Twelve Singers, One Song
Far too many people with no talent think they can sing. I include myself. Please don't ever come with me on a car journey to Inverness because that's when I'm at my worst. I start off singing along to the radio and then, when I reach that radio dead zone on the A9, I switch to my Sinatra CDs. The third stage comes when the CD player overheats and I convince myself I can get along fine without Ol' Blue Eyes. I'm usually warbling at the top of my voice by the time I reach Culduthel Road. If it's summer and the windows are open I've seen pedestrians fall to the ground clutching their ears.
Yet help may be at hand. According to Mary-Ann Kennedy "anyone who can speak can sing." This comforting statement was made in a kind of off-hand way when I met Mary-Anne this afternoon to talk about Highland 2007 and her new Radio Scotland programme Global Gathering. We got chatting about singing and Mary-Anne was telling me she recently transformed a sizeable group of non-singing adults into a powewrful choir, with each member playing their own part in the harmonics. And she did all this in the space of a few hours.
This seemed too good to be true but it might also have the potential for a great radio programme. Imagine we recruit a dozen people from a particular organisation. Nurses, say, or police officers. We ship them to Mary-Ann's studio near Fort William and let her work her musical magic upon them. We'd hear all about their individual stories and find out if music can make them work as a team.
What do you think? Good idea? Would you listen?
