23 September 2021

Back! Back we were. Even if no one sat near me, it was so good to be back. The piano was a little wobbly and we had to do a quick google to find out how to transpose. Perhaps Ed was a little wobbly too. 

Ed welcomed everyone and reminded everyone that we already have a concert booked on the 31 October which will feature a brand new wartime medley. It will be for the festival of remembrance. 

We were going to be singing old songs and new songs again tonight marking the end of the odd ‘nearly two years’ and kicked off with a Dum Dum Diddle together. Yes! 

The first song in our concert will be Make You Feel My Love and we were off singing a real propper song! Considering we had not sung for a long time, well together, it sounded pretty nice and Ed just had to revise timings with us. It was so lovely singing that I was tempted to forget to blog. But then where would we be? Dorchester probably read this to see if we were as good as them, for starters. 

This will be our opening number … we stood to perform. And Ed said that it was good. 

Wartime Medley was our next piece of fun, for me it was the rats but for some of the guys it might have been the marvellous harmony part. And Ed said it could have been worse. We stood to perform!

Homework may have been to listen to I Still Have Faith In You but it was very new to many so Jack looked out a lyric video for us. 

We had a stab at the beginning with Ed at the piano, held back by Jenny’s handbag. The piano I mean, not Ed. 

Next up was If You Could Read My Mind familiar to many of DFS. We ran through that and the first verse of First Time and ran out of time. 

Wow DFS, didn’t we do well? I loved it. Keep singing and definitely keep smiling, Love, The Blogger x 

Lockdown parte duet ....

From our dear Choir Master - 

"It is with sadness, yet again, that I have to announce the suspension of rehearsals for Dorset for Singing. I will, of course, resume the live sessions through Facebook on Thursdays at 6pm and hope that we will be able to get together and sing before Christmas. Although the 2nd lockdown doesn’t become law until Thursday, 5th November, due to rising rates, there will be no rehearsal this Wednesday for Dorchester. I really don’t want to put anyone at risk so hope you understand. It has been so good to get back recently, and we WILL return! Much love to you all, Ed and family x."

15 October 2020

Well, well, well. We are back. Masked, Brave and ready to sing! Peter helped us to set up, and perhaps we may enjoy more space next week. 

Ed removed his mask and welcomed us warmly, saddened us with the news of no Christmas medley, and the news that Jack has passed his driving test we cheered. We cheered at everything apart from the sad discovery that our DFS website had been taken away by the webbly hosts. But there will always be a blog. I’ll pop any updates Ed requires on here. 

Ed announced a warm up then tried to hit us with an ABBA number, but Jack put him right. Thanks Jack. Singing seated so separately made some of us feel shy. I sang into a sock and Jenny had her head in a bucket. Can’t wait to look back on this in a few years time! 

On to SOS and encouragements to sing louder! We even tried some harmony parts. 

Born Free is a very good singing exercise. It starts relaxed but builds tension. It is a little low for the men but there was only one male member tonight. Of course Ed sang with him. Be careful how you sing grass, it can come out a bit too Dorset. Free fall harmonies in ‘Ahhhs’ seemed a little too daunting for our very spaced out reduced choir. There sure is safety in numbers. The word ‘free’ must be sang with a big cheesy grin.

Life On Mars started just as I hit a power surge. And a power surge is not the thing to have while singing into a hot, moist sock! Ed and Jack found the right key on the piano and there were just a few little bits of harmony to try. 

Ed thumbed through the song book and plucked out Whistle Down The Wind. Next was homework being set - at home, Sing Very Loudly. 

We revisited One Day Like This one that choir has done a lovely job of in the past. Cue hilarious run through and 4 times faster and in the style of George Formby. Nice. Now lead off from the back like at school. Chin wags in the car park only! 

Wow. Well done all. Keep singing! And louder! 

Love from Cat the rusty blogger x

lockdown life ....

Ed's You Tube Channel

In the light of current advice ....

Ed has just posted this in the choir Facebook group ... 

“Hi everyone. I'm aware that not all of our members use Facebook, but I'm hoping that this can reach as many as possible.  As I'm sure you all have heard, this Coronavirus isn't making life easy at the moment and predictions are that it will almost certainly get worse.  The government has advised that we do not meet socially but this is not enforced at the moment.  Could I please ask for your opinions on where we go from here in the short term?  We have two pending concerts, although the 2nd April still has a venue to be confirmed.  Could you please comment below if you feel that we should cancel end of term concerts and also consider future rehearsals until further notice?  I'm very hopeful that this unprecedented outbreak will pass quickly but I am also realistic and want to make sure we are being responsible when it comes to everyone's welfare.  Please let me know you thoughts as soon as possible.”

You can also leave comments on this blog post. Love you. Stay safe and well xxx

12 March 2020

In the twilight zone, the funny time, or perhaps almost the time of being careful. Boris our prime minister is adding to choir confusion as we decide whether to postpone our concerts or not. Some dear members of DFS have already elected to stay away from the potential viral soup that is us. Even if we are hardcore enough to turn out for a concert, will our audience show up too? 

In good news though new fluffy DFS fleeces are available to order and Ed’s looked lovely. Thanks for modelling that so professionally. 

Good feedback from the concert on Saturday, and a good amount of dosh raised for the charity. I was too scared to go. 

Three songs have been added to our Easter concert repertoire, Let It Be Me, Nella Fantasia, and One Day Like This. Did you hear the joke about the Elbow tribute band? I hadn’t either until Ed told us. 

We began with Let It Me and seem to remember it and it’s parts quite well. There was just a little sorting out to be done, at the old piano. Then the choir master conducted from beneath the big giant words, with the backing track. 

Next One Day Like This, and we suddenly remembered all those overlapping parts, and we listened to a super condensed run-through and the microphone died. Again. Proper music will be available next week for those that read it, as it really helps with the overlaps. The last chorus has three harmonies and an overlap isn’t it fantastic!

And up popped Nella Fantasia into our lives again, with a choice between dummies guide and real Italian. Guess which won the vote? Right at the end Ed whipped out the harmony part we didn’t meet last time we sang this song. 

Then we thought we ought to rub through the ALWM to look at not-coming-in-too-late!

Well done DFS and keep singing even if we all have to take to our houses. The Cat xxx 

27 February 2020

More changes reported following dialog re the Police Concert making us Headliners and them our support. This may not be exactly right even though we are taking the second half. We will no longer be singing an odd version of Do You Hear The People Sing for the song at the bottom of this revised running order - 

Wild West hero 

My Song is love unknown 

Burning bridges 

The Skye boat song/all around my hat 

ALWM

The Impossible Dream 

And Jack popped a map on the screen to show us the hall in Poundbury. And with an encouragement from our choir master off we went. ‘Ride the range’ still needed more confidence so it was time to break it down at the piano. 

Ed ran through the harmony of Love Unknown and I have to admit it does not sound like the same song. M

Tapping feet from Ed reminded us of gaps and rhythms for Burning Bridges ... please make notes to help you remember what the choir master tells you. Otherwise he might have to go over it again. So he did. All Around My Hat may in-fact have cockney origins (how many choir members had a google?) but Ed felt that this song had both and Irish and West Country lily so marry those together in any way you can. Before slipping into a nice bit of Scots for The Skye Boat Song. Perhaps a few boxes of dressing up hats wouldn’t go  amiss. I mean, won’t the police peoples be wearing nice police hats? 

And the ALWM was upon us! After our run through we found we were making the same mistakes more than once. Again. Ed wanted more notes making so I blogged as hard as I can. Don’t you get me wrong sounded slovenly. Please come in at the right time. Everything’s alright. End of words or important in midnight. The men make it apparently. A little more harmony in unexpected song and the end of love changes everything always goes a big wrong because there’s a tempo change and some very different notes. 

So we dug out The Impossible Dream which we remembered quite well. 

Super well done DFS and fear not, we have another rehearsal before the concert, and several more opportunities to listen on line! Cat xxx 

6 February 2020

We started with notices, when Ed announced his new singing workshop including members-only discount code. 10 til 4 on the 16th April this spring! 

Ed has a huge problem finding a venue for our 2nd April concert *which must allow our customary raffle* as many places are booked or aren’t big enough. DFS members shouted out suggestions because we are helpful like that. 

 We discussed our dress code (very very smart) and the sort of structure for our police-shared concert and then we started with Wild West Hero ... the new backing track was considered too high but when Jack dug our the original one, we mostly felt it was too low! 

So that went to one side, while we played with our ALW In Concert Medley. After a good set of reminders and working thru some sections in particular, choir gave it their best shot, in its entirety, and with the super sexy backing track. 

All went really well apart from The Phantom which more than half of the choir sang in the wrong key. Spectacular rather. But wrong. Back to the piano to try and put us right! Well almost. People must really not peak too soon. 

Burning Bridges and All Around My Hat have never been closely related in my time but it does work really rather well. But I did feel rather old. Some odd timings in the latter so Ed went over them for us to forget next week. Careful now. 

And to finish we slipped into the The Skye Boat Song and it was all lovely and nice apart from no one does seagull impressions or wave a seagull on a stick. We could stand out if we did that at the nice police concert.  

How hard you all worked tonight DFS, go home and have a nice ovalteen, I love you, Cat The Blogger x