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Sing if you're glad to be gay...
Dec. 6th, 2017 01:19 pmI think I mentioned on here that I was hoping to join the London Gay Men's Chorus, but I may have been remiss on keeping you all up to date... I started rehearsing with them in September, and last weekend performed for the first time.
I'm loving it so much, so much you guys! For a long time I was terrified of singing in front of people, but over the years I've been gradually working on that by singing quietly in friendly groups of readthrough people and then having lessons, and even being brave enough to sing solo in public by canting the Alleluia in church. And I knew from dim and distant memories that singing with other people had it's very particular kind of joy, but bringing that joy from memory to reality has been overwhelmingly wonderful.
Right now it's exhausting - this week and last week and next week I'm doing almost nothing but rehearsing and performing and squeezing in a few chorus social events in the little bit of breathing space I have. But it's that exhilarating kind of exhausting that I don't really want to end.
It helps that the people are wonderful and welcoming and interesting and friendly and in many cases deliciously easy on the eye, but I think the effect of that is heightened by the feeling of all working together to create something, which is something that through my own fault I've not experienced much of for a long time. I've always had this self image of being good at book-learning and abstract intellectual pursuits, but mediocre-at-best when it comes to creativity, and one of the wonderful things about getting older and wiser is that I feel free to throw myself into doing things that I enjoy without needing to be particularly good at them.
I'm loving it so much, so much you guys! For a long time I was terrified of singing in front of people, but over the years I've been gradually working on that by singing quietly in friendly groups of readthrough people and then having lessons, and even being brave enough to sing solo in public by canting the Alleluia in church. And I knew from dim and distant memories that singing with other people had it's very particular kind of joy, but bringing that joy from memory to reality has been overwhelmingly wonderful.
Right now it's exhausting - this week and last week and next week I'm doing almost nothing but rehearsing and performing and squeezing in a few chorus social events in the little bit of breathing space I have. But it's that exhilarating kind of exhausting that I don't really want to end.
It helps that the people are wonderful and welcoming and interesting and friendly and in many cases deliciously easy on the eye, but I think the effect of that is heightened by the feeling of all working together to create something, which is something that through my own fault I've not experienced much of for a long time. I've always had this self image of being good at book-learning and abstract intellectual pursuits, but mediocre-at-best when it comes to creativity, and one of the wonderful things about getting older and wiser is that I feel free to throw myself into doing things that I enjoy without needing to be particularly good at them.
