The very title seems misleading, "Phillips Breathless choir"- it is a paradox. Claire, a young woman who loved to sing at one point in her life, dropped into a coma for three weeks, and suffered from lung failure, needing to use an oxygen tank from that point forward in her life. Lawrence, a 9/11 first responder lost 1/3 of his lung function after the attacks and had not sung since 2001. There were many others who had breathing difficulties resulting from, but not limited to: cystic fibrosis, vocal hemorrhages, asthma with an auto-immune conditions, collapsed lungs. These were people who had weakened lungs, who had never imagined that they would ever be able to sing. Garreth Malone, a 40 year old English choirmaster and broadcaster, put these people together in a choir, and taught them how to sing for the first time in their whole lives, or to relearn it five days ! On the first day in the video, it's shown that inevitably, people were hardly able to get through a word or phrase of a song without coughing, their voice cracking, or end up wheezing at the end. He began doing vocal exercises with the choir, telling them that breathing for singing merely "needs a little bit of thought, and a little bit of warming up." After five days, they performed at the world famous Apollo Theater. Watching them sing is inspirational, moving, amazing- just something beyond what words can describe. In their performance they were a full fledged choir- they never thought they would be able to sing through a phrase, let alone flawlessly, in harmony, and even b e l t i n g. These are people who could hardly sing one word five days before. This is one of the most truly awe-inspiring things I have ever seen, showing what you can do with just a little bit of vocal coaching, and moreover, the boundless healing power of music. If these people can do it in five days, there's no denying that anybody else can too. I encourage you all to watch this, it is definitely worth your time.
Wow! They are amazing. I think that this shows that for those people who always say they can't do it(including me) should watch this and realize that these people aren't going to be in perfect health yet they are fighting through it and achieveing what they want to do and no one is going to stop them. I definitely am going to rethink what i say whenever i say i can't do it because i am in good health(wel mild asthma) but they have something worse yet there they are doing it.
ReplyDeleteWow! They are amazing. I think that this shows that for those people who always say they can't do it(including me) should watch this and realize that these people aren't going to be in perfect health yet they are fighting through it and achieveing what they want to do and no one is going to stop them. I definitely am going to rethink what i say whenever i say i can't do it because i am in good health(wel mild asthma) but they have something worse yet there they are doing it.
ReplyDeleteThis video really shows how practice, coaching, and believing in yourself can make the world of difference in everything you do, and its just beautiful to see that happening in the world of music, which has the ability to bring people together in so many different ways. The video's message of uniting people who have health issues to overcome barriers and sing once again reminded me so much of music therapy and the articles Ive read on the healing attributes of the arts, and music. Music activates parts of the brain that really can help someone recover from serious conditions such as trauma, or even alzheimer's. I really suggest looking into it. Heres the website if you're interested.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.musictherapy.org/
I think this was so beautiful and inspiring, but also very interesting. Often our own preconceived notions of how to sing are influenced by artists we like or ways we've seen other people sing before, but these people started singing with kind of a blank slate which really gave them the opportunity to develop as singers without any already-developed wrong technique getting in the way.
ReplyDeleteThis is truly inspiring that someone spent their time re-teaching these people how to sing. It seems like a less common form of helping people that can make so much of a difference. I am not sure when this happened/ was filmed, but being able to sing again, especially if it was near the holidays would be so wonderful. I can not imagine what it would be like to be unable to sing during the holiday season. Anyway, it is incredible that they could perform after just five days of learning. I am so glad that I watched the video because it is so beautiful to watch everyone on their way to learning how to sing. I think that when you have a group or similar people all learning together, it can be so much more exciting to learn how to sing. This also shows how by believing in yourself and trying new things, even if you thought you would never be able to do them, you can accomplish your dreams and most likely exceed your expectations of yourself. The smiles on all of their faces when they could sing without their voices cracking of coughing was so amazing to watch. Thank you so much for posting this, I will definitely be sharing this with other friends and family.
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