But I did learn this:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/09/opinion/09mccallsmith.htm

It appears there's an orchestra of people who are not very good at their instruments. They get together and play through music they like.

They call themselves the Really Terrible Orchestra.

Now, I doubt they're really terrible, but I don't doubt that they're not fantastic. And yet they sell out their concerts.

Perhaps people like coming to hear people perform music with great joy and perhaps too much reckless abandon. Whatever the reason, there's something funny and something encouraging about this.

It's funny because we like to laugh at people who are imperfect. Sarcasm at the expense of others is one of this decade's best selling flavors. And, to be fair, sucky music is funny.

But I don't think that's the primary reason. I think people are a bit fed up with the constant mad dash toward perfection and fame. Reality shows abound, and they're all about winning. And many are about art. But how can just one person possibly win at art? If you do it right, everyone wins!

Our ancestors all used to make music. Every night. Around a campfire, wherever they were (go back far enough and it was the same campfire).

And did they play instruments? Probably not. They sang.

That's right, everyone used to sing all the time. And was it great? Probably not, at least by a modern music critic's standards. It was probably more like a conversation than a perfectly delivered speech, which is what music too often is nowadays.

So, I'm hereby calling for the formation of a Really Terrible Chorus. Somewhere, somehow.

I don't care what you sing, I don't care when. I just care that you do it.

Make noise. A joyful noise. A barbaric yawp. Whatever.

Hopefully others will join you, and we'll be able to break the cycle of audience-performer and replace it with the original paradigm, which is this:

Everyone can sing, and if you like to, you should.

And anyone who tells you otherwise is really terrible.
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Comments (8)

	1. Written by Resurgam13 on 21-05-2008 14:52 - Registered
	Joyful Noise We do, indeed, take ourselves way too seriously sometimes. And your point, Deke, is well taken.    The resistance I encounter every time I try to pull a party crowd or a small audience into participation is often discouraging, but the rewards are wonderful when it works. While technical excellence is a worthy goal, the joy of musical performance for its own sake (as opposed to critical approval) is something that makes the world a better place to live in.    Full speed ahead with a Terrible Chorus!

	2. Written by JonathanMinkoff on 21-05-2008 15:43 - Registered
	Joyful Noise Deke,     As always, another great article. I find that I totally agree and disagree with you. :-)    Recently, I decided I needed to update my music collection a bit more actively, so I went to listen to a great number of current artists.     I was unimpressed and a little disheartened with the great sea of mediocrity in which I found myself drifting.    I review RARB CDs all the time. Most are middle of the road. There is a greater prevalence of technical excellence, to be sure. But great artistry is still in desperately short supply.     So while a Terrible Chorus might be funny and it might also be liberating for the souls of its members -and for that reason should be encouraged- I still think that the quest for artistic perfection should be one we adopt with renewed passion.    The performance experience is joyous at almost every level. But the creation of true beauty in art is, at least for me, something so much greater, something transcendent. And so very rare.     We really need more of that.

	3. Written by Kingslider on 21-05-2008 23:21 - Registered
	Touche People will forgive us for missing a few notes; who will forgive us for being boring?    Singing is good.

	4. Written by Jesus on 22-05-2008 06:29 - Registered
	Artistry Jonathan,    It's also possible that the experience, which I agree would be a liberating one for its members, would have the power to free them from their need for technical perfection. Once they can see beyond that, maybe the experience would make true artists out of some of them.    Never a guarantee, of course, but the Really Terrible Orchestra does clearly make the point that technical perfection is not why (or at least not ALL of why) people go to see music.     =)

	5. Written by bigSteve on 22-05-2008 14:34 - Registered
	yes they can! creating something has to start somewhere. If you've ever looked at a sketchbook of a great artist before he/she became great, you will likely see hundreds of imperfect sketches of just an arm, or a tree, or some such object before any masterpiece was ever created.     We should try to break the unfortunate paradigm of doers and watchers, where the doers can only be the "best of the best" because everybody else is afraid of "messing up". What does "the best of the best" mean anyway? If people really want to do instead of watch....well...yes they can! (to quote a certain presidential candidate) - but they have to start somewhere, and a terrible chorus might be such a place.

	6. Written by chadberg on 23-05-2008 08:50 - Registered
	A Barbarian Yawp. Maybe a Whatever. There seems to be two kinds of art going on here; one is art for art's sake, where it isn't the quality of the product that matters as much as actually getting up and *making* something. And then there's the polished, aim-for-perfection high quality product intended to be shared.    There's room for both, certainly, but there's definitely a push with popular media (the Reality talent shows and Clear Channel stations are only part of the problem) that the only good music is professional music, and that anyone else might as well give up and not try. I know lots of people who love to sing, but never do anything with it because they feel they're not 'good enough'.    And yet, we have professional athletes, who compete on television and on the radio, and sell tickets to thousands of patrons a day; this is no different than professional musicians. Similarly, we have collegiate and grade school level athletic and music programs, and no one thinks it odd of any student to be involved in either or both. The big difference is that after college, people will still play sports; pickup games, office leagues, play with their kids, whatever. No one feels like they can't join a bowling league or play in the office softball team just because they'll never be able to play at a professional level.    Sign me up for RTC. Any others in the Boston area want to join me?

	7. Written by DekeSharon on 24-05-2008 13:12 - Registered
	Excellence in everything? Jonathan,    No doubt. I'm exhausted by the mediocre as much as the next person.    But should people not speak unless they have something brilliant to say?    Singing is a form of speech. Communication.    Yes, we should (and do) revere great speakers and great speeches.    But we should also all be comfortable just talking.

	8. Written by DekeSharon on 24-05-2008 18:31 - Registered
	Excellence in everything? Or only let James Joyce write? Should I not be posting this email, for it's abject mediocrity?:

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