Yes, great article, I started singing lessons 2 years ago and have had a wonderful time, met many new friends and performed in various venues around Adelaide. I would recommend singing to everyone.
And as my music teacher says, everyone can sing, its like a musical instrument, it takes time and practice to sound good.

Diss iz good news no? I sink wery vell in ze bathtub. Levity aside I used to like singing along with the Cd player in my car. I have a very good voice, but a rough passage out. And grew up in a household of supercritical females, all of who seem to be tone deaf! At 75, ingrained conditioning that's irreversible and not helped by a recent stroke. As for group singing? The few times I've tried it, been drowned out by the resident female opera singer my soft bass-baritone couldn't compete with. One has to be able to hear one's own voice in order to be pitch perfect! My father described opera singing as controlled screaming. That said, music ought to be compulsory as a school subject as should meditation! Both of which have demonstrated that they improve the abilities with regard to other subjects and memory? Alan B.

I have to put in a plug for Sing Australia, a wonderful organisation with 150 singing groups across Australia, whose motto is "We Sing For Pleasure, Not Excellence" and we live up to and well beyond that motto. There are more than five thousand singers involved with Sing Australia across the country (throw up their web-site) using common song-books which include around five hundred songs, (I think, it certainly seems that way). Grey nomads drop in on each others' groups all around Australia and are always welcome wherever they go.

Here in Adelaide, Sing Australia has three groups, Warradale on Monday mornings, Magill on Tuesday nights and Glenelg on Thursday nights. Glenelg is probably the largest group in Australia, with more than a hundred regulars. Lesser capital cities tend to have fewer groups, but many country towns also have Sing Australia groups: in SA, Orroroo, Jamestown (we've got a State gathering there in a couple of weeks), Burra and Goolwa for example.

Look up the web-site, check out which groups are near you and when they meet, and come along. Sing your heart out ! Terrific fun !

Confession: my favourite is 'Sweet Caroline'.

Joe