Having just returned from a singing tour along the Camino. Ingles to Santiago – I am fascinated by the power of music and song to inspire the pilgrims over the centuries. Walking and singing feels such a natural thing to do and perhaps we have lost that bodily connection of pulse and rhythm and yet so many songs use that as their underlying beat. 

For me in particular it was a very special moment to feel that I had finally arrived in Santiago and I am taking some time to ponder on what singing and teaching singing means to me. That is what a pilgrimage is all about reflecting on where we are in our lives. And of course, our relationship with our God. The spiritual truths we long for and the sharing of our stories with one another just as Chaucer discovered. All life is there on the Camino and in spite of the inevitable rain, it was a great experience.

We sang in a variety of acoustics and once again I was struck with the difficulty our aural perception can cope different spaces to sing in. It takes a little while to adjust especially when the acoustic becomes so big that we can only hear ourselves and no other parts in the choral mix. 

Still we managed it and it was a good learning curve for the whole choir. More thoughts on this later!