17 October 2019

We were a little late because Ed had lost his voice and was trying to find it. But we did find the source of his Worst Ever Cold among the choir members, in the form of a stolen kiss. 

There are only two rehearsals before the British Legion concert, and we peeped at some of the details on the screen. No going to the pub inbeteeen rehearsals etc, without inviting all the other members of choir. 

We began our singing with I Vow To Thee Vowing one day to have proper silly warm-ups like we used to back in our ‘other venue’, then switched to a less squeaky key. But what key will the band play in on the actual day? 

A hymn next, one which I should know well, as my grandma once heard my father sitting on the front step singing, ‘For nosey Beryl on the sea’, and Beryl is the name of my aunt. Eternal Father may have been sung well by choir but not by yours truly who does only actually know the last line. 

We stood to sing The National Anthem because it would be rude not too, and it was followed by the end of the telly, or the strange feeling that we should go home. But we didn’t and Ed left the piano because You Raise Me Up came with a backing track. Mind the gap everyone! The Air con fired up and we tackled a key change as Peter popped in to warm us up again, and we practiced the harmonies and uniqueness that was the last line. 

We mostly missed the intro and therefore our cue to start singing The Pipes Of Peace. Take two. What are we gonna do on the night as I think only I sing a certain line, and I’m not absolutely sure i can be there on the night. Perhaps someone will win that opportunity next week? 

A mood change is provided by Oom-Pah-Pah remembering to sway from the second time we Oom-pah-pah, and gently back down to earth with Wartime Medley because it starts with White cliffs of Dover ...a few odd notes crept in, around Jimmy’s bedroom area. 

Ed nearly missed out Get Here but we all shouted at him. I find the phrasing hard in this one. Ed went over some parts of it with us. 

So Keep The Home Fires Burning perhaps to warm us up before heading off into the cold night air. There are some parts of this we are certainly more confident with indeed! There was a request that we try and make sure we all sing the same melody. Ed bashed it out on the piano and Matty waiting outside for me thought we were singing tiptoe through the window! Oh well, that’s not far off! We stood to sing to end the evening on a good note, well maybe...

Well done choir, lovely as usual, keep singing, Cat xxx

10 October 2019

Before we opened our vocal folds we recived our running order for the royal British legeon concert.  

You raise me up

The pipes of peace 

Oom pah pah

Interval

War time medley 

Get here 

Keep the home fires burning 

And we began with You Raise Me Up which was a warm up, and following a mini debate on which folder is best for wielding at concerts. Ed reminded us of the new harmony part again, and about the gap in the waiting here in the silence sort of area. 

Moving on to The Pipes Of Peace and it also has a backing track. This one has long and lovely overlapping backing tracking tracks. We practiced those a bit and had a good and useful chat about them. 

Bravely Ed has already added Oom Pah Pah to a concert without us ever having sung it, until now! We were wanted to be very careful with Mr Percy Snodgrass! Fabulous ending I have to say. We are required to sway for the chorus parts and come back to a still stance for the verses. 

A War Time Medley moment was upon us. After a run Ed did a wash up, found the missing rabbits and firmed up a few notes. There’s an extra rabbit-run to cross out too. Don’t lets run on too long. 

It was quite a night. It was time to Get Here. Ed’s interpretive dance was breathtaking. Ed’s going to sing a version of this to record and help us learn the right notes. We don’t follow the original very closely, but he sat at the piano to help us sort things out. 

And in the correct key this week we Keep The Home Fires Burning whether the backing track (too busy buffering) or on the piano, 2, 3! Ed will also record a version of this too because there were some bum notes again.

Finally for a treat and because the backing track worked, we sang Wild West Hero and it was very meaty indeed with lots of depth. Remember your a Womble. 

Keep up the good work DFS, I love you, Cat the Blogger xxx

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