2026, Gatherings, Music, Uncategorized

Singing In Harmony

23 Comments

I grew up in the Lutheran church we attend now. I sang in the church choir from Grades 9-12. It was a vibrant musical community. The organist, Mrs Olson, played every Sunday for decades.

We were very active in choir and bells at our ND church, and performed almost every week. It was a shock to find that our new church choir only sings for major holidays like Easter and Christmas. They have bells, but no bell choir. There is a very good guitar/piano/ vocal group that plays every Sunday, and an occasional organist. While they play fairly traditional hymns, they also play a lot of contemporary Christian music, which I don’t care to hear. It is so lacking in substance.

The big problem for the our church music now is that the long-term choir and bell director recently died. She was in her 90’s. There isn’t anyone to take her place. The old organist is still alive, but she is almost 100.

We started choir rehearsals for Easter last week. I hadn’t sung in a choir since we moved. It was such a relief to be able to sing. I didn’t realize how much I missed it, and how important it is for me to perform with others. We will play bells in September at the 75th anniversary celebration of our church’s founding. They have commisdionwd a piece from a composer at St. Olaf. I hope that can morph into more regular ringing.

What activities are essential for your quality of life and well being? What musical groups have you participated in?

23 thoughts on “Singing In Harmony”

  1. Like many old guys, I need community, and “pushing back against the loneliness” is a vital part of my life. I retired in 2018 and, once I had finished the “puttering around the property” that came with having purchased a 95 year old house” was done, I began seeking meaningful activities and community.

    First, I volunteered to staff the local tool library (a neighborhood based collection of cast-off and donated tools). That gave meaning, but little community. I joined the bell-choir at church. I got active in a weekly breakfast of about 15 guys my age, taking a turn on the cooking roster. Then Covid came.

    On my own, I organized the breakfast into a weekly zoom meeting, sure it would fail. It continued. When the spring came, we moved the thing outside and brown-bagged it, waiting to get back into the building. We’re back.

    COVID ended, I asked for a room at the church and issued an open invitation to what I had dubbed, “Gentlemen of a Certain Age”. Yes, we have a book, but that’s almost irrelevant. We laugh together and learn about each other. Now we’re about 16 guys, and I think we have met our pall-bearers, for when that becomes necessary.

    If you have lost your church’s organist, but need to hit ’em with A Mighty Fortress next October, look at smallchurchmusic.com and you can the accompaniment in different keys and volumes to suit anyone’s style and abilities. That’s where I get the accompaniment I use at Aboksu.wordpress.com The “churchiness” of it might not suit you, but if you’re tired of the vapid “piano and guitar” accompaniment that is offered to all too many of us lately.

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  2. I’ve always sung, but lost my voice to scratchiness just prior to COVID. My usual ride to church is a choir member, so I go early with her and hear them rehearse.

    My church is not large, but takes its music very seriously, even hiring a small group of singers to anchor the choir.

    We also have a number of instrumentalists among us, which is pretty special.

    I feel very lucky to live in the”Lutheran holy land”, yet also found such a progressive congregation. Would not have imagined such a thing growing up in Western Iowa.
    .

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  3. I need to have regular music groups too. Playing with a group became more challenging after the band I played in stopped playing in about 2008. I jammed with friends quite often, but I missed the structure of playing in a group and working on a piece until we got it right.

    I still don’t have exactly that kind of group, but I am enjoying playing music with the FiftyNorth Eclectic Strummers and Singers. We play mostly folk and 50s-60s-70s era stuff, and of course, John Prine. We don’t perfect things though, and sometimes it makes me ornery, especially if we are going to play for an audience.

    I am losing my voice. It breaks my heart. I used to sing a lot – every day, and I was happy to sing lead or harmonize. Singing always made me feel good, no matter what. I used to sing through good and bad times. It made me feel all right. These days, I’m lucky to make it through one song. I have good and bad voice days – last Wednesday wasn’t a good one. I had asthma before we had even played for an hour. Getting old sucks. It is something I won’t be able to replace.

    All of that said, I’m going to the MBOTMA Winter Weekend jam tonight through Sunday. I will bring my mandolin and join in where I can. There are many seriously good musicians there, and many familiar faces. It’s kind of a who’s who in the Minnesota folk, bluegrass, and old-time music world. I’ll be soaking in as much good music as I can get!

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  4. Rise and Shine, Baboons,

    I sang in church choirs from time to time, but my voice was very low and did not have good quality. I also did not have a good ear. (What little voice Ihad was ruined by chronic sinus infections). I enjoyed participating in instrumental music much more than vocal. Recently, we attended a Luther College choral concert featuring Luther’s top vocal choir on tour. What a pleasure that was. Everything about that concert was what I wanted to hear: good voices, in tune, excellent selection of numbers, and creative presentation of the pieces. It was a wonderful evening.

    Many churches seem to be dropping the organ as part of service music. I really miss that part of church music, and I wish that would come back. There seems to be a fad of guitar, accordian, etc instruments that are ok sometimes, but not as the main feature.

    When TMJ ended my clarinet career 25 years ago, I took up artistic pursuits. That seems to meet the need.

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  5. I’ve been in choirs and choruses my whole life, like others above. I do find singing essential, and since our UU choir sings only sporadically at this point, I’m glad to have our weekly pro-democracy rallies to sing some of the resistance songs.

    I too am losing my voice – it’s scratchy and unreliable at times. I’m just going ahead and singing imperfectly – it’s too important for my well being. In a group it isn’t noticeable, since I still sing on key, at least.

    Renee – would you be able to lead the bell choir?

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      1. Who says you have to have formal conducting training? I’d be willing to bet you can do it. Why not give it a try? Just for fun to see how it goes? What’s the worst that can happen?

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      2. I said that too when they needed an interim UU choir director a few years ago here – I wasn’t perfect, but was “good enough” until they found someone. : ) I knew more than I thought, and found lots of help online…

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  6. Gotta have music, books, nature, and exercise (especially golf) in my life. Being a loner, I don’t crave personal relationships as much as most do. I socialize enough with golf buddies, writers at meetings, and customers at in-person events where I’m selling books. Works for me, although I acknowledge my lack of deep relationships might cost me a few years of life. But so might drinking wine and enjoying pastries regularly. Quality of life is more important than quantity of life. I’m trying to find the balance that works for me.

    Chris in Owatonna

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  7. I don’t have any experience with, or interest in church music or choirs in general. I like to sing, can sing on key and have a good ear but, as other Baboons have indicated, my voice is not as strong as it once was. I have a pretty extensive repertoire of folk, classic country, blues and jazz standards with which I am familiar. I used to be able to yodel but if you don’t keep that up, you lose it.

    We used to participate in a song circle once a month and even hosted it for a time, where each singer would make a selection from “Rise Up Singing” and we would sing together. For me, it got to be so predictable and, in a sense, ritualized that I couldn’t bear it anymore.

    I don’t really crave community but I don’t avoid it, either. I have one club dedicated generally to books and book arts that meets monthly and features presentations and I volunteer at a soup kitchen but the contacts I would say are essential to my well being are those daily with Robin and weekly with my daughters and grandchildren, all of whom live nearby.

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  8. im not a big church music guy. i went to the hippy catholic church my mom and sister go but i prefer other sunday morning activities.
    i love people and will plug into them somehow now that my last job went away. i hang with grandkids but thats not socializing at age 3 and 5 its herding cats
    i have a music gathering wednesdays and cards 1st thursday but guys are aging out. retiring to fla for winter another travels with new sugar mama. one has enough mini strokes hes needing to deal with failing brain and body connections that leaves 3 more regulars and i need 3 to play so 1 guy kills it. i need to recruit
    i have projects that will provide exposure to folks and ill figure out how to make it all work.

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  9. Because we moved around so much when I was a kid, we rarely attended any particular church long enough to make connections. We were “convenient protestants”; we attended the protestant church most convenient to wherever we were living. I was in the choir very shortly when we were going to the Presbyterian church. Around 3rd grade I think?

    I was in the choir at First UU for a couple of years but left because I wasn’t happy with the choir director. I thought he was kind of mean. And I left the church shortly after that. Long story.

    Connections and friends are important to me – being retired is fun because I have more time for this. Also more time in my studio. 100 cards for charity so far this year!! I’m keeping the double-sided tape people in business.

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  10. love your cards
    thanks for getting well and birthday cards. always a joy and amazement as for mean religious leaders. i have a friend down in atlanta who used to say that he had been screwed over by religious finger pointers so many times that religion sounded an alarm rather than creating a positive note. he has since turned religious but i dont hold it against him.

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  12. I sang in Cherub, Junior, and Senior choirs in my hometown church. The Junior choir didn’t have many kids who could read music. Because I could, I ended up singing the alto part. Through college and for the next couple decades I didn’t sing in a formal group but did accompany various groups/soloists and played for about a dozen weddings. I got back into choir in the early 2000s. My church choir is a special events choir, which suits me well. I have also had the opportunity to sing with a community based choir which toured London and Paris in 2010. We sang at Notre Dame and Westminster Abbey – a memorable experience. This year I intend to sing in the Summer Chorus, a non auditioned group sponsored by the Oratorio Society. They are going to tour and perform in South Korea after their concert here in the Cities at the end of July.

    Essential for my quality of life: Music, books, kayaking, massage, close friends and family, and traveling.

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  13. I’m now one of the singing leaders at our Save Our Democracy rallies – the best songs are the really simple ones – you’ve probably heard :
    Hold on, hold on,
    My dear ones, here comes the dawn. I’ll try and post a link when I get over to my desktop computer…

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