My daughter sings in the chamber choir at her school, which is having a big anniversary celebration at the Barbican next month. It's a girls school, so they're perennially short of tenors and basses, with the result that somehow, I've been inveigled into joining the tenor section.
If you're a web afficionado, you'll know the word "newbie" used by tech geeks to describe, usually with derision, people who are new to the web or to a particular site. Let's be clear: when it comes to choral singing, I'm a newbie. Although I sing a fair amount, I've never had a singing lesson, never learned to sight-sing a note, and the last time I sang in a choir was over 40 years ago in school (mind you, that was for the première in Westminster Central Hall of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, so at least I can claim to be going for the big occasions).
My first rehearsal is happening in a few hours time, so there's been frantic practice over the week-end using all the technology I can get my hands on, i.e. a download of Zadok the Priest that I can sing along with and a MIDI file of the tenor part that can be slowed down to half speed: essential for those tricky semiquaver runs that Handel is so fond of.