Fun and Games

The school holidays are finally here and so are a few minutes to blog!

After a super concert on the 4th Feb we met again on the 15th for our monthly rehearsal. Unfortunately everyone seems to be stricken with 'flu; colds; gastric 'flu so we only numbered 12. And only two altos who valiantly represented their group. There was a new addition however in the sopranos.
Myself, I was sruggling with bronchitis which has decimated my voice (especially after making myself heard in a classroom din all day!). I wish I could get rid of this cough which has been hanging around for over a month now.

We had a good write-up in the newspaper (although the journalist had me down as a tenor rather than a soprano! Perhaps the bronchitis has taken its toll!).

We stretched and then warmed up with some vocal slides. I introduced a new warm-up : a "YA"!
This is like a party game which is often used in theatre. Everyone stands in a circle and send energy to the others by yelling "Ya" as they shoot their left arm from left to right across their body. First objective was voice production and to send vocal energy.
Once everyone had the hang of that I introduced new rules : If someone shouts "Haul down" the "Ya" changes direction, and if someone shouts "Aïe" the next person skips a turn.

It was quite hilarious as we were all exhausted after our various day's work and the concentration was a bit of a challenge. The second objective is there of course : to act as individuals within a group and be aware of the other members (all necessary for an efficient choir).

After that we started rehearsing. We began with "Were You There?" which lacked the finesse of our concert performance, but I put that down to fatigue and lack of numbers. Maybe the "Ya" had worn them out!!
We sang "Come Here Jesus" as well on the request of an alto.

Then we started something new : "It's Me Oh Lord". A bit of pronunciation practice was necessary before we began singing - "brother", "mother" always cause trouble for French speakers who can't manage the 'th' sound and want to pronounce the 'o' as in "bother" rather than as in "brother". I have banned 'z' substitutes (does anybody reading this know how to type in phonetic symbols? I could use them on a daily basis for my teaching) and preferred the 'd' sound for incorrigible singers as it stands out less than 'z' or 'v'.

The harmonisation was learned quite quickly, although as usual the altos had the most complicated harmonisation and will probably need to revise before next time. Mary was one of those present and so fortunately she can spot when things haven't gone to plan AND identify the problem thanks to her musical training.

We decided to tackle "Jesus On The Mainline" again. It's complicated to put together because there are different entry points for the different voices which need practising. Also, there are a lot of words to come to grips with for the non-English speakers (i.e. everyone except me!). Mostly though, we only hear it once a month and we always seem to have someone present who's never sang it before. If we could have the same people present every month it sure would simplify things. I wonder if it'll ever be presentable enough to sing in public?? Not for the next appearance planned which is uncannily on April Fool's Day!! I haven't decided what we'll sing then, perhaps the same as in February.

Another project is a song which Ben found for us. I can't remember its name and hadn't heard of it before. I think I'll ask him if he can direct that one : he's itching to take up the proverbial baton!

Well that's all for now. I hope to figure out how to post a copy of the newspaper article (in French). But before that I'm off skiing! Happy holidays to those of you also 'off' this week.
Keep singing.

Gospella

The spirit is moving!

Had things gone otherwise I would have entitled this blog "Stage Fright"!!
We had a great concert. The gospel singers were really concentrated and had revised their parts like crazy. They made a real effort at different nuances and I am very proud of them. Likewise, the gospel song with the main choir was very joyful and everyone got their notes this time!

The only quack was my introduction when I used the word "ressuscitation" instead of "resurrection". I am sure I have heard this used in bible study here in France but everyone thought it sounded more like First Aid than gospel so I shall strike it from my vocabulary forthwith!

Some interesting people were very complimentary about our performance. A gospel choir director had come especially to hear us and a musicologist wants to do some work together. It seems like our little experiment has set a few things rolling. Hope I have the stamina to keep all my balls in the air at the same time.

Meanwhile, next meeting is 15th February, so we'll have to try and build up our repertory, and maybe think of a name! Any suggestions?

Gospella

Countdown

D minus 1
Tomorrow will be our big outing! I had recounted the build-up in my previously lost post and don't know if I have the energy to say it all again but maybe I can summarise some of it...

We managed to squeeze in an extra rehearsal in preparation of tomorrow's concert but I see our initial numbers dwindling. I guess that is part of the course with any new enterprise but it leaves us with only about 15 singers. Most of us sing together on a regular basis and so that simplifies certain things, but when the strong voices are absent, singers develop a suddent shyness although they more or less know their part. Partly it is to do with singing in English. I know that they are all worried they'll forget their words (and I have banned wordsheets on stage). Last evening I met up with one of the singers who said she's been rehearsing like mad at home every day! To allay their fears, I had e-mailed the different vocal parts as an MP3 file which I recorded myself one by one so they could sing along to it at home.

The stage set up is as follows :
The main village choir (who have invited us to sing) will begin its programme with three African songs (their speciality) providing us with a spurious link to gospel music (it was that or a Breton folk song!). Then we shall step forward having shed our African print waistcoats (stage costumes!) wearing black and white. We'll begin with "Were You There?" for its beautiful harmony and feeling. I sing the first verse as a solo and then the choir joins in for the rest. It's crying out for a bass line and Ben has volunteered but I'm afraid if he abandons our two tenors they'll get lost...
Then we get up tempo with "God Great God" (which is making everyone particularly nervous). As a finale we'll join with the main choir for "Bless the Lord". So we'll be about fifty singers for that. We've ironed out our problems with "Bless The Lord" (which were mostly about being an assertive leader!) and have stepping and clapping pretty much under wraps. I just hope that the main choir keeps quiet while we sing as they will still be on stage and are prone to fidgeting and chatting. The French (and this is a purely objective observation) see nothing wrong with chatting while someone else is talking but hopefully they'll make an exception for us!

We've been working quite hard on nuances and feeling, and I've done some voice projection work with the singers which I learned from years of doing theatre workshops. This has been quite funny : trying to articulate tongue twisters and try to make it understood by the neighbour in the next building! I've tried to include a few tips from the CompleteVocal Technique to help them improve voice production. Maureen, who has never sung formally before, nor learned music, but who has an amazing voice (soprano), told me yesterday that she feels like she's made a lot of progress even though we've only met such a few times. That's encouraging.

A couple of us went to see a gospel concert in town last evening : Gospel Aujourd'hui (our unwitting mentors) were celebrating their fifth year. It was a fantastic night and I was quite moved by the spirit. One of our singers had said they weren't sure about the religious element (?!) which I thought was odd coming from someone who had chosen to sing gospel with us. I guess it is something she is working through. My friend told me then that she had appreciated what I had said at our initial rehearsal about my singing gospel with conviction. Another said that without that faith he couldn't ever hope to sing with the conviction required. It seems that quietly people are doing a lot of thinking about the subject - at least we'll have achieved that if nothing else!

Well, the next post will be to report on happenings tomorrow. God bless all.
Gospella.