Unofficial Christ's Hospital Forum

It's only practise. If you already have an ear for what is in tune then it's just a question of practising with your voice to replicate that. And quality of tone and technique come after that. I reckon very few people are really tone deaf but even then it is about training yourself to hear. It can be done - my father is a case in point! A lot of people are very lazy singers and don't think and listen when they open their mouths. Doing it properly is hard work and takes a lot of concentration, but thoroughly rewarding. I love it!

my problem seems to be pitching the notes. I'm much better when singing next to a confident (in tune!) singer.

I do listen very carefully as I do alot of chamber playing, which is why I am so painfully aware of how badly I sing.

I'll keep persevering with the singing in private when no-one's listening and maybe one day I won't be embarrassed to sing!

Being leader of the Chapel Choir was, to me, a great honour. I also had singing lessons with an old boy who was very good (can't remember his name now), sight reading lessons with Malcolm MacKelvy and Theory with Malcolm's second wife.

After leaving CH I joined the Elizabthan Singers in London for a while and have always sung in some sort of choir or another until two and a half years ago when we moved to France. I certainly miss it now and will definitely go back to it when we eventually move back to England.

I agree, Mike Savage had a very good voice. He was gutted when he didn't get the A-Level grades he needed to take up his Choral Scholarship to Cambridge (I'm fairly sure it was Kings). He ended up singing in the Guildford Cathedral Choir. Phil Salmon was also fantastic - to this day I think of him every time I hear "Three Kings from Persian lands afar . ."

JamesF35 wrote:Phil Salmon was also fantastic -

He's still doing pretty well :

http://www.jamesblackmanagement.com/art ... n/bio.html

JamesF35 wrote:Being leader of the Chapel Choir was, to me, a great honour. I also had singing lessons with an old boy who was very good (can't remember his name now), sight reading lessons with Malcolm MacKelvy and Theory with Malcolm's second wife.

After leaving CH I joined the Elizabthan Singers in London for a while and have always sung in some sort of choir or another until two and a half years ago when we moved to France. I certainly miss it now and will definitely go back to it when we eventually move back to England.

I agree, Mike Savage had a very good voice. He was gutted when he didn't get the A-Level grades he needed to take up his Choral Scholarship to Cambridge (I'm fairly sure it was Kings). He ended up singing in the Guildford Cathedral Choir. Phil Salmon was also fantastic - to this day I think of him every time I hear "Three Kings from Persianlands afar . ."

Is this a peculiarly CH carol. I ask becasue I have never heard it anywhere else (though I did sing it one Christmas at home) and it is on the LP Midget has sent me. (From another thread)

I think it was new to Hertford in about 1950/51, after Mr Comely (never did know how to spell his name) left as organ/singing teacher and was replaced by Miss ?

englishangel wrote:

JamesF35 wrote:"Three Kings from Persianlands afar . ."

Is this a peculiarly CH carol. I ask becasue I have never heard it anywhere else (though I did sing it one Christmas at home) and it is on the LP Midget has sent me. (From another thread)

We sang this every year at Christmas in my previous choir and also at university (so that tots up about 15 years). It always gives me the shivers - it is so beautiful - as long as the choir doesn't drown out the soloist!

It's in one of the Carols for Choirs books - Possibly no.3

I used to sing with the Christmas Choir at St.George's, Marseille, and one year this was chosen as a Choir carol. However, the usual Choirmaster elected that year to be organist only ( said he was too busy to manage carol service) so I got landed with the job of rehearsing and directing the Choir. Not too difficult after 7 years at CH, you might think, but.... I was also singing the solo in " Three Kings..." - try singing the solo, and directing the choral at the same time - the choir sings in counter-tempo, fix you with glassy eyes expecting to be brought in the right order, and you have your back to the congregation whilst trying desperately to be heard!

Ruined one of my favourite carols for me...

I've done absolutely no singing since I left CH which I'm hugely disappointed in myself about.

Talking of who was one of the best, I bumped into Liz Pannell not so long ago who was trying to convince me to start singing again but you lose all your confidence. She has an amazing voice and it appeared to be so completely effortless. Just fantastic.

Also, I have to say how much I loved singing with Ben Breakwell and truly appreciate the guy putting up with my poor attempts at accompanying him in concerts and stuff. Not fair when such a talented person has to make do with my rather pathetic efforts.

I always thought you could sing Sian...

I agree what you say about Liz and Ben!

In the 1950s, Stuart Holland, Lamb A, later to become Labour MP for Vauxhall and an economic advisor to the Labour party. Now heading up an economics department at a university in Portugal, as well as being an occasional letter writer to the Guardian. He proves that while God may have all the best tunes, socialists have all the best voices.

Around the time of Stuart Holland Korks had the excellent practice of putting a treble in Chapel Balcony to sing the opening solo of 'Once in Royal David's City", at the start of the Carol Service, to magnificent, and almost eerie, effect. I think that Stuart Holland was chosen for this and in different years, Kenneth Parkes and Brian Head (the latter two respectively Ba A and Pe B, I think). Brian Head was also a most competent gymnast and I believe that he later became a professional musician. What about Kenneth Parkes? Does anyone know what happened to him?

One hears oneself only through bone transmission; Daddy Dors and his Indian Club destroyed any interest in converting from flat to anything other than silent; he didn't even seem to know what flat was and I didn't either. Oh, and he strongly disagreed with silence. That said, when I hear myself speaking on any recording device I shudder and run.

Stuart was superb both as a treble and then as a tenor. But to go back to an earlier post Bryan Etheridge gave an incredible rendition of "Three Kings..." Etho went on as a choral scholar to King's Cambridge and eventually a professional singer