1 minute read
HAPPINESS
Rick Evans
I
Ilove to sing! For me, singing started early in life with my mother playing the piano and with me bellowing beside her in my boy-soprano voice.
Today the one song that brings back vivid memories of those beside-the-piano days is a hymn entitled Whispering Hope.
While I sang solo pieces in the Vancouver Island Music Festivals, I found I enjoyed choral work with its soaring, blended harmonies. My first introduction to a choir was in Grade 4 by my teacher who is alive and well and living in Nanaimo and whose son sits beside me in the bass section of our community choir.
Since choirs were what appealed to me, I joined my junior high school choir only to be told by a girl that I sang like a girl. My voice hadn’t changed yet. That finished my choir days for quite a while but not my enjoyment of singing.
Love to Sing!
What followed was the ‘60s with its gentle days, with folk songs around the bonfires, hootenannies, coffee-house scenes, and many hours honing my guitar skills. Who could resist picking up a guitar when all you needed to know were 4 major and 2 minor chords to be able to play most of the folk songs of the day.
Ultimately, singing songs around the bonfire gave way to singing songs to my children as they grew. Happily, that translated into three children who carried on the Evans’ tradition of singing to their children. It has become a continuous cycle.
©iStockphoto.com/Katerina_Andronchik
Choral singing came back into my life in 1990 when I joined our community choir.
The Malaspina Choir has been in existence for many years and over the years has featured all genres of music from classic through gospel to traditional and modern folk.
For me, choral singing provides a wonderful balance in an otherwise busy life. As an energy booster, singing is second to none.
For those of you who firmly believe you cannot sing, perhaps subscribe to these wonderful words, “Sing like there’s nobody listening”! s Rick Evans is a BC Notary who practises in Nanaimo. rhwe@shaw.ca
