21 November 2019

So .... Aaaaah ..... said Ed. And told us the running order for both concerts and is as printed in our booklets, apart from some very small changes. We chatted about raffles, mince pies, songs saved for encores, and why we weren’t singing in town, and we were off. 

Once In Royal David’s City sounded out all beautiful and unaccompanied and very festive. We sung versus one and four of this and also of O Come O Come Emmanuel as we appeared to be in a terrible hurry for an undisclosed reason. 

Carol Of The Bells sounded much better this week. It just makes me think of seasonal adverts. Ones with actual roasted turkeys on the table and not dragons. It’s an audience shocker, and one to come back later, before turfing out time. It’s quite good until the end when the Bells get a bit cracked and rusty. 

Good King Wenceslas looked badly spelled, but isn’t and tripped off our practices tongues as Ed stood to play more assertively his jolly keyboard... 

See Amid The Winter Snow revised the men’s parts first. It sort of disappeared so had a go at joining in too. And so did the rest of choir. Oops. But eventually is sounded PERFECT so we moved on to The Holly And The Ivy which is our favourite by far this festive season! This won’t leave a dry eye in the house. We also revisited this again right before bedtime, and Ed just listened, and some number twos went missing! Perhaps it might be ok if we practice during the concert too? 

A breath of fresh air, we were Walking In A Winter Wonderland and O Holy Night. Truly He tortoise. Be careful to leave out the slides. You will only slip on the ice and we should be heading carefully towards Hark The Herald Angels Sing. It surely will be alright on the night. Ed sang the descant part to demonstrate. 

O Come, All Ye Faithful will be all three verses on the night but we missed out the middle verse and all the descant singing was very lovely. Ed said very well done, and we had a rest singing Merry Christmas Everyone and Rocking Around The Christmas Tree! 

And a song that was a [sexy] solo for me last year, Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas doesn’t give our choir too much trouble either. 

I’m Dreaming Of A White Christmas is really a lie because then the concert might be snowed off and we don’t want that. 

Those kazoos where whipped out for our surprise encore Tequila! Truly unmissable I hope someone records that little gem! A real Fairy Tale Of New York I’m sure. The men do really on this one, apart from when they steal the women’s parts! 

Well done DFS, stay warm and happy. Keep singing love Cat the Blogger xxx 

14 November 2019

So what do you want for Christmas? I’ll have a think about that. Ed arrived with apologies for leaving behind a folder of very important music behind. The night of Forgetfulness followed on from the night of Remembrance. 

The town council have asked us to perform on VE Day next year which will be on the may bank holiday weekend. On Saturday we said. That’s because we sang so well the other weekend and the town council noticed. And we are also invited to sing again at Sutton Poyntz street fare. 

We moved to Once In Royal for a warm up. I do miss a good Dum Dum Diddley ... the first verse is a Capella but needs to be a little more up tempo than it was. 

O Holy Night needs to be so precisely sung, with proper diction. Ed will be sharing recordings of harmonies some time soon so look out for those in his drop box. High note second time only, and when it is time for it, to for it in a big way! Spoonerisms are to be avoided at all costs at the end of the first line. Look it up if you have to, I’m not spelling out what was sung stage right.

O Come, O Come, Emmanuel was launched with Ed singing through the harmony and missing out breathing. It’s worth it though because it sounded lovely all played in the Key of David. Higgeldy piggeldy. 

Hark! How The Bells 🔔 still feels very complicated to us. I think I only know it because of swanky Christmas adverts on the telly. Some of us got lost in the words. The rooms split into ones and twos for our second run through. Then our choir master quit pounding the piano and announced that this song will actually be sung a Capella and we were delighted. Some wanted us to split into four parts but we declined...

Good King Wenceslas is all ours. That is, at the concert some songs will be available for the audience to sing too, but only some and not all, and there will be some song sheets available for them. This song however will be only for us to sing and is already concert ready!

See Amid The Winter Snow is short and sweet and with a big ending. There’s a nice low harmony for the men but they keep losing it under their seats! 

And then a discussion before singing that radical version of The Holly And The Ivy. We will definitely not allow audiences participation for this little gem. 

Walking In A Winter Wonderland was a walk in a very easy place after that last song. 

Our choir master promised us descants for Hark The Herald and O Come, All Ye Faithful  broke them down very nicely. The congregation will love joinig in and help cover up all our bum notes ...

DFS be proud. You are amazing. I love you! Cat xxx 

7 November 2019

Merry Christmas! We all collected some lovely Christmas themed song booklet. Ed gave DFS his greatful thanks for everyone who came along on Sunday and shared some photos from the event itself. Forms will be available next week to buy a copy of the DVD, which is also the deadline. 

In concert news, our venue has been confirmed as the church here at St Aldhelms, 12 December, and is a lovely venue and I will make sure has a plug in the church newsletter, if it’s ok with the big man. Ed I mean, not God. We don’t have many concerts this year but are due to sing carols on the 14 December at Shire Hall Museum. I hope we can sing in the court room that would be fun. 

We whipped out out the brand new song books ...

We began our singing with Once In Royal David’s City. A capele for the first verse only. Please do sing any descant parts if you know them. 

O Holy Night. Don’t go too high the first time. We of course needed a reminder. Also don’t go a bit Millward on ‘O night Devine’ and stay sober. Good. 

O Come, O Come, Emmanuel is not such a well known him. Tiësto Picardy. 

Then things got complicated with Hark How The Bells and that was before we added in any other parts! And when we did... being mindful that the Dings and Dongs were all in the right place on our lyrics sheets. The room split into sides. 

Good King Wenceslas through the rude winds wild lament went we! See Amid The Winter Snow featured a nice new part for men. And a warning to sing in tune! 

There is another version of The Holly And The Ivy which has a different tune and is actually a round. Choir thought our choir master had made it up. Yehaw. Two, three and then four overlapping parts were attempted. Hmmmmm. It took some work but we sort of got there before trying to sing Walking Round In Womens Underwear. Wait. That’s seasonal shopping in Debenhams. I’m really getting into the spirit now. 

Fine. Hark The Herald with descants welcome, so O Come All Ye Faithful. All good, so we fast forward to page 14, Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas which I just remembered I did as a solo last year. All sultry like. Pass me a sherry darling..... 

We finished on a fun note with Fairy Tale Of New York split into male a female parts. Maybe I should rephrase that. Perfect. 

And keep singing. You got this! Please bring your kazoos next week for some more festive fun. Love, Cat xxx 

Ps how about this https://youtu.be/ETe6jOt6BnI

Weymouth Festival of Remembrance

As you may know, the blogger was not free to attend this very important event, but I am so Proud of you that I’ve found a way to blog about it anyway! 

Our dear choir master had this to share after the event, “Thank you so much to all who came along tonight and joined in a beautiful concert of remembrance for our fallen soldiers and their families. You sang with every ounce of passion, respect and honour and I am so proud to be your director. This is everything Dorset for Singing was created for, thank you again xx.”

This wonderful photo of you all shining was taken by Graham Hunt Photography and is shared with kind permission of Weymouth Festival of Remembrance. 

Well done DFS and see you Thursday xxx 

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