![\"Text](\"https:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/a\/assets\/texttospeech.svg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Listen to this article<\/p>\n
Estimated 3 minutes<\/p>\n
The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve the results.<\/p>\n
Sharon Marnell was sitting in a public jacuzzi, remedying two frozen shoulders, when she started singing.\u00a0<\/p>\n
When another person arrived, she commented on Marnell\u2019s singing voice.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cShe said, \u2018You sing nicely. You couldn\u2019t join our choir,\u2019\u201d Marnell said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The woman went on to explain that she was part of what\u2019s called a tuneless choir \u2014 for people who aren\u2019t good singers.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Intrigued, Marnell inquired. Having a musical and experienced teaching background, Marnell went on to start her own tuneless choir, and then led a second and a third, all in her home country of England.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe went from a couple people singing in the hall to 110 people performing at a music festival,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
WATCH | Tuneless choir performs 500 Miles:<\/p>\n
Now, having moved to Canada in 2024, Marnell is launching a pair of tuneless choirs on Vancouver Island.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The first tuneless choir was launched in January 2016 in West Bridgford, England, thanks to a woman by the name of Nadine Cooper.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe was desperate to sing, she loved to sing,\u201d Marnell said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Cooper tracked down the local choir leader, Bernie Bracha, and asked her to help start a choir for people who couldn\u2019t hold a tune.\u00a0<\/p>\n
As long as some people are hitting the right note, it sounds good, Marnell said. Sort of like when people singalong at a concert. <\/p>\n
Today, there are more than 30 tuneless choirs operating in England. They\u2019re so big that a weekend retreat is planned for February 2026 to celebrate the 10-year anniversary of tuneless choirs \u2014 complete with group sing-alongs and karaoke.\u00a0<\/p>\n
WATCH | Tuneless choir performs Hey Jude:<\/p>\n
During her time with the tuneless choirs, Marnell said she witnessed how \u201cpowerful and transformative\u201d singing can be, even if you\u2019re bad at it.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cMany of the members avoided singing for decades because someone told them they were tone deaf,\u201d she said. \u201cBut joining in with tuneless, that didn’t matter. They sang their hearts out, they laughed endlessly, they formed real friendships. It was life changing.\u201d<\/p>\n
And that\u2019s why she\u2019s launching the choirs, with one in Langford and another in Sidney.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you love music, if you sing in the shower, if you’ve been told you sound terrible, you’re exactly who we want,\u201d she said. \u201cYou don’t need any musical ability at all.\u201d<\/p>\n
Marnell said they won\u2019t learn music or be assigned certain parts. Instead, they\u2019ll choose songs people generally know, radio hits and showtunes, so they can just go forth and belt out the lyrics.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe sing, we dance, we love loads of energy,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The goal of tuneless choirs is simply joy, confidence and connection. There are no auditions and, perhaps obviously, no experience required.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The first gathering for the Sidney choir will be on the evening of Jan. 7 at the Peace Lutheran Church Hall, while the Langford tuneless choir will launch the evening of Jan. 8 at the Redeemer Lutheran Church Hall. The cost to attend is $15. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 3 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":388167,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-388166","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388166","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=388166"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388166\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/388167"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=388166"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=388166"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=388166"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}