Sing-Along

Donny's thread about singing made me think about sing-along with the audience. There is a musician on Youtube that just about every one on this forum, if not all, watched. Once, I was visiting the city he lives in. He invited me to bring my instrument where he was performing. He himself never sings, but I was very impressed with his audience; while he was playing, everyone in the audience had a music binder and they all sang at the top of their lungs.

I always have a sing-along session with my audience. This will be more and more difficult as the younger generation is not used to singing. Zoltan Kodaly, a Hungarian ethnomusicologist, once said that instrumental music will never be the music for the public. Not every one can afford a musical instrument but everyone has a vocal cord! However, it seems that today here in the US most of the singing is done by those on the stage whether in church or in stadiums...

When I was living overseas, I remember quite clearly. They ran a special "sing-a-long" edition of the movie "Sound of Music" in London's West End. Everyone got into it...singing coming from all directions around us. Like being smack in the middle of a choral group.

I went to see the same movie here in the States, and only eight people showed up. And.....not one of them sang the captioned words!

I also remember playing pubs all around London and working men's clubs in the North. Not a single person did NOT sing.