12 feb 2009

term 2, Week 5 - give it some emotion!

Choir was lively this week. Rowdy and cheeky in fact. With the naughty corner missing (south pacific) it was a free for all, as nobody else thought they ought to be a good example!

We worked on getting the note change right in the OOOOOOO-ohs, of ‘rule the world’, which as my typing suggests, are right at the end of the ‘oh’s and not halfway through. Listen to you-tube a lot , and also listen to the line that goes ‘youv’e saved my soul’. Everyone (except me) sang it wrong as it has a different melody. Sliding the note down on the word ‘soul’ makes it very soulful. Incidentally, sliding ‘sometimes’ in ‘you raise me up’ is not allowed. Its why I never want to hear congregation sing ‘how great though art’, ever.

Ed gave us a serious talk about putting more emotion into our singing. Just like the late, great freddie mercury, meaning and feeling what you sing, can create contrasts in a song and keep our audiences awake at the end of march. Emotion can come across when a whole choir sings this way, so I hope the naughty corner are reading this blog, for their homework. Who knows what they will be like after two weeks off! Consider the two halves on the second verse in ‘you raise me up’, and if you can’t really feel those pent up emotions, just act like you do. Ed says faking it works for him. Lift your cheeks and your eyes brows and don’t frown.

The key change in ‘you raise me up’ is 1 – very high in places, and 2 - hard to pitch when it follows a gap in the music. Perhaps if we keep singing as badly as our side of the room did, during a fearsome competition, then ed will take it from our play list and give it to a soloist instead.

We didn’t sing ‘build me up’ this week. We were missing our naughty backing singers. And we didn’t touch ‘joyful, joyful’, either. Its going to get a full half-an-hour spent on it after half term, and some soloists will be able to have some fun with the last chorus … or is it a verse?

I’m pleased to report we have at least one more confirmed blog reader this week.Have a great half term, from the phantom blogger!