Image: “If you can speak, you can sing”: Armidale vocal instructor Inge Southcott. She had the 65 Skeptics In The Pub rocking the Railway on Tuesday night.

The sound of sixty-five people loudly singing “Row Row Row Your Boat” echoed out into Rusden Street on Tuesday night as Skeptics In The Pub sang for their supper.

Armidale vocal instructor, Inge Southcott, conducted the audience in a rousing rendition at the Railway Hotel.

Earlier, she presented a personal case-history of what happens when scientific discovery collides with magical thinking.

“Throughout human history, up until fifty years ago, it was thought that control of the diaphragm was the key to good singing,” Inge said.

“Then, while I was studying in Sydney, along came fibre-optic laryngoscopes and spectral analysis. At last, the complexity of pitch, harmonics and rate of vibrato were finally revealed and control of the diaphragm was no longer the dominant technique.”

Inge was well-placed to introduce new techniques. She had given up a career as a medical practitioner to study music and had been singing at an elite level with the Australian Opera.

“Initially, many singing teachers resisted and did not want to abandon their traditional unscientific methods. As a skeptic, I understood that the science needed to prevail and, over the years, despite initial resistance, it has done so.”

The next Skeptics In The Pub is at 6pm on Tuesday August 20 at the Railway Hotel.

Guest speaker is Armidale’s Integral Health GP, Dr James Meyer, whose presentation is designed to challenge and entertain.

His topic is: “So You Think You’re an Expert?” Skeptical Critical Thinking Vs. Cynical Anti-Intellectualism.

He will explore the growing phenomenon of people mistrusting and rejecting expert advice, across all of the professions, because they have done their own research on the internet and are confident that they know best.