Nikki Berry (centre) has been teaching singing for 30 years. (Photo: Supplied)<\/p>\n
Nikki Berry, manager for The Muse Community Music Trust, has a similar story. \u201cI was always making up little songs all the time and singing to myself,\u201d she says. \u201cIt was a really strong part of my identity.\u201d But at the age of 14, a new music teacher asked her to sing something much higher than she had ever sung before. \u201cI clearly didn\u2019t have a good enough classical tone for her, because she said to me, \u2018you might as well give up, Nikki. You\u2019ll never be a singer\u2019.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Berry didn\u2019t take the advice onboard \u2013 \u201cI couldn\u2019t actually give up because music was the foundation of who I was\u201d \u2013 but the moment did inform her teaching practices decades down the line. Having run community choirs and accessible singing lessons in Christchurch for over 30 years, including the Rockers of Ages choir<\/a> established in the aftermath of the earthquakes, her mission is to connect with all those people who have \u201cunjustly\u201d been told they cannot sing.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve actually never met anyone that can\u2019t sing,\u201d she explains. \u201cSo many aspects of music are a learned skill, and I just don\u2019t understand why anyone would think singing is any different to learning to ride a motorcycle, or play tennis, or go scuba diving \u2013 they\u2019re all learned skills.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n I tried to keep this advice front of mind as I walked into Reclaim Your Voice<\/a> last month, Berry\u2019s community course specifically designed \u201cfor people who think they can\u2019t sing, people labelled tone deaf and very shy singers\u201d. It was a miserable, drizzly day outside and yet every cell in my body was screaming to flee the warmth of the Hagley Community Centre and do absolutely anything else. \u201cSinging in the rain, eh?!\u201d I barked to nobody in particular, already in fight or flight.\u00a0<\/p>\n The group of 16 or so reluctant singers, mostly women and mostly over 40, soon stood in a circle to stretch our bodies, loosen our mouths like we were chewing toffees, and yawn loudly like elderly cats. One by one, we then went around and shared the often childhood-related trauma that had brought us there. \u201cYou are not in that situation now, you are an adult,\u201d Berry nodded sagely. \u201cWhen this process is not disrupted by humiliation, it is really straightforward.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n To shake off any lingering heebie-jeebies, Berry split us in two and challenged each group to sing \u2018Happy Birthday\u2019 to each other as fiercely out of tune as we possibly could. Before long, everyone was cackling as we launched into a series of singing games, including clapping our hands with one another like primary school school kids to the nursery rhyme \u2018Pease Porridge Hot\u2019 (why anyone would prefer it cold, let alone nine days old, is beyond me).\u00a0<\/p>\n It was a welcome relief to briefly leave the hellscape of algorithms and climate catastrophe for a delightful sing-song land of seashells, porridge, and shining moons. Keeping things playful and full of laughter is essential when it comes to learning, said Berry. \u201cTry to create a relaxed, kind environment inside your own head. Because if you are haranguing yourself, how are you ever going to learn?\u201d I tried to tell myself this while cracking a high on \u2018Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star\u2019.\u00a0<\/p>\n That\u2019s not to say it was all \u201cdouble, double, this, that<\/a>\u201d games \u2013 there was plenty of technical information to absorb about aspirate vs glottal onset and thickfolds vs thinfolds. But when you are learning the techniques by meowing like a cat, or yelling \u201cYAA\u201d like a fishmonger, it doesn\u2019t really feel like work. By the end of the day we were belting out \u2018Amazing Grace\u2019 and anchoring against each other to reach the more challenging notes, everyone looking quietly chuffed.\u00a0<\/p>\n Hugely satisfying progress, yes, but Berry was quick to remind us that singing is a lifelong journey with much psychological work to be done. In fact, she reckons learning to receive a song is as important as delivering a song, which is how I ended the day sobbing rivers of tears, snot dripping around my chin, as the group sang Kavisha Mezella\u2019s \u2018We Are Angels<\/a>\u2019 at every person, one by one. We washed it down with \u2018Let It Be\u2019 and I went home to sleep for a week.\u00a0<\/p>\n As we all arrived back the next weekend for the second and final day of the course, everyone was much looser, louder, chattier. We marched around singing a warm-up ditty about apples on the farm, before settling in to learn all about crotchets and semi-quavers and the notes of the pentatonic scale. Think Julie Andrews doing \u2018Do-Re-Mi\u2019 in the Sound of Music, but with a slightly more romantic twist: \u201cti kisses do,\u201d said Berry, salaciously. \u201cAnd fa kisses mi.\u201d Ooh la la.\u00a0<\/p>\n At lunchtime I asked Berry something I\u2019ve always wondered about those with an ear for singing \u2013 can she tell how good a person is at singing from their speaking voice, or at least what vocal range they sit in? \u201cNo, but come with me,\u201d she replied, leading me over to the piano. Within moments, I was pitch-matching her keys like a sleazy lounge singer, delighted to soon have a new category with which to define myself. Alex. Virgo. Team Edward. Alto.\u00a0<\/p>\n Catching myself swaggering around the piano like Liza Minnelli, I realised just how much had already changed within me, and my classmates, in less than two days. It wasn\u2019t just about learning new techniques, but the mere act of trying something new, something scary, that had bonded this group of total strangers. \u201cOne needs to naturalise the experience of just trying something,\u201d said Berry. \u201cAnd develop a resilience for not always getting it right all the time.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n The specific health benefits of singing in a group are also widely-documented, from reducing cortisol levels<\/a>, to strengthening your immune system<\/a>, to connecting people so deeply that their heartbeats can even sync up<\/a>. A Canterbury District Health Board study on Berry\u2019s own Rockers of Ages choir found 66.7% of members increased their time spent with others through choir, and two thirds felt they had increased their overall wellbeing through singing in a choir.\u00a0<\/p>\n And while it is profoundly satisfying to hear the harmonies of \u2018E T\u016b Kahikatea\u2019, there is something even more urgent about coming together IRL in 2026. \u201cWe live in a very challenging time for a lot of people, and I believe the only way humanity is going to survive is for us to build our communities in a really strong way,\u201d said Berry. \u201cWe have to have hope that humans can keep organising themselves to connect and cooperate and share art like this.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Back in the room, as we launched into the biggest challenge of the course \u2013 singing solo \u2013 I was less concerned with how collective singing could save the world and more concerned that I might actually soil myself. We had learned the basics of sight-reading, and now were being tasked with singing two lines in front of everyone, one at a time. \u201cThis can feel humiliating and almost life-threatening,\u201d said Berry. \u201cBut remember: I am a grown-up and I am in control.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Reader, I was not in control. Wedged in the middle of the group, my palms started to drip with sweat and angry red hives spread across my neck as each person sang their \u2018mi\u2019s and their \u2018do\u2019s with aplomb, each met with rapturous applause. By the time it had got to the more nervous half of the class (curiously starting with moi), Berry instructed the rest of the group to lead in each singer by giving them the opening \u2018do\u2019 note to ease them into it.\u00a0<\/p>\n Immediately, my hellbent-on-harmony lizard brain took over and I Barry Gibb-ed it, careening in with a random high note that launched a subsequent cascade of equally random bum notes. I stopped myself. I was 12 years old again, shaking in the school hall, convinced the teacher was about to storm out on me. \u201cIt\u2019s OK,\u201d Berry said gently. \u201cTry again.\u201d This time I stood up, closed my eyes, took a deep breath and focussed. I am a grown-up, and I am in control.\u00a0<\/p>\n I couldn\u2019t tell you exactly what sounds I next emitted out of my mouth but, when I opened my eyes, Berry was still standing in front me, smiling and nodding warmly.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThat was perfect,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Can Alex Casey survive the wholesome community course that believes everyone can sing?\u00a0 I\u2019ll never forget the day…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":562263,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[4487,156,20499,111,139,69,1066,42591,2935],"class_list":["post-562262","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-christchurch","tag-entertainment","tag-hobbies","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-pop-culture","tag-singing","tag-society"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/562262","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=562262"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/562262\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/562263"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=562262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=562262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=562262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Berry has never met someone who couldn\u2019t sing. (Photo: Supplied)<\/p>\n
Hand games are a crucial part of Reclaim Your Voice. Image: Supplied<\/p>\n
Receiving a song is as important as delivering it. (Photo: Supplied)<\/p>\n
The many benefits of singing are well-documented. (Photo: Supplied)<\/p>\n