4 April 2022

Ed posted on Facebook, “It is with huge regret that I have to announce the cancellation of our forthcoming Easter concert on Thursday, 7th April.  Our last rehearsal sadly aided in the spread of COVID and the general consensus from choir members is that it would be sensible to postpone rather than risk further infections.  Thank you for all the hard work that you have put in over the term, it really has been fantastic hearing all your voices again. Happy Easter xx”

And that’s probably very sensible. 

28 March 2022

NOTICE 

A few members have reported testing positive today, and as not everyone is on Facebook I’m sharing here too.

Please also note that there will be no choir practice this week, to keep everyone as safe as we can. 

Lots of love, Cat x

EDIT 

Ed posted a reminder on the Facebook today. 

“ Dorset for Singing Friends! Just a reminder that we have regretfully had to cancel choir rehearsals this week due to several members testing positive for Covid. We are still aiming to hold our Easter Concert at St. Aldhelm's on Thursday, 7th April at 7pm but this will require a negative LFT test beforehand, if we can go ahead. If you know of anyone in either Weymouth or Dorchester choir that may not have received this message, please let them know. There are no more rehearsals planned until Wed 27th and Thursday 28th April. Thank you for all your support and understanding.”

Stay safe everyone x

24 March 2022

Ladles and Jelly-spoons, I present, stolen from Facebook, a Running order for Thursday, 7th April, 7pm:

Amen! (warm up song)

Wild West Hero

Best of Bond

Guest Spot

Love Grows

God Only Knows

Guest Spot

My Song is Love Unknown

Burning Bridges/All Around my Hat

Guest Spot

To Know You is to Love You

Guest Spot

Finish Line

Guest Spot

When You Tell Me That You Love Me

With Jack away we had Jenny on backing tracks, and we set out to sing them in order. Interestingly the warm up number doesn’t come with words. 

AMEN was sung for the first time, with a backing track. My it does get fast towards the end. I found hard to sit still. 

Ed announced another choir concert. It will be us and him, like we used to do on Portland. On Saturday 7th May at the United Church in Dorchester. 

After singing our BEST OF BOND Ed broke it down. There was a stray banana and a missing pause. We spent quite a bit of time going over a few tricky areas, and all the smart people made careful notes on their music. YOU and EYES got their air gap back. 

THE IMPOSSIBLE DREAM is going to be our encore. 

Well sung DFS, me managed without the big words on the screen, just like we have to in concert night. Keep singing xxx 

17 March 2022

I don’t know if I can blog this week. But here I am. Ed reminded us of up and coming concerts and someone asked him to wear a posh jacket for the bond song. I’ll grab some sequins. I’m not volunteering for the good paint job #goldfinger 

We warmed up. It was a cold day and a full moon. Ed will be posting a survey to discover what people would like to wear, perhaps blue and yellow to support Ukraine or our usual rainbow of choir colours. 

The screen was behaving this week, so Jack put up the words to LOVE GROWS WHERE MY ROSEMARY GOES. Ed made a mistake so we had to go over it again.  

Another easy song for us is BURNING BRIDGES and ALL AROUND MY HAT so we sang that next. We worked very hard to get the timing right on a certain line. Like singers ought to do. 

And calmly into MY SONG IS LOVE UNKNOWN. We did well. 

WILD WEST HERO was sung next. With coconuts for the instrumental. Class. A bit of a canter and a smidge of a trot. Have we rented a pantomime horse? 

We got ready for THE BEST OF BOND MEDLEY. Ed said we could listen to it. But we did actually sing it too. Mostly in the right place. Please remember to use low voices at the start. Ed slipped behind the piano to bash out some timings, such. A good. Choir. 

We looked at FINISH LINE and finished with THE IMPOSSIBLE DREAM. We stood. 

Well done DFS another valiant effort this week. I love you xxx 

10 March 2022

The two Jennys welcomed us to choir, while we waited for Jack to hot foot it from college. If you read last weeks blog before I shared all the concert dates. Our Easter concert will raise money for UKRAINE and everything from our buckets on the night will be sent to the Red Cross for this purpose. 

We may well start the concert with AMEN and encourage the audience to sing along too, and join our sneaky warm up. We usually have to do it in the car on the way so that will be nice. 

Ed shared his vision for WILD WEST HERO. Possibly a pantomime horse? Or a real one. Or a donkey. Now it’s gone all silly. We continued with our warm up. 

With Jack back in the room, we started with MY SONG IS LOVE UNKNOWN. But the laptop wasn’t playing words, so some of us who normally read screens galloped off for some words. Then we actually sang WILD WEST HERO. 

I think I have a hobby horse in the shed, come to think of it. We could pass it around during the intrumental moments. Kind of like a crowd surfing pony…

Another rush for paper as we sand BURNING BRIDGES and ALL AROUND MY HAT and I tried to catch up with the blog. Ed said we sounded like a choir. And we moved his world. 

WHEN YOU TELL ME THAT YOU LOVE ME is going to need some more work on it, so we looked at that one next. After a run through Ed helped us with the harmony and demonstrated the one that is a third down. And there’s a very tricky key change. 

Ed volunteered to solo the verses, for FINISH LINE but many people joined in anyway. And it’s coming along quite nicely. 

We haven’t had a look at our BOND MEDLEY so we whipped that one out. Please mind the gap between your and ear. 

We also looked more closely at the LIVE AND LET LIVE section because we needed a good laugh. Er sorry. Because we needed to. 

For our finale we chose TO KNOW YOU IS TO LOVE YOU. 

Wow well done DFS, keep singing, it’s good for you xxx

 

3rd March 2022

Tiz the season of lent, which finds me back in the blogging saddle and back in the church hall, warming up with a choir getting ready for Easter concerts. 

Good news for Ed and bad news choir …. Prices go up by a huge massive 50p after Easter. Of course, it’s well worth every penny, as one satisfied member said. I’ll be dropping all concert details here stating with the first in St Aldhelms church on the 7th April. 

Who shall we raise money for? Please bring your charity ideas next week. 

EDITED - From Ed -  Here's a gig list for the year:

Thursday, 7th April, 7pm, St Aldhelm's Church, Easter Concert raising money for The British Red Cross Disasters Emergency Committee for Ukraine

Saturday, 23rd April, 2.30pm (approx, tbc), St George's Day Fair, Fordington Green, Dorchester 

Saturday, 7th May, 7pm (approx, tbc) United Church, Dorchester, raising money for Parkinson's UK

Sunday, 29th May, midday, Fayre in the Square, Brewers Quay, raising money for the Rotary Club of Weymouth 

Sunday, 3rd July (time tbc), Sutton Poyntz Street Fayre

Sunday 17th July (time tbc) Swingtime Dorchester, Dorchester Borough Gardens raising money for the Fortuneswell Cancer Trust  

Thank you, see you there!

First song, Wild West Hero our concert opener. The one with the quietest intro. What could possibly go wrong? 

Next, and randomly selected, My Song Is Love Unknown because we are not yet sure of our concert order. This song was originally intended to be sung at our 2020 Easter concert, and Ed said it was sounding really lovely considering we have only been singing it for 2 years. Please TAKE care to sound the K in TAKE and SAKE, and WAKE up your inner Aled Jones vibe. Or something. 

From Gospel to Finish Line next. I almost whipped my phone out to video Ed’s demonstration of the choreography required for the ending. I was so impressed I forgot to blog the instructions. I’m still not so sure I can sing and move at the same time. We stood to perform… 

We looked at a little of the diction in the chorus so it didn’t sound like a huge siren to possibly keep Ed awake tonight. Gold stars all round. 

Burning Bridges / All Around My Haaaaaat including a ‘pic your own accent’ section. After we gave that a run through it was time to meet a new song. Brand new today, To Know You Is To Love You. This song has been covered by many. 

Ed wants to change the ending. Concert ready? You be the judge. Because it was time for Rosemary in Love Grows. 

We squeezed in When You Tell Me That You Love Me. 

Well sung DFS. Don’t forget your gold star on the way out and keep singing xxx 

27 January 2022

New Elton John back on the cards tonight, but first quick warm up. Eeeee-oooooh!

While Jack sorted out some technical issues we sang My Song Is Love Unknown from the paper. I had to hum because I only have a blog in front of me. But then I remembered. Google. 

We used you tube to listen to the Bond Medley as sung by an American choir, and sing along too. But they actually weren’t as good as us, so we went on alone, Ed, backing track and words back on the big screen. 

But it began to get very cold. My hands will stop working. As I am a very cheeky blogger I texted Liz at front of house who closed one of the sets of doors after checking with us. Hooray. Ed broke the song down for us and we carried on singing. 

Time for Love Grows Where My Rosemary Goes which made my children laugh when I sang it at home this week. Apparently it’s trending on TikTok. So that’s where Jack got it from …

Perhaps Love was demonstrated by Ed at the piano. A new song for many of us. Our homework is to get to know it. We moved onto When You Tell Me That You Love Me. A few more people seemed to know this one. 

The mash up Burning Bridges/All Around My Hat warmed us up gain didn’t it choir? Pick an accent, anyone will do! 

Finish Line to finish with. Yes, it was touched on before Christmas and it was back to fill up our mouths again. I’m off for a hot choc, see you next week … 

Well done DFS. Next time, I’m going to come wearing really really big pants. Possibly furry ones. Keep singing xxx

20 January 2022

Happy Birthday Blog. You are 13! 

We have a new song today thanks to Jack, and his impeccably good taste. But first, on a cold, cold January night, a warm up.  

Cheese has holes. Ed ran a mathematical and cheesy joke past us and I almost blogged it but decided you didn’t need it. It’s not that my fingers couldn’t keep up. 

My Song is Love Unknown appeared on the big screen and clutched in our hands, and we began to sing. Mr Ed belted out the harmony parts. And we Laaaaaa’d together which was actually very beautiful. 

We moved on to Wild West Hero to tackle something else we had tackled before. Perhaps a little line dancing in the instrumental. Or perhaps not.  Lovely crossover at the end, and have you heard there’s another actual tune? It would even make a nice harmony if you can get your head round it … 

Our brand new song is Love Grows Where My Rosemary Goes and I thought I kinda knew it and a kinda don’t. I’ll just pretend I’m really young. It felt a bit low. Time for a new key. We went up to a nice C with Ed at the Casio. We sang it wonderfully for a new song, good choice Jack! 

Burning Bridges mixes very well with All Around My Hat which is interesting far beyond my belly button fluff.  Our efforts sounded quite good. We sang All Around My Hat again but with very very open mouths and in an accent of your choice. 

Bond next to see if we had done our homework. I heard about it in a socially distanced catch up and I was pretty impressed to hear it. It’s great fun! Maybe there’s an issue with the number of Oooohhhhhs so we will be ok if Ed doesn’t get mixed up. 

God Only Knows if we will get an Easter concert this year, but we shall sing until we do. 

We finished with The Impossible Dream and I didn’t fall asleep … 

Well done DFS. We always keep singing, and we always will. Love, Cat xxx