22 February 2018

We were welcomed back after half term by an urgent Facebook post telling us we were meeting in the dining room this very night! Quell surprise! 

We started with notices with news of a first appearance on 10 March in Dorchester, and St Nicholas church in broadway would love to have us sing there in the future too. Look out for posters of our Easter concert available next week. 

The Vicar Of Dibley was tonight’s warm up. Mega posh please with par-stures not PAstures and feel free to rolls your Rrrrrrrrs. The last forever is a very sweet solo filled by this weeks volunteer. They don’t nessesary need to sing it forever .... 

Since You’ve Been Gone well we have had half term, but who’s remembered how to sing this one? It sounded lovely but really demands a different style to Vicar Of Dibley. It needs to be the most raucous we have ever been. So we all made rock faces and tried again, to the sound of Ed growling over the piano. Just remember tho if it hurts, don’t! I was afraid of snapping an elastic. Braces please, not knicker elastic! 

And while ‘up there’ some of us whipped off our hoodies and dived into Build Me Up Buttercup with full enthusiasm. We laughed as parts fell off the organ, and we quickly ran out of steam. Hallelujah. We had a listen to a live recording to identify places for big pauses and just to enjoy the recording. The big paws were officially dropped. Party on, DFS. Lots of high harmony would be lovely too. 

We will sing How Far I’ll Go to keep the youngsters happy, because it’s sure to be a crowd pleaser. We know some of the lines have too many words in, but practice will make Perfect and although it had not been sung for a while, we did a really good job of it and it will be included in our indoor concerts. We gently slipped into The Rose. 

The suddenly the blogging app crashed and lost half of my blog post just as we decided to end with I Am What I Am and run for the door as the clock struck 8. Keep singing, and I’ll keep blogging, recover the missing notes and click publish to reward you for a lot of energetic work tonight! Well done DFS, The Cat XXX

8 February 2018

And so, with extra small people because it was half term, DFS gathered in the dining room where everything was ready for us apart from Ed’s organ. Of course we won’t be here next week, but the following Thursday we will be back in the hall again. 

Songy warm-ups instead of excersize warm-ups began with Hallelujah and we got to vote on PAUSE or NO PAWS, with a demo first, and THE PAUSE won. 

Out now is our trip itinerary, but nothings set in stone as yet, Voulez-Vous? Then Ed stopped leading us astray and added another Sylabul to ‘La question’ so we will see how that turns out. It was sounding a bit choral and Ed wanted more pop. 

The church organ came out for a song revisit, The Vicar Of Dibley. Parts will be available soon in the form of sheet music, for any who read such like and would like to sing other parts. 

Karma Chameleon popped up in a different key. One day I might blog which one we settle on? It’s going to sound fabulous once Ed has created the backing track. Since You’ve Been Gone requires raucous singing and contains a few little pitfalls for tired DFS members to stumble into. One is singing whoa not Oh, but we still sounded a bit too nice. 

And gently does it with The Rose that sounded proper well good then we ran through How Far I’ll Go and Build Me Up Buttercup which is coming along nicely. The penultimate song was I Am What I Am, when it’s important for everyone to know where they am, and for the finale, we took votes and sang Hallelujah. 

Well done DFS you worked well in the room with no acoustics to speak of, go home and have a nice cup of tea, listen to you tube and see you after half term, love, The Cat xxx

1 February 2018

Traffic may, still an issue near the school but the hall was full of happy choir members ready to warm up before notices. 

No letters for Chichester are available this week, because much of the itinerary remains to be confirmed. Watch this space. 

New songs can be suggested to Ed in many ways, verbally at choir, by email or little notes are all fine but DFS Dorch members have gone a step further and written in a poly pocket on headed paper, and even included a DVD of a certain to medleys. Maybe we will sing them, who knows. 

The Rose was our first song, and we looked at those timings again, with Ed playing metronome, before attempting a brand new song Since You’ve Been Gone. We were encouraged to apply controlled raucousness and decided to change Oh’s to Whoa’s, but do watch the numbers and the meaningful gap. A few choir members were left exposed. Don’t be that person. Ed outlined the harmony, following the melody starting with the note from the first verse, and we stood to perform. Dare to power-grab. 

With only a 30 second break on our bottoms, shuffling papers to find the words, we stood again to belly dance. I mean song Voulez Vous. Those timing are still giving us a run for our vocal-money. 

But Hallelujah it was time for another song. Please drop your aiches DFS ...

Build Me Up Buttercup OOOO-oooo-oooo baby, and onto the anthemic I Am What I Am  beginning with men only for those important first two opening lines, and we ended with Lily singing How Far I’ll Go recorded at Fulvia’s 60th Birthday. We were allowed to sing along if we wanted to but we all listened before singing the last two choruses with Ed and his piano. 

Wow DFS didn’t we do well? Keep singing, that’s not why I love you xxx