19 January 2017

Cold and well wrapped, DFS arrived for another song-filled session, diving straight into a Dum-Dum-Diddley. 

Updates included the tour dates and itinary all printed out and a warning that the trip would be alcohol free! Next concert is in Wool on 21st April time tbc. Ed was nearly recovered from his worse-case-ever-man-flu and his girl-voice was almost back too. Jack rebooted the school computer and we were good to go. 

'Wise' should be very short remember, when we are singing Can't Help Falling In Love. This ones gonna be a cracker for choir, I can feel it in my water. Ed declared it concert-ready, and we stood to perform. We can just leave that to mature like an old cheese ...

And again, starting with the harmony first, we tackled Uptown Girl, Ed throwing them all at us with gusto, til all was clear as proverbial mud. But after an ok run through, it was time to try it al fresco. Uptown ghost was born. We mastered, nay perfected the skill of singing in 12 different keys. I'm not going to list them here because we are quickly moving on to Let It Be Me, and there was a hope that we could achieve the perfect balance of harmonies displayed by Dorchester DFS last night. Well done guys! We sounded a little harmony heavy, a little like The Everly Brothers themselves, but it only took a little work to get us sounding more balanced and then was happy to have us stand and perform again. It's coming together nicely. 

Operatic section at the ready for our next song, We Are The Champions, and a quick focus on the timing of the too-many-words in verse two, such fun, and very soon we were on  our feet again, and Ed calling for more volume. 

And then most of It's Getting Better, was to be followed by our Any-oke song, but the key change on the YouTube track sucks. The winner was a blank piece of paper, well three, and following a reject we sang Roxette It Must Have Been Love and went home full of love. See you next time, keep singing, love Cat xxx

My didn't we do 

12 January 2017

The first practice of the year was held at the end of a soggy day, but with lots (six) of new songs to whet our appetites. Many of us braved the weather conditions, to hear Ed croak about the lack of snow, and enthuse us. He had the worst cold on record, having been poorly since New Year's Day! 

Choir are almost confirmed to be visiting Truro next year, from Friday 5th May leaving Wey Valley at 4.30 and staying in Newquay. We will be mingling ourselves with other choirs, visiting Killterton House to sing and lunch, and getting back home on Sunday 7th. 

Concerts booked for next year include the rose garden on July 1st and a date in May to sing at All Saints church, and in Bear Regis on the 21st April. More info to come on the website of course. We will have another of our own concerts this year at Easter time too!

Look out for DFS live sometime later, gosh, how exciting! Kervyn and Ronnie can tune in and turn 'Em on .... but not tonight. We have not had time to do our hair! Then we hit a warm up, and Ed slipped into housekeeping and delighted us with the news that random-oke will continue, and jack demonstrated downloading and printing lyrics from our own website, and make them very large. Nice. 

It's Getting Better was our first song, and the solo I sang at Christmas. How honouring. We ran it through with a you tube backing track, and then sang The Everly Bothers' Let It Be Me. Ed broke it down for us, and sat at the piano. It was completely new to little (old) me. 

Then we woke ourselves up again with Uptown Girl yay! After a go with you tube Ed opted to shift the key and slipped behind the keyboard, reminding us not to sing GIRL in a Dorset accent. Why ever not? Hahahah just kidding. I thought it made us sound like pirates. 

Then it was time for Can't Help Falling In Love and we began by listening to our choir master demonstrate the harmony. Nice. It's really important to leave those little air gaps where Ed wants them or he might get quite cross and we will all have to hide in Jamaica. 

And we already know We Are The Champions in terms of rocking concerts. This song has too many lyrics in the second verse that are needed to fit. More revision with YouTube me thinks, who's up for it this weekend? Our final song was some Carly You're So Vain along with YouTube who had some of the words wrong. 

Tonight's random-oke's song was the first one picked out Be My Baby Such fun! That one might even make it to the set. Well done everyone, happy new year! Xxx