You teach the newbies by setting your own good example. If you've got a wonderful singing club they won't jump in with a book & drag it down, they'll wait until they've been encourged by their betters & that happens as they start to join in with the rest, they get pulled along until they're ready to get their feet wet. They learn as they go! You enjoy listening to a good singer who sings their song well & has the crowd joining in or at a whisper, well they didn't learn their craft overnight, someone pulled them along too or they put in an awful lot of time & effort on their own & no one does it better alone!

That makes good sense to me, Barry.

The only thing I have of personal experience was when I went to a monthly women's group in Noho, MA. It was a spirituality group, but we always wound up in a huge circle and someone would start out a song, usually an easy to learn chant and we'd all start in...I learned a lot of sacred songs from that, similar to what Animaterra and Libana sing. I do remember someone handing out a one page lyric sheet, but not until after so we could take them home and learn them even better. I really miss those sessions. There were times it felt as though our voices would raise the roof with sheer energy.

The only other time was at an alternative women's musical retreat in CT. Same thing... groups got together and shared, learned, and sang. It was magical. Hmmmm...maybe I oughta see about starting my own women's song circle.:-)