Mulling things over

Well nothing new has happened as far as the group is concerned but I have continued to prepare our next meeting, at least mentally.

I was really pleased with how the first part of "Jesus On The Mainline" sounded and have been trying to memorise the different harmonies of the rest of it. The main difficulty is that there is a major part for a soloist. I was hoping to have the sopranos sing that but the way it is written includes lots of accidentals which I'm not sure they will find easy to learn. The sound is more for someone with jazz/blues experience; I wonder if a dozen voices can get the same twiddly effect? It seems quite natural to me as that's the kind of music I grew up hearing my mum sing but I know people with a more 'classical' musical background have trouble imagining the harmony.

What makes this song quite difficult to memorise are the different response-style entry points for the different voices as I've never heard the song actually sung before, except in my head! It's like having a whole pile of lego and knowing it's going to make a great helicopter but you have to put all the pieces in the correct order! I guess if we all plod forwards together we'll make it eventually.

Another question I haven't answered yet is whether we should sing a cappella or accompanied. I would prefer to do without instruments and highlight voices but there are some songs which would be better with at least a piano accompaniment. It's a very practical question as we need our prospective pianist to sing and I'm not sure he could do both efficiently. I know a backing track exists to accompany the songbook but I don't know what it sounds like. The choir members have always criticised the over-important role of the band in gospel concerts they have attended so I'm not sure they'd like the idea. Technically speaking, wherever we sing it would be difficult to have playback. No-one is a sound engineer and levels would be hard to achieve, if possible at all as we'd need to provide our own amps in some venues (assuming we ever sing anywhere other than someone's basement!).
But a full band does energise the singing.I suppose I could fall back on the synth?

I need to discuss this further, obviously. Keep you posted>
Gospella