HAPPY NEW (CHOIR) YEAR

Thanks this month to Paul for  as fine summary of September's events.  

 

After a 5 week break we are back on Tuesday evenings in Ordsall. The first rehearsal was great with only a few cries of ‘how does this one go?’ and ‘what are the words in this one?’ All in all a successful return and preparation for our first performance of the year at the Victoria Baths.

Sunday 11^th September saw us return to The Victoria Baths to help in their 110 year anniversary celebrations. The Gala Pool bath  was filled with water thus presenting many temptations to play ‘Dunk the MD’! There was a good audience for both performances, around 50 people each session, and we made a good sound with the water in the pool making for a nice acoustic.

Tuesday 13^th brought the news that Mel and Sue had left. No not two of our ladies but the Bake-Off version and this clearly was the cause of the apocalyptic weather! Indeed, the weather delayed some people, caused others not to be able to get there and left some looking like they had swum to rehearsal! In view of the weather, it was deemed not politic to sing Blue Skies, I Think It’s Going To Rain or Deep River!! Nonetheless, it was a good rehearsal preparation for the weekend events and we did in fact welcome some new members to choir.

Sunday 18^th saw us perform twice in the morning at the Victoria Warehouse Wedding Show and in the afternoon at the Ordsall Allotments Society. We were expertly directed by Daisy, as Flipper was swimming 8 miles at Windermere! It was a good performance with just the oddity of singing Holly Jolly Christmas for a lady who is likely to book us for her wedding in Dec 2017!

In the afternoon we headed just down the road to our spiritual home in Ordsall. We were here to see the ornamental pond which we have sponsored and to help inaugurate the bench in the gardens in memory of Roy, one of our founding members. Tea and coffee were provided as well as a buffet lunch and the bench was dedicated by the Mayor of Salford. We then performed a short set which was very well received in the warm sunshine.

And finally, congratulations to Alto’d Images who came 3^rd if the quiz at Victoria Baths. Well done ladies!

What a repertoire: a month of rehearsals, April 2014

April has been an odd month. Easter has fallen very late this year so there have been two weeks of school holidays in the middle. Families go away but for different weeks. So, not always the same blend of voices at each rehearsal. Plus we also had a one week break and breaks always make a difference.    

We’re coming to the end of an intense period of rehearsal and heading towards a busy schedule of  performances, with just those two at the end of March to kick-start our year.   

So, it was good to conclude the month by going through virtually everything we know. What a lot there is. But: or rather two buts.

·         Despite whipping through each song very quickly and working from about 7.10 to 8.05 and then 8.25 to 9.15 we didn’t quite cover everything.

·         Some we didn’t know as well as we thought we did.

This really was a good opportunity for us to see where the sticking points are. And there were some surprises:

·         Some pieces we’ve always been very confident about – including one that’s almost become our signature piece – need tidying up.

·         One we’ve not tried for a while and have always found tricky worked rather well.  

It seems that with some pieces we can get overconfident and slightly bored. We lose concentration, start making mistakes and even reinforce those mistakes. Conversely we seem to carry on improving on something we haven’t touched for a while. Is it perhaps just a function of concentration again? We know this is going to be challenging so we really focus.

Yes, yes, we should really focus all of the time but when you’ve had a challenging day and the music feels easy, the mind drifts. Good that at that point we’re pulled up.   

Still, it was very encouraging to realise how diverse and extensive our repertoire is and to be able to pinpoint where we need some more work.   

Getting the sound right out in front: a month of rehearsals September 2013

We’re getting back into the swing of things after the summer break. We’ve already performed at two gigs this month, we’ve a few more coming up and we’re getting ready for the North Wales Competition early November. That means some hard work at rehearsals. But we don’t mind that.  It’s good to know we are continuously building on what we know, improving old skills and learning new ones.

Jeff continues to emphasize getting good vowel sounds. We’ve practised not moving our chins, not changing the shape of our mouths and doing all of the work with our tongue and palette. We’ve been shown how to project the sound forward instead of it staying in our nose and throat. That, of course is also helped if we breathe correctly. However, we must not, no we must not indeed, breathe in the wrong places or take great gasping breaths at the beginning of a phrase. Good, controlled breathing is highly desirable.

We’re working quite quickly on a new song, Ave Verum. This can be quite dramatic and also quite solemn. It’s actually harder to get that drama into it before we’ve learned it.  We have to learn it quickly because we are going to perform it at the North Wales competition. We need to present one song in another language and this of course is in Latin.

“It’s easy to learn,” says Jeff. “Apart from the tenor part.”

Ah. In fact in many places there are parts for tenor 1s – sung by the ladies - and tenor 2s – presented by the men.

We continue as well perfecting Here, There and Everywhere, polishing Let’s Do It and keeping the rest of our repertoire in good condition. And we remember not to look at the floor, but to tell the story and to keep our eyes bright. Hard work, this singing. But we enjoy it and we’re convinced it’s good for us.