Well, that is what it almost felt like last night.  Although we were protected from the elements during rehearsal, we certainly had to battle them to get there and to get home again – Carlos especially with his two-hour journey to Wollongong.  It was indeed one of those evenings when one could be forgiven for wrapping oneself up in a blanket on the sofa and watching one’s favourite TV show rather than going out for the evening, even to Choir practice.

But I would not mind betting that everyone who went to rehearsal last night, despite the weather, felt better afterwards than beforehand.  It has been another week of reports, both formal and informal, of the health benefits of singing in a choir.  In the April edition of Limelight, Guy Noble talks about the importance of including as many pupils as possible in school choirs.  By extension, I think he means community choirs such as MWC as well.  And as he says, “The joy of a choir is that sense of being part of something bigger than yourself.”  It is why many of us prefer choral singing to performing solo.

Then Gina Cottee passed on a copy of an article from the NSW Doctor Magazine, by a doctor who is a member of the Sydney Male Voice Choir.  He cites research from Gothenburg, London, Harvard and Yale universities, proving that choral singing is good for the heart, for the immune system, for upper body and facial muscle tone and even increases life expectancy.  It also reduces feelings of depression, calms and soothes like Yoga, improves memory and concentration, broadens the imagination, and enables a greater appreciation of the world around us.

But then, we understand all this already, don’t we?

However, we all know people who do not sing: for some of us, it might be our nearest and dearest.  Should we worry about their missing out on all the benefits we derive from MWC?  Well, other reports emphasize similar benefits of other activities.  Team sports feature highly.  I have never played any, but I can imagine the combination of physical and mental effort combined with teamwork giving similar benefits to singing.

Gardening is also supposed to be good for you.  Gardening?   Spending all your time getting rid of the plants you do not want in your yard so there is barely time or energy left to think of what you do want to grow there?  Carefully placing and nurturing the plants you do want, only for the flowers and fruit, or possibly even the plant itself, to be destroyed by the local possums, bandicoots and cockatoos?  How can the most frustrating activity ever devised by man possibly yield any benefits? 

But then I suppose that’s what some people might think about singing.  And I may have quite the wrong idea about gardening.  Anyway, I will leave gardening to others, and just stick to what I know works, which is indeed singing.