14 November 2024

Here are all the upcoming Christmas Dates for your Diary:

Sunday, 1st December, 12.50pm, Wyke Square - another flash mob opportunity, when we sing 3 songs with them. 

Wednesday, 11th December, 7pm, United Church, Dorchester, solo slots available. 

Saturday, 14th December, Brewery Square, Dorchester, 3 til 4pm. 

Thursday, 19th December, 7pm, Centenary Club Weymouth Party Night! It’s gonna be HUGE Kareoke and a buffet. £10 per ticket and open to our friends and family too. 

Saturday, 21st December, 1pm, Island Garden Nursey 

I got these dates from our Facebook group and added a few juicy details. 

Everyone enjoyed their night out with Gareth and shared a little of the shenanigans. 

We plucked out THE FIRST NOËL. It’s got some tricky timings because some of the words needing to be stretched to fit. Ed vanished while we found the words for WHEN A CHILD BORN. 

We changed the hmmmmm to oooooooh and aaaaaaargh because they will carry better at our outdoor concerts. We revised the harmonies. 

In SOMEWHERE ONLY WE KNOW we looked at the aaaaaaargghhhh section first, before singing the whole song. Lovely. We split into groups to try out our flashmob technique. Plinky plink … 

HAPPY XMAS (WAR IS OVER) needs careful consideration as to when to come in. Tricky. I think even Ed got it wrong. I think I’ll practice with my Alexa. We Segway into the MERRY MEGA MEDLEY, where typing all the titles takes as long as signing all the bits of song. 

Phew. The jumps between songs are a little hard pitch when you start singing. 

We stood to perform O HOLY NIGHT. 

Well done choir. Stay cooooool, love Cat xxx 

7 November 2024

Welcome back after half term, which promises to be busy. Only 5 weeks til our Xmas concert begins in earnest. We get to sing with the ukelele guys right at the start of December. Brewery square will accommodate us on the 14th December with the 21st for the Island Garden Nursery. 

Ann had a spare ticket for Gareth tomorrow. Jump up if you want it. 

We warmed up with WHEN A CHILD IS BORN. Ed sat at the piano, and after a run through demonstrated the gorgeous harmony which begins at verse two. It was a lot easier to get it when he played and sang the notes at the same time. 

Our epic Christmas medley contains a number of raucous songs. 

MERRY XMAS EVERYBODY

I WISH IT COULD BE CHRISTMAS EVERY DAY

do please leave an air gap between between WISH and IT. Think about it. 

JINGLE BELL ROCK 

ROCKING AROUND THE CHRISTMAS TREE

LET IT SNOW 

WINTER WONDERLAND 

I SAW MUMMY KISSING SANTA CLAUS 

SANTA CLAUS IS COMING TO TOWN 

instrumental where we go doo dooo dooooo

MARY’S BOY CHILD

WHITE CHRISTMAS 

WE WISH YOU A MERRY CHRISTMAS 

We ran through the whole lot, to time it. It was 12 minutes long. 

With barely enough time to catch our breath, Ed pressed the backing track to MARY DID YOU KNOW. Ed counted the timings for us, 10 clicks.

Another backing track for HAPPY XMAS (WAR IS OVER) but it had a very strange ending. Not that it matters because we will be backed by ukeleles of course. Ed sat at the piano and we sang it again. 

Lilly Allen next, SOMEWHERE ONLY WE KNOW with a very twinkly sounding backing track. 

OH HOLY NIGHT was our finale, and many stood. 

Good start back DFS, stay sparkly xxx 

24 October 2024

We warmed up to that Cannon thing, you know the old wool advert tune? That was nice. We sounded better than Weymouth Choral Society, Lesley said. 

We listened to Ed sing the first verse of MARY DID YOU KNOW and then it was our turn, with the piano then a very fancy backing track with harps and shaky eggs. Ed bashed out the melody for clarity, and that helped us get it right. 

Sandra requested that we count so that we know when to come in. That was also very helpful. We worked quite hard on that one. 

One of my favourites SOMEWHERE ONLY WE KNOW was attempted in its original key. Sadly though, it wasn’t Keane, it was the Lilly Allen one. Oh well. The backing track sounded sweet. We can look forward to singing that with the ukelele band. 

Don’t come next week. I won’t come either with Susie books. We sang our Bee Gees mash up then BANNER MAN which was also pretty lively. 

Diva mode next, for LOVE LETTERS STRAIT FROM YOUR HEART. No big RRRRRs are allowed. 

Nuns we were for I WILL FOLLOW HIM. 

We stood to perfom TIL THERE WAS YOU / HERE COMES THE SUN. 

Another fabulously song filled Thursday evening. Well done DFS see you after half term, and thank you for buying my charity books, too xxx

17 October 2024

Poor Ed braved Big Man Flu to join us this evening! Everyone got their hankies out in a floaty salute. We warmed up. 

Hot news - we get to performing again with the Ukulele guys at Wyke Christmas early in December. ROCKING AROUND THE CHRISTMAS TREE, WAR IS OVER and SOMEWHERE ONLY WE KNOW. 

Then I got lost trying to type the songs out and missed some notices but i am sure we will have updates and reminders. 

Then with Ed at the piano, we listened to him singing the lovely harmony parts and overlapping parts. He guided us through the music, we don’t often follow dots but I feel very clever when we do. 

And so we sang. Slightly under-sung but Ed blamed his claggy ears. Nice. 

Some more nice long notes not for LOVE LETTERS STRAIGHT FROM YOUR HEART. After a run through Ed said we needed to be Elaine Page and add loads of emotion. Channel those inner divas. And go! 

We nailed it. It sounded good, so good, then Ed blew his nose before pushing through BANNER-MAN. Smashed it. 

Ed asked for a B Gees sound …. Ok then. 

Come bras out for Madonna, LIKE A PRAYER. Bottom d. Remember the overlap at the end folks. But we didnt worry too much about that one. 

Time for ATOMIC which we muddled through after being lead astray. 

Beatles mash up next, the first part needed some looking at then we stood to perform’TIL THERE WAS YOU / HERE COMES THE SUN. 

Cool beans DFS and thank you for buying and ordering Susie books, that’s not why I love you x 

10 October 2024

Chatter fills the hall as we all wait to start, and we started our warm ups, to be warmed up before new dates were revealed. 

Our next concert is 11 dec at the UC. 7pm for our formal Christmas concert. Let’s have suggestions for xmassy songs please. 

19th Dec is our huge Xmas party also raising money for Alzheimer’s. Yay. 

Christmas song along 21st December at the Island Garden Nursery. 

Onto singing with LOVE LETTERS STRAIGHT FROM YOUR HEART. T in the tinkle, said Ed, meaning its important to finish of the end of the words. It’s also good if we pay strict attention to the melody too. I’m having to be careful as I remembered it differently! Please practice at home. And don’t tinkle in the T. 

Next, deep breaths for BANNER-MAN! Ed was allowing two breaths per verse. I think we finished a little light headed, and with a few errant notes. Ed treated us to a few trombone impressions because we need to, too. 

The last choruses are different and must be leaned, even tho we are also overlapping, left versus right. As well as notes like trombones we need a super loud BANG like the drum, and to sing quite percussively to drive the song. 

LIKE A PRAYER produced a few groans. Ed sat at the piano. We get to have a free for all at the end, said Ed, when we were at the end. It’s ok considering we were winging it. 

Mash up time with FIRST OF MAY / I STARTED A JOKE yay Bee Gees! We did a good job of that. 

Staying with the mash up ‘TIL THERE WAS YOU / HERE COMES THE SUN and Ed at the piano giving us a few nudges. 

Lastly whipping through out dots to sing I WILL FOLLOW HIM. Phew. 

Super job DFS, you deserve a kebab now, keep smiling xxx 

3 October 2024

Bob wasn’t telling us which charity Dorchester chose to support last night, so we got on with our warm up. Up and Down, so we could get on with nominating this years charity ourselves. 

Lesley wanted to help Alzheimer’s and i nominated People First Dorset. Then Ed started to talk about Christmas, and our concerts will be 11th and 19th. 

Our first song I WILL FOLLOW HIM needs to be sung reverently. But it is very complicated with words, dots layers and singing and blogging at the same time. Ed popped on a backing track and waved his arms about a proper conductor and that made things easier.

We sang BANNER MAN with the sound track and Ed said no body come in early with Glory Glory Glory but some people did. One of them might have been me. There are a few different versions of the chorus. 

A bit of blonde next, as Ed put on ATOMIC and we ran through it. Lesley said it’s rude. Oh well. 

LOVE LETTERS STRAIGHT FROM YOUR HEART filled the hall. We also sang it a capela and discussed yodelling … 

With our choir master at the piano for LIKE A PRAYER and FIRST OF MAY / I STARTED A JOKE.

We stood to sing HERE COMES THE SUN before voting for our preferred charity and skipping out into the chilly night air! 

Well done DFS, that was hard work. Xxx

26 September 2024

Such excitement as we gathered together again, grabbing words and making sure we had registered our details incase of musical emergencies. 

We have 9 new songs and then cast them aside for Christmas and parties and food and kareoke, at the centenary club, Thursday 19th December. 

It was time to warm up, but we did it at superspeed because we have so many things to sing. Ed reminded us to choose a charity for nominations next week. 

We looked through all the new things and settled on BANNER-MAN. I sorta kinda knew it when we listened to it. There are a few traps to be aware of like gaps, and 6 beats at the start. And a tiny wee note, to help you to be in tune. The chorus in the middle is different to the overlapping ones at the end. 

Phew. Time for LOVE LETTERS STRAIGHT FROM YOUR HEART and we had a look at two versions. 

Our first mash up was TIL THERE WAS YOU / HERE COMES THE SUN but today we just sang it as two different songs. Ed played the latter on the piano, then later demonstrated the harmony parts. He told us he’d pondered for ages how to write doot-n-doo-doo but Jenny said we would know what to do.

Next ATOMIC was blasted from the mini speaker. A blast from the past. 

Then LIKE A PRAYER filled the hall, staying with the 80s theme. I rather like the spontaneous worship at the end, I don’t think I’ve ever listened to the whole thing, and we didn’t tonight either! 

On to FIRST OF MAY / STARTED A JOKE was mostly sung by Ed. 

We finished with I WILL FOLLOW HIM yippeeeeee. Some stood to sing and dance. 

Cool beans DFS. See you next week, Cat xxx 

4 July 2024

Ed started with a joke. To ease the blow of the last session. Please don’t come back until the 26th September, when we will sing new songs for 5 weeks before diving into Christmas. Pay as you go is going up £5 per session but there are discounts for yearly memberships including a polo shirt and music will be included in all fees too. No more cute piano money box. 

This Sunday please come and sing at Swing time at 1.15pm. Momouth 45 set. And again the following Saturday 13 3.30 at the village hall Osmington. Wear uniforms.

We warmed up. 

The big experiment - guess the note - and begin SECRET LOVE. After a verse we were allowed to start again with the back track. Hmmm. 

WALKING ON SUNSHINE now comes with options … to allow for breathing. Phew. Do look up and smile. 

TOGETHER IN ELECTRIC DREAMS A Capella - to discover which bits we hadn’t learned yet. Very telling. Then a treat. You guessed it. The backing track. Yippeeee. 

SUMMERTIME oh yeah. Baby. Choose a few notes at the end and do breath. Ed said it was alright 

And the timings in HALLELUJAH are very very important. 

RIGHT BY YOUR SIDE  - don’t for get to monkey around in that fabulous intro. 

Monkeying around again in I WANNA BE LIKE YOU. That last note tho. Oops. Ed also wants actions. He will be lucky. Rough. Please. 

Finally… ONE DAY LIKE THIS … welll anyway. It’s been a wonderful year. 

Will love and miss you choir, see you in September. Somewhere. Cat xxx