Little Cabin

Well, two years after trying we have finally built our little cabin! Our concert was greeted with enthusiasm this afternoon and I must congratulate the singers for their performances.

Of course, Maureen gets a special mention for her first ever solo in Help Me Find the Way. She was really nervous but bit the bullet and did a good job. I don't quite get the mysterious faery-like quality I wanted but it was melodious.

As for the chords in the intro to Little Cabin... They were in tune but I still don't get the feeling I want from the celestial choir. This morning at rehearsal they said couldn't I just sing them their notes instead of their having to try to find them by themselves! Cheeky! That was what I wanted to do at the beginning and they refused! Ha!

It is a shame that we were so few : seven or so of our singers didn't participate today. And whilst we're on the subject of participating, the audience was pretty grey! A bit of clapping but that was it. Mind you the average agewas 60! There were less audience members than usual and less young people too. I wonder why? It's a shame because there was an excellent African group that had some of us dancing in the alleys.

Next rehearsal for Akwa-Gospel will be in March and we'll start on rehearsing the songs for the wedding we'll be singing at in July. I hope to recruit a few of the Akwaba-a singers for this to boost numbers and also as the bride is the daughter of an ex bass!

If someone has some good footage of this afternoon I'll post it here.

Bye for now.
Gospella

D-2

Well it's D-2 until our first concert of the season. Are we ready? As we'll ever be!

After the last rehearsal in December when I felt rather demoralised, I decided to share my feelings with the singers to see what they had to say. They were surprised to hear I felt that way and basically said they weren't really complaining ; they were just expressing their difficulties! They absolutely want to keep going and are enjoying themselves! Well! I guess it does to be honest about how you feel. I think (as I also told them) that I am rather unsure of myself as a choir director, not having done it before and therefore perhaps pay too much attention to their complaints.

Afterwards the rehearsal was a success. We've packed in another one since then too as we wanted to get in some extra practice before our concert on Sunday.

For the intro of "Little Cabin" we've decided to let the singers find their own chords to harmonise my solo and that works well most of the time except that they can't get the hang of the one or two 'blue' chords I wanted. Ben's going to help out there but I fear he'll be alone! We've practised this intro with the main village choir as they come in on the full version of the song (four-part harmony handed on to us by Karen Gibson - thanks, Karen. You have been credited in our concert programme!) and that goes pretty well. I've toned down the solo a bit. I decided to go for an understated, curbed sound rather than a full-throated belt, which should make a contrast with the power of the fifty-voice choir.

2 days until my own composition gets its premier! I couldn't find an alto to do the second voice on the duet of the second verse (Anne is having trouble with her voice : there has been a horrible virus going round which attacks the vocal chords and lasts for over a month) so I decided to sing that part and gave the soprano solo to Maureen. She doesn't have the Celtic lilt I wanted for the sound but she has a powerful voice and a good musical memory. Also, and this is the most important thing, she has never sung a solo in public before and when she joined the choir two years ago she told me that it was her ambition so this is my gift. I think she's quite nervous about it but I've practised with her alone and she'll be OK! The alto part is quite low for me but I don't think I'll choke!

"This Train" is still causing a few problems with the lyrics but we'll take it a bit slower and maybe we'll survive the "cigarette puffers and cigar smokers" not to mention the "hootchie-cootch shakers and Charleston prancers". They're not meant to get on that train anyway!

Step-clapping and smiling remains one of the constant challenges but I'm hoping they'll be caught up in the heat of the moment as they usually are and not caught like a rabbit in footlights!

We have a new 'costume'! Akwaba-a have new waistcoats (bright orange with an African print) and we all wear black underneath. This means that when Akwa-Gospel step forward we'll be in all black, so to relieve that I have provided goldy-green scarves for the ladies. Thanks must go to Maureen for hemming them. And sorry that the sequins melted on to her iron!!:-)

As for numbers we are pared down to the bare minimum. Six sopranos, five altos, four tenors. It's not a lot but it's quite well balanced so the sound has potential.

So "break a leg". If we get some good recordings I'll be sure to post them here.

Bye for now.

Gospella