Singing

[miss_soap]

So, I want to sing. I love singing, I am (kind of) OK at it so long as it's in the mezzo-soprano range and I want to do more. But I can't read music and I'm not good enough to be in an audition choir. What I could really do with is some kind of amateur singing group which actually learns and practices stuffs

Comments

[misspotsitt]

I'll ask rakatje as she's an opera singer based in Walthemstow (she doesn't lessons too if you're interested?).

[jonnytuna]

At Glastonbury I noticed that Ray Davies (the Kinks) had the Crouch End Festival Chorus doing his backing.
They'd probably be a pretty good group to sign up to if they get gigs like that.
For an amateur group they sounded very good.

[button_quail]

Several of our volunteers are part of choral groups (that should be pretty good) based around the Hampstead/Highgate/Crouch End/Muswell Hill area. I shall investigate.

[thepaintedone]

My father has been a choir singer for years, he once sang in the LSO choir in London and is now in two Italian choirs. So I pinged your query at him and he responded thus.
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Many local choirs are (or at least were) organised as evening classes in cooperation with local authorities, so also getting some financial support. These can be a good place to start especially since, as evening classes, they cannot audition people for entry etc. It is also a good way to find out if you actually enjoy the experience in practice. My own experience has been with classical choral music, as you know, but I think it is also possible to find groups who tackle different styles of music (jazz, barber-shop etc). Some ability to read music obviously helps, but should not be really essential at the beginning and will probably be acquired over time if she carries on.

London boroughs usually publish brochures of evening classes, so this would be a good place to start.
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