Finding Your Voice
Discover the joys—and benefits—of singing with a local chorus
“Your voice is one of the most singular characteristics about you.
It’s how your friends and family know you. It’s how you interact with the world ...” (Wisconsin Public Radio’s To the Best of Our Knowledge, July 27, 2019 episode)
People often speak about “finding one’s voice,” a well-known phrase connoting an individual’s quest for artistic expression. It’s an apt metaphor, but also an ironic one given that all of us are already born with an actual voice that doesn’t need to be found, but rather appreciated as a gift to be utilized to its fullest potential.
As a youth, I recall having an uneasy relationship with my voice. I remember listening for the first time to the sound of my voice being played back on a tape recorder and thinking to myself, “That can’t be me—my voice doesn’t sound like that!” Hearing my voice outside of my body was jarring, yet this was how I sounded to everyone else.
I had a similar experience when singing a solo for the first time in my sixth-grade chorus. It was the final verse from John Denver’s “Grandma’s Feather Bed” and seemed particularly embarrassing at the time. I remember being more nervous than I had ever been as I stepped up to the microphone. As the blood rushed into my head and my face turned beet-red, I just hoped I would make it through the experience. The amplified voice filling the auditorium sounded alien to me. Were these sounds coming out of my mouth?
Looking back, it occurs to me that singing in that elementary school chorus helped me learn to accept and value my voice. One of the most rewarding aspects of choral singing is that your voice contributes to a larger sonic canvas, like a colorful thread in a tapestry that helps hold everything together but is subsumed by the picture as a whole.
As an individual among equals sharing a common musical goal, there is a great sense of teamwork. The self-consciousness and anxiety that many experience when performing a solo or
giving a talk in front of a crowd become much less of a factor.
Not only are choruses marvelous builders of confidence, musicianship and camaraderie, but just like other modes of music making, participation in a choir is being recognized more and more for its health benefits. These include stress reduction, mood elevation and even cardiovascular health.
If you’re still searching for new ways to “find your voice,” then consider lending your voice—the instrument you were born with—to help make the world a more beautiful-sounding place. There are ample opportunities to sing in the Southwest Florida area, regardless of age, experience and expertise.
There are many school and church choirs, as well as amateur ensembles such as the BIG ARTS Community Chorus on Sanibel. Professional groups include the Fort Myers Symphonic Mastersingers and the Symphonic Chorale of Southwest Florida. At least two other local groups specialize in a cappella barbershop style: the Gulf Coast Harmonizers for men, and the women’s Spirit of the Gulf Chorus.
Whether we sing or speak, our voices are making a unique contribution to the world around us. And when we lend our voices to something larger than ourselves, magic can happen.
Pianist, instructor and musicologist Erik Entwistle received an undergraduate degree in music from Dartmouth College. He earned a post-graduate degree in piano performance at Washington University in St. Louis. He earned his doctorate in musicology at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He teaches on Sanibel Island.
The self-consciousness and anxiety that many experience when performing a solo or giving a talk in front of a crowd become much less of a factor.