The Curate`s Egg--Singing in Parts

  I like to choose an appropriate  title for my blogs, but perhaps I`ve been a bit obscure this time. I want to talk about the problems of a `Dis-musical` choir member; that unfortunate  soul who wants to sing in a choir but can`t read music. The diffident Curate, when asked whether his addled egg was good, said it was good `in part`s---get it? Or am I over-explaining and risking evoking another egg, that which the proverbial Grandmother was being taught to suck... Passing swiftly on, I will continue to discuss harmonies (or indeed, discords, or should it be dischords..)
  I like to sing in a choir, and have done so for a number of years now, with Catholic, Baptist and Evangelistic churches (not all at once, I hasten to add.) It would have been most helpful if I had been taught to read music but there it is, I never was and now it`s a little late. More gifted Choir-leaders find it difficult to believe that anyone should lack this skill, others sympathise. I have, in fact, discovered in myself some embryonic skill in fathoming out the tune from the notes but am very far still from being able to hum an unknown piece from the music. The only answer for me is to learn the part so thoroughly that I don`t need the music.I have been spoilt in our current choir, in that Christine Charlton, who does read music and can sing all the parts, prepares a cassette for me of the tenor part, so that I can immerse myself in it in private. I also take the precaution of blocking my ears when others are rehearsing their parts so that I don`t inadvertently learn the bass or even the soprano part, especially if these are more melodic. This looks silly but I have found it a wise precaution. Being `dyslexic` in this fashion has both advantages and disadvantages. Once I have learned a tune, I can trot it out even years later, practically note-perfect. They say that un-lettered persons can learn reams of information verbally and remember it, a trick which we more literate people have never had to learn. Primitive tribesmen can recite their rites or even books of the Bible with astonishing fidelity. I believe The disadvantage is, that if I already know a tune, it is almost impossible to replace it with another version, the `erase` button doesn`t seem to work in my case!
   The result is that it is a real struggle for me to learn the tenor part of a new piece, so sometimes I ask myself if is is worth the struggle. The reward is, of course, that there are few things so enjoyable as singing your part in a well rehearsed choir, and joining in the creation of the rich sound of a pice in four voices. All real singers would do it `in camera` even without an audience, which only provides an excuse or a feed-back for all that effort. It`s a sensation almost impossible to describe to a non-choir member.

  Bye for now, going to listen to my new cassette!