A young man I know who just got back from a backpacking trip to Thailand and Burma (Myanmar) told me that one day the group was resting in the shade alongside the road when what appeared to be a family group - adults and children - came peddling along on bicycles, all of them singing. He and his peers were in wonderment about it.

leenia, you said that recorded music drives out live I hadn't thought about it but I do believe that the people I know who constantly have radio or television running in the background are the same people who tell me that they don't sing. There could be several differing reasons for that, I suppose. 1) Perhaps when there is music already playing, it is hard to sing a different song, or even to think of a different tune. 2) Or perhaps the people who think they can't sing are the people who have the music in the background.

People like me who can't have music playing in the background may be more common than I thought. When I have a CD playing, I have to listen. And when I have to think something out or have to decipher written instructions of assembly, the music has to be OFF. (Although that may be because I was not exposed to recorded music at an early age.)

Ron Davies: "It's 4 long songs or 5 short songs to the subway." What a great image!