14 March 2019

The one after the huge paws .... sorry pause. Because actually there was only half term when choir wasn’t on, but for the blogger there has been much to occupy and manage. 

Ed welcomed everyone to Italian For Beginners from the conducting position. We learned the words before the tune of Nella Fantasia. 

Having a good listen at home for homework will really help of course, and left us free to move on to West Side Story and a smart run through before possibly going live on the old Facebook! I indeed filmed it using Ed’s phone, not easy as he doesn’t have an Apple. Cough.  

Next up, I’ve Been Waiting For You with the banana section at the end, and All Of Me. The improv section still apparently needed some work and we listened to QUEEN doing something similar (only brilliantly of course) for inspiration. Thanks Jack. 

With no reference to our recent soggy and windy storms, we sang Crying In The Rain. And He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Bother. 

We had a quick recap of the ending of Summer Nights before standing to perform. 

Well done DFS and - keep singing! Xxx

7 February 2019

The one with the raffle ... wait no, the one with the posh warm up. Donna Nobis Parchem to be precise. It’s ok for me until we are supposed to sing it in rounds! 

Then a proper warm up before the raffle was drawn, and we raised about £65 for our charity. 

Well done to the sensible people who stayed at home in the warm last week, you were of course missed greatly. This week we only had some wind to deal with. Next week we have the common room to deal with, ready for luuuurve though on account of the date. 

Fayre in The Square is in place, 11.30 on Saturday 25 May, followed by Ed’s solo set. 

And then we sang our West Side Story Medley, and then looked at some volume levels, as per the sheet music. Mike asked me for a pen I didn’t have. Then to work on the men’s parts, the ladies sang softly in support mode. The ladies need to watch some of the timings! At one point I’m sure Underlay changed to Olay, and Ed swapped some Las for Das and then back again. We beefed up our accents as best we could, and met the soprano line for ‘even death won’t part us now’. Sweet. 

And as a treat for all that hard work we sang I’ve Been Waiting For You and at the end I googled inflatable banana. Nah? Nice and wide with those Nanas, folks! 

Tonight extra talent was making the perfect BeeGees sound for the into to How Deep Is Your Love. Ed has changed the key again this week. 

We stood to sing All Of Me even tho is still the best one at skat singing, and I still sound like a chicken.... please don’t forget that short ending! 

To finish, a meeting about the next choir tour, and a goodnight to all. Keep singing, Cat xxx

31 January 2019

On a very soggy night only the hardiest of DFS arrived to sing songs about snowflakes...

Ed encouraged all to move forward and snuggle up to conserve heat, and anounced the future loss of plastic bottles for sale, and the possibility that Up Where We Belong might not be where we belong at all, in terms of finding a key to fit us. Tonight’s raffle is also cancelled due to weather conditions. 

After a very short warm up, I’ve Been Waiting For you was our first song, and after a song through we looked at some harmonies. Coming along nicely, declared Ed, before peeling some sheet music to our medley. 

We attempted Up anyway. Then we popped it on the back burner, with the gas up quite high. And lit. 

So we settled into our West Side Story Medley some with fresh music, but not before a news update - snow was beginning to stick in Westham and Southill. Ed and Jack almost left in a panic. Ed had an extra part for the men, during I Feel Pretty. It had some nice little echos/overlaps. We worked hard really breaking lots of things down and we also really had a lot of fun with it. 

One last song, How Deep Is Your Love before our treat of Any-oke... a treat we had not tasted for a long. And as it turned out, were not going to nibble at tonight either. As mobiles alerted us to proper snow, we jumped up to look at the white world and hurried off to our cars .... 

Wow what fun we had, sitting in a school hall with snowfall all around. We missed you, the rest of DFS. Hope you are warm and safe, reading this. Cat xxx 

24 January 2019

Ed thanked everyone once again for last weeks birthday party, and hoping for more I am sure, he introduced two new songs, but first we were all in need of a good warm up following recent frosts in our fine town ... 

But it was only a short warm up, because Ed was in the mood for singing. That’s fortunate. We began with the West Side Story because it was bound to be one million times stronger than last week on account of all the homework we had been doing. 

And then an announcement, there are three hampers left over from our Xmas concert so please bring one pound next week to be in it to win one of those fab hampers. And choir are looking into a trip for us this year, and don’t forget we are singing towards a nice chocolaty Easter Concert. 29 June is the date of Preston rectory garden party, in the afternoon, if you can make it. 

Back to some analysis, with the piano on backing track, and Ed conducting from the front. Ignore the bit were the piano ignored the pitch transpose. That just counts as extra warm  up, and after singing it through again we were given some feedback from the end to the beginning. The feel pretty section is optional for men, and the beginning still sounds lazy. It must sound like tonight is kebab night! Feel that excitement dear choir! The Dorset twang popped up again, when we found outselves Aaarf-way there.... 

Back at the piano again, and again without it, we had a run through America! 

All Of Me has some smashing be-bop-doey things and was the first of our new songs tonight. It’s best to tackle it based around the melody and in the manner of Ella Fitzgerald. Someone mumbled that we sounded like chickens ...

And a quick reminder of the harmony part before singing I’ve Been Waiting For You and off we went. I particularly like the spontaneous three part banana harmonies at the end and much better than ... 

And we show How Deep Is Your Love and do Bee Gees impressions, well ok, maybe that was just me? Ed demonstrates the harmony again. 

Singing at DFS I think we are Up Where We Belong. And that being our finale, we stood to air our bottoms and sing .... 

Well done DFS I think you are fab, Love, The Cat xxx

17 January 2019

The one where the blog was 10 years old! 

And a happy new year to all, also a happy birthday song for Ed, sung before we had even warmed up. He opened Fulvia’s goody bag and we all ooohed and aaaahed at the pink wrapped objects therein. 

We had an exciting goody bag ourselves of new songs and a brand new medley to get our teeth into, so into the warm-up we went, and then our West Side Story Medley. Ed gave us an oral run thru, and didn’t make it sound hard at all. The whole thing fits on two sides of A4. We gave it our best, before breaking it down as we always do. 

The start needs some exciting bubbling under the surface, and the perfect sounding of the T’s. The ‘feel pretty’ section splits into men and women’s parts and that section was particularly fun. America really needed some careful explaining too. 

Not many of us really knew the vow section very well, but a few sang it like a sober hymn. 

The finale is a song choir has done before, so we all dived happily in. And we stood to perform! 

Then resting our voices we listening to I’ve Been Waiting For You on you tube, the Mama Mia version. After that we sung it all lovely like we are a real proffessional choir. 

Next How Deep Is Your Love using a karaoke track in the original key, which was challenging, so Ed sat at the piano to drop it down a bit. I thought of my dad, trying to sing it in the olden days. We were not so sure of that key ....

And for our happy ending, Blue Moon, something super fun to help us sing our socks off! And didn’t we do well. Keep singing, I love you xxxx 

22 November 2018

The only warm place for us in All Saints School was the dining room and we gathered there with a fresh running order for our Christmas concerts. The hall was full of penguins ....

We only had 18 songs to run through tonight, which includes our Christmas booklets, and three lovely extra songs. 

As we sang the first song, Ed apologised for sound issues as of course under-floor-heating dining rooms were not designed to sing concerts in. And on we sang ...

When we stopped for the interval Ed’s watch thought he had been working out for 30 minutes and his choir had been singing for about 25 minutes!

A Spaceman Came Travelling - should it stay or should it go now? Get your YouTube out everyone! We had to add some Ho Ho Ho to Winter Wonderland. Men only so that they sound like Santa. For a final treat we did Can’t Take My Eyes Offa You and ed provided the shadow puppets. 

Well done DFS, that was quite a sing-a-thon! Seasons Greatings x

8 November 2018

Back onto the hall after half term with much to do, Ed reminded us of the reminders on the DFS website. Do keep bringing in raffle prizes for our Christmas concerts on the 5th and 6th of December. We russled our new song books in anticipation as Ed raffles off some CATS tickets for our lovely charity. Thank you for the donation Carol ...

On sat 1st December at 2.30 we are singing outside The Clipper, and the15th December at The Fire Station time to be confirmed. 

We began singing with no warm up Hark! The Herald Angels Sing and I felt all warm inside. I’ve missed you lately, dear choir. Then  O Holy Night. Ed really wanted to get through all 15 songs tonight. Remember that the ends of both choruses are different. 

Deck The Halls might have a very small typo. We didn’t let it put us off. No time to Sleep In Heavenly Peace. Yes I know that’s not the title. Then splitting the next song into Men and Lady parts, we told the tale of Good King Wenceslas and his pizza, deep-pan, crisp and even. 

Not as well known See Amid The Winter’s Snow was admirably sung by those who did know it. Now In The Bleak Midwinter has two tunes and Ed demonstrated both before a choir vote. Show of hands resulted in the one everyone already knows. 

And into the pop songs we went Walking In A Winter Wonderland to tell A Winter’s Tale. Repeating the chorus a Capella sounded lovely and there’s really no need to go up at the end, even though it’s still Christmas....

A Spaceman Came Travelling is another song we all think we know quite well until we try to fit all of the words into the right lines at the right times. But we all know Slade! We stood to sing Merry Christmas Everything and sat again to go Rocking Around The Christmas Tree. That got the party started! 

Back to earth again with When A Child Is Born which may or may not have Ed speaking wise words over the bridge-which-is-hummed. White Christmas was our fake-last-song tonight secretly followed by Fairytale Of New York. 

And then it was time to go home and sleep off the drunkenness... until next time of course. Well done DFS, you’ve really put me in the mood. I love you, keep singing xxx

18 October 2018

Back in the Hall after last weeks alternative venue, we met for the last time before half term. Ed took some shout-out requests for Christmas songs, which will appear in our rehearsal sessions as soon as we return on the first of November. 

Then we warmed up. The lack of blog posts reflect the lack of Cat but I was back on the front row under the watchful eye of the choirmaster. In news, Ed had a really bad cold and Jack was at a 6th form open evening, and also sent apologies for being absent. 

We began to sing from our booklets, starting at the back with Rule The World. It all went well until we split into two parts. And tried to swap halfway through, so Ed broke it down for us, before we stood to perform. 

We began to sing Run from our boots. It was the useful version with up and down arrows which gladdened my weary heart. Ed got the clap for his playing and we got a reminder that only low voices must start. Much work was done on the notes of the chorus until it sounded rather goosebumpy to me on the front row, sitting as everyone stood to belt it out. 

And new to choir this term we sang Nights In White Satin and Don’t Stop Believing then I Dreamed A Dream zipping rappidly backwards through our booklet and missing out a few numbers. We looked more closely at the latter’s notes, and the harmonies too. Ed was pleased and said we sounded like a proper choir. 

Can’t Take My Eyes Off You bust fourth from our collective lungs! 

Well done DFS I see why I missed you so much! Keep singing, Cat The Blogger! Xxx