Sing in a choir

“If a person talks, then he has a voice. If he hears, he has hearing. And if there is a voice and hearing, then he can sing! – Leah Obshadko, the head of the “Little Chapel”, does not get tired of repeating. Women and men of different professions and ages sing in this chamber choir. Our body, she believes, is a living musical instrument. It just needs to be set up correctly. Learn your note. The choirmaster helps each chorister find his basic tone. Let’s exhale and prolong the sound: it is like a sigh of relief when a heavy burden is finally lifted from the shoulders. “Hum,” she suggests, “feel how every cell resonates. This is your organic note. She is healing. If something hurts, make a sound, mentally directing the sound to a sore spot, and it will become easier. This sound relieves muscle clamps, relieves tension.

Hear yourself and others. “The choir is a model of an ideal human community,” Liya Obshadko believes. “In it, each “I” hears others and joins them, without losing itself.” The need for musical communication is familiar to many of us. We sing during feasts, on campaigns, just gathering together. “But beautiful singing turns out only when we refuse competition, we don’t try to outsing others,” comments psychologist Svetlana Maksimova. – Modern society encourages competition. But we also need other skills. Singing in a choir teaches you to tune in to each other. We perceive our voice not with our ears, but with our whole body. Harmonizing its sound with others, we get an extraordinary experience: we physically experience agreement and experience the pleasure of this. Feel the music from within. Svetlana Maksimova has been singing in the Little Chapel for seven years now: “Friday evening. Repetition. It seems that there is no strength at all. And you start to sing – and the sound, like spring water, washes from the inside. This is a special feeling when the music does not sound from somewhere on the stage, but around and inside you!” The repertoire of the choir includes Bach, Mozart, Rachmaninov. “On my own, I would not have been able to perform these things at the level that corresponds to their complexity and beauty,” the psychologist continues. “But as part of the choir, I am a co-author of the performance and involved in the works of great composers.” Leah Obshadko adds: “The soul is embodied in the voice. By revealing our voice, we reveal our personality, we become closer to the very essence of our being.