6 March 2014

The cat in the hat came back ... To blog!

Ed's ear infection caused him to take a sickie today so we had to have choir without him. 

So he didn't have the comments sheet, about the performance on Saturday at the music fesival, but he did give us some lovely feedback and the sad news that DFS are not invited back for Friday nights concert, unless of course anyone wants to come and watch!

Working towards 'the best of' we will be preparing about 25 minutes of songs for that concert, and we kicked off with Karen carpenter and I felt shocked. What have you lot being doing in my absence? It was in a shocking key (C+3), and so we slipped it to a C+2 and tried again. The extra long phrase had to have some breathing spaces slotted in, in two secret places! Sorry that all those 'aaaaahs' made me yawn ... Then we stood to perform and no one played air guitar after all...

Freedom next, and no I don't mean the accessible boat in Weymouth harbour, but the wham! song from our collective youth. Well ok just mine and Ed's, and at 'C+3' was a tad high for most of us ... Ed's choreography was excellent. And as for our singing, I'm not sure if we got it in the bag, but I think we hit it over the head quite a bit!

'The long and winding road' hasn't yet disappeared from our repertoire, and is well high at C+6! It may be missing some trombones and a banana. Alex volunteered to be a French horn. And then we went into the jungle, without so much as a mosquito net. 

Last song, plucked from the menu, left us 'happy together', in E-minor! 

Thanks to all those who said they missed the blog! I've really had fun doing it this week. Must have missed it myself. 

13th February 2014

The one with no blogger ...

And Ed said, "Missed u!! All confirmed for the Oxford trip, and King and I medley had its flat note sorted! Xx."

Which was nice. Have a nice half term folks, don't turn up next week and stay on top of that bum note ...

6th February 2014

The one with the chewing gum...

Good news and bad news ... the good news is that we have been accepted for Weymouth music festival. The bad news is that we are on at 9 0'clock in the morning! So a quick perform then back to bed me thinks ....

We will be singing the king and I number, well I won't, I had a prior booking. So please don't hate me for not being there to staple words onto. So we started with that one.. I don't need to add the key this time!

Then we dug out last weeks list in order to vote for song number two, which could not be a ballad, and Belinda Carlisle won so we cranked up the karaoke version! Then with the piano and our power point we added in more ooooo's and a smart key change! And it's ok we have next week too!

Meanwhile, as I blogged live(!), VOCALZONE re-tweeted Jacks marvelous stack of biblical throat lozenges, and sent me a private message too! Really working on that sexy sponsorship you know ....

Then we went back to the little problem from the king and I ... The WONDERFULS ...And the star-treck intro was ditched in favour of a more romantic lead in. Top E-ers a,omg us need to be really open and relaxed of course. See carol if you have any questions about this, although just which carol is really up to you! Which notes to hold and which ones to drop also had to be sorted out too. Then we gave it a complete run through, and were ready to sing something different! 

The bloggers throat was hurting so she did some more catch up and enjoyed the singing! 

So we almost finished with a bit of blondie and the paint chart song ... But it was pants, i mean it could really use some more work, so we dug out the Alex Day number! Perfect. Haha. Love you XXXXXX

Thursday 30th January

The one were i scrounged a VOCALZONE off someone else as I had forgotten mine!

 Music festival performance in three weeks folks! And with seven songs to perform tonight we stated with a nice camel-yawn and our classic warm-up!

In notices we plugged a drumming group at Weymouth, so speak to Joan for more info and wants to sell her keyboard. And possibly buy a drum!

Next week is D-day to decide on our trip!

Choir were keen to our king and I number for the music festival! But first we checked out tonight's tasks :-

1. In C! Which is a good key anyway. Just pretend its a song about happy things to give it that lift!

2. First a run through with the karaoke and then with ed ad his piano forte. Then a fine a Capella! Ed was pleased and purred approval (I got a pet cat recently). After applying some wonderful harmonies, Ed threatened us with THE DANCE ROUTINE which is like THE DAD DANCE only worse ....

3. We don't know this song. Well, I don't! Possibly dreary!

4. I've got the perfect choreography for this. Just wait till DFS find out! It's is all doing that Maori dance Hakka job! Cool beans ...

6. There will be no number 5. Some people were trying, some people were not trying and SOME people were VERY trying ...

7. F-minor minus 2. For the ba ba ba ba ba section I would like the former flag wavers at the back to wave sheep. Possibly not real ones! What do you think?

One song from that lot may be ditched!

23 January 2014

The one in the common room with nothing to play! So we started our warm up with humming and oooo-ing!

We have 2 concerts in May. Friday 23 at All saints church 7.30pm, and the rotary club festival of 'stuff' in hope square 26 may 11.30am.

Trip to be decided. Numbers will be checked, as we dont have 40 folks this time ... i am giving this one a miss so if that helps you make the decision to sign up, go for it ... guest blogs on the trip are welcome but please make sure you write them when you are sober!

We reviewed some of the song suggestions posted on our you tube site, the rest of what we looked at last week.

'You can't hurry love', and you can't hurry Dorset For Singing either! The first set of lyrics were too 'zoomed in', and I couldn't look at the second set as I had not taken any motion-sickness medication 2 hours before...

Mr Blue Sky was orange as well as swirly! Still it could be worse, it didn't strobe! Ed said we could try it again using piano forte, and in a different key, sometime - learn it for your homework!

Katy Perry's 'Roar' was played through by Glee, and although we tackled it as best we could, it has a lot of potential,  and we have plenty of time to Learn it! We had a good go at it, but 'Harold's' lyrics had a spot of lag. 

'Good morning sunshine' was fun, we did it much better that the last time we tackled it!

Tiny Michael Jackson popped up to sing 'I Want You Back' for us ... But it had too many words in it!

'

Blonde was 'Dreaming' way back when I was a twinkle in my daddy's eye! We liked that. Then we listened to Call Me! At this point in her career i believe she was really a frustrated interior designer. If you don't believe me, just check out the screen shot bellow! These days she might enjoy a bit of 60 minute makeover ... 

The beach boys entertained us next, 'wouldn't it be nice' if we could do this every night! We enjoyed that. 

Freedom by Wham! I just felt old, and a little bit cheesy ...

'Can't Help Falling In Love With You' has been done before, but this time in reggie style like UB40. We went straight in the karaoke version coz we are that cool... Yes we are!

Chicago 'You are an inspiration!' 80's moment indeed!

'Heaven is a place on earth' was so successful last week, that we went straight to karaoke version to sing.  But it was very swirly so I sat that one out. Tried to remember if I had had a Belinda Carlisle album, sadly I think I only had Debbie-somebody-or-other, and T'Pau. Sigh. 

Ed apologies for being poorly. And plugged his convert in Upwey tomorrow night! He also plugged his latest twitter account, so be sure to follow him @singinghints! Keep singing and remember i love you even if i blog very late XXXX

16 January 2014

The first one back after our Christmas break ...

Harry has bought a car and Ed's nicked it! This has enabled him to bring his own shop along, featuring bottled water and the lozenges called Vocal Zone - Biblical ingredients to sooth your vocal cords without the numbing properties of over the counter throat pastilles. (Did I do OK Ed?)

March 1st will find those of us that can attend singing at wey valley for this years music festival. Time to be confirmed. And perhaps choir numbers. I for one will be busy with a stall at WAND in Dorchester ...

Sunday 30th March we are singing at the best of Dorset. As we are of course. That's Mothering Sunday too! Times and date clashes to be confirmed. 

We are in the common room next week, and again on the 6th February. Funny red  chairs and non-acoutsics will be available too. 

Please use the forum on our website to suggest songs for us to sing this brand new term. And don't forget to say thanks to this winters' Carol singers who did a sterling job entertaining locals. 

And how about that trip to Oxford? £50 deposit needed by 23rd January please. 

Songs this week - 

We kicked off with Karen Carpenters Goodbye to Love. Finally settling in the key of D after a few grumpy faces!

A bit of Barry - Let's Hang On! We put it in the Maybe pile ...

We revisited seasons of love - the glee version! We will need to revise all our harmonies. 

The long and winding road is probably the only Beatles song I do not know, and it also needed a key change too. A flat. A flat what?

Heaven is a place on earth! We had a pop at that, possibly too many words involved!

Chain reaction! Ended in a chain reaction of laughter, when we all realised we never really new the words at all! After that my tummy hurt and it was hard to sing 'Happy Together' and it was settled in the key of C Minor. 

Monday Monday will be performed in D. 

Stand by Me, and Thank You for reading our blog!

Happy New Year 2014

"Got a total at last! We're sending £744.50 to Julia's House, blog away!"

What an impressive fund-total we raised from our December 12th concert at the pavilion. With many tickets sold on the door, a bit of a gamble on a 10p coin to win a smashing bottle of bubbly and of course some impressive hampers raffled off on the night too!

Great venue if you also like to dance and eat chips at a concert, and of course, a cast of local stars to entertain and amuse with especially good jokes about chefs ....

As a long term member of choir, I note that we have come a long way in our 5-and-a-bit years performing. And i have the original DVD to prove it! Now we have a repertoire almost as big as Ed himself, and an impressive spread of harmonies including some very unique tenor-ladies. Oh yes indeed ....

See you lovely people on the 16th of January with lots of energy and some chocolate for me. Just kidding. Energy is optional. Love you all, Keep singing, Cat xxxx

5th December 2013

The one without Cat ...

Numbers were down last night, and so was I, popping paracetamol and feeling shivery - I'll bring a note from my Mum next time! Here is the running order for next weeks concert. More info as Ed supplies it!

Part 1

I Love It When You Call A Winter's Tale Somewhere Only We Know In the Bleak Mid Winter Keeping the Dream Alive

Part 2

The King and I Uptown Girl Groovy Kind of Love First of May O Come All ye Faithfull