I must agree with Terri and others. Singing is therapeutic and should be encouraged regardless of natural ability. My Dad was told by his music teacher in highschool that he was tone deaf, and shouldn't sing. My Dad likes music, but for a long time he didn't sing 'cause of that. 'Bout when i was born he joined the church choir, and when i was a kid he was taking voice lessons and learning to stay on pitch, breath control, matching notes, etc...now he regularily cants at church and enjoys learning new songs with me to sing at the ceili. My Dad has been singing as long as i can remember, and has improved a lot.....but imagine if he'd let that teacher discourage him. Such a lot of voices are lost because of this idea that music is something that has to be professionally produced by people of a certain ability. There's the whole range of ability in my family....but we all sing, and have been known to break out spontaneously into song in responce to various things the way some families have in-jokes.

Ceitagh