5 December 2019

In the aftermath of DFS Dorch’s very successful concert last night, we gathered in the warm to hear all about how good it was. 

Ed threw out a few future dates, and a reminder for dress code and then it was time to run through our Christmassy songs again. If you enjoyed last years workshop ‘Day At The Musicals’ keep an ear out for next years ‘Day At The Movies’ .... 

Lifted cheekbones, to keep the sound brighter, and supported singing to keep us in tune, are needed for O Come and Once. 

Carol of The Bells features a strange phenomenon in that it slows down when we hit merry, merry, merry. Also we all breathed at the same time, but I rather fear I ended up light headed. After a little work we improved the pace, and only had the ending to improve. Ed will sleep well tonight. Well, maybe. 

Stage left was rather lacking tonight, and by that I mean quantity not quality. This was going to make The Holly And The Ivy very interesting. Just checking the allocation of numbered parts was fraught enough. Do not be tempted to follow any wrong notes with a cheeky raspberry sound. Especially next week, when you will also remember to repeat the last chorus!

Of course O Holy Night contains a trap into which many choir members fall, the trap of not singing the chorus the same both times that you sing it! Yet tonight we fell not. 

Ever challenging is tequila, and when I do an exclusive interview of Ed for the blog I shall be asking where his inspiration for this shenanigans came from! It’s all about coming in at the right place and making sure your kazoo has been tuned properly before being hidden carefully on your person ready for its moment! 

Just for fun at the end we whipped out YouTube to sing some party songs for a treat after all that hard work! Waterloo and then some of us went to the Spa .... for tequila! 

Oh my golly gosh DFS, you are amazing. Just the way you are! I’ve not laughed so much in ages! Xxx

28 November 2019

The baubles were up in reception tonight, about time too said no one. Ed startled everyone with his good evening.... he reminded us that next Wednesday is the Dorchester Christmas Concert and thanked people for bringing raffle prizes for that event. 

Dress code for the concerts is baubles out, if you want too. Looks very effective with black bottoms I believe. Both concerts start at 7pm. Please sit at the back and bring some lots of mince pies, or other sweet nibbles that people like. 

Then we ran through lots of songs .... ran being the operative word, apart from Carol Of The Bells when we slowed down to a somewhat sleazy speed and had to start again. The structure and the important things we will possibly forget were carefully spelled out as we went along. Please see the last two blogs for hints and tips and better jokes. 

We didn’t have time to run through songs twice but Ed read out a review including careful use of DONGS and encouraged people to make notes. So I tried. Please remember the air gap in tequila! Enjoy the breather, and follow Ed’s signals. 

Well done choir, it’s almost Christmas! I love you, keep singing xxx

21 November 2019

So .... Aaaaah ..... said Ed. And told us the running order for both concerts and is as printed in our booklets, apart from some very small changes. We chatted about raffles, mince pies, songs saved for encores, and why we weren’t singing in town, and we were off. 

Once In Royal David’s City sounded out all beautiful and unaccompanied and very festive. We sung versus one and four of this and also of O Come O Come Emmanuel as we appeared to be in a terrible hurry for an undisclosed reason. 

Carol Of The Bells sounded much better this week. It just makes me think of seasonal adverts. Ones with actual roasted turkeys on the table and not dragons. It’s an audience shocker, and one to come back later, before turfing out time. It’s quite good until the end when the Bells get a bit cracked and rusty. 

Good King Wenceslas looked badly spelled, but isn’t and tripped off our practices tongues as Ed stood to play more assertively his jolly keyboard... 

See Amid The Winter Snow revised the men’s parts first. It sort of disappeared so had a go at joining in too. And so did the rest of choir. Oops. But eventually is sounded PERFECT so we moved on to The Holly And The Ivy which is our favourite by far this festive season! This won’t leave a dry eye in the house. We also revisited this again right before bedtime, and Ed just listened, and some number twos went missing! Perhaps it might be ok if we practice during the concert too? 

A breath of fresh air, we were Walking In A Winter Wonderland and O Holy Night. Truly He tortoise. Be careful to leave out the slides. You will only slip on the ice and we should be heading carefully towards Hark The Herald Angels Sing. It surely will be alright on the night. Ed sang the descant part to demonstrate. 

O Come, All Ye Faithful will be all three verses on the night but we missed out the middle verse and all the descant singing was very lovely. Ed said very well done, and we had a rest singing Merry Christmas Everyone and Rocking Around The Christmas Tree! 

And a song that was a [sexy] solo for me last year, Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas doesn’t give our choir too much trouble either. 

I’m Dreaming Of A White Christmas is really a lie because then the concert might be snowed off and we don’t want that. 

Those kazoos where whipped out for our surprise encore Tequila! Truly unmissable I hope someone records that little gem! A real Fairy Tale Of New York I’m sure. The men do really on this one, apart from when they steal the women’s parts! 

Well done DFS, stay warm and happy. Keep singing love Cat the Blogger xxx 

14 November 2019

So what do you want for Christmas? I’ll have a think about that. Ed arrived with apologies for leaving behind a folder of very important music behind. The night of Forgetfulness followed on from the night of Remembrance. 

The town council have asked us to perform on VE Day next year which will be on the may bank holiday weekend. On Saturday we said. That’s because we sang so well the other weekend and the town council noticed. And we are also invited to sing again at Sutton Poyntz street fare. 

We moved to Once In Royal for a warm up. I do miss a good Dum Dum Diddley ... the first verse is a Capella but needs to be a little more up tempo than it was. 

O Holy Night needs to be so precisely sung, with proper diction. Ed will be sharing recordings of harmonies some time soon so look out for those in his drop box. High note second time only, and when it is time for it, to for it in a big way! Spoonerisms are to be avoided at all costs at the end of the first line. Look it up if you have to, I’m not spelling out what was sung stage right.

O Come, O Come, Emmanuel was launched with Ed singing through the harmony and missing out breathing. It’s worth it though because it sounded lovely all played in the Key of David. Higgeldy piggeldy. 

Hark! How The Bells 🔔 still feels very complicated to us. I think I only know it because of swanky Christmas adverts on the telly. Some of us got lost in the words. The rooms split into ones and twos for our second run through. Then our choir master quit pounding the piano and announced that this song will actually be sung a Capella and we were delighted. Some wanted us to split into four parts but we declined...

Good King Wenceslas is all ours. That is, at the concert some songs will be available for the audience to sing too, but only some and not all, and there will be some song sheets available for them. This song however will be only for us to sing and is already concert ready!

See Amid The Winter Snow is short and sweet and with a big ending. There’s a nice low harmony for the men but they keep losing it under their seats! 

And then a discussion before singing that radical version of The Holly And The Ivy. We will definitely not allow audiences participation for this little gem. 

Walking In A Winter Wonderland was a walk in a very easy place after that last song. 

Our choir master promised us descants for Hark The Herald and O Come, All Ye Faithful  broke them down very nicely. The congregation will love joinig in and help cover up all our bum notes ...

DFS be proud. You are amazing. I love you! Cat xxx 

7 November 2019

Merry Christmas! We all collected some lovely Christmas themed song booklet. Ed gave DFS his greatful thanks for everyone who came along on Sunday and shared some photos from the event itself. Forms will be available next week to buy a copy of the DVD, which is also the deadline. 

In concert news, our venue has been confirmed as the church here at St Aldhelms, 12 December, and is a lovely venue and I will make sure has a plug in the church newsletter, if it’s ok with the big man. Ed I mean, not God. We don’t have many concerts this year but are due to sing carols on the 14 December at Shire Hall Museum. I hope we can sing in the court room that would be fun. 

We whipped out out the brand new song books ...

We began our singing with Once In Royal David’s City. A capele for the first verse only. Please do sing any descant parts if you know them. 

O Holy Night. Don’t go too high the first time. We of course needed a reminder. Also don’t go a bit Millward on ‘O night Devine’ and stay sober. Good. 

O Come, O Come, Emmanuel is not such a well known him. Tiësto Picardy. 

Then things got complicated with Hark How The Bells and that was before we added in any other parts! And when we did... being mindful that the Dings and Dongs were all in the right place on our lyrics sheets. The room split into sides. 

Good King Wenceslas through the rude winds wild lament went we! See Amid The Winter Snow featured a nice new part for men. And a warning to sing in tune! 

There is another version of The Holly And The Ivy which has a different tune and is actually a round. Choir thought our choir master had made it up. Yehaw. Two, three and then four overlapping parts were attempted. Hmmmmm. It took some work but we sort of got there before trying to sing Walking Round In Womens Underwear. Wait. That’s seasonal shopping in Debenhams. I’m really getting into the spirit now. 

Fine. Hark The Herald with descants welcome, so O Come All Ye Faithful. All good, so we fast forward to page 14, Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas which I just remembered I did as a solo last year. All sultry like. Pass me a sherry darling..... 

We finished on a fun note with Fairy Tale Of New York split into male a female parts. Maybe I should rephrase that. Perfect. 

And keep singing. You got this! Please bring your kazoos next week for some more festive fun. Love, Cat xxx 

Ps how about this https://youtu.be/ETe6jOt6BnI

Weymouth Festival of Remembrance

As you may know, the blogger was not free to attend this very important event, but I am so Proud of you that I’ve found a way to blog about it anyway! 

Our dear choir master had this to share after the event, “Thank you so much to all who came along tonight and joined in a beautiful concert of remembrance for our fallen soldiers and their families. You sang with every ounce of passion, respect and honour and I am so proud to be your director. This is everything Dorset for Singing was created for, thank you again xx.”

This wonderful photo of you all shining was taken by Graham Hunt Photography and is shared with kind permission of Weymouth Festival of Remembrance. 

Well done DFS and see you Thursday xxx 

17 October 2019

We were a little late because Ed had lost his voice and was trying to find it. But we did find the source of his Worst Ever Cold among the choir members, in the form of a stolen kiss. 

There are only two rehearsals before the British Legion concert, and we peeped at some of the details on the screen. No going to the pub inbeteeen rehearsals etc, without inviting all the other members of choir. 

We began our singing with I Vow To Thee Vowing one day to have proper silly warm-ups like we used to back in our ‘other venue’, then switched to a less squeaky key. But what key will the band play in on the actual day? 

A hymn next, one which I should know well, as my grandma once heard my father sitting on the front step singing, ‘For nosey Beryl on the sea’, and Beryl is the name of my aunt. Eternal Father may have been sung well by choir but not by yours truly who does only actually know the last line. 

We stood to sing The National Anthem because it would be rude not too, and it was followed by the end of the telly, or the strange feeling that we should go home. But we didn’t and Ed left the piano because You Raise Me Up came with a backing track. Mind the gap everyone! The Air con fired up and we tackled a key change as Peter popped in to warm us up again, and we practiced the harmonies and uniqueness that was the last line. 

We mostly missed the intro and therefore our cue to start singing The Pipes Of Peace. Take two. What are we gonna do on the night as I think only I sing a certain line, and I’m not absolutely sure i can be there on the night. Perhaps someone will win that opportunity next week? 

A mood change is provided by Oom-Pah-Pah remembering to sway from the second time we Oom-pah-pah, and gently back down to earth with Wartime Medley because it starts with White cliffs of Dover ...a few odd notes crept in, around Jimmy’s bedroom area. 

Ed nearly missed out Get Here but we all shouted at him. I find the phrasing hard in this one. Ed went over some parts of it with us. 

So Keep The Home Fires Burning perhaps to warm us up before heading off into the cold night air. There are some parts of this we are certainly more confident with indeed! There was a request that we try and make sure we all sing the same melody. Ed bashed it out on the piano and Matty waiting outside for me thought we were singing tiptoe through the window! Oh well, that’s not far off! We stood to sing to end the evening on a good note, well maybe...

Well done choir, lovely as usual, keep singing, Cat xxx

10 October 2019

Before we opened our vocal folds we recived our running order for the royal British legeon concert.  

You raise me up

The pipes of peace 

Oom pah pah

Interval

War time medley 

Get here 

Keep the home fires burning 

And we began with You Raise Me Up which was a warm up, and following a mini debate on which folder is best for wielding at concerts. Ed reminded us of the new harmony part again, and about the gap in the waiting here in the silence sort of area. 

Moving on to The Pipes Of Peace and it also has a backing track. This one has long and lovely overlapping backing tracking tracks. We practiced those a bit and had a good and useful chat about them. 

Bravely Ed has already added Oom Pah Pah to a concert without us ever having sung it, until now! We were wanted to be very careful with Mr Percy Snodgrass! Fabulous ending I have to say. We are required to sway for the chorus parts and come back to a still stance for the verses. 

A War Time Medley moment was upon us. After a run Ed did a wash up, found the missing rabbits and firmed up a few notes. There’s an extra rabbit-run to cross out too. Don’t lets run on too long. 

It was quite a night. It was time to Get Here. Ed’s interpretive dance was breathtaking. Ed’s going to sing a version of this to record and help us learn the right notes. We don’t follow the original very closely, but he sat at the piano to help us sort things out. 

And in the correct key this week we Keep The Home Fires Burning whether the backing track (too busy buffering) or on the piano, 2, 3! Ed will also record a version of this too because there were some bum notes again.

Finally for a treat and because the backing track worked, we sang Wild West Hero and it was very meaty indeed with lots of depth. Remember your a Womble. 

Keep up the good work DFS, I love you, Cat the Blogger xxx

3rd October 2019

We began with a kazoo in our eager hands and an opportunity to share our charity nominations for this academic year. Did I say we are now 11? Well we are! 

We had a few words on the five charities and still had some time to sing, leaving our departure for voting, and we produced our kazoos with a triumphant sound of russling and a lot of hot hair blowing round the room. We used them to play Tequila and it was very marvellous! 

With our lips tingling we pulled out The Pipes Of Peace and put away the buzzing things. All the backing tracks are all on Dropbox just in case you wanted to do your homework using them. More conviction with the harmonies, said Ed, before shifting the key to something that was a little more comfy for choir in general. E + 3 is where the magic starts. 

And to Wild West Hero we went. Remember you’re a womble! We did it first with the piano and then the old backing track. It’s starting to come together. Meridy has to dig deep. We are singing this a little slower than ELO do it. 

Another song with a shiny new backing track was Keep The Home Fires Burning and we had to look out for the long notes that are surprisingly held. Sadly the backing track is in the wrong key so we then had a sing song round the piano and it was proper lovely and stirring and was followed by Footloose. 

We simplified some of the words but I think we still had trouble keeping up! Then Ed said Get Here and we waited for things to load. We just tried a little of this one. Get us. 

To finish we whipped out our Wartime Medley as we pack up our troubles, stack chairs and head out into rainy October again. 

Shire hall has asked us to do some Christmas carols at 12 TIL 1pm on the 14 December,  We may have our kazoos our then! Can’t wait! 

Well another evening comes to an end DFS, you have hearts of gold and super singing voices, I love you xxx

26 September 2019

It’s a new term, a new year and a new venue for us tonight. And for this term we are trialling the church centre at St Aldhelms and no one reported any problems parking which was smashing. Our Xmas concerts venues are to be confirmed. 

Our new start time is 7.15pm to finish at 8.30pm, and it’s best not to come before 7 if requiring to park at car. 

In notices we talked about the concert for The Royal British Legion on November 3rd. Lesley wanted to know why we stick to term times and Ed said it was so he could have lovely holidays. And perhaps singing workshops. In Barbados. 

Then Ed ran through the songs and we flicked through our fresh photocopies and considered the offerings, old and new. Some of them were knicked from Rock Choir. Naughty. I typed much to slow to list the songs but a quick peek at our up-and-running website to amend that. I might even look myself. Then Ed let me plug this event which is brand new and offers a shared meal for a donation to the charities... 

We warmed up to You Raise Me Up and oh it was so lovely. I felt like I almost had to leave choir last year due to stuff, but it was so good to be back. Then Ed demonstrated harmonies with our usual flair... We introduced a set of slides in the last lines and were up on our feet to perform. More of a masterclass than a warm up, in the end. 

With so many tunes to pick from we landed on Wild West Hero which Ed said was an acquired taste. It’s by ELO. There probably won’t be any line dancing in the strange intrumental after all. 

Next we urged Valerie to come on over, another song we have only sung once in DFS history. Now we are 11 there have probably been many!   

Another taster I’ve Got You Under My Skin lead to a search for the pitch transpose on the keyboard. And an even longer search for a key. Meanwhile Ed slipped into his official choir pyjamas because it was gone 8. 

We all remembered The Pipes Of Peace. Even the overlaps. So we hurried into You Can’t Hurry Love. And belted it out. Before the oldie Keep The Home Fires Burning and if you want to do your homework catch The D Day Darlings performance on you tube. Sounds like a hymn to my very young and modern ears, and the Wartime Medley was our Horlicks moment before we were to part, numbers one and two the same... 

Don’t forget next week we will choose our charity so come armed with nominations, well done DFS keep singing xxx

6 June 2019

Once again, dear friends, a piano with no lead. The plot thickens! Ed opened the door to freshen us up, before informing us that the aforementioned powerlead ‘is not part of our agreement’... Ed took a moment to compose himself instead of harping on about it ....

The running order had changed from last week so choir members scribbled it down, or shuffled papers in folders and our West Side Story Medley began. And even though Jacks Brain was hurting from GCSE exams today, he was on the ball with words, windows and Waiting For You. Nice ’nanas, mamas....

We looked we were enjoying All Of Me and Ed was pleased. Don’t forget to park as Tesco tomorrow night incase of full church car park, and you won’t be left Crying In the Rain. According to Alexa, it may well be damp on Portland tomorrow but it’s nothing to do with our singing. Lift your cheek bones to keep this one bright! We tried it again ... 

Top Of The World comes with license to smile big. Go choir. When we have sung that number the ‘urn warning’ will be made in church tomorrow, so that tea will be ready for the end of Nelly and break time! Ed gave Jackie the translation in leu of a nice cup of tea. Because it’s not concert night yet, and besides, milk is bad for your vocal folds ....

So we stood to perform Nella Fantasia, only the last backing track blared out of the speakers instead. It was good for morale. I’m not sure if it was good for our Italian though. 

But that little gem was declared concert ready, and we slipped into Can’t Take My Eyes Off You.. this song demands a lot of energy so eat two biscuits?

In Summer Nights I had a go at singing both parts with my huge range, to support parts 1 people. It was interesting. I’d rather be a girl. That was a massive amount better, said Ed.

We stood for our finale coz we Ain’t Heavy. And another practice was over, and DFS worked very amazingly hard and didn’t heckle the choirmaster too much. Then they all shuffled off home for Italian wine (possibly) with songs-a-plenty in their hearts. 

Well done DFS see you tomorrow for warm winds that feel like a friend. Or something. Cat xxx

23 May 2019

In urgent notices we discovered that our All Saints Church concert will start at half past and not seven as Ed believed. Take note and try to care share if you can. Carol plugged Art Wey’s Open For Art because we like visitors and would love to see you ... 

Jack was feeling special because he had officially left school, but there he was finding our words and making all the speakers work the first time for West Side Story Medley. We  suffered from the sound being compressed and got a little behind the beat until we warmed up. Jack played with some settings and we got another chance to sing some of it again. The film is on the television next week, Lesley told us. 

I’ve Been Waiting For You came with a diction reminder and a short but accurate demonstration of diction-gone-bad from Ed. We also sang it again a Capella. Those harmonies really started to come together! 

Up beat we delightedly sand All Of Me! I think we still do chickens in the middle but that’s just me. I’m terribly rude. Ed said the improv was much better, then he made us do it all again. Boom. Then just the middle section and then, the great ‘stand to perform’ and no one creaked or moaned as they got up from chairs, but May did tell tales on me, for not singing. Sometimes I just can’t sing and type! 

With tears already running down our faces from some other odd reason, we launched Crying In The Rain, suddenly composed again. Some jokes can never be blogged. I might lose my bloggers licence ...  Yeah, said Ed. And we felt on Top Of The World. It was almost perfect. Concert ready then! 

Ed opened the door to cool us down for He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother and a little breeze blew into the hall. Oh how Ed wants that final top note! From pure and high we went to dirty da-dahs, as practiced by DFS Dorchester last night. And it was alright ... This song will be the last before the interval and solo section.

And so hoping Nella Fantasia would be smashed today Ed began waving his arms about and his little black-and-yellow pencil. It was very nearly there! One more rehearsal before we perform it! 

We divided the hall up differently to sing Summer Nights. 

Well done DFS. Perhaps you know what I’m going to say. Don’t come next week. It’s half term. Have a good break, love Cat xxx

16 May 2019

Ed stood at the front again, in conducting mode. Which is good, because choirs need conductors. Our greeting was a warm up in itself, and the real reason for conductor mode was that the piano was bereft of electronic connections yet again. 

Plans for the night included establishing who does what in the middle of Summer Nights and the rather ambitious desire to make Nella Fantasia concert ready this very night. Ed made everyone stretch to warm up, and there was a dull crashing sound so we switched to some breath-and-hiss followed by an investigation into the expansion of our diaphragms. Ooooo-waaaaaaah!

And to a proper warm up with West Side Story was almost thwarted by the lack of sound from the big speakers. Buttons and switches were inneed of tweekimg so we sat down again to rest after all that hard work(out). We sat with folders to share, and sang Al Fresco. Jack tried to find the hidden electricity while we sang but only the side speakers near the old serving hatches would sing. Until Ed went over and turned absolutely everything on, including the microwave, and the big speakers were told I’ve Been Waiting For You. Never a truer word sung at DFS. The men needed some guidance on their Aaahs. Each of the men sang a different note, and needed bringing back in line. 

All Of Me sung in Dorchester had treated our audience to a somewhat mumbled improv section, probably due to a lack of confidence or the worry of sounding like a bunch of chickens so it turned into a sort of hum or a long fart. Ed told me to blog that. And he taught us something cool to sing collectively and keep that middle section going. This proved hard to do without music but we tried, and were allowed to sing it with the music again. 

Moving on to Crying In The Rain the backing track rolled out beautifully and so did we, because the choir master said the harmonies were lovely. We felt on Top Of The World when we got to listen to Karen on YouTube. We sang it much more better after that and moved on to He Ain’t Heav-eh, He’s My Brother but I just laughed uncontrollably as my autocorrect added My Bottom. This might be a good time to retire from blogging. Maybe not. 

Summer Nights are now being split into parts, and not boys-n-girls as we do find ourselves a bit girl-heavy. We need more brothers perhaps! Homework requires studying this, esp the part-1s!

And then with only four minutes left before eight we stood with our sheet music for Nella Fantasia ...

Well done DFS. You worked very hard tonight especially Jack for taking the sound desk to bits and putting it back together again. Yay! Keep singing. I love you x

9 May 2019

Back after a birthday party last week, the blogger was delighted to enter the school hall to the sights and sounds of The Day At The Musicals DVD, as people collected their copies from the front. If you want one to buy, and you are not on the list, please see the big man. 

Tonight’s treat was a concert run through after a reminder of performance etiquette and of the concert at brewery square on Saturday. Please wear bright tops if you can. I’m thinking about the current cold weather of course. Money will be raised for Diverse Abilities. 

So instead of standing for half an hour everyone sat, and we began....

West Side Story Medley 

I’ve Been Waiting For You high cheek bones and light ... 

All Of Me lovely ..

Crying In The Rain 

Top Of The World mind the gap, thigh the slap ...

He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother heav-eh not heav-eeeee but it did sound lovely. 

Can’t Take My Eyes Off You which apparently will be our last song. Don’t worry. No one reads this blog so they won’t know there is secretly one more song. (Keep this one light too. It goes down a lot in the verses).

Which is ...

Summer Nights and it found the gentlemen being very flirty and the ladies in need of a tad more Sandra D. 

Nella Fantasia won’t be in Saturday’s concert but we are Hoping to perform it soon, in church on the 7th June. so after a briefing we gave it a go. Afterwards Ed read a translation, with great love and feeling. I felt like I should now vote for him in the next election, but then we had to sing it a Capella. Some people still hung on for musical queues! Do not drop down too early anywhere in this song. Sliders are not welcome. Kebabs are. We stood to sing. 

An update to Preston Garden Party gives us a time of 12 noon. Keep singing everyone especially practicing Nella, and well done from Cat the Blogger xxx

25 April 2019

The blogger appeared once again in the school hall and Ed announced a little bit of trouble, a clash of dates with rehearsals, and the start of summer. 

We have got she loads of concerts this term, so many in fact you will have to find them on the web site because they didn’t all fit in Ed’s head. We moved to warm up, just a quick one, because we had a lot of newish and as yet I performed songs. Ed did give some lovely feedback on the workshop and confirmed there will be more as they were so good. CDs will be ready for collection next week, and sound pretty good so well done to everyone who took part. 

Still with the musicals we began with our children West Side Story Medley. We certainly warmed up again as we went on. There might have been some timing issues. And rather a lot of Easter chocolate last week possibly. After some explanation of conducting we were off again, having another do at the beginning, and then some harmonies for ‘there’s a place’ in a very specific place. Only a few people were in this specific place. Ed demonstrated the very very high harmony. 

Ed would like to get Nella Fantasia into a concert so we tackled that one next. The 7th June would be a good time to have this one ready for, said Ed. And he bid us sing sans piano. We worked steadily verse by verse and improved a lot of those tricky timings. 

All Of Me saw Ed back behind the trusty piano. The improv section must end promptly with ‘your goodbye’. And now it does, yay! Thanks to Ed for the chicken impersonation when he let rip. Marvellous. The short ‘eyes’ also won the DFS vote too. Remember this for next week. 

Looking forward to the weekend we sang Crying In The Rain. I dear. I’m planning a BBQ. On the second run through everyone stood, then zooming on we shuffled papers to find the ending of Summer Nights. Members are invited to message Ed privately should they feel that this song isn’t apropriate to be sung in church. DFS might like to know I once sang ‘love machine’ in the Wey Bay Methodist church on account of Honey Honey and my dress frayed at the breast. Make of that what you will. I loved that dress. We stood to perform. Ding dong. 

Feeling Top Of The World we revisited an old carpenters’ number. We did a giggle over this song but I’m not sure if I’m allowed to blog that so never mind. We stood to sing our finale. 

I love you DFS. Missed you loads. Hope to be here lots again. Yay. Keep singing xxx

14 March 2019

The one after the huge paws .... sorry pause. Because actually there was only half term when choir wasn’t on, but for the blogger there has been much to occupy and manage. 

Ed welcomed everyone to Italian For Beginners from the conducting position. We learned the words before the tune of Nella Fantasia. 

Having a good listen at home for homework will really help of course, and left us free to move on to West Side Story and a smart run through before possibly going live on the old Facebook! I indeed filmed it using Ed’s phone, not easy as he doesn’t have an Apple. Cough.  

Next up, I’ve Been Waiting For You with the banana section at the end, and All Of Me. The improv section still apparently needed some work and we listened to QUEEN doing something similar (only brilliantly of course) for inspiration. Thanks Jack. 

With no reference to our recent soggy and windy storms, we sang Crying In The Rain. And He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Bother. 

We had a quick recap of the ending of Summer Nights before standing to perform. 

Well done DFS and - keep singing! Xxx

7 February 2019

The one with the raffle ... wait no, the one with the posh warm up. Donna Nobis Parchem to be precise. It’s ok for me until we are supposed to sing it in rounds! 

Then a proper warm up before the raffle was drawn, and we raised about £65 for our charity. 

Well done to the sensible people who stayed at home in the warm last week, you were of course missed greatly. This week we only had some wind to deal with. Next week we have the common room to deal with, ready for luuuurve though on account of the date. 

Fayre in The Square is in place, 11.30 on Saturday 25 May, followed by Ed’s solo set. 

And then we sang our West Side Story Medley, and then looked at some volume levels, as per the sheet music. Mike asked me for a pen I didn’t have. Then to work on the men’s parts, the ladies sang softly in support mode. The ladies need to watch some of the timings! At one point I’m sure Underlay changed to Olay, and Ed swapped some Las for Das and then back again. We beefed up our accents as best we could, and met the soprano line for ‘even death won’t part us now’. Sweet. 

And as a treat for all that hard work we sang I’ve Been Waiting For You and at the end I googled inflatable banana. Nah? Nice and wide with those Nanas, folks! 

Tonight extra talent was making the perfect BeeGees sound for the into to How Deep Is Your Love. Ed has changed the key again this week. 

We stood to sing All Of Me even tho is still the best one at skat singing, and I still sound like a chicken.... please don’t forget that short ending! 

To finish, a meeting about the next choir tour, and a goodnight to all. Keep singing, Cat xxx

31 January 2019

On a very soggy night only the hardiest of DFS arrived to sing songs about snowflakes...

Ed encouraged all to move forward and snuggle up to conserve heat, and anounced the future loss of plastic bottles for sale, and the possibility that Up Where We Belong might not be where we belong at all, in terms of finding a key to fit us. Tonight’s raffle is also cancelled due to weather conditions. 

After a very short warm up, I’ve Been Waiting For you was our first song, and after a song through we looked at some harmonies. Coming along nicely, declared Ed, before peeling some sheet music to our medley. 

We attempted Up anyway. Then we popped it on the back burner, with the gas up quite high. And lit. 

So we settled into our West Side Story Medley some with fresh music, but not before a news update - snow was beginning to stick in Westham and Southill. Ed and Jack almost left in a panic. Ed had an extra part for the men, during I Feel Pretty. It had some nice little echos/overlaps. We worked hard really breaking lots of things down and we also really had a lot of fun with it. 

One last song, How Deep Is Your Love before our treat of Any-oke... a treat we had not tasted for a long. And as it turned out, were not going to nibble at tonight either. As mobiles alerted us to proper snow, we jumped up to look at the white world and hurried off to our cars .... 

Wow what fun we had, sitting in a school hall with snowfall all around. We missed you, the rest of DFS. Hope you are warm and safe, reading this. Cat xxx 

24 January 2019

Ed thanked everyone once again for last weeks birthday party, and hoping for more I am sure, he introduced two new songs, but first we were all in need of a good warm up following recent frosts in our fine town ... 

But it was only a short warm up, because Ed was in the mood for singing. That’s fortunate. We began with the West Side Story because it was bound to be one million times stronger than last week on account of all the homework we had been doing. 

And then an announcement, there are three hampers left over from our Xmas concert so please bring one pound next week to be in it to win one of those fab hampers. And choir are looking into a trip for us this year, and don’t forget we are singing towards a nice chocolaty Easter Concert. 29 June is the date of Preston rectory garden party, in the afternoon, if you can make it. 

Back to some analysis, with the piano on backing track, and Ed conducting from the front. Ignore the bit were the piano ignored the pitch transpose. That just counts as extra warm  up, and after singing it through again we were given some feedback from the end to the beginning. The feel pretty section is optional for men, and the beginning still sounds lazy. It must sound like tonight is kebab night! Feel that excitement dear choir! The Dorset twang popped up again, when we found outselves Aaarf-way there.... 

Back at the piano again, and again without it, we had a run through America! 

All Of Me has some smashing be-bop-doey things and was the first of our new songs tonight. It’s best to tackle it based around the melody and in the manner of Ella Fitzgerald. Someone mumbled that we sounded like chickens ...

And a quick reminder of the harmony part before singing I’ve Been Waiting For You and off we went. I particularly like the spontaneous three part banana harmonies at the end and much better than ... 

And we show How Deep Is Your Love and do Bee Gees impressions, well ok, maybe that was just me? Ed demonstrates the harmony again. 

Singing at DFS I think we are Up Where We Belong. And that being our finale, we stood to air our bottoms and sing .... 

Well done DFS I think you are fab, Love, The Cat xxx

17 January 2019

The one where the blog was 10 years old! 

And a happy new year to all, also a happy birthday song for Ed, sung before we had even warmed up. He opened Fulvia’s goody bag and we all ooohed and aaaahed at the pink wrapped objects therein. 

We had an exciting goody bag ourselves of new songs and a brand new medley to get our teeth into, so into the warm-up we went, and then our West Side Story Medley. Ed gave us an oral run thru, and didn’t make it sound hard at all. The whole thing fits on two sides of A4. We gave it our best, before breaking it down as we always do. 

The start needs some exciting bubbling under the surface, and the perfect sounding of the T’s. The ‘feel pretty’ section splits into men and women’s parts and that section was particularly fun. America really needed some careful explaining too. 

Not many of us really knew the vow section very well, but a few sang it like a sober hymn. 

The finale is a song choir has done before, so we all dived happily in. And we stood to perform! 

Then resting our voices we listening to I’ve Been Waiting For You on you tube, the Mama Mia version. After that we sung it all lovely like we are a real proffessional choir. 

Next How Deep Is Your Love using a karaoke track in the original key, which was challenging, so Ed sat at the piano to drop it down a bit. I thought of my dad, trying to sing it in the olden days. We were not so sure of that key ....

And for our happy ending, Blue Moon, something super fun to help us sing our socks off! And didn’t we do well. Keep singing, I love you xxxx