WE ARE NOT A CHOIR!!!!!

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You may be wondering why Stockport Warblers are adamant that "we are not a choir!"

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Stockport Warblers was created because I really wanted to sing in a group and I had tried joining a choir and found it to be very intimidating, unfriendly and "cliquey".    The person running the choir didn't make me feel at all welcome and most of the people in the choir completely ignored me, with the exception of one or two friendly people who did chat to me a little.

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I spent the entire session that I went to (which was an introductory session so you could decide whether you liked it) feeling left out, totally excluded and I didn't know what on earth I was doing.   I was supposed to decide which range I fitted into and sit in the correct area.   No-one offered any help!

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I vowed never to go back and I was annoyed that I was made to feel so unwelcome when singing is supposed to be something that brings people together as a group.   Let's face it, it's meant to be FUN - and my experience of that choir was that it was absolutely no fun at all.   I felt like it was my first day at school all over again!

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However, every cloud has a silver lining and out of this negative experience came something positive...STOCKPORT WARBLERS!    I still had a burning desire to sing in a group and it was clear that a formal choir was not going to do it for me.   So I decided to create my own singing group but I didn't want MY group to have any of the formality of a choir and I wanted it to be for people who thought "I can't join a choir because I can't sing".   

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The ethos of Stockport Warblers is simple....it's about the JOY of singing with other people, not technical accuracy, timing or even being in tune.   That doesn't matter!   Singing is GREAT for your mental and physical health so why should anyone be  excluded from group singing because they aren't perfect sopranos or tenors?

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In January 2016 I rather nervously hosted the first Warble....and since then Stockport Warblers has gone from strength to strength.   

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If this article strikes a chord with you, then it sounds like you need to give Warbling a try!

 

Nicky Lambert