There is a woman named Betty at a nursing home where I play who loves to sing. The only trouble is, she is very loud and only knows the first verse which she will repeat over and over while everyone else is trying to sing the right verse. When I first started singing with her months ago, I would try to correct her or control the flow of the song. I've since started letting her lead the songs and that works much better.Now before I sing a song, I make sure she is ready and I start it and then give it over to her.
"She'll be comin' round the mountain when she comes
"She'll be comin' round the mountain when she comes
"She'll be comin' round the mountain when she comes
"She'll be comin' round the mountain when she comes
"She'll be comin' round the mountain when she comes
"She'll be comin' round the mountain when she comes... etc (laughing and dancing)
I manage to get in another verse:
"She'll be driving six white horses when she comes
She'll be driving six white horses when she comes
She'll be driving six white horses when she comes...
and then..you guessed it... on and on the same line until the end.
What I love is that the others in the room are good natured about it too. Sometimes when everyone is singing another verse and Betty is still on the first line, and I am somewhere in between them both trying to hear myself (who is also severely hearing challenged!) things get a little crazy but we all laugh and clap at the end of each song.
"Ho ho!" Betty laughs, "we are doing this quite nicely" she says, very satisfied with herself. Sometimes she comes and gives me a high five after a song. "I really like that one!"
My mother used to tell me I marched to a different drummer. Well, how about some who sing to a different tune? As long as we enjoy ourselves, that is all that matters, isn't it?
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