Hayley Westenra: (well-known singer) “Singing’s great for your health - it’s stress relieving, it’s calming, it’s good for posture as well...”
Phillip Tolley: (“British Choirs on the Net”) “There are so many benefits to singing. As well as health benefits there are educational benefits in literacy and numeracy, social skill which come with listening and blending with others and it is multi-cultural, multi-racial, non-ageist, community spirited, sociable and fun!”
Sharon D. Clarke: (judge for “Last Choir Standing”) “Anybody and everybody [can sing in a choir]! But you’ve got to work at it. It’s not enough to say I’m here and I’m singing. You’ve got to be listening, you’ve got to be trying to grow... challenging yourself. You’ve got to be stretching yourself…”
from the preface of “Psalms, Sonets & Songs” by William Byrd, published in 1588.
Reasons briefly set down by th'auctor, to perswade every one to learne to sing.
1. First it is a knowledge easely taught, and quickly learned where there is a good Master, and an apt Scoller.
2. The exercise of singing is delightfull to Nature & good to preserve the health of Man.
3. It doth strengthen all the parts of the brest, & doth open the pipes.
4. It is a singular good remedie for a stutting & stammering in the speech.
5. It is the best meanes to procure a perfect pronunciation & to make a good Orator.
6. It is the onely way to know where Nature hath bestowed the benefit of a good voyce: which guift is so rare, as there is not one among a thousand, that hath it: and in many, that excellent guift is lost, because they want Art to expresse Nature.
7. There is not any Musicke of Instruments whatsoever, comparable to that which is made of the voyces of Men, where the voyces are good, and the same well sorted and ordered.
8. The better the voyce is, the meeter it is to honour and serve God there-with: and the voyce of man is chiefely to be imployed to that ende.
I wish all men would learne to sing.
