22 March 2018

All well and present in the hall, we began to warm ourselves with a fantastic Dum Dum Diddley Dum and more ... followed by reminders of the concerts next week, and the aproaching end of term. Feel free to bring biscuits or cakes to be sold with the teas and coffees. The running order has been a little tweaked but we will run through it tonight, too. 

Build Me Up Buttercup started us off before Ed promised us some really cool songs coming up in the new term. No Hintze were given though ...

Hallelujah is a slow song but needs a bright beginning so it doesn’t sound like dirge. Ed shifted back to the piano to help with harmony parts. And with free choice on the last note we stood to perform. Ed wanted us to sting from lyrics sheets so the screen went blank. Everyone knew the chorus off by heart. Praise the lord. 

And we have all been practicing Perfect so we sang it but rather far from perfectly. Never

Mind. Ed has it covered. 

Voulez Vous has that looooong intro and no one must come in too early. Not halfway through either after the instrumental! This song certainty has some tricky pauses and gaps. Jolly good. 

How Far I’ll Go has traps too and a bunch of people fell into it with aplomb. Splash. At this point in the concert Ed will turn his organ round to do 2 or 3 solos, cake, and back in with I Only Want To Be With You when everyone ran forward to collect lyric sheets. Sang itself basically. 

The Rose has a very quiet back and consequently suffered from false startings. We stood for some work on giving colour to long notes. Popping and dripping were suggested. 

And we livened it up with Since You’ve Been Gone. And it was alright. And followed by Song Of The Sea. 

And with time left for only one song, The Vicar Of Dibley won. 

Well done DFS, enjoy the concerts next week and keep singing, back on the 26th April, Cat The Blogger xxx

15 March 2018

Out next concert at St Nicholas church is two weeks time, parking in Dorchester road and of course please feel free to sing at the concert at URC the night before too. Cakes and biscuits will be sold at the URC to help raise monies for choir charities! 

And Dum Dum Diddly off we went! Followed by more notices, when we learned that DFS Tour was called off, and it’s suggested that we do a DFS day trip would be in order instead. Thanks were given to all that came to sing on Saturday where DFS sounded great and the acoustics were marvellous! Members of the public joined in with some of the singing and even added actions too. 

We have two songs to consider that have not been rehearsed for a while, they have already been voted off by DFS Dorch and replaced with others. 

We attempted a noisy and confident start with Build Me Up Buttercup, and continued with Voulez-Vous, which sounded full of joy on Saturday. Remember Masters not Mar-sters, of the sea, and nice and gentle with the Ah-ha, no laughing policemen. At all. Then after working on those for a bit, with a ton of conviction we stood to perform and it was very much better and with lots of improvements. Thanks Ed. 

And thanks to Lily we know How Far I’ll Go quite well. Don’t forget to snatch lots of little breaths or cooperative with a neighbor to cover each other’s big breaths and it should all come out in the wash. Hopefully not pink. 

Since You’ve Been Gone with its heavier than ever backing track popped up for rehearsal next. The harmonies were lacking so it was time to thrash those out at the piano. 

We revisited Karma Chameleon and popped the key up a bit. I’m sorry I don’t manage to grab those for the blog anymore. I think it’s classified information. Or is it classical? Back-burner is were this song ended up after a quick vote. 

The song that practically sings itself, Perfect, also came under consideration so next week we will deside whether to sing it all together in the concert or have a soloist? It’s so lovely I’ve been singing it a lot at home. 

Next Hallelujah with the silent H was followed by I Am What I Am starting with low voices as usual. Hold onto your Am at the end. 

Finally, just for fun, we sang Do You Hear The People Sing before having a collection for The Street Pastors here in our twin. Remember them when you are tucked up in bed at the weekend, keep singing and remember I love you xxx. 

8 March 2018

Back again after snowmageddon we all Dum Dum Diddley’d and further warmed up, before finding out today that we would be having backing tracks, and a conductor Ed. In notices, our trip is still pending enough singers. We have a concert at St Nicks church broadway on Thursday 29th March, not forgetting the URC concert the night before with the lovely DFS Dorch. 

The running order will follow and was sung in order tonight, beginning with our wake-up song - 

Build Me Up Buttercup and it needed more fire in its belly! Do not mix up your babies and your darlings or we will sound silly. 

Hallelujah saw me terribly distracted by texts from a poorly 11 year old so I sent her snippets as we sang to make her smile! You don’t know how far your voice goes sometimes! 

Voulez Vous has a nice funky backing track with a decent intro and a dad-dance to go with it too. Ed too responsibility for that fact that we fell apart on this one, and gave us a second chance, both to sing it right and see his groovy moves, and it was much better. 

How Far I’ll Go has two very important gaps! And follow the commas for tiny little breaths so you can keep going. After going all through the running order, we came back to this song again. 

The Rose requires us to be uniform in our singing of river, razor, etc. making them a tidy three syllables! 

And with very heavy-metal backing, even heavier than the original, comes Since You’ve Been Gone and our choir master was very excited! It sounded nice. Too nice. 

The Vicar Of Dibley. Breathing is vital. You can squeeze in a little one before ‘beside’ if you feel short. 

I Am What I Am found Ed’s smart watch announcing that trying to conduct DFS results in a Dynamic Workout with three bourbon creams. I wish my Fitbit was half as impressed with our singing because some of these numbers really feel like we’ve been jogging. This song being so fast is no exception and because of that requires really good diction. 

And for a special treat at the very end we sang Jerusalem! Wow! 

Well done DFS, I love you, keep singing, see you soon xxxx