music Information Centre (GMIC). (2011). Musical Life in Germany: Structure, Facts and Figures: German Music Council (Deutscher Musikrat).

Kertz-Welzel, Alexandra. (2005). The pied piper of Hamelin: Adorno on music education. Research studies in music education (25), 1-12.

Kertz-Welzel, Alexandra. (2008). A matter of comparative music education? Community music in Germany. International Journal of Community Music, 1(3), 401-409.

Kertz-Welzel, Alexandra. (2013). Internationalizing and localizing: Shaping community music in Germany. International Journal of Community Music, 6(3), 263-272. doi: 10.1386/ijcm.6.3.263_1

Luehrs-Kaiser, Kai. (2013, 22 February). Chor@Berlin Festival im Radialsystem. Tip Berlin. Retrieved from http://www.tip-berlin.de/kultur-und-freizeit/chor-berlin-festival-im-radialsystem

Masso, Alex. (2013). Community Choirs in Australia. Music In Communities Network (Music Council of Australia).

McCaughey, Claire. (2005). Comparisons of Arts Funding in Selected Countries: Preliminary Findings: Canada Council for the Arts.

Reimers, Astrid. (2012). Laienmusizieren: Deutsches Musikinformationszentrum.

Small, Christopher. (1998). Musicking: The meanings of performing and listening. Hanover: University Press of New England.

Wydra, Kristina (2014). ‘Wherever people sing, you can happily settle…’ – Germans are flocking to join choirs. Alumniportal Deutschland. Retrieved from http://www.alumniportal-deutschland.org/en/germany/culture/article/choirs.html

 Other useful reading

English language

• Higgins, Lee. (2012). Community Music: In Theory and In Practice: Oxford University Press.
• German Music Information Centre. (2011). Musical Life in Germany: Structure, Facts and Figures: German Music Council (Deutscher Musikrat). Retrieved from http://www.miz.org/musicl-life-in-germany/

• Bartleet, Bridie-Lee, Dunbar-Hall, P., Letts, R., & Schippers, H. (2009). Sound links: Community music in Australia. Brisbane: Griffith University.

German language

• Reimers, Astrid. (2012). Laienmusizieren: Deutsches Musikinformationszentrum: http://www.miz.org/static_de/themenportale/einfuehrungstexte_pdf/06_Laienmusizieren/reimers.pdf
• Brusniak, Friedhelm. (Ed.). (2003). Chor – Visionen in Musik. Essener Thesen zum Chorsingen im 21. Jahrhundert. Arbeitsgemeinschaft Deutscher Chorverbänder.
• Chorzeit, the monthly Choral Magazine of the Deutscher Chorverband: http://www.chorzeit.de/
• Magazines of Germany’s many regional choir organisations: http://www.deutscher-chorverband.de/chorzeit/zeitschriften-der-landesverbaende/

 [i] Original German text: Kultur ist kein Ornament. Sie ist das Fundament, auf dem unsere Gesellschaft steht und auf das sie baut. Es ist Aufgabe der Politik, dieses zu sichern und zu stärken

[ii] An important note that Germans pay an extra income tax to the church according to the denomination into which they were baptised. The Federal Government collects these taxes to fund church activities.

Our Community Sounds: An exciting new improv project

Do you love the freedom and innovation of improvised music making? Our Community Sounds is an exciting and experimental project exploring ‘collective improvisation, the nature of community, and of how these might intersect’.  

The sessions are free and open to anyone, irrespective of their musical experience or ability, and there will be no leaders.

Organisers Paddy Gordon and Conor O’Hanlon are keen to emphasise that they are as much a part of the experiment as the other participants.

As long standing friends and musical collaborators, Paddy and Conor have taken different routes, to this point, which is interesting in itself and makes for a strong partnership. While Conor is a self taught musician who has improvised with folk and street musicians from around the world, Paddy had a more traditional grounding, having played the piano from a young age. Both are keen to experiment with boundaries, and each has a love for the connection and community forged through making music with others.

Organiser Paddy Gordon shares the jam at CMVic’s 2015 Treetops Music Camp

The vision for Our Community Sounds grew from a combination of shared ideas explored in other community music contexts and settings, such as CMVic’s StreetSounds project, and The Welcome Group’s Share the Music jams.

Returning to Uni to study Community Arts Practice got Paddy thinking about the constitution of Community and how we are each a member of several different communities. Which led to the question ‘what happens when people come together and willingly form a community that might only have structure in an improvisational setting, and what would this sound like?’

Our Community Sounds shaped up as an extension of this question; a social experiment exploring fluidity and connection. A place for people to unite and create a mix of soundscapes as unique and individual as they are, irrespective of their backgrounds or ability, and to experience a shared transience.

Improvisation informs music across all cultures, and unlike other musical elements knows no cultural boundaries. Available to all, we use it to open spaces of expression for people of diverse abilities and needs and from diverse backgrounds. In the resulting collective, we find unity whilst celebrating our diversity.”

There are no barriers to participation: “the only prerequisite is a commitment to experimentation, curiosity and open-mindedness”. So how do Paddy and Gordon intend to do this?

We guide each group through various exercises that open ears, bodies and minds, moving gradually into collective improvisation. In these experimental community events, we are all equal stakeholders. This approach also functions as a model for engaged and empowered communities.

What makes this project so exciting is that by its very nature, improvisation is totally inclusive. There are no rules, it’s impossible to make mistakes or to feel foolish, you can’t hit a bum note and anything goes. The sound, the environment, is fluid and it is transient. In this completely safe space, anything can happen. Barriers dissolve, words become secondary tools of communication and deep connections are established.

By transcending the constructs and confines of the communities from which we come and immersing ourselves in the moment, as we listen and play we are united through the process of creating something new and positive together.  This can profoundly influence our thinking and our practice beyond the musical realm. too. As Paddy says,

“In a group improv, there’s a real sense of profundity for everyone involved. You’re all sharing in the creation of something together and from that comes a realisation, an awareness that as the group, you’re creating something even bigger and that you’re all a part of that bigger thing that’s happening… “.

In this moment hierarchies are dismantled, and every participant is empowered as a leader. Inclusivity means that we are all equally responsible for the collective – improvisation enables exactly this.

It’s an experience which life doesn’t offer us the opportunity to indulge in everyday, and because of this, it has the capacity to be liberating, mentally stimulating and soothing in equal parts, and Paddy and Conor are optimistic that improvising in a group will challenge its participants in positive ways, such as wanting to play new instruments, and to explore and extend artistic practice and methods of expression and sociological connection.

As facilitators, we ground our process in deep listening – silence also knows no hierarchies, and really listening to each other is one of the most fundamental ways that we can understand and connect. Improvisation may not save the world, but it teaches us profound lessons about the many different ways there are of being in it..

Paddy is hopeful that people will feel empowered, full of agency, of communion, community and connectedness by their participation in Our Community Sounds. The uniqueness that each person brings to a group and how new concepts and ways of thinking might emerge following three months of shared improvisation, is exciting, and the sounds made by the group will reflect this.

Beginning at noon on February 13, the project will run over several sessions until late May, at Testing Grounds on the banks of the Yarra in Melbourne.

Paddy and Conor are grateful to Testing Grounds for giving them the physical space needed to carry out the project, and to Museum Victoria for the opportunity to incorporate the beautiful sound of the Federation Bells in Birrarung Marr.

Session dates for Our Community Sounds: Feb 13, March 20, April 17, April 30 and May 14. Starting at noon.

For more information, or if you’d like to be involved, please contact Paddy at ourcommunitysounds@gmail.com or call 0437 371 034

Article by Deb Carveth, Online Editor for Community Music Victoria, with Paddy Gordon

 

Old year, New books! CMVic launches Sing it & A Guide to Community Singing Leadership

Endings. They’re the new beginnings, folks. And while December can feel like the calendar equivalent of a French waiters’ trick where everything’s whipped off the table before you were sure that you’d finished, it can also be the perfect time to combine contemplation and celebration with the launch of something new. An opportunity to look beyond the craziness of the silly season, and turn your focus to the calm, blank canvas of the future and all the potential it holds.

That’s the way we’re choosing to roll, here at Community Music Victoria.

Like buses, there hasn’t been a new CMVic publication for aaaages, and over the past week, two have come along at once.

Whether you’re a Singing Leader or somebody who simply loves to sing, the new song book from Community Music Victoria, Sing it – Songs of Wisdom Hope and Laughter, together with ‘A Guide to Community Singing Leadership’ hold within their respective covers enough new material, advice and guidance to ensure 2016 is both an inspired and inspiring year, packed with new tunes and songs to discover, and fresh methodologies to adopt and incorporate into your leadership practise.

Both of the books were sung into being at a CMVic celebration held last weekend. Beneath the bunting in Ross House, the fairy lights were unravelled, paper plates piled perilously high were passed around, and CMVic members, coordinators and volunteers gathered together to celebrate the double launch.

Each of the books has a place close to everyone’s hearts and has been in the pipeline for a number of years, so it was just incredible and also a relief to see them both fresh back from the publishers and dressed to party in their shiny dust jackets, finally sharing a table and their moment in the spotlight.

The final selection of 45 songs in Sing it was edited and arranged by Jane Thompson and James Rigby with Fay White sorting out the vital scaffolding of contracts and copyright, while a large amount of work was undertaken to get the project underway in the initial phase, by Corinna Peachey.

Written in the main by community singing leaders for community singing groups, the gorgeous variety and quality of the songs will no doubt put wind in the sails of many singing groups in Victoria, across Australia and beyond, with the songs breezing through the wattles and into the wide world over the course of 2016 and for many years to come.

Suzanne Petersen’s song, ‘Walk away from your trouble’ has more words than those published in the book. To enjoy the song in its full extent, download the lyrics here.

A Guide to Community Singing Leadership was written and compiled by Michelle Morgan as a personal project and also as a means of raising funds for Community Music Victoria.  Michelle is an experienced singing leader and, for several years, was a member on the board of Community Music Victoria. Here she talks a little bit about what moved her to pick up her pen and break out the ink:

“A few years ago (yes, things move slowly!) I was working through Julia Cameron’s ‘The Vein of Gold – A Journey into Your Creative Heart’.

I’d been feeling inspired to write, and knew I wanted to write something, but didn’t know what.

At that stage, I’d been running choirs as my full time business for a few years. I wasn’t an expert by any means, but I had a good grounding in the practice that had been guided and supported by Community Music Victoria. I wrote wildly for a few days straight, forming the structure of the book and a lot of the content. I knew the book could not be mine alone and wanted it to reflect the myriad of voices and collective wisdom of our singing leader community.

I read every edition of Shout! and Sing It! that I had access to, and requested permission to re-publish many of the articles that fit within the scope of the chapters. People were generously willing to share their work in this format and so it began to come together.  Over the years, there were chunks of time where I got caught up in life and totally dropped the project. There were also times where my own doubt stopped me from taking the next step… making that phone call, re-reading that draft. But somehow it continued, and somehow we’ve now reached the point of publishing and release!

A Guide to Community Singing Leadership has truly become a collaborative creation, in the spirit of all CMVic activities. I’m so grateful to the precious people who have become part of the team; the initial readers, the cheer squad, the editors, the board members in the communications group, the designers and others who’ve assisted.”

With a foreword written by Fay White, Michelle’s book also tells the story and the history of the Vic Sings movement and how it unfolded and manifested as the strong network it is today. In the words of Jane Coker who coordinated the Victoria Sings program for CMVic:

“I’ve been lucky enough to preview this lovely book. As well as being a really intelligent and practical guide to leading sustainable, accessible group singing, it’s also a social history in that it tells the story of the Victoria Sings network and leadership development program from it’s earliest days. Fabulous reading.”

You can buy either (or both!) A Guide to Community Singing Leadership and Sing it – Songs of Wisdom, Hope and Harmony, from the store section of the CMVic website. Please be aware that orders placed after December 16 may take a little while to reach you as CMVic HQ is shutting down for the holidays, but reach you, they will.

And finally, with endings and fresh starts still very much in mind, huge amounts of gratitude and our very best wishes go to three very special people. To Jane Coker who is changing hats after doing an outstanding job as CMVic’s Victoria Sings coordinator for the past fourteen years; to Aaron Silver who is moving out of Melbourne and swapping his role of Engaging Younger People for Teaching younger people; and to Heather McLaughlin, long time CMVic board member, community music champion and marimba queen, who is moving interstate. Our love to you all!

This is the final blog post for 2015. Thank you, lovely people, for reading and commenting on the the past twelve months’ posts and please continue to share your stories and experiences of music making in your communities with us next year, you know we love to hear them.

Wishing you all much music making and merriment as well as good health and happiness for 2016. See you on the other side!

Deb Carveth, Online editor for Community Music Victoria.

 

Going the distance: Taking music on the road to schools in remote regions.

The benefits of music in childhood are multiple, impacting and well documented. Yet in spite of proven positive connections between music and early learning, and music and emotional development, mainstream education too often seems to view it as a peripheral extra, a luxury that can easily be dispensed of, and budget cuts in schools seem to hit music departments especially hard.

So it’s particularly great to read heart warming stories such as the one about Dennis Winbanks, from North Western Victoria, who travels over 550 kilometres each week to deliver music and music making opportunities to remote and geographically isolated students at schools in regional and rural Victoria.

The story, ‘Travelling music teacher going the distance for regional students’ by Sophie Malcolm,  was featured on the ABC news website on Wednesday, and is a celebration of Dennis’s recognition of the value and importance of music and his desire to ensure kids living in these remote areas are exposed to the same kind of opportunities enjoyed by their peers living in the state’s larger towns.

Dennis teaches about 350 students in four different schools, arriving in a ute and towing a trailer full of instruments. It’s no wonder there’s a strong attendance on the days Dennis rolls up, with his musical cargo in tow.

As if its contents and the accompanying diversion from the usual school timetable weren’t magical enough, what Dennis delivers has the potential to transcend all that.

He brings not only the opportunity for these children to experience music in a way they may not get anywhere else in their lives, but the subsequent potential for personal enrichment and the development of new pathways: neurological, emotional, educational and creative. Go Dennis! Go music teachers, music group leaders and facilitators, everywhere!

Read the full article from the ABC, here.

Deb Carveth. Online editor for Community Music Victoria.

A place to belong

By Liz Hussey

Moving to Malaysia to live was an adventure for me. A chance to step out of the comfort zone and explore new ideas. Dust off the cobwebs.

Little did we know that this was the beginning of a ten year incredible journey living overseas. First, to Malaysia for four years, then India for two, and then Holland for another four. I could write a book. About so many life changing events that have passed and become a chapter of my story.

But with all the positives of becoming an expat, I felt a new sense of loneliness and a new thirst to connect to community. An experience that has connected me to millions of people who also feel lonely, isolated or excluded for so many reasons.

Little did I realize that my passion for singing and music would provide the solution to my isolation and opened the cultural door far wider than I ever imagined.

Singing led me to find a place where I belonged. It’s easy to see the possibilities that singing and music holds for creating an inclusive culture for others who suffer this epidemic of society.

I was pregnant with our first child and enthusiastic to dive into our new cultural experience. I was restricted from working due to visa requirements. Although this put my midwifery career on hold I figured that our Malaysian experience would far outweigh the temporary sacrifice. And besides, the thought of living as an expat sounded quite glamorous and exciting.

What I learnt abruptly was that aside from all of the amazing life journey experiences, living in another country can be very challenging. What I hadn’t considered was the loneliness of starting from scratch socially. I was no longer working and was away from the support safety net of friends and family before the luxury of internet communication.

My sounds of everyday busy social connection were replaced with the echoing hum of quietness. Aside from the loneliness and isolation, there are the language, social and cultural challenges of adapting to a new life. Where do I buy a ladder? What is the name of plain flour in Dutch? How do I find a plumber? Where is the local GP? All the things that you take for granted in your own environment. But of all the challenges in living overseas, isolation was the greatest poverty for me.

I was powered into action by listening to my intuitive need to make strong local community connections within the Malaysian culture. I really wanted to experience and be part of Malaysia without the expat goggles. And the best solution: Join a local choir. So I set out and found a local choir by asking around. I had to audition, which was a little daunting but after surviving that process, found a place where I felt included. I had a ball.

There were about 45 people and we sang anything from musicals to classical. I felt connected through our harmony. Although I gradually got to know people in the choir better over time, I felt that sense of belonging from the first night.

The nagging sense of loneliness stopped tapping me on the shoulder and I decided then and there that I would always belong to a singing group of some description wherever in the world I was.

A song always helps us belong. Singing and music was, and always will continue to be, a great way to meet people and help to develop a deeper connection between us all. Sayonara isolation and loneliness.

Tuning In: an alternative approach to music leadership

Leading a music group can bring challenges as well as rewards, but how do you anticipate those pitfalls, read the signs and assess the harmony when you can’t see?

Phil Chalker is a musician and music leader from Gippsland who co-runs ukulele and song writing workshops, encourages people to find their voice and organises Big Sing sessions too. When he was five years old, Phil was diagnosed with Retinitis Pigmentosa, an inherited degenerative eye disease that causes vision impairment and, in severe cases like Phil’s, blindness.

Phil feels his personal experience and frustration of a mainstream education system which was ill equipped to deal with his needs has made him more mindful of the importance of being inclusive and remaining aware of group dynamics. It has influenced his preferred style of teaching and underpinned his desire to ensure that everyone feels at ease, within a group context, too.

Mentoring by fellow Gippsland musician, teacher and CMVic stalwart, Jane Coker, has assisted Phil in developing the skills necessary to facilitate and lead a group. Jane succeeded where various schools had previously failed, in successfully recognizing what Phil needs to learn and develop in a way that suits him. “Jane understands and inspires me…she makes me feel relaxed. She’ll say, ‘don’t tell me you can’t do it because I know you can do it.’ ”

A couple of years ago, Jane and Phil established The Uklaimers, a ukulele group for beginners and players of all abilities in Morwell. Co-running the group with Jane allowed Phil to observe her teaching methods whilst developing his own style in a supportive environment as he took the first steps in his goal towards autonomous leadership of a community music group.

In addition to the usual challenges faced by group facilitators, Phil has to consider how to tackle his inability to respond to visual prompts, relying instead on his aural ability to detect issues such as fingers in the wrong place or the wrong chord being strummed. 

Tuning up the instruments for beginner students is also tricky, but Phil gets around this problem by using a talking tuner.

Establishing good communication is vital to everybody in getting the most out of a workshop session and Phil gets a huge amount from feeling that he is enabling people to try new things and share the experience of learning with him.

“I use oral cues such as ‘I do understand/ I don’t understand’. I make people turn the paper over and not look at it so that they learn the blind way. You can’t rely on reading the dots cos you can’t see them”.  

In addition to his music making, Phil is a tireless campaigner seeking to challenge the status quo about rights and access to the kind of things able-bodied people take for granted in life. Phil recently tried to organize a Big Sing for visually impaired and blind people, but had to cancel due to a disappointing lack of interest.

“Blind people are isolated. I’m trying to run workshops and uke workshops that include them but am not getting any responses.”

But instead of feeling defeated, Phil is more interested in finding out the reasons behind this. And he would like the seeing music making community to be mindful of the fact that blind people – including himself – are reluctant to attend events for fear of being a burden. ”You need to understand a blind person’s needs and the barriers faced by the blind community like transport to and from an event, for example.”

Phil is a regular on the Traralgon busking circuit, frequently playing his ukulele around the town. As a child he would listen to Elvis and his bedroom walls were covered in posters of the King but it wasn’t until his late teens that he was interested in playing. Picking up a 12 string guitar whilst on work experience in a music store, Phil found he enjoyed singing along with the instrument and finding his own harmonies.

With his personal musical seam well and truly tapped, Phil took his guitar to a Club Wild session run by Phil Heuzenroeder. He announced that he was “a muso just starting out” and found himself playing on stage that same night. This not only made him “so happy”, it encouraged him to believe in his ability.

One thing Phil used to worry about was doubting that people’s positive response to his playing was genuine appreciation of what they were hearing and not because they felt sorry for him: “Having a disability makes you question whether people are clapping through kindness or clapping cos you’re good… are they clapping for me or clapping for Roddy?” (Phil’s dog).

Phil’s story is a testimony to the importance and value of mentorship, skill sharing and support. Jane Coker and Phil Heuzenroeder were key people in his journey who met him head on and encouraged him to pursue his passion to teach and make music. In turn, Phil is himself a keen advocate of the work done by CanDo Musos, who support musicians with challenges, all over the world. He also runs Gippsland Disability Social Group.

So, if you or anyone you know is feeling dejected about overcoming a challenge, point them in the direction of Phil’s website. The strength of his spirit and determination to make the world sit up and take notice of him as a visually impaired music teacher, working to enable other people, is abundantly clear. And there’s information about how to take part in the Big Sing sessions he is planning to run over the course of the coming year, too.

Deb Carveth with Philip Chalker. February 2015

Photos courtesy of Philip Chalker and LV Express (Tom Morris)

 

 

 

End of year wrap

Depending how you look at life, Community Music Victoria is winding down/gearing up for the holidays. The serviettes and paper plates have been counted out, the glasses are on ice and the end of year party happens this weekend. And what a year it has been!

Now if you’re waiting for us to share some great turkey cooking tips or table setting layout ideas, you’re going to be sorely disappointed. Neither can we advise you on how to gift-wrap like a pro. This time of year has a tendency to get a little crazy, as we all know.

It’s easy to over indulge and what starts out as fun can impact negatively on our mental and physical health and well-being, so we instead we’re focusing on ways to avoid seasonal burn out using, you guessed it, a spot of community music making.

Instead of knocking yourself out shopping and cooking, how about pausing to draw breath?

Try a spot of mindfulness and reflect on all the positives that have presented over the past year. Invite a group of relatives, friends or neighbours over to sing some songs and make some music together. Add food into the equation and both your body and soul will be nurtured. December 21^st is the summer solstice when the sun reaches its highest point in its journey across the Australian sky and is the perfect time to sing and play late into the lightest night.

The effects of music making will have a calming effect as you release endorphins and feel genuinely connected with those around you as your heartbeats align through the act of singing together. And that’s not all! Your immunity will be boosted too. A study at the University of Frankfurt in 2004 found that the concentration of a protein called Immunoglobin A was found to significantly increase in singers during a 60 minute rehearsal of Mozart’s Requiem. This stuff is an antibody that works to fight off the multiplication of microbes in the body.

Levels of hydrocortisone, an anti stress hormone, was also found to have increased in the singers during the course of the same study. Sounds like the perfect come down to a day spent schlepping around the shops in search of a pink-python printed collar for the cat’s stocking. And it won’t leave you with a headache.

Are you convinced yet? Well here’s another thought: It’s pretty tricky to eat whilst making music, so while we recommend blending the two activities, the more you sing and play the less chance you’ll have to scoff those party pies and nobody really wants sausage roll crumbs and dropped cake adorning their instrument. However please note, we can’t be held accountable for what you drink to keep your reed moist or your whistle wetted; you’re on your own there kiddoes. Let us know how you go…

Before we release you back into the wilds of December, if you’re reading this, then you’re one of the many people who have signed up to our new blog and we thank each and every one of you for joining us on this journey and for the comments and feedback over the past few months.

It feels great to engage with you all. Dina Theodoropoulos was key in getting this blog up and running and at the end of the year she moves on from her current post as Communications Coordinator for Community Music Victoria. We owe her masses for the fantastic work she has done in presenting our outward face to the world so darned well.

Finally, don’t forget, we welcome material about your experiences as community music makers and activists and would love to hear about your own musical traditions for marking this time of year. Wishing you all peace and joy for the holidays and good things for 2015.

Deb Carveth
Online Editor for Community Music Victoria