Had an interesting kitchen-table conversation yesterday. Except it was over the phone. I was talking with Jonathan, the director of the Greater New Haven Male Fellowship Chorus that I sing in. I've been looking for a tenor for my gospel quartet now for well over half a year, with no success. I probably know, or have contact with at least a couple hundred singers in various groups and choruses, and I can't come up with one tenor. My friend Jonathan is very enthusiastic about my three man quartet and called to book us to do a concert at his church. I'd talked to him before about finding a tenor, and brought the subject up again. He said that I was going to have a hard time finding someone, and couldn't recommend anyone from his male chorus, or any of the other choirs and churches where he plays. He saw the difficulty in finding someone who has a natural ear for harmony, and can stick with it. Before I started singing in a male chorus ten years ago, I assumed that all singers could hear harmony. Man, was I wrong! Hearing harmony is a gift. Almost all of the singers in male choruses I've been involved in have to be taught their harmony part, and if they don't read music, they have a terrible time retaining it. Most of the baritones sing the melody, because that's what they hear. In the baritone sections in the two male choruses I sing in, half the time there are more baritones singing the melody than the baritone harmony. That's a puzzlement to me.

As long as we're just sitting around the table, I thought I'd find out what your experiences are in singing harmony (if you're a singer.) I might add that some of the greatest singers I know can't sing harmony.

Some of the greatest singers I know can't hear the key that the song is in.

Some of the greatest singers I know have no sense of timing.

That makes me greatful that I'm not one of the greatest singers, because I have always been able to hear harmony, can tell if I'm singing in a different key than the accompniment, and know when to come in on the next line. I don't take any credit for it. I did nothing to acquire the ability. I just have it, through no great effort on my part. It amazes me to hear singers confidently singing in a different key than the accompaniment, or thinking that they are singing harmony, when they're singing the melody. And can't hear the difference.

Any thoughts on this?

Have another cup of coffee.

Got cold beer in the fridge..

Jerry