There are many people who are not professional singers.

Among those many, there are still those of you who enjoy singing. But, unless you have the time and opportunity to join a musical group, you may not get the chance to practice as you should.

(Bellowing in the car or in the shower, however enjoyable, isn't proper "practice".)

So - you get a membership at the hymnasium. Perhaps you already know what you need to work on: breath control, tone support, vowel coloration... or perhaps you're not sure, and would like some assistance in discovering how you're doing with respect to intonation, timbre, phrasing, or whatever.

The practice rooms start with the private booth. Soundproofed so your singing doesn't interfere with others, you can adjust it to be sonically live (shower) or dead (coat closet). Each booth is equipped with professional-grade headphones (please bring, or rent, suitable clean earcovers), and a good quality sound playback and recording system. (Inside the headphones, you can have an electronic acoustic profile - anything from 'pub' to 'Sydney Opera House'.) You can get a good amount of feedback (data, not audio squeals) about your practice session from the built-in computer and its various software packages.

If you bring a flash drive, you can jack it into the USB port to get a recording of your session, along with your reports.

You can sing from memory or from music; acapella or accompanied, solo or ensemble. You can provide your own recordings or MIDI files, or can borrow from the extensive library. (To keep costs and copyright problems to a minimum, the library concentrates on public-domain music; much of which is from older sources. Since this includes a large portion of sacred music... well, that's where the name comes from.) (Don't feel limited, though - if you want something raunchy, the baroque Italian madrigals, for instance, have you covered.)

If you've brought your ensemble in vivo rather than recorded, there are larger rooms with capacity for small groups. These also contain the same computer audio equipment as the booths.

There are always a number of vocal coaches on hand, this being a prime employer of music majors from the local uni.

So - come on in, make some sweet tunes, get your blood oxygen and dopamine levels up, stimulate some brain activity, and get your confidence to the point you don't have to be drunk to karaoke.

And you don't end up in a sweat, either.
-- lurch, May 07 2016

I love. Makes me want to burst out and sing an aria. Oh yeah. I'd go.
-- blissmiss, May 07 2016


Or there's the karaoke bar down the street...
-- RayfordSteele, May 08 2016


OK, Ray, try this: go there and spend twenty minutes practicing the mellisma lines from "Unto Us a Child is Born", from Handel's "Messiah". Let me know the feedback you get from the patrons.
-- lurch, May 09 2016


[+] but I can't help but feel the employees, rather than being musicians, would have to be tone deaf.

//For Unto Us//
You could probably get a good bit of applause if you managed "Thus Saith The Lord" at full tilt.

Having a pro chamber choir knock out Bohemian Rhapsody at the local pub is generally worth about 2-3 drinks each. :D
-- FlyingToaster, May 09 2016


I'm a bass, so mellisma is a rarity. And the feedback I got from doing Handel's Messiah was quite good, although we weren't at the karaoke bar at the time.
-- RayfordSteele, May 09 2016


This sounds like the opposite of Sacred Harp singing. I'd love to see some live and even possibly participate.
-- lepton, May 09 2016


// I'm a bass//

Perhaps 'Die Forelle' might suit your taste?
-- TomP, May 10 2016


Catchy tune, a psalm on tap for any occasion, that.
-- FlyingToaster, May 10 2016


No no no, TomP, not a trout. A bass. Largemouth variety... You might have seen it attached to a board with the words 'Bigmouth Billy' below it.
-- RayfordSteele, May 10 2016


Who's Forelle, and what have you got against her, [Tom]?
-- MaxwellBuchanan, May 10 2016



random, halfbakery