sing
When I returned to the copy desk at the Enterprise-Record, I had to severely cut back my involvement in the fledgling Chico Community Chorus. It meets on Tuesday evenings. In my new job, I have those evenings off only one month out of every four.
Despite my time conflict, I remain a strong supporter of the chorus. I take great pleasure in group singing. I love to sing my heart out. Singing with like-minded people doubles my satisfaction.
We all need to chase our blues away. Life is a vale of tears. It can be full of bad trips. Singing is a way to get us out of our sadness.
Singer-songwriter Carole King acknowledges the therapeutic power of music in “Jazzman,” from her album “Wraparound Joy.” She sings: “Lift me, won’t you lift me, above the old routine. Make it nice, play it clean, Jazzman. When the Jazzman’s testifying, a faithless man believes. He can sing you into paradise or bring you to your knees.”
The Jazzman King sings about can “bring you to your knees,” but his music gives us a way to get us back on our feet.
That’s what group singing does for me. It’s also a way to be in touch with deepest parts of my soul and help me remember that life is full of sweetness.
And yet the Chico Community Chorus is stumbling. People are so busy nowadays. They don’t seem have time to set aside a couple of hours a week for a bit of bliss. From its inception, the chorus has struggled to have enough voices to round out its soprano, alto, tenor and bass sections.
The first meeting was almost a year ago. A couple of months later, Ken Lacy, the director, was so dispirited that he wanted to throw in the towel. But I urged him to keep going. I still feel the same way, and so does our core group of about a dozen people. I figure there must be at least a few dozen people in Chico and surrounding areas who are as avid as we are about the pleasures of group singing.
The chorus, which is sponsored by the Chico Area Recreation District, meets every week from 7 to 9 p.m. at Pleasant Valley Recreation Center, 2320 North Ave., next to Bidwell Junior High School. You can just show up at the meetings or call Lacy at 891-4526 for more information. Right now, the group does everything from a cappella rounds, to singing pop tunes with a karaoke machine, to using sheet music to practice four-part harmonies accompanied by a piano.