Tall Tenor Tries Triumphant Tunes!
Another rehearsal under our belt and we have gained another male voice.
Terry the tenor has joined us. He is another member of the village choir and so is used to us singing together and I hope he will be a valuable addition to the tenor section for us. He was a bit phased by juggling the words, music and rythm of the songs, which were all new to him but seemed to cope okay.
I was a bit disappointed at the non appearance of another recruit I made in the supermarket (!).
Peter is a bass who used to sing in the village choir a few years ago and I persuaded him he could spare one evening a month to sing with us and he had promised to come, but 'he no show'! Meanwhile our only bass struggles valiantly to pretend he's a tenor!
Last night we did a bit more exploration of the different breathing spaces with a few movements adapted from yoga. Using different arm movements we concentrated on the different areas of the abdomen and chest which are sollicited in breathing fully. We went on to hum with sustained sound until the lungs were empty so that everyone could feel the pull (push?) of certain muscles. The idea is that once they have identified them they start to use them consciously to produce sound. It got quite competitive in the tenors to see who could hum the longest. Chris sounded like a whole swarm of hornets by himself!
I wanted to introduce the singers to the four voice modes mentioned in the Complete Vocal Technique of Cathrine Sadolin. We took the first two bars of "It's a me" as an example and everyone tried to sing it in the four different ways. They did quite well and it has given us a helpful short cut in explaining certain sounds I want them to produce during the singing. At one point I wanted a more neutral sound and they automatically sang in a more breathy style once I said "neutral". They're fast learners!
We played another "Ya!" which worked a bit better than last time, even though some of last month's 'flu victims didn't know the rules, and got everyone concentrated.
We started off with "It's Me Oh Lord" to see how much was left from last time (and to teach it to the absentees). It worked quite well musically but something has to be done to nuance it.
We went over "Bless The Lord", "Were You There?" and "God Great God" as I think we'll be asked to sing at another concert on the 1st April and I guess we'll keep the same repertoire.
On examining the video I can see one or two tricky bits that need brushing up - the singers are flat sometimes and that throws off the harmony. The clapping works well and they're pretty much together which is good.
On request we sang "Jesus On The Mainline". Terry was flummoxed! I'm not surprised : it's really complicated with people coming in all over the place. Bits of it were all right but it needs polishing. I was ready to pack up after that but noone was moving so we started a new song : "This Train Is Bound For Glory" . They loved it! The rythm is difficult because it's not regularly on the beat and the harmonisations are hard, but the result is good. I spent a long time singing with the altos, which was hard on my voice as it goes right down to bottom G!
As for the other song I had planned for them ("I'm Gonna Sing"). I have discovered that it's quite complex rythmically speaking, so I need to practise hard before I present them with that! On the subject of practising, I have started working on playing the piano. I have never learned but spent years as a child and teenager applying my knowledge of other instruments (clarinet and bassoon) to the keyboard and playing by ear and from music accompanied with chords. I am now working on analysing the chord structures so I can be a bit more autonomous. At home I have a synth to practise on but unlike the Kaiser's comments to Mozart ("Too many notes") there are not enough! Also, there's a dodgy jack and the sound cuts out sometimes which is irritating. Of course there is no piano in the rehearsal room anyway, but at least I'll be more prepared if we ever do find one! I'm having fun anyway so that's the main thing guess!
I hope to add some more video links this weekend. We've had quite a few hits, and not only from choir members. Apparently we've gone international with viewers in the USA and Japan! Watch this space...
Gospella
Terry the tenor has joined us. He is another member of the village choir and so is used to us singing together and I hope he will be a valuable addition to the tenor section for us. He was a bit phased by juggling the words, music and rythm of the songs, which were all new to him but seemed to cope okay.
I was a bit disappointed at the non appearance of another recruit I made in the supermarket (!).
Peter is a bass who used to sing in the village choir a few years ago and I persuaded him he could spare one evening a month to sing with us and he had promised to come, but 'he no show'! Meanwhile our only bass struggles valiantly to pretend he's a tenor!
Last night we did a bit more exploration of the different breathing spaces with a few movements adapted from yoga. Using different arm movements we concentrated on the different areas of the abdomen and chest which are sollicited in breathing fully. We went on to hum with sustained sound until the lungs were empty so that everyone could feel the pull (push?) of certain muscles. The idea is that once they have identified them they start to use them consciously to produce sound. It got quite competitive in the tenors to see who could hum the longest. Chris sounded like a whole swarm of hornets by himself!
I wanted to introduce the singers to the four voice modes mentioned in the Complete Vocal Technique of Cathrine Sadolin. We took the first two bars of "It's a me" as an example and everyone tried to sing it in the four different ways. They did quite well and it has given us a helpful short cut in explaining certain sounds I want them to produce during the singing. At one point I wanted a more neutral sound and they automatically sang in a more breathy style once I said "neutral". They're fast learners!
We played another "Ya!" which worked a bit better than last time, even though some of last month's 'flu victims didn't know the rules, and got everyone concentrated.
We started off with "It's Me Oh Lord" to see how much was left from last time (and to teach it to the absentees). It worked quite well musically but something has to be done to nuance it.
We went over "Bless The Lord", "Were You There?" and "God Great God" as I think we'll be asked to sing at another concert on the 1st April and I guess we'll keep the same repertoire.
On examining the video I can see one or two tricky bits that need brushing up - the singers are flat sometimes and that throws off the harmony. The clapping works well and they're pretty much together which is good.
On request we sang "Jesus On The Mainline". Terry was flummoxed! I'm not surprised : it's really complicated with people coming in all over the place. Bits of it were all right but it needs polishing. I was ready to pack up after that but noone was moving so we started a new song : "This Train Is Bound For Glory" . They loved it! The rythm is difficult because it's not regularly on the beat and the harmonisations are hard, but the result is good. I spent a long time singing with the altos, which was hard on my voice as it goes right down to bottom G!
As for the other song I had planned for them ("I'm Gonna Sing"). I have discovered that it's quite complex rythmically speaking, so I need to practise hard before I present them with that! On the subject of practising, I have started working on playing the piano. I have never learned but spent years as a child and teenager applying my knowledge of other instruments (clarinet and bassoon) to the keyboard and playing by ear and from music accompanied with chords. I am now working on analysing the chord structures so I can be a bit more autonomous. At home I have a synth to practise on but unlike the Kaiser's comments to Mozart ("Too many notes") there are not enough! Also, there's a dodgy jack and the sound cuts out sometimes which is irritating. Of course there is no piano in the rehearsal room anyway, but at least I'll be more prepared if we ever do find one! I'm having fun anyway so that's the main thing guess!
I hope to add some more video links this weekend. We've had quite a few hits, and not only from choir members. Apparently we've gone international with viewers in the USA and Japan! Watch this space...
posted by Gospella @ 9:55 am
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