Loadsaweeminsingin, or my Scottish singing experience

One of the first things I did when I arrived to Dundee was to join a singing group.  After having not sung with any organized group since leaving Arizona in 2010, it was a priority for me to find a choir. Not only do I like to sing, I was (and am) pursuing some work-life balance.  Singing is for ME, not my boss or my husband or my kids. And I really lucked out.  Literally before we even moved into our rental house here in Dundee, I found a women's singing group (official name: Women's Singing Group) on the Internet.  The references to the group were a couple of years old, so I worried the group might not still be around, but the email address still worked and I was able to register over email, and get instructions to go to the local professional theater for a rehearsal the following Monday night.

I wasn't quite sure what I was in for. I had been in Scotland less than 2 weeks. But I wanted to sing, and these women were singers. So I walked in, to a room of approximately 40 women who all seemed to know each other very well, and who were not just "Women's Singing Group" but "Loadsaweeminsingin" (or Loads of Women Singing, for the non-Scots speakers :-). And then it turned out that all the singing was by ear, just a sheet of words in front of you, and no music. But a few ladies, especially Molly, a fellow soprano, welcomed me, and two hours flew by. I wasn't used to singing regularly, much less singing by ear, so I concentrated intently on parroting back what our tutor, Sarah, sang to us, and singing what the other sopranos (the ones who had been in the group for two or five or, in one case, almost 20 years) were singing. It was a lot of fun, and a lot of work.

Now that I've been in the group for seven months, singing by ear is a lot easier, though still frustrating at times.  I am amazed at the longevity of the group (we're about to celebrate the 20th birthday of this group in early June 2014), and how much singing with them teaches me about being Dundonian (from Dundee).  For the 20th Birthday program, we're singing 12 songs. Three are African, including Nkosei Sikeleli, the national anthem of South Africa, which the group has a history of singing. I actually even sang it with them shortly after Nelson Mandela died.  The other nine songs are Scottish, with an emphasis on the factory past of Dundee (Women O' Dundee, Alice's Song) and a local Dundonian singer/songwriter who recently passed away, Michael Marra. And of course, it can't be Scotland without a connection to Robert Burns - were closing our Birthday show with a song for which he wrote music and words, Green Grow the Rashes.

Without Loadsaweeminsingin, I would know far less about the history of Dundee.  I would know far less about the issues that concern Dundonian women, past and present. I would know far less about what a group of 40 (or more) determined women can accomplish with the help of an energetic tutor who knows each woman by name and brings out the best in everyone.  I still sing for ME, but with Loadsaweeminsingin, I also feel like I am singing for US, the women of Dundee.

To give you a bit of an idea of how Dundee's past shows up in our music (and to hear a bit of a Dundee accent), listen to Sheena Wellington singing Women O'Dundee   (note: I tried to embed this as a Youtube video but since I can only find it on Youtube UK, and Blogger only wants to go to Youtube.com...a link is it.  And if you can't figure out what she's saying, check out Words to Women O' Dundee, with some translation.