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