28 June 2018

A warm hall filled respectfully as videos from DFS recent concerts filled the big screen with the sound of Hallelujah and Build Me Up Buttercup and more, filmed around Weymouth and Dorchester. 

Ed thanked everyone for lasts weeks celebrations, but look out for our official celebrations when we return in September. I see from the very first blog post that our official birthday is the 28th. 

Choir heard the story of how Ed’s wife Jenny ruptured her Achilles Tendon doing a Miranda gallop at last Saturday’s party. We all sent our love. Such not fun. Very ouch really. 

We began singing on the dot of 7pm Viva La Vida. The blog App crashed as I hit publish to join in singing. Happily I dug it out of the offline folder. But everyone was very hot and the singing sounded tired. Ed woke us up with This Is Me and it had lovely added brakets so we could split into two. Then we went over some of the timing without the distraction of any music. Holding onto some notes made for a lovely overlap. Then we stood to perform...

Next week Ed will have a new backing track and we will sing This Is Me at our final concert, and suddenly it was time for The Classics beginning with When We Were Young. And Ed said, lovely. 

A backing track for Let It Be Me and so with a note for each part, we sang it Al Fresco, due to persistent lack of a piano. 

Next the marmite-song, You Raise Me Up. We can almost do this without having the words. Almost. The Impossible Dream might not exactly be a classic for DFS but one Ed has a soft spot for so we sang that and really rather well. 

A special request from a younger member was to sing tonight was Wings so yeah. We did. And with the England and Belgium match still without a goal between them, we gave ourselves the clap for singing it so well.

Freddie next. We Are The Champignons according to some. Do You Hear The People Sing is another marmite-song, and for the finale, a surprise. Not that tonight’s running order lacked surprises. 

Something Inside so strong burst fourth from our collective lungs at one minute to eight. I love you DFS, you rock! See you next week with nibbles and a relaxing last session before summer. The Cat xxx

21 June 2018

In a hot, summery Hall, DFS gathered in the place of no-piano to sing, following a short warm up and with instructions to finish early.

Ed read notices including an itinerary for Sutton Poynts street fair, a concert in December at the fire station and a reminder of our last concert this year at St Edmunds. 

Suddenly without a warm up at all, we launched straight into Under The Moon Of Love, too quickly infact before the lyrics had even hit the screen. It wasn’t quite patronising enough so we had to try again while Jack gave us an update of the footy. 

I Got Rhythm came next. Argentina had almost scored! Watch the timing of ‘birds in the trees-sing’. This also needs lots of energy, and Ed demonstrated a solo to try, and we did. On the computer screen, a man sank to the ground. We stood to perform. 

Ed asked Have I The Right and we almost did because the words were up ready but the tune was Hallelujah. Only Ed rose to the challenge of fitting the words and tune. 

We skipped Voulez Vous in order to fit in This Is Me, but not before singing an actual Hallelujah. We worked a little more on the ‘ad lib’ section at the end of the song. 

And to Rocking All Over The World we went, including the dance routine in our chairs. Well. Or played air guitar. Ed said it was too nice. But it was time for This Is Me. We had been doing our homework because Ed was quite pleased. 

The slightly slower Viva La Vida popped into our screen, while on the other, a man was down and a crown of white and orange people gathered. We sang on. The whoa-whoa-whoas were split into two kinds some the sang the end and some the beginning of phrases. 

Then I got my camera switched on ....

you can watch the result HERE!

And after that delight stood and sang Voulez Vous while the sweet cake got cut, and the proseco poured, and remained on our feet to sing I Believe. 

What a lovely night DFS, isn’t it great to be 10? The blog won’t be 10 until next January but you can always dip into the archives to see what we got up to when we had a naughty corner and met in the old music room. 

Keep singing, I love you, The Cat xxx

14 June 2018

Ed thanked everyone for the fantastic concert last week, when £250 was raised twice, both for the church and for MV FREEDOM too. It was hailed as our best concert ever. Well done DFS! 

Jackie and Linda came forward to promote the coffee meetings that take place at Gould’s Garden centre on Thursday afternoons 2-4pm and we will put these sessions on the blog to remind you. 

And so we sang without warm up Hallelujah and it’s not the same not sung in church, and then we learned the super nice high part which overlaps and oooo it was nice. 

Under The Moon Of Love was quickly followed by a bland new song This Is Me. We began with a you tube run through before Ed sat at the piano to break down the overlapping parts and play as we sang, and then stood with a backing track to perform. Have a little listen to it for homework everyone, and well done. 

And next Ed thought our next song was new but it was fabulous revision for choir of All About You. 

And in a fleeting moment when we thought Ed was announcing his retirement he was actually launching a new, slower version of Viva La Vida, and he played the piano, standing to perhaps cool himself off a bit, on the balmy eve. 

And as a special treat we got to choose a song for a treat and we chose I Believe and sang from the heart, then stood to dance to Voulez-Vous and Rocking All Over The World!

Well done DFS, Hard work on a hot night, now don’t forget your homework and proudly say, this is me! Cat xxx

7 June 2018

So feeling fresh after half term choir gathered for a full and fruity dum-dum-diddly and other assorted warm-ups. And all the electric windows were opened because summer has at last arrived in All Saints School Hall. 

Jack and Ed admired our bright summery colours as Ed detailed tomorrow’s concert. I won’t be there this time as I have child duties, but I wish you well DFS. We congratulated each other for the singing at Fayre In The Square, so well done all who aired their lungs there. 

Songs in order as follows ... 

Under The Moon Of Love and after the first run through, came with instructions to sing as if singing to school children, to make those words very very clear, and off we went again! 

I Got Rhythm sounds lovely and we only sang it once! It sounds very lovely, even the ad -lib section. 

Have I The Right also benefitted from less grows and more ‘aggressive purrs’ but I can’t roll my Rrrrrrrrs to save my life so I’ll pass thank you.  

Voulez Vous we stood to perform but sadly we forgot to layer our ‘Aha’s and we performed it again seated, following the delight of Ed’s dance routine! 

Hallelujah lacked the end top note, indeed, probably lacked half of the last Hallelujah as the room of bright people ran out of air. Then meant not leaving the somg until we had achieved it, especially the high note. 

Rockin All Over The World couldn’t start without a demonstration of new dance moves that DFS Dorch felt the instrument section really needed. We prayed folders wouldn’t go flying, and stood to perform, going a bit Milwall in the choruses! High people got to try the harmony part separately so that it might be included at the concert tomorrow. And it was nearly perfect. 

Viva La Vida has a number of options in order to facilitate breathing at the end. But Ed got a little lost trying to demonstrate those! Never mind - we all got it and sounded fab. 

Song Of The Sea went really well and we quickly followed by the secret encore, I Believe. 

Well done DFS, you are CR! Have fun and keep singing, that’s not why I love you xxx

17 May 2018

This weeks careful blog seems to have been eaten by digital issues. Lord knows what it actually said, I’ll save a copy before I hit PUBLISH next time. 

As you were x

10 May 2018

Sometimes you forget things you should remember. Like concerts. Which might be a couple of weeks away, and we might possibly not have all our songs CR, and so the plan for tonight is to select some specific songs from our new selection to hopefully perform. 

A concert dress revision was also given, discussing the scandalous wearing of denim versus black skirt and trousers, and coupled with a plain coloured top. This doesn’t have to be an official polo shirt, but jack gave a tutorial of how to order one on the internets, and you can collect them freshly baked. 

And so the following songs are potentials for our concert, starting with Under The Moon Of Love and no wasting time on a warm up. We are going to repeat the last section to make the song a little less short. Men must hold onto their ‘hand’ a little longer for a nice sexy overlap. After some harmony work, we stood to perform. Do please add a tiny air gap between ‘your’ and ‘ear’ so we don’t infact sing ‘your rear’ which is not the same. 

And gently we sang I Believe which will be a great choice for our concert. No harmony until the last three lines though!

Have I The Right? To growl? Dangerously worzelish was that Dorset growl. Nice, if a little camp, so do man it up with that very manly growl if you can, without shredding those vocal folds! Count two, then let it build. We decided we might come right back to that later and ... 

Next sang I Got Rhythm and many people had a go at the improv section, and that was good because everyone has to make some noise there. Ed played air clarinet to encourage us.

Our Coldplay song Vida La Viva is still a mouthful for us, then, with the beat played on Ed’s lap we broke it down for guidance and understanding, going over some of the timing, and listening carefully to the harmony. Then it was time to perform it. 

All these songs will be fine for a concert in 2 weeks and two days time and so it was decided that we would sing Rocking All Over The World, hoping for another new song for that performance too! Ed bumped up the key a little so I had better remind him in case he wants to stick with it?! 

Next week we will add in three more songs from a recent set, but tonight we finished with a request song, The Wonder Of You, a song that was number one when my parents got married. I hate it. See my CR smile, then standing again sang I Believe and sang it very nicely. 

Really well done DFS, keep singing (and listening), much love from The Blogger Cat xxx

3 May 2018

It’s Thursday and it’s finally summer!? So said Ed before a hum of a warm up. Then he asked who wanted print outs and of what and we began our practice with Under The Moon Of Love and then the sheet music on the screen. Ed demonstrated the three harmony parts to start with. We spent some time breaking these down and working with these, and then, Comcert Ready, stood to perform. Marvellous. 

And because we were so warmed up and lively we had a chat about how to sing I Got Rhythm then dived right in. Don’t forget to be brave and enjoy the improv, because you will find yourself on your feet again! 

Then to Ruth’s delight we sang A Million Dreams, and no more on that until everybody has had a good listen, and we looked very carefully at Viva La Vida and ‘talked’ it through with the rhythm in place to show how the words fit into the tune, which everyone seems to know! Another song with too many words! Ed got behind the piano to run it through, and change the ending to Ooooooh, and then we stood to perform. 

Next week look forwards to more 60s 70s numbers but for tonight there was Have The Right? Complete with groovy growls ... well after encouragement, that it. 

Then we all stood for the last two songs, Rocking All Over The World and I Believe. The extended version! 

Well done DFS, another night of energetic singing, growling and sliding. If we don’t watch out we will be fitter that fitness people. Keep singing and listen to those new songs, Love The Cat xxx

26 April 2018

And after such a long time, we finally met again in the hall at All Saints with a shiny new booklet containing 13 new songs, in no particular order. 

Our first concert will be at Fayer In The Square on 26th May so we quickly got our Dum-Dum-Diddley on ... and the rest of a jolly decent warm up.

Here for those who do not Facebook, is a little summary of this terms songs by Ed the Choirmaster..

“—A Million Dreams 

From the hit film ‘The Greatest Showman’ this is an uplifting song with some lovely powerful moments.  Not one to take too slowly

And So It Goes 

Written by Billy Joel a lovely ballad requiring very precise diction.  Some moments to soar and other moments for soft, clear lyrics to come through

Have a Nice Day 

By Stereophonics, a catchy sing-a-long chorus with an opportunity to belt out some backing vocals in the chorus

Have I The Right? 

A 1964 hit for The Honeycombs this is a classic 60’s stomping good song with a great solid chorus

Hold on Tight 

ELO song with a classic rock ‘n’ roll pattern, even a verse in French to show off our linguistic skills!

I Believe

Who remembers Robson and Jerome? Well before they showed the world their version of this ascending masterpiece, it was recorded by Frankie Laine and was the first hit song ever to be broadcast on television. It was especially written to offer people hope after WW2 and the Korean War.

I Get a Little Sentimental Over You 

Not to be confused with ‘I’m Getting Sentimental Over You’ (easy mistake) this bounce-a-long song by The New Seekers is a straightforward swinger!

I Got Rhythm 

The Gershwin Brothers lively, jazzy ditty from the musical Girl Crazy, this went on to become a jazz standard.

Now Those Days Are Gone 

Almost completely al fresco (!) this was a song recorded by the multi-coloured ‘Bucks Fizz’. They took a step away from ‘making their minds up’ to create this lovely ballad.

Rocking All Over the World 

Anyone who doesn’t know this song is hereby kicked out of Choir 

Sometimes  

A little known powerful movie theme track sung by Shirley Bassey, this is from the film ‘Champions’ starring John Hurt.  It has quite a few key changes and will sound great when sung with mucho agusto! 

Under the Moon of Love 

Showaddywaddy brought us this great song which will split into 3, yes 3 parts!  Dropbox also has the sheet music, I do spoil you!  

Viva la Vida 

Coldplay making an appearance in our repertoire with this number which is quite anthemic and has rather a lot of words!!”

So we started with Under The Moon Of Love and split it into sections because we didn’t know it as well as we thought we did. Lovely visual joke on the sheet music, not one of our regular jokes! 

After performing stood shoulder to shoulder we stayed in the 60s to have a go at Have I The Right? Hmmm. We had a look at the original version on you tube so that first we could giggle, and secondly so that Ed could point out all all important growl and the staccato sounds. Such fun. That was lively. 

Staying chipper we sang I Got Rhythm with Ed demoing the into before the chorus which was the bit most of us knew! 

And gently into I Believe went we who always believe in our collective singing abilities, and after a little work we stood to perform this one. It’s going to be super lovely and good. 

A little French for us again, in the shape of Hold On Tight another up-tempo number to wake us up again. Some ‘yeah’s are missing from the lyric sheets and they are nice and slidy like that amazing 15-count ending. 

And to finish, all enjoyed Rockin’ All Over The World ending as energetic as choir started! Ed gave us homework of listening to the other new songs to get familiar with them! 

Well done DFS, you did good, welcome back, and keep singing, love Cat xxx