About Us

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As quite a shy but fun-loving child, I always had a passion for music.   Always singing and dancing around, making up my own silly songs and enjoying music but it was total play.  I was having fun; it wasn’t obvious to me that I had a talent for it. 

My earliest memories of the thrill of music were playing on the kitchen floor playing the drums on some upturned saucepans, getting a cassette player probably about the age of five and singing and dancing in my room to my favourite songs, I felt so grown up!  Around the same age, I think six years old there was a mix up for an after-school club and my club wasn’t on because the school orchestra had a final practise for a performance.  Whilst waiting to be picked up, I sat in the hall and watched in absolute awe at the ‘big kids’ playing their music… I was mesmerised by the glockenspiel and desperately wanted a go! 

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I couldn’t wait to be older to be part of their group.  When I think back now it was  probably a hot mess of

musical fun but to me, we could have been in the Albert Hall at the Last Night of the Proms!

Sadly, I was never to make that music group as I moved from Rayleigh to Braintree and to a different school but not only was I about to meet the best friends a girl could possibly have in life (Vickie and Julie) but my music

experience was to be thrown in a different direction.  Looking back on it now, a very important one that brought me to where I am today. 

I did however get to do one school play in Rayleigh, very excited.  I was a rabbit.  My Mum had made me an outfit and yes, we do have a photo but it’s under lock and key!  The reason I mention this is because my parents often comment on this day. As much as I like the fun of performing, I actually don’t like being front and centre…. I get a lot of pleasure seeing others being happy too.  On this occasion, I let all the other kids go first and I was then    behind a post.  My parents could only see my rabbit ears either side of the post!  I, however, was very happy   performing away and enjoying myself.  It didn’t bother me.  Fast forward forty years or so, this would appear to make no sense, and my parents find it incredible that their once shy daughter, who let’s everyone else go first, is now prancing around conducting at the front of a choir.  I do understand why they see it this way but to me it does make sense.  HSTV in my mind is not about me… I am facing my friends encouraging them to perform to their best abilities…. I can’t see the audience behind me… it’s not my ears they can see but my big bunny butt! Ha ha!

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The saying goes ‘I’m so glad I was taught recorder in school, very handy in my adult life, solved many a problem with a blast of Three Blind Mice!’…. does make me chuckle but it’s a good place to start a child when learning the basics of playing music. My music reading has not improved since those early primary days, but it taught me enough to get by and when I was eight (pretty much by chance having a sleepover at someone’s house who had a guitar) my instrument of choice became the guitar!  Lessons started and I threw myself in 100%.  I could sing and play along to songs purely again for the fun.

I have fond memories from this time, which seemed so everyday then but now I look back with a smile and with emotion.  Virtually every family get together I would be asked to play my guitar and demonstrate what I was learning, my Grandma and Grandpa particularly liked this and my Grandpa would request for me to play My Grandfather Clock for everyone to sing a long to, which they did with gusto.  It wasn’t until my adult life I understood the meaning of the song; it was stupidly one time when I was visiting my Grandpa in his care home where he was living with Dementia.  I would run music sessions for the residents and on this occasion, I said, ‘Oh Grandpa, lets sing your special song’.  We sang it, the meaning dawned on me whilst actually singing the song and it nearly killed me.  I don’t think I will ever sing it again but what a true demonstration of how a song can bring such joy and laughter and then cut you in half the next.  The power of music.

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I would practise in my room when I got home from school not thinking about who was listening.  I remember my Mum and Dad telling me how happy it made them when they heard me, and I remember feeling almost surprised but chuffed and they made me realise I could actually play to a good standard.  I was ready for more!  I joined the church Folk Group!

This turned out to be the real making of where I was going to go musically.  Playing in a group, you need to be aware of the other musicians, keep the same timing, when to play louder, softer, work out how you fit into the group.  For years I played with them, I could naturally hear the harmonies and felt the rhythm.  Fantastic group of people, that had me part of their gang almost until I got married and they played at my wedding too.  I naturally learnt music, it was fun.

On one occasion we put on a performance of Joseph and His Technicoloured Dream Coat. 

The photo is from that time.

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Now we jump forward to motherhood and moving to Little Oakley, Harwich. 

Three children under three years old.  Holly, Maisie and Tilly.  Mad, full-on chaos that I wouldn’t

change for the world.  Who needs to sleep and have their own life?!  It’s a bit of a blur looking

back at this time but what a lively and enjoyable time it was.  Money was tight and so quite naturally

I was entertaining the little dears myself. 

We had musical instruments, keyboards, guitars…… DRUMS ! Whoops!

Up to this point in my life my natural buffoonery was controlled, yes those that know me may well

disagree but becoming a mother fully released my childish goofiness. 

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I was in my element; it was if I was allowed to be silly and HSTV has just fuelled the fire!

Lots of music play and how funny that I am now doing the same music fun with my HSTV TOTS!

 

The children started school, I had already joined the music group at Our Lady Queen of Heaven Church and was back jamming on the guitar…. Hallelujah!

In short… the school pianist left, and with only CDs as a music option for the school I volunteered to play the  guitar for their weekly assembly’s.  Assemblies evolved to include weekly hymn practise, hymn practise evolved to include school choir.  Chatting with another school Mum was told that a certain ‘young’ man (who we now refer to as Gemm Senior!) also linked to the school, played the guitar also.  Got chatting with said man and asked if he wanted to jam with me in school assembly and the rest is history!

Jumping back to the Folk Group days.  A friend of mine Wendy (those that have been with HSTV for years will know her as the Barcelona lady, with the lungs of a cow…. Silly joke of mine that went wrong when I realised that cows have four stomachs, not four lungs!  Powerful singer basically… long story, we will move along!) who was also in the Folk Group back in Braintree was putting on a charity concert.  She has THE most incredible voice.  She asked me to accompany her on the guitar for one of her pieces and asked if my three little budding singing daughters would sing a song with her.  Over the Rainbow.  It was a lovely afternoon, and it got me   thinking!

I could put on a charity concert.  I have St Joseph’s School Choir, I could get a bunch of parents from the school playground and the church music group to come together… let’s do this I thought and so we did!       

Sell out concert, a LOT of fun bringing it all together… BOOM!

‘HEY! Let’s do a Christmas Concert’…. on it!

The following summer… shall we do another charity concert…. why the hell not! BOSH!   What I haven’t mentioned at this point is that I had a part time job in accounts based in Witham, a husband on shifts working for the Police, three super energetic primary school children with clubs, volunteering musically at the school and church and with all three children at school it was time to go back to work full time to bring in the bread so to speak! 

Something had to give, things were coming to an end at the school.  Going back to full time work, the music was stopping.

                                          Now…. She plays this down, but Vicky May (the ‘Bit of a Sort’ from the Alma Pub of Harwich Town!) has a                                                big role to play in what happens next.  She asked why not set this choir malarkey up properly.  She said                                                how much everyone had enjoyed the charity concerts and they didn’t want to wait a year before doing it                                                again.  In my head, I was thinking, it’s all very well that people say they will do something or join something                                            but sometimes in reality it doesn't happen.  SO, this was September 2012, and I thought, well I will give                                                  it a go and try it out until Christmas and review the situation then.  AND here we are!  You are reading the                                              wittering’s of middle-aged woman, teetering on the edge of sanity, who someday very soon will have a                                                  hormonal override!

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MUSIC is my life and the adventures we have had through Harwich Sing Tendring Voices are actually mind blowing!

I am going to share with you what happens next but let’s just take a moment to take note….

I do not have (apart from Grade 4 Classical Guitar ha ha!) any qualifications in music.

 

I have some very good friends who are highly qualified in the music world, and they are the most incredibly  talented people.  I adore them and all they achieve; I am in awe…. They blow my mind with how insanely talented they are and enjoy and celebrate all their achievements. I truly think they are wonderful.  I think I   approach music differently, it’s just a natural way I have developed over the years unknowingly really, it’s     important that we celebrate both styles, one is no better than the other…. It’s all wonderful music!

 

I genuinely believe that one of the factors of the success of Harwich Sing Tendring Voices is that the approach to music isn’t intimidating.  You don’t need to read music, you do not need to have a soloist’s voice, if you enjoy music and singing, I find a way of making you feel comfortable and create parts that work for all voices.  All the parts and harmonies to the songs we sing I arrange myself, it’s all in my head.  We go with the flow, and I adjust and make things up as we go along, as and when needed.  Don’t ask me to create a score of my

arrangements… I can’t!  I could sing you every part… that’s the best I can do. 

I have created a way of teaching through (believe it or not), colour and squiggles… even the highly talented and music knowledgeable Gemm has started using my terminology (it was a proud day for me)!  It’s amazing how many twiddly bits and da da da parts we have in a song!  But to us it makes perfect sense! Back me up HSTV singers !! Actually, you will!  You are about to shine on the big stage… there’s your proof!

What happened next….

 

I carried on working part time in accounts, I still ran around after my fabulous kiddy-winks, and I set up Harwich Sing KID’S choir (two classes, little ones and big ones) which my children were part of too and one Harwich Sing ADULT choir class a week.

The choirs developed and grew and grew and grew! 

Before we knew it the older KIDS in the choir were teen’s and so NEXGEN was formed as they wanted to sing more ‘grown up’ songs.

We started being part of community and charitable events and on one visit to sing at a care home I was quite overcome on the difference that music and singing had on the residents!  I couldn’t help myself… I had to do more!  I started doing ‘Sing a Long’ sessions in care homes, the results were incredible, an emotional experience that I have cried many a tear over and laughed until my big old belly hurts!

Again… I thought I have to do more.  There are others living in the community not in care homes that would

really benefit from this too.  The music really connects us, we reminisce, we socialise, and it gives us a spring in our step and so Singing to the GOLDEN OLDIES came to be.  Same situation happened again… the fantastic Acorn Village for adults with learning difficulties.  The start of what has been beyond question one of the most extraordinary adventures I have been fortunate enough to be part of – sing a long session with a whole dollop of the unexpected thrown in!  Right up my street.

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We had people travelling from Colchester, Clacton and Manningtree to be part of the adult choir and requests were made for me to run more classes.  A small choir in Little Clacton approached me as they had no musical   director and so our first ‘out of town’ class started. Two adult choir classes a week, one in Harwich and the other in Little Clacton.

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As you will understand from the previous pages of prattling on, I had no idea whether this ‘singing thing’

had legs and so when I named us Harwich Sing, it just didn’t occur to me that I may spread out of

Harwich and that I ought to have a wider-spanning name.  But it was important that we acknowledged

that our marvellous warblers were now coming in from further afield. And so… Tendring Voices was

added to the end of the choir’s name.

Everything was wonderful, I had an idea and ran with it.  We now had two KIDS classes, two adult

classes, one Nexgen class, one Golden Oldies and one Acorn session a week and care home sing a

long sessions to boot.  I was still working, I still had three wonderful daughters growing up... but due to

pure passion and unbounded enthusiasm for spreading the joy of music, I was burning out. 

Something had to give and this time I didn’t even consider dropping the music! 

Dare I go fully self-employed?

Big step, big risk… music and everyone’s happiness were important, but my family’s wellbeing came first. 

I needed to be sure I could keep a roof over our heads!  I should also say that my hardworking, supporting and

ever suffering husband obviously had our backs too but we are a team… was I putting too much pressure on our

shoulders with even contemplating full self-employment?

I think you can tell from the manuscript so far that I have been blessed with a wonderful family.  A few wise words and a supportive hand hold from a very special member of my family helped me take the big giant leap into the world of fully self-employed Harwich Sing Tendring Voices.  I will be forever grateful.

 

No longer drowning, I was able to carry on the dream!

I was enjoying the fact that so many people from all walks of life and all ages were getting great happiness through HSTV, but it then occurred to me that there was a generation missing out! Babies and toddlers! 

I had many happy a year with my own children playing with music, so it was natural for me to form HSTV TOTS. 

The adult choir was coming along nicely but it was important to have a good representation of all adult ages in the group, and it was noticeable that one age group were struggling to attend the evening classes.  The parents with young children.  It was bath and bedtime for the kids when a choir class was on.  So, morning choir sessions started and before long they also included a free creche, so the children had fun, while the parents enjoyed choir life!

It was then only fair to set up a kid’s choir class in Little Clacton as we had an adult choir there and so that started and with many requests, I then started a kid’s choir class in Manningtree to save the parents having to drive back and forth.

So… recap… One tots class, four kids’ classes, one Nexgen class, three adult classes, one Acorn class, one Golden class and care homes.

 

BOOM – Pandemic!  One year into being fully self-employed…. Not a good place to be. For anyone I know. 

 

How do you keep a choir going when you can’t see each other.  How do we keep connected through music?

This chapter of Harwich Sing Tendring Voices was very challenging but amid the worry, despair, endless filming of classes to send out to everyone digitally, there was creativity making on steroids! 

 

My eldest child Holly had just qualified as a videographer (thank the Lord) and had just set up her own business HollyVision Digital Productions as this all happened.  Without her help and a LOT of patience with her mother, I just wouldn’t have been able to keep connected with all the groups.  My other two daughters Maisie and Tilly also stepped up and were in the videos with me. 

This was particularly right out of Maisie’s comfort zone and yet she still (with the help of a disguise … if you know, you know!) went out of her way to do her bit.  I can hear Tilly at this point saying,  ‘What the hell!’ ha ha… as her face could be seen on camera and definitely got the raw end of the deal!!  I owe all three of them so much for all they did.  It is worth looking up the bloopers film we released at the end of that nightmare period, it is very funny. 

There is no doubt we did go stir crazy, the creativity was quite left field by the end and there were some  moments of pure insanity that probably should be destroyed in case they ever make it into a history archive of that time!

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But survive we did and when we were allowed to get back to outside life again, I came

out of the starting gate running!  Yes, HSTV was still going but we were running on

empty, I had some amazingly supportive members with me the whole ride but quite

understandably the majority of the group were waiting for face-to-face classes to resume. 

The question, would they come back?

In answer yes, they did and so did many other newbies.  Everyone

desperate to have a life again and music being so healing in so many ways helped

us all tremendously.

The gate was open, and I was running as I’ve said.  To add to the other established classes, I also set up a

Manningtree adult class (which we had started by Zoom in the hiding at home days), another TOTS class in

Manningtree.  I was approached by Harwich Town Council, Manningtree and District Dementia Support Group and Harwich Arts & Heritage Centre to run Golden Oldies dementia friendly sessions for them, meaning that all people coming to these sessions can come for free…. Even better.  I then had a privately funded request to start one in Thorpe too.  Living the Golden Oldies dream!

The older members of Nexgen who have been with me since kids were keen to set up another group separate from Nexgen as they were now young adults, we did this too… it is known as HSTV Prodigy.

 

So, we are two tot’s classes, three kid’s classes, one Nexgen class, four adult’s classes, four Golden oldies sessions a week and one Acorn and Prodigy session a month…. Enough I hear you all say and yes you are probably right… but no… one more!

I had a call. 

A Blind Veterans Choir needed a musical director as their current lovely lady was leaving.  Without a musical

director the group would fold.  Could I help?  The request was to take it on, not only musically but to build the group up.  Invite other veterans and their families to be part of the group.  I went to meet them.  There was no turning back.  They had my heart, I couldn’t walk away and crash, bang, wallop I was on my next adventure! Threw myself in and we were off. 

Group nicely building up, they were getting used to the slightly ditzy woman at the helm. Eight months in we were advised that their funding was not going to be available for too much longer and so I was on a new mission.  We couldn’t let this lifeline of a group stop.  Emergency Clare was deployed and thanks to THE most amazing

volunteers coming forward, we have volunteer drivers, a committee, we are currently under the umbrella of The Harwich Festival Charity, but we are in the midst of setting up as Veteran’s Sing Charity.  The group is totally

reliant on the generosity of others to run.

But run we do, and they are the cherry on the already yummy cake!  They complete the HSTV family… so here we are! 

Best not to request any more groups, all requests are now through Mr Leach who through it all has been at my side.  His emotional, over sensitive wife who can’t say no…. well, sometimes I can ! ha ha! has given him a run for his money.  I think you will agree, the question ‘How did Harwich Sing Tendring Voices come to be?’, is not a quick answer!  But I class myself as one of life’s most luckiest of people. 

I mean I’m shattered… but boy has it been worth it!

 

If you are still awake after all my ramblings… You are a super fan! Thankyou for supporting HSTV!  Clare xx

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