Singing With Our Hearts

Last night, I participated in a Handel's Messiah Sing-Along Concert, and I deeply enjoyed it. Part of what made the event so enjoyable is that everyone there truly appreciated the music they were singing. Everyone who sang in that concert really sang with their hearts. They focussed their minds on the power of the music and the meanings of the lyrics, and they invested the talents they had into performing that music to the best of their abilities.

Of course, we were still amateurs. The pianist and conductor were both very talented, but none of us were professionals. Many choirs have sung the Messiah better than we did last night. Still, I'd say that we sang pretty well last night, partly because we were singing with our hearts.

Physically, singing is a mechanical matter of pushing wind through carefully-shaped tubes. With enough practice, focussing on technique and training their muscles, anyone could learn to sing, but if they sang that way, just pushing wind through their tubes, would you say that they were really singing? True singing is expressive. It's something you put your heart into. In order to sing well, a person has to do more than know the words, hit the notes, and maintain the right level of volume. A person has to really feel the music in order to sing it well.

We may not have had much professionally training. There were many times we stumbled over the lyrics or lost our place in the sheet music. Ours was a very amateur, imperfect performance. Yet, it was still a good performance for the same reasons the performances at the Ward Christmas Party I blogged about were good. Our performances may not have been professional, but they were good performances mostly because we put our hearts into them. You don't have to be able to sing well in order to be able to sing beautifully. While it's important to attempt to follow the lyrics and music, what's most important is that you sing not only with your voice, but also with your heart.