8 May 2015

At possibly our 5th concert at All Saints Church, Michael took some lovely atmospheric photos and let me share them with you. 

Setting up with Ed, Jenny and Jack was peppered with quotes from my recently released wedding video. That may just get an airing at a choir social in the future!

The lovely people of All Saints church always make us welcome and tonight was no different, with very organised raffling, refreshments and a fine result for our charity The Samaritans. I am sure we will be back next year, given the fine vote of thanks from the Reverend Mr, and the livley joining in during our encore!

This years solos-slot featured a smaller number of choir members along with a set by Ed and Julie who are forming a duet act ready to gig! Nice song from new pairing Mike and Linda and a debut appearance by my dental appliances which didn't make a funny whistling sound once! Phew!

Feedback said that we sounded very good, so it looks as though age is a good thing for DFS. We will be 7 in September, and the blogs 7 in January. Such fun! Some of the songs we sung really challenged us this year and I think the audiences choice for our encore really took us by surprise!

Last year this Friday was the 9th May, not the eighth, and I pointed out the appropirately dated hassock that my other half was using to sit on in the pew. For it was on Friday 9th May last year that he asked me to marry him, and choir said they would sing at our wedding! Happy happy! 

Almost as good as raising a neat £200 for The Samritans, bless em! Well done DFS see you Thursday xxxxx

7 may 2015

The one where jack's updates went live as we gathered to sing. So we can all have words ready for Friday!

Ed handed out words for people whose computers won't talk to their printers. He also had some sweet fliers advertising the garden party were we will perform on 30th may. We are headlining so you might want to pick one up just to frame it afterwoods!

The street where you live Was first with Ed conducting, just as we like him! It sounded rather goo.

Chiquitita and not the curried version this time, so you know that we mean business the night before our concert! Ed said this one sounded lovely! Patch gap!

I get around, said Ed. And we smiled. Rhythm. 

Don't sleep in the subway. Was beautiful but echo line louder please! After a run through Ed slipped behind the piano to ...

Lean on me! Which will have no backing track, just a little backing track! Don't hold onto the 'some' too long. 

Breaking up has a rather funny backing track! Wednesday DFS got to taste it's wonderfulness last night, tonight was our turn! Gentle men don't sing the verses. 

Reach out. Ed tried to point out a missing word but at first couldn't find it. Funny that. It's the word 'most'. Jack quickly rewrote the ending too. That will need to go love before I do my last minute printing tomorrow!! Hah! Or rather, 1 2 3, Hah! Hmmmm said Ed. 

Another run through please said Ed. So we reached out and no, darling! Ed divided the room. Some of those words really don't seem to fit the lines!

Downtown we went next. It's fine even though we haven't touched it for a while. 

Waterloo - The ever hiding one! Really? But the words didn't fit the backing track so jack did a quick edit and everyone with a print out tore the bottom 2 lines off the sheet!

With a little help from my Friends. Er. Nice. The lyrics didn't match. We need the version from last year. Website to be updated again. Thanks Ed and Jack. 

Ed will bring some spares tomorrow!

Ed asked us if we wanted to drop a song. Then gave Waterloo another run through. It was much better. Yay! 

Then on election night, Reach Out was voted out of the line up. Spirits soared. 

San Fransisco and Lean on me to finish.  San Fransisco will make a lovely encore. 

We all stood to sing a final lean on me and Ed said lovely, lovely, lovely and then we went home! Xxxxx

Dorchester 6/05/15

Hello folks in Blog land, is there anybody out there ?

T'was an eerily quiet evening in Dorchland, not many of us turned up. was it the bank holiday, or had everyone been blown to the land of Oz by those very strong winds? If they all return as Munchkins, we know it was the latter. 

Although low in number, the quality of sound was surprisingly lovely, the keen ones were in clearly.

Whilst Jack was fighting with the laptop, (naughty laptop!), Ed chatted about a few things happening this term, but he said we probably won't be working on any new songs for now. We shall be doing some 'fine tuning', and perfecting, no pressure ! 

A phantom voice boomed from the sound system, and everyone laughed nervously. We decided to leave the technology alone and get down to some singing.

First on the list, The Street Where You Live, well, if you are harmoniously inclined, there are some lovely ones on the second verse 'lilac tree ees' and the fourth verse 'stop and stare'.

Chiquitita, harmonies, sounding great, all views and opinions are my own of course!

Get Around getting there.

Dont Sleep In The Subway, great harmonies for the last two choruses, making us sound like a proper grown up choir!

Lean On Me, timing tricky on this one, Some.......times in our lives-----------for.......it wont be long etc etc, love this song though. I must also add, that Ed is adamant that we must not nod our way through this one, but I fear this is a big ask!

Breaking Up is hard to do received the comment, " Oh let just see what happens", then Ed started on about Bach, and sliding 5ths......see how far Dorchester have come! No people, I didn't understand him either.

Reach Out was next on the list, followed by Waterloo.

If you are coming to our Portland extravaganza on Friday, it starts at seven thirty and Ed will be there from just after six. If you get panicked about parking, there is Tesco as a last resort, and it is quite close to the church, they will be only too pleased to help the community, they're desperate since the German invasion.

See you soon ,Carole M x


                        

30 April 2015

The one with the two part hum warm-up...

In which I got completely lost and the men made a lovely thrum. I managed to stay with it the second time, and the third. 

The running order for our next concert is now live on the website and words will be available next week for those unable to print their own. Ed spelled out the running order very very slowly.

Running Order for All Saints Church, Easton, Portland 7.30pm 8th May
Part 1
1. On the Street Where You Live
2. Chiquitita
3. Get Around
4. Don't Sleep in the Subway
5. Lean on Me
6. Breaking Up is Hard to Do
7. Reach Out
8. Downtown
9. Waterloo Part

2 - Ed and guest singers
10. With a Little Help from My Friends
11. (Encore) Let's Go to San Francisco

On the street where you live first up, both in the order of things and to be sung tonight. Ed forgot the interlude of oooohs and Aaaaaaghs but most of us kept going! 

Chicken tikka next, which was coming along nicely. Don't forget the meaningful gap before the patch.

Get around, gets around fast doesn't it? Tiny little timing issue. See blog two weeks back. Ed introduced counting and clapping and wept, 'give me the rhythm,' till finally they got it. But would they keep it?

Subway next, extra fried chicken. Oh yeah. No one remembers to sing the sweet little response part for two lines of the last two chorus so we worked on that and then fixed a lyric. 

Ed attempted to complement our tone but no one was listening so we instead recived a lecture on behaviour. Then the complement of the year - we sound like one voice!

Lean on me was begun a Capella and when the piano joined in we were still in tune! Whoooohoo! That key change is still scary though! And we are having some nice gaps, Elaine already had a record of these in her folder.

This arrow is to remind everyone that there a key change coming up that no one wants to do ⬆️. 

Breaking up is hard to do, but that key change was excellent! 

Waterloo next! Missing out a song to slip this one in tonight (reach out). And Ed said marvellous. Even though there was a quick-bit that tripped a few people up. 

Time for reach out, HUH WHAT? Hah! This one needs some homework because the words don't seem to fit on the lines they are supposed to. Please. Keep singing, that's not why I love you! Cat xxxx

Dorchester Choir 29/4/15

The technology failed us this week, so we shared words, the one week I didn"t have my folder as I left in a hurry! typical! But it turned out to be a good exercise in remembering and I think we surprised ourselves.

The warm up was really fun, Ed was waving his arms like an air traffic controller, sending us up, down and all over the place. It sounded very harmonious and raised a few giggles.

Ed spoke about the concert on Friday the 8th May at All Saints Church Portland, its at 7-30 and will be a lovely one to ease us in. Iit's a very relaxed evening, and we will have the Weymouth choir to hold us up, not literally of course, we can go to the pub afterwards.

The choir mostly wear the uniform t shirt, as long as we get the colour right we can wear any top,with black bottoms. The colours are purple, orange, powder blue, sunshine yellow, lime green, and I think there is bright pink, if you look on the website at the choir logo, these are the colours. 

Now for some songs, we started with Don't Sleep in The Subway. Ed complimented us on not being a 'warbley' choir, and believe me this is a real compliment. According to Ed, we sound like a young choir, I for one will be taking extra care with hair and make up on Friday week!

Round Round Get Around was next up, we are really giving this one some wellie now.

A little Help from My Friends , Reach Out, and to finish, Breaking Up is Hard to Do. I think The King and I was in there somewhere, must pay more attention, too busy having fun, but after all is said and done, that is why we love DORSET FOR SINGING !                                                                                    

         See you next time, Carole M x                         

23 April 2013

Back in the dining room again ...when Jack played the new 'spooning-dinner ladies' advert before we started, and everyone tried to decide if that woman was me or not ...

Fulvia blew bubbles. That's all I'm going to say about the shenanigans on the front row during warm ups! They involved huge, great big, dirty, long notes and some of the biggest, loudest breaths we have ever seen. Oh yes. Ed likes big breaths ...

Announcements. Lots of concerts as follows:-

Fri 8th May All Saints Portland 7.30pm
Sat 16th May Canterbury 7pm
Mon 25th May Fayre in the Square timings tbc (daytime)
Sat 30th May St Andrews Preston 12.30pm
31st May Race for Life Kingston Maurward 10-45am - 12.15pm 
Sat 27th June 'Out Loud' 2pm outside Sausage Factory!
(We get the sausage factory but Ed gets the stage at debenhams ......)
Sat 11th July Rose Garden St. Edmund's timings tbc (daytime)

And here is a Sweet link which you can use to nominate an Unsung Hero for an upcoming BBC music event. which would be our Ed of course!

And finally squeezing a bit of singing, starting with Lemon Otter. But it went up went up where it never used to and left even Ed behind at one point! Comma comma down goes up! After breaking down breaking up a bit, it sounded lovely. 

Time to Get Around which was better that the last time in the dining room. Syncopated was the word. So was timing. 

Can we Sleep in the subway?, asked Ed tenderly, and we dived into to the song of the same name. It's was almost too easy, but we forgot to put a delay on the so. Ed hammered out a harmony which was really a nice echo. 

Lean on me I'm your blogger. Nice. Finding the right version was fun. Needs a bit of a nip and tuck, as we last performed it in the olden days (2009) ... Jack doodle numbers on the overhead projection. They looked like  the way the Wii-fit tries to appraise my attempts at yoga. 

Reach out darling, and make friends at DFS. HUH. Jenny got two in while everyone else remembered where it was supposed to go. Ed will go over the timing again soon. until then, go nominate Mr Unsung and have fun ... Love You XXXXX

DFS Dorchester 22/04/2015

After the long Easter Break it was lovely to see everyone again, and also to arrive, and leave, in daylight.

Jenny was on door duty for the first session of this term, but we need willing volunteers to take a turn on the door now and then, you need to be there by six twenty-five-ish if you feel you would like to help out.

We started off with our warm up, Ed reminded us that as we don't have time for a very lengthy one, it is a good idea to warm up as we go about our daily routine, whether that be at work, shopping, electioneering, whatever. Dorchester will take no notice, apparently they are accustomed to this kind of behaviour. Thats probably because they have a town crier, and an arts centre.

Notices - We are going to be joining our big brothers and sisters in the Weymouth choir for their upcoming gigs, and we will be showcasing all that we have been learning some time in june in the church. Thank goodness for the great acoustics.

We then set to work on a few songs. Lean on Me is a great song for building confidence, and Ed gave us some
nice easy harmonies, it sounded really good.

We did Reach Out, harmonies again, and of course that grunt, nobody did it in the wrong place this time, but it's much more fun when they do. We all love singing this one, memories of our misspent youth!

We ended the rehearsal with The Beatles song, A Little Help from My Friends. The words of this song don't really fit us, as we are on the whole, a, shall we say, somewhat mature, albeit gorgeous bunch. Our highs are probably a nice cup of tea and a cream cake, or a cheeky glass of something, with our shoes off! But hey, this probably applies to Paul and Ringo too nowadays. By the way, who was YOUR Beatle? 

See you next week, don't forget to sing your way around Tesco, Waitrose, Poundland, you know you want to.

Carole M x

                        

26 March 2015

The last one of the term ....which may or may not have been a little slurred....

Ed brought red wine for anyone that fancied a bit and I enjoyed being welcomed back as a minor celebrity after the spooning episode. 

Ed warmed us up then told us that after tonight we would not meet again for four weeks so don't turn up before then unless you are coming to the centenary rehearsal in three weeks time. 

As completely everyone was confused about all kinds of dates we left filling in diaries in favour of singing, with promises from our choir master to plop everything on the website later. 

Reach Out was the first song. We hadn't sing it since the beginning of term and maybe it sounded like it ... Over to you tube to see how it really goes. Some choir members had different words! Ed tied to split the room for some sexy overlapping and an almighty 'HA'. Jenny suggested more red wine for everyone. To help. 

Then ed got everyone to stand, and Jack recoded our efforts with his smarty-pants phone and eveyone did much better especially in the choruses! 

Get around worked on Sunday and we tackled it again. I enjoyed hearing the backing track for the first time and having our conductor out front too.

Then it was mingle time and I ate chocolate and chatted about TV adverts past and present and had my hair platted by Ruth. 

Songs to follow were Don't Take Your Love Away, and Waterloo, both lead by Lemon Otter in Canterbury. Final song of the term was put to a vote, and we rolled with Rolling In The Deep!

Thanks for a great term Dorset For Singing I love you lots, keep singing xxxxx