24 April 2014

Hope you had a happy Easter guys! But please pass it on, choir practice tonight has been cancelled at short notice!

Have a nice time with your iPod, love you Cat xxx

27 march 2014

The last rehearsal before the Easter break....

Please don't come to a rehearsal next week, there's a social at Wey Valley school instead starting at 6.30pm. No taxies can enter after 9pm thought as the gates close for the caretakers bedtime. 

With the school hall all set up for the pupils very special Taser Service, Ed stood at the podium in conductor mode. I wonder what ever happened to the baton that the naughty corner gave him? Someone might email the school and tell them it's really spelled e-a-s-t-e-r though ...

So we kicked off with heaven being a place on earth. The ending wasn't quite what we seemed to be expecting though!

Be alert DFS. This song has a very short intro and is also in danger of a bum note start. I'm sure it will be alright on Sunday afternoon though!

So Happy Together as always! But in need of more bah-bahs... And something funny was happening with the computer. Or more specifically it's treatment of our backing tracks! It worked the second time around, with a really smart Gilbert-and-Sullivan sound too! 

The Long and Winding Road. Blogging live has its quirks. I'm sort of giving you a running order while listening to a conversation about the numbers of grandchildren some people has. Then I had another feel of Jenny's balls. Lovely.Energy  is needed for this number to keep the lack of cheek bones and dirge at bay. All stood to tackle it a second time. 

Dreaming. Dreaming is free even if the All Saints computer doesn't like Ed's endings. We really enjoy this one and it shows. Just a really funny gap to watch out for, near the beginning! Trying to work out the timing together proved hilarious, and included an impromptu honk of geese and a visit to lambing-live. 

Freedom. This week we definitely had enough Duddle-uts printed on our words, so that was good. Pay attention to those ^arrows^ near the end so your Freedom doesn't go up when it should go down ... Ed asked for more butt. Sorry, 'but'. 

I'll Say Goodbye To Love actually said hello to an almost intact ending. We only ran through it a second time because Carol likes it! 

King and I. The knight that never ends, cried Ed, as he gave us a break in order to say something very silly to someone new. So I wrote a few more lines of blog. Then it was time to tackle some last minute issues, and run through everything again!

We stood for our finale after Ed took numbers for our social, and numbers for any extra copies of music for Sunday, then it was bath time. Love you, keep singing! XXXX

13 march 2014

The one with the big breaths ...

Ed gave us a reminder for the Mother's Day concert, in two weeks at 2pm at the pavilion...

We started with Karen Carpenter and said Goodbye to Love in the key of original, but everyone but me found it a tad low. So then it went up to +3 and Ed found it much less dreary. I'll not get bidda. Don't forget to smile, and make good use of those big breaths. 

Surely heaven is a place on earth when we sing like hosts of the aforementioned realm? Baby I was afraid before, but I'm not afraid - anymore! And Ed was pleased ...

Good morning sunshine in the original key won't be ready but Freedom looked good with not a single doo-doo out of place. It's still in C+3 as it was last week! We do need another two lines of Duddle-uts though ... Ed got everyone on their feet to give it some welly. And we dooooooo.....

Dream time next without Debbie Harry. And not because I kept yawning tonight! We will perform it a little slower than she did, and without the very distracting drums but still in the original key of D for Dreaming.

We ended on a long and windy road, probably the one leading to my snuggly bed, especially if it's windy! 

Then we read the music festival feed and watched the best toddler in the world!

Next week we will have the definitive list and then a further two weeks to practice on those! Keep singing, remember I love you XXX

6 March 2014

The cat in the hat came back ... To blog!

Ed's ear infection caused him to take a sickie today so we had to have choir without him. 

So he didn't have the comments sheet, about the performance on Saturday at the music fesival, but he did give us some lovely feedback and the sad news that DFS are not invited back for Friday nights concert, unless of course anyone wants to come and watch!

Working towards 'the best of' we will be preparing about 25 minutes of songs for that concert, and we kicked off with Karen carpenter and I felt shocked. What have you lot being doing in my absence? It was in a shocking key (C+3), and so we slipped it to a C+2 and tried again. The extra long phrase had to have some breathing spaces slotted in, in two secret places! Sorry that all those 'aaaaahs' made me yawn ... Then we stood to perform and no one played air guitar after all...

Freedom next, and no I don't mean the accessible boat in Weymouth harbour, but the wham! song from our collective youth. Well ok just mine and Ed's, and at 'C+3' was a tad high for most of us ... Ed's choreography was excellent. And as for our singing, I'm not sure if we got it in the bag, but I think we hit it over the head quite a bit!

'The long and winding road' hasn't yet disappeared from our repertoire, and is well high at C+6! It may be missing some trombones and a banana. Alex volunteered to be a French horn. And then we went into the jungle, without so much as a mosquito net. 

Last song, plucked from the menu, left us 'happy together', in E-minor! 

Thanks to all those who said they missed the blog! I've really had fun doing it this week. Must have missed it myself. 

13th February 2014

The one with no blogger ...

And Ed said, "Missed u!! All confirmed for the Oxford trip, and King and I medley had its flat note sorted! Xx."

Which was nice. Have a nice half term folks, don't turn up next week and stay on top of that bum note ...

6th February 2014

The one with the chewing gum...

Good news and bad news ... the good news is that we have been accepted for Weymouth music festival. The bad news is that we are on at 9 0'clock in the morning! So a quick perform then back to bed me thinks ....

We will be singing the king and I number, well I won't, I had a prior booking. So please don't hate me for not being there to staple words onto. So we started with that one.. I don't need to add the key this time!

Then we dug out last weeks list in order to vote for song number two, which could not be a ballad, and Belinda Carlisle won so we cranked up the karaoke version! Then with the piano and our power point we added in more ooooo's and a smart key change! And it's ok we have next week too!

Meanwhile, as I blogged live(!), VOCALZONE re-tweeted Jacks marvelous stack of biblical throat lozenges, and sent me a private message too! Really working on that sexy sponsorship you know ....

Then we went back to the little problem from the king and I ... The WONDERFULS ...And the star-treck intro was ditched in favour of a more romantic lead in. Top E-ers a,omg us need to be really open and relaxed of course. See carol if you have any questions about this, although just which carol is really up to you! Which notes to hold and which ones to drop also had to be sorted out too. Then we gave it a complete run through, and were ready to sing something different! 

The bloggers throat was hurting so she did some more catch up and enjoyed the singing! 

So we almost finished with a bit of blondie and the paint chart song ... But it was pants, i mean it could really use some more work, so we dug out the Alex Day number! Perfect. Haha. Love you XXXXXX

Thursday 30th January

The one were i scrounged a VOCALZONE off someone else as I had forgotten mine!

 Music festival performance in three weeks folks! And with seven songs to perform tonight we stated with a nice camel-yawn and our classic warm-up!

In notices we plugged a drumming group at Weymouth, so speak to Joan for more info and wants to sell her keyboard. And possibly buy a drum!

Next week is D-day to decide on our trip!

Choir were keen to our king and I number for the music festival! But first we checked out tonight's tasks :-

1. In C! Which is a good key anyway. Just pretend its a song about happy things to give it that lift!

2. First a run through with the karaoke and then with ed ad his piano forte. Then a fine a Capella! Ed was pleased and purred approval (I got a pet cat recently). After applying some wonderful harmonies, Ed threatened us with THE DANCE ROUTINE which is like THE DAD DANCE only worse ....

3. We don't know this song. Well, I don't! Possibly dreary!

4. I've got the perfect choreography for this. Just wait till DFS find out! It's is all doing that Maori dance Hakka job! Cool beans ...

6. There will be no number 5. Some people were trying, some people were not trying and SOME people were VERY trying ...

7. F-minor minus 2. For the ba ba ba ba ba section I would like the former flag wavers at the back to wave sheep. Possibly not real ones! What do you think?

One song from that lot may be ditched!

23 January 2014

The one in the common room with nothing to play! So we started our warm up with humming and oooo-ing!

We have 2 concerts in May. Friday 23 at All saints church 7.30pm, and the rotary club festival of 'stuff' in hope square 26 may 11.30am.

Trip to be decided. Numbers will be checked, as we dont have 40 folks this time ... i am giving this one a miss so if that helps you make the decision to sign up, go for it ... guest blogs on the trip are welcome but please make sure you write them when you are sober!

We reviewed some of the song suggestions posted on our you tube site, the rest of what we looked at last week.

'You can't hurry love', and you can't hurry Dorset For Singing either! The first set of lyrics were too 'zoomed in', and I couldn't look at the second set as I had not taken any motion-sickness medication 2 hours before...

Mr Blue Sky was orange as well as swirly! Still it could be worse, it didn't strobe! Ed said we could try it again using piano forte, and in a different key, sometime - learn it for your homework!

Katy Perry's 'Roar' was played through by Glee, and although we tackled it as best we could, it has a lot of potential,  and we have plenty of time to Learn it! We had a good go at it, but 'Harold's' lyrics had a spot of lag. 

'Good morning sunshine' was fun, we did it much better that the last time we tackled it!

Tiny Michael Jackson popped up to sing 'I Want You Back' for us ... But it had too many words in it!

'

Blonde was 'Dreaming' way back when I was a twinkle in my daddy's eye! We liked that. Then we listened to Call Me! At this point in her career i believe she was really a frustrated interior designer. If you don't believe me, just check out the screen shot bellow! These days she might enjoy a bit of 60 minute makeover ... 

The beach boys entertained us next, 'wouldn't it be nice' if we could do this every night! We enjoyed that. 

Freedom by Wham! I just felt old, and a little bit cheesy ...

'Can't Help Falling In Love With You' has been done before, but this time in reggie style like UB40. We went straight in the karaoke version coz we are that cool... Yes we are!

Chicago 'You are an inspiration!' 80's moment indeed!

'Heaven is a place on earth' was so successful last week, that we went straight to karaoke version to sing.  But it was very swirly so I sat that one out. Tried to remember if I had had a Belinda Carlisle album, sadly I think I only had Debbie-somebody-or-other, and T'Pau. Sigh. 

Ed apologies for being poorly. And plugged his convert in Upwey tomorrow night! He also plugged his latest twitter account, so be sure to follow him @singinghints! Keep singing and remember i love you even if i blog very late XXXX