THE newly formed Settle Voices community choir wants to hunt out traditional and modern songs about life in the Dales.

The choir evolved from a series of free singing workshops organised last autumn by Craven College and Yorkshire Dales Workshops.

The group is now hoping to carry out a year-long project to uncover local tunes and lyrics.

Settle Voices works with professional natural voice teacher Janet Russell to learn and perform songs.

The aim is to work towards giving free performances at local events, organise singing workshops and to set up a web diary to make the material widely available.

The group's organiser, Caroline Milne, said: "Last autumn's workshops generated such enthusiasm that we just had to find a way to keep going.

"The people who came along were amazed at how quickly we could learn a new song and then sound really good.

"We performed at the Settle Flag Festival in May giving a taste of South African, Lap, German and English songs."

Craven District Council has already given the choir £200 to help them get going.

The group meets every Monday between 1pm and 3pm at Settle Friends Meeting House.

"All songs are learned by ear, so no prior musical knowledge is needed.

"The natural voice approach believes that singing is natural to all human societies and folk songs are pitched for everybody to join in. New singers would be very welcome," said Caroline.

The next public performance by Settle Voices will be at their fundraising ceilidh in Austwick Village Hall on Saturday October 25.