3rd October 2019

We began with a kazoo in our eager hands and an opportunity to share our charity nominations for this academic year. Did I say we are now 11? Well we are! 

We had a few words on the five charities and still had some time to sing, leaving our departure for voting, and we produced our kazoos with a triumphant sound of russling and a lot of hot hair blowing round the room. We used them to play Tequila and it was very marvellous! 

With our lips tingling we pulled out The Pipes Of Peace and put away the buzzing things. All the backing tracks are all on Dropbox just in case you wanted to do your homework using them. More conviction with the harmonies, said Ed, before shifting the key to something that was a little more comfy for choir in general. E + 3 is where the magic starts. 

And to Wild West Hero we went. Remember you’re a womble! We did it first with the piano and then the old backing track. It’s starting to come together. Meridy has to dig deep. We are singing this a little slower than ELO do it. 

Another song with a shiny new backing track was Keep The Home Fires Burning and we had to look out for the long notes that are surprisingly held. Sadly the backing track is in the wrong key so we then had a sing song round the piano and it was proper lovely and stirring and was followed by Footloose. 

We simplified some of the words but I think we still had trouble keeping up! Then Ed said Get Here and we waited for things to load. We just tried a little of this one. Get us. 

To finish we whipped out our Wartime Medley as we pack up our troubles, stack chairs and head out into rainy October again. 

Shire hall has asked us to do some Christmas carols at 12 TIL 1pm on the 14 December,  We may have our kazoos our then! Can’t wait! 

Well another evening comes to an end DFS, you have hearts of gold and super singing voices, I love you xxx

26 September 2019

It’s a new term, a new year and a new venue for us tonight. And for this term we are trialling the church centre at St Aldhelms and no one reported any problems parking which was smashing. Our Xmas concerts venues are to be confirmed. 

Our new start time is 7.15pm to finish at 8.30pm, and it’s best not to come before 7 if requiring to park at car. 

In notices we talked about the concert for The Royal British Legion on November 3rd. Lesley wanted to know why we stick to term times and Ed said it was so he could have lovely holidays. And perhaps singing workshops. In Barbados. 

Then Ed ran through the songs and we flicked through our fresh photocopies and considered the offerings, old and new. Some of them were knicked from Rock Choir. Naughty. I typed much to slow to list the songs but a quick peek at our up-and-running website to amend that. I might even look myself. Then Ed let me plug this event which is brand new and offers a shared meal for a donation to the charities... 

We warmed up to You Raise Me Up and oh it was so lovely. I felt like I almost had to leave choir last year due to stuff, but it was so good to be back. Then Ed demonstrated harmonies with our usual flair... We introduced a set of slides in the last lines and were up on our feet to perform. More of a masterclass than a warm up, in the end. 

With so many tunes to pick from we landed on Wild West Hero which Ed said was an acquired taste. It’s by ELO. There probably won’t be any line dancing in the strange intrumental after all. 

Next we urged Valerie to come on over, another song we have only sung once in DFS history. Now we are 11 there have probably been many!   

Another taster I’ve Got You Under My Skin lead to a search for the pitch transpose on the keyboard. And an even longer search for a key. Meanwhile Ed slipped into his official choir pyjamas because it was gone 8. 

We all remembered The Pipes Of Peace. Even the overlaps. So we hurried into You Can’t Hurry Love. And belted it out. Before the oldie Keep The Home Fires Burning and if you want to do your homework catch The D Day Darlings performance on you tube. Sounds like a hymn to my very young and modern ears, and the Wartime Medley was our Horlicks moment before we were to part, numbers one and two the same... 

Don’t forget next week we will choose our charity so come armed with nominations, well done DFS keep singing xxx

6 June 2019

Once again, dear friends, a piano with no lead. The plot thickens! Ed opened the door to freshen us up, before informing us that the aforementioned powerlead ‘is not part of our agreement’... Ed took a moment to compose himself instead of harping on about it ....

The running order had changed from last week so choir members scribbled it down, or shuffled papers in folders and our West Side Story Medley began. And even though Jacks Brain was hurting from GCSE exams today, he was on the ball with words, windows and Waiting For You. Nice ’nanas, mamas....

We looked we were enjoying All Of Me and Ed was pleased. Don’t forget to park as Tesco tomorrow night incase of full church car park, and you won’t be left Crying In the Rain. According to Alexa, it may well be damp on Portland tomorrow but it’s nothing to do with our singing. Lift your cheek bones to keep this one bright! We tried it again ... 

Top Of The World comes with license to smile big. Go choir. When we have sung that number the ‘urn warning’ will be made in church tomorrow, so that tea will be ready for the end of Nelly and break time! Ed gave Jackie the translation in leu of a nice cup of tea. Because it’s not concert night yet, and besides, milk is bad for your vocal folds ....

So we stood to perform Nella Fantasia, only the last backing track blared out of the speakers instead. It was good for morale. I’m not sure if it was good for our Italian though. 

But that little gem was declared concert ready, and we slipped into Can’t Take My Eyes Off You.. this song demands a lot of energy so eat two biscuits?

In Summer Nights I had a go at singing both parts with my huge range, to support parts 1 people. It was interesting. I’d rather be a girl. That was a massive amount better, said Ed.

We stood for our finale coz we Ain’t Heavy. And another practice was over, and DFS worked very amazingly hard and didn’t heckle the choirmaster too much. Then they all shuffled off home for Italian wine (possibly) with songs-a-plenty in their hearts. 

Well done DFS see you tomorrow for warm winds that feel like a friend. Or something. Cat xxx

23 May 2019

In urgent notices we discovered that our All Saints Church concert will start at half past and not seven as Ed believed. Take note and try to care share if you can. Carol plugged Art Wey’s Open For Art because we like visitors and would love to see you ... 

Jack was feeling special because he had officially left school, but there he was finding our words and making all the speakers work the first time for West Side Story Medley. We  suffered from the sound being compressed and got a little behind the beat until we warmed up. Jack played with some settings and we got another chance to sing some of it again. The film is on the television next week, Lesley told us. 

I’ve Been Waiting For You came with a diction reminder and a short but accurate demonstration of diction-gone-bad from Ed. We also sang it again a Capella. Those harmonies really started to come together! 

Up beat we delightedly sand All Of Me! I think we still do chickens in the middle but that’s just me. I’m terribly rude. Ed said the improv was much better, then he made us do it all again. Boom. Then just the middle section and then, the great ‘stand to perform’ and no one creaked or moaned as they got up from chairs, but May did tell tales on me, for not singing. Sometimes I just can’t sing and type! 

With tears already running down our faces from some other odd reason, we launched Crying In The Rain, suddenly composed again. Some jokes can never be blogged. I might lose my bloggers licence ...  Yeah, said Ed. And we felt on Top Of The World. It was almost perfect. Concert ready then! 

Ed opened the door to cool us down for He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother and a little breeze blew into the hall. Oh how Ed wants that final top note! From pure and high we went to dirty da-dahs, as practiced by DFS Dorchester last night. And it was alright ... This song will be the last before the interval and solo section.

And so hoping Nella Fantasia would be smashed today Ed began waving his arms about and his little black-and-yellow pencil. It was very nearly there! One more rehearsal before we perform it! 

We divided the hall up differently to sing Summer Nights. 

Well done DFS. Perhaps you know what I’m going to say. Don’t come next week. It’s half term. Have a good break, love Cat xxx

16 May 2019

Ed stood at the front again, in conducting mode. Which is good, because choirs need conductors. Our greeting was a warm up in itself, and the real reason for conductor mode was that the piano was bereft of electronic connections yet again. 

Plans for the night included establishing who does what in the middle of Summer Nights and the rather ambitious desire to make Nella Fantasia concert ready this very night. Ed made everyone stretch to warm up, and there was a dull crashing sound so we switched to some breath-and-hiss followed by an investigation into the expansion of our diaphragms. Ooooo-waaaaaaah!

And to a proper warm up with West Side Story was almost thwarted by the lack of sound from the big speakers. Buttons and switches were inneed of tweekimg so we sat down again to rest after all that hard work(out). We sat with folders to share, and sang Al Fresco. Jack tried to find the hidden electricity while we sang but only the side speakers near the old serving hatches would sing. Until Ed went over and turned absolutely everything on, including the microwave, and the big speakers were told I’ve Been Waiting For You. Never a truer word sung at DFS. The men needed some guidance on their Aaahs. Each of the men sang a different note, and needed bringing back in line. 

All Of Me sung in Dorchester had treated our audience to a somewhat mumbled improv section, probably due to a lack of confidence or the worry of sounding like a bunch of chickens so it turned into a sort of hum or a long fart. Ed told me to blog that. And he taught us something cool to sing collectively and keep that middle section going. This proved hard to do without music but we tried, and were allowed to sing it with the music again. 

Moving on to Crying In The Rain the backing track rolled out beautifully and so did we, because the choir master said the harmonies were lovely. We felt on Top Of The World when we got to listen to Karen on YouTube. We sang it much more better after that and moved on to He Ain’t Heav-eh, He’s My Brother but I just laughed uncontrollably as my autocorrect added My Bottom. This might be a good time to retire from blogging. Maybe not. 

Summer Nights are now being split into parts, and not boys-n-girls as we do find ourselves a bit girl-heavy. We need more brothers perhaps! Homework requires studying this, esp the part-1s!

And then with only four minutes left before eight we stood with our sheet music for Nella Fantasia ...

Well done DFS. You worked very hard tonight especially Jack for taking the sound desk to bits and putting it back together again. Yay! Keep singing. I love you x

9 May 2019

Back after a birthday party last week, the blogger was delighted to enter the school hall to the sights and sounds of The Day At The Musicals DVD, as people collected their copies from the front. If you want one to buy, and you are not on the list, please see the big man. 

Tonight’s treat was a concert run through after a reminder of performance etiquette and of the concert at brewery square on Saturday. Please wear bright tops if you can. I’m thinking about the current cold weather of course. Money will be raised for Diverse Abilities. 

So instead of standing for half an hour everyone sat, and we began....

West Side Story Medley 

I’ve Been Waiting For You high cheek bones and light ... 

All Of Me lovely ..

Crying In The Rain 

Top Of The World mind the gap, thigh the slap ...

He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother heav-eh not heav-eeeee but it did sound lovely. 

Can’t Take My Eyes Off You which apparently will be our last song. Don’t worry. No one reads this blog so they won’t know there is secretly one more song. (Keep this one light too. It goes down a lot in the verses).

Which is ...

Summer Nights and it found the gentlemen being very flirty and the ladies in need of a tad more Sandra D. 

Nella Fantasia won’t be in Saturday’s concert but we are Hoping to perform it soon, in church on the 7th June. so after a briefing we gave it a go. Afterwards Ed read a translation, with great love and feeling. I felt like I should now vote for him in the next election, but then we had to sing it a Capella. Some people still hung on for musical queues! Do not drop down too early anywhere in this song. Sliders are not welcome. Kebabs are. We stood to sing. 

An update to Preston Garden Party gives us a time of 12 noon. Keep singing everyone especially practicing Nella, and well done from Cat the Blogger xxx

25 April 2019

The blogger appeared once again in the school hall and Ed announced a little bit of trouble, a clash of dates with rehearsals, and the start of summer. 

We have got she loads of concerts this term, so many in fact you will have to find them on the web site because they didn’t all fit in Ed’s head. We moved to warm up, just a quick one, because we had a lot of newish and as yet I performed songs. Ed did give some lovely feedback on the workshop and confirmed there will be more as they were so good. CDs will be ready for collection next week, and sound pretty good so well done to everyone who took part. 

Still with the musicals we began with our children West Side Story Medley. We certainly warmed up again as we went on. There might have been some timing issues. And rather a lot of Easter chocolate last week possibly. After some explanation of conducting we were off again, having another do at the beginning, and then some harmonies for ‘there’s a place’ in a very specific place. Only a few people were in this specific place. Ed demonstrated the very very high harmony. 

Ed would like to get Nella Fantasia into a concert so we tackled that one next. The 7th June would be a good time to have this one ready for, said Ed. And he bid us sing sans piano. We worked steadily verse by verse and improved a lot of those tricky timings. 

All Of Me saw Ed back behind the trusty piano. The improv section must end promptly with ‘your goodbye’. And now it does, yay! Thanks to Ed for the chicken impersonation when he let rip. Marvellous. The short ‘eyes’ also won the DFS vote too. Remember this for next week. 

Looking forward to the weekend we sang Crying In The Rain. I dear. I’m planning a BBQ. On the second run through everyone stood, then zooming on we shuffled papers to find the ending of Summer Nights. Members are invited to message Ed privately should they feel that this song isn’t apropriate to be sung in church. DFS might like to know I once sang ‘love machine’ in the Wey Bay Methodist church on account of Honey Honey and my dress frayed at the breast. Make of that what you will. I loved that dress. We stood to perform. Ding dong. 

Feeling Top Of The World we revisited an old carpenters’ number. We did a giggle over this song but I’m not sure if I’m allowed to blog that so never mind. We stood to sing our finale. 

I love you DFS. Missed you loads. Hope to be here lots again. Yay. Keep singing xxx

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