According to choir leader Kym Dillon, about 80% of people who join With One Voice choir in Geelong, Victoria, think they can't sing. But these singing enthusiasts were determined to try, and many of them stay in the choir for many years.
It's Kym's role to welcome these new choristers and create an inclusive environment for singers from all walks of life, with a diverse range of abilities.
“Everyone has a voice in their own way,” says Kym, who has conducted her hometown’s community choir for 13 years.
The Geelong-based composer, pianist and conductor says the seed of her community choir came from her desire to help people with music in a way that’s “really earthy [and] grass-rootsy.”
With One Voice choirs is a national network of community-run choirs across almost all capital cities, major regional areas, and in rural Australia. Kym conducts her local group in Geelong, as well as the group in Ashburton, Victoria.
Unlike the traditional smooth tone associated with beautiful choral singing, this community choir has a multi-coloured fabric of sound.
Kym says this is the thing she loves most about the community choir.
“I like celebrating everyone’s differences and so there is a rough earthiness, or humanity feel.”
“It is quite different from a professional choir where you are going for a particular sound and you want everyone to fit in with that,” Kym says.
A sole connection to the community or part of someone’s social smorgasbord
Kym has seen the impact of community choirs like With One Voice during her 13 years with the group, particularly in the close relationships that can form with choir members. Several friendships have developed among the 70 choristers who attend rehearsals once a week.
Loading...In some cases, “[the choir] can be someone’s sole form of community engagement,” while for others “it might be one of a smorgasbord of things they do,” Kym shares.
Choristers have expressed to Kym that these connections have kept singers going in hard times.
Choir members of With One Voice have diverse abilities and attend for all sorts of reasons. For Damian it is the thrill of being with friends, and getting a chance to sing a solo or two. Meanwhile Bob, who is in his 70s, loves going because the choir sings "songs from my era."
Andrew comes to make himself feel good. "[Tonight,] I wasn't feeling the best and I thought well, one thing about coming to choir, it always gives me an uplift and cheers me up," he says. "So I thought I'd come and be cheered up.”
Sharing food together and getting to know each other has been a really good community builder. The choir has supper after each rehearsal and Kym says “everyone is encouraged to stick around after these good vibes have just emanated.”
Finding the confidence to sing
Kym explains why a lot of singers in her choir thought they couldn’t sing at first. “Most often they have been told by someone in their life and it’s really hit deep because our voices are so personal to us,” Kym says. “They don’t have to feel that should stop them singing.”
In fact, these individual voices are what make the choir sound special. “You get these beautiful harmonies happening and overall choir sound, but you can definitely hear the range of different voice types and different levels of experience,” Kym explains.
Kym gives every singer the opportunity to explore what their voice does at different levels and to feel comfortable with the sounds they make in a welcoming and inclusive environment. "Once you've unlocked the particular strength of a certain voice, you can find that people can sing a lot better than they thought they could."
That is certainly the case for Philomena, who joined the choir 10 years ago. She went from thinking she couldn't sing a note to having individual singing lessons.
Singers don’t have to audition to join any of the With One Voice choirs, so even first-time choristers can feel welcome. In Kym’s choir, singers also don’t have to know how to read sheet music.
Instead, Kym provides a variety of ways for choristers to pick up the songs.
“Everything is learned by rote,” she says. “I sing out loud first and they sing back to me.”
Kym also uses a projector where she can put up “little notated examples of the music so [singers] can see the contour [which] can help them in their learning.”
The rehearsal itself “is a mixture of sing-along songs to get people really pumped and enjoying singing together,” Kym says. These can range from simple warm-ups, such as rounds, to complex four-part harmonies, which can give choristers a sense of achievement.
“The sense of inclusivity and welcoming seems to be in my veins now as a result of being part of this community,” Kym reflects. Summing up the choir, she says:
“I’m greeted by this beautiful group of people, many of whom are very different from each other, but being part of this big thing together.”