25 June 2015

The one with the school assembly chairs, the naughty button, and sausage confusion ...

Ignore the Echo website timings, we are singing outside the fantastic sausage factory, meeting at 1.40 for 2pm, on Saturday. We will sing the Race For Life set. Dennis may play you with skinned pork comestibles ...

Next week is our last reearsal, with a bit of a social after. Maybe something will also happen on the 9th or maybe not ... HONK!

Rosé first, repeat with do-dah over it! And it didn't have what it got last week when we practiced it a lot. But of course, we undersang it on purpose so that Ed would not lack something to say!

And then Ed popped and button. Nice. And stand to sing .... Yes, coming together nicely we will give that 'a good airing' soon!

Then we decided to run through the 25 minute set for Friday. A dress rehearsal meaning No Stopping. 

1- On the Street.

2 - Chicken tikka - Ed promised not to call it this on Saturday. But I always do because it's easier to type/spell. 

But then we did stop so Ed could get water and Jack could attempt to correct the running order!

3 - Get Around - after a run through we then paused to swap sides just confuse everyone, and no one got that tricky town-to-town timing right. Ed demonstrated the millisecond difference!

4 - Don't Sleep In The Subway.

5 - Breaking Up Is Hard To Do. Some one was looking at the words a lot. Almost named and shamed. 

6 - Downtown.

7 - Waterloo. Ed added in missing piano and sax! 

8 - Let's Go To San Fransisco. More overlapping harmony part, please. We gave that a bit of a run through!

Finishing off with Right By Your Side. Don't forget the stupid noises. And it's last rehearsal next week folks, in the dining room!

Love you xxxxx

18 June 2015

The one were my glasses were still by the front door, at home...

A week Saturday is our next concert, and without many notices, tonight we are having a jolly good sing song. It took me all the warm up to type that bit wothout my specs, as it was mostly guesswork. 

Www.chesilrocks.com was plugged during our one or two notices, but failed to load so here it is for you now!

Chicken tikka first tonight, and Ed Reminded us that the better we sing it, the less we have to practice it! Mind the Gap, everyone! We sang well (but a lot of harmony was missing, and audiences love it when we harmonise at our concerts. Maybe harmony singers ought to sit together and support each other?).

So .... Everyone played musical chairs until the music stopped! Come over to the Dark Side - if you dare! The harmonisers then sang A Capella, and received a clap from the far right! Verse, then chorus, off we went!!

For performance, you must really feel you are a very important part of this song. Not just one of 89 little voices. The harmony was sounding good and strong and the melody had become a little quieter, but instead of 'less harmony', Ed asked for more melody! We stood to sing, as if performing, to encourage us to put more of ourselves into it!

Tonight was about rehearsing really well. And our next song was I Get Around ! Now half the choir were ready to sing a part they were not used to! Many wanted to move back but tonight Ed was in charge and no one was permitted to shift even a buttock. 

First we dissected stage left, ooooh it was messy. But then you knew that! I really started to fancy half a pint. When it was stage-right's turn it turned into a Dirty Competition. Get Around Rivalry.  It's got potential to become a real show stopper, and it was started to become more watertight. 

On to Rosé. Something more gentle he said. Then everyone missed a huge gap and held a pout while waiting for the cool to start! No other choir sings this song ever, or should I say, evah! If only to remind you to sing YA! and not Yaaaaah.

The second verse is pure unadulterated rock, and was beginning to contrast superbly with the chorus. Ed even confessed to a tingle, though he wouldn't say where it was! And even hinted at a touch of kinaesthesia; and yes maybe I did spell that right, without my glasses on!

Nice. 

Not a lot of songs tongiht, but Ed was really feeling it. 

Really well done everyone. We are all super and dynamic. Keep singing - I love ya! Xxx

11 June 2015

Are you listening? Otherwise known as The One In The Zoo!

After a nice warm up, Ed told us, we would be singing a new song. We also enjoyed a random power point and a good old Dum-Dum-Diddle!

The new song was road tested in Dorchester last night and begins with today's letter, the letter R. Right By Your Side was revealed on the screen. Cue jungle noises for that Brazilian flavour!

Then notices ... Damers is cancelled due to scandalous, unrevealed reasons. Choir social will be on the 9th July. Sausage factory booking is going ahead. 27th June for that. The rose garden want us to split our set into 2 15-minute slots ...

Back to the jungle again! Remember the gap please! We listened and sang along to Annie on YouTube, then stood to make a right monkey of ourselves. Many people seemed a bit afraid of that part. Just think of it as the opposite of your school days, when you had to line up and be quiet on cue! 

Jack demonstrated the survey online. Every IP address gets one vote! 

Run was next up on the song list. It's very important to sound the P on the end of light-up so it doesn't sound like you are singing Lino-Lino at all. Then we stood to perform the piece. 

The time for the third R came to be. Rosé and I'm so glad my blogging phone has a funny é. Oh yes. Such fun to sing this alcoholic number again! 

And for a recall we had a quick vote and sang another round of Run, and stood to sing while Ed pressed record!

We might listen to it next week. Keep singing, love you xxxxx

4 June 2015

The one with the strange rehearsal ...

Ed started of stage left with a secret hum, then showed off his 64gig pocket sized piano memory stick and set off another ooooooo.

Ed revealed spending many hours searching the blog and had come up with the definative list of hot choir numbers. Each of us will get to choose our top ten for an awesome best-of-DFS concert!

Thanks to all that attended this half terms events, and dos especially well trying to fit on the tiny stage of fair-in-the-square! £1160 was raised at the garden party, and the singing in the lake at Kingston Maurward, and inspired everyone to keep running. Away. 

A lull now before our final concerts, but  Members wanted to sing at damers Middle school, or first school. 3.30 Saturday 4th July in Dorch. 

Now an old song revisit, Rule The World. No organ tonight so kareoke style. No propper warm up today. 

Top of The World next, and not a cow boy hat in the house!

The Lord Is My Shepherd started with some interesting lyrics, ended in laughing, and was quickly abandoned in favour of The Seekers I'll Never Find Another You, and on we went with a good kareoke version of that. 

Back to our very first Abba song S.O.S. Short sssssss please so we don't sound deflated!!

Let The River Run ... It's got a tough beginning but it gets going really well!

A Les Mis number next. Do You Hear The People Sing, which was rather fun. 

San Fransicso. Ed wanted to hear Lots of free Parping. In the nicest way. The backing vocals were too dominant in the beginning then faded out later. We looked at adding other harmony parts too. 

Waterloo Made Ed long for a nice bit of sax, and a bang in the right place. That's not how it sounds. Erm ... I'm referring to an earlier backing track of course. Whoa whoas needed to come in earlier. 

Breaking Up Is Hard To Do does have a funny doo-doo backing track. Beware of sounding too raucous! Said Ed. Think also about your entrees, being bold enough to start on time!

Get Around finally. Before Jackies solo. Sorry, apeal for help. 

Check out Jack's survey to vote on your personal top 10. I'm gonna find that tough I think! Then we sang Happy Birthday to Tricia!

Keep singing, love you xxxxxx