Notes from the Huntsville Community Choir: Lost in song

By Peeter Sild (from the bass section)

Well, we are into our fourth week of Tuesday rehearsals with the Huntsville Community choir. I’m slowly getting comfortable (read as: not intimidated) with the selected pieces. The bass section has been shifted around for musical reasons. Everything is nicely coming together.

Then, Sunday morning I wake up and I have a scratchy throat to challenge me. Okay, get out all the usual tools to combat the invasion. Hot tea with lemon, cold medication, and cough syrup. I even go above and beyond with elderberry syrup and chaga to ward off the inevitable. Plus my voice changes so that I can sing, with authority and volume, at least an octave lower than normal. I’m thinking world class baritone! That dream only lasts for a couple of hours until my voice betrays me and I can barely squeak let alone speak my name… laryngitis. I cross my fingers and hope to recover by Tuesday. Tuesday arrives and the virus is winning so I have to miss the rehearsal. I send my regrets to Rachel who keeps attendance.

So how do I make up for lost rehearsal time? I can’t sing because my voice is shot and truth be told I really feel like resting and not singing as this virus has put me on my heels. What will be my strategy to get back in the groove? Is there a secret formula to allow me to catch up to the rest of the choir? Well, unless Gandalf shows up at my door and recites an incantation to make me right as rain, the only real solution is to put in the extra work when I recover and get back up to speed. There is a small life hack I can do, though, which is get to this next rehearsal and let musical osmosis carry me part way there.

So for the next little while I will be lost in song striving to get back to par. By the time the concert rolls around I will be totally lost in song yet this time with full confidence with my fellow choir members while moving through the soundscape.

For more information on the Huntsville Community Choir, visit huntsvillecommunitychoir.com.

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