17 years on: what’s changed?

17 years ago I led one of my first residential singing weekends. The theme was the Beach Boys. Beach Boys singing weekend, September 2009, Farncombe Estate The other weekend, I was in Derbyshire leading another of my (rare) Beach Boys weekends. It got me thinking about all the things that have happened since 2009. Three of the singers who came in 2009 also came to my recent weekend. Apart from the obvious — we all looked 17 years older! — what else has changed? Here are seven things that came up for me. I’ve got better at what I do — although I still get very nervous before leading a singing workshop, I notice that I am more proficient and relaxed, and can teach songs more effectively (as well as deal with any problems that might arise) More people are interested in singing together these days — my residential weekends regularly sell out. When I ran my first one, it just about broke even. When I joined the Natural Voice Network back in 2001, there were around 60 members, and I knew…