Twelve Singers, One Song
Far too many people with no talent think they can sing. I include myself. Please don't ever come with me on a car journey to Inverness because that's when I'm at my worst. I start off singing along to the radio and then, when I reach that radio dead zone on the A9, I switch to my Sinatra CDs. The third stage comes when the CD player overheats and I convince myself I can get along fine without Ol' Blue Eyes. I'm usually warbling at the top of my voice by the time I reach Culduthel Road. If it's summer and the windows are open I've seen pedestrians fall to the ground clutching their ears.
Yet help may be at hand. According to Mary-Ann Kennedy "anyone who can speak can sing." This comforting statement was made in a kind of off-hand way when I met Mary-Anne this afternoon to talk about and her new Radio Scotland programme Global Gathering. We got chatting about singing and Mary-Anne was telling me she recently transformed a sizeable group of non-singing adults into a powewrful choir, with each member playing their own part in the harmonics. And she did all this in the space of a few hours.
This seemed too good to be true but it might also have the potential for a great radio programme. Imagine we recruit a dozen people from a particular organisation. Nurses, say, or police officers. We ship them to near Fort William and let her work her musical magic upon them. We'd hear all about their individual stories and find out if music can make them work as a team.
What do you think? Good idea? Would you listen?
