26 June 2014

The one with the old warm up ... DFS VLE revisited ...

We are going to use this warm up next week when Ed and Jack will be away. Dear old Dave will be back as sound man and yours truly will be playing the part of Ed Hintze. Oh dear. Who's still coming?

Tickets are now on sale for our concert priced at £5 each for grown-ups. Bring your youngsters as they get in free and of course, the children are our future! And the oxford people had a successful practice before choir propper, so well done to them. 

Secret love went well, but numbers for the echo parts were down to just 2 people, who will be supported on this backing track by a French horn. Don't forget to do a short 'shout-it!' The key change has been axed, and the song worked well without it!

Nightingale next, tricky. There was a gap in the middle which will be filled with tap dancing next week. 

Shoop shoop Song - right is right if that means anything to you? There was some hot debate about who sogs what, as this song is also being sung by the oxford trippers too! The last phrase needs to go higher at the end so it will fit with the chords. Then the 'he' needs to be a 'he-ee' and the 'oh no's' really so need to be sung not shouted. Please. No frankie Howard!!

Oh no.....

On Top of the world we are at DFS. Ed wanted us to mind the gap, did a bit of Lee Marvin, and off we went - remembering to pause and wink. We got the notes all right which is lovely but we needed more BOUNCE! To go along with the 'touch of Febreeze' I should imagine! 

Dream a little dream of me, especially if I am missing like last week! Big bum note to start with, so we had a careful listen before having another go. Great base part from Big Ron. Thank you Big Ron! Who knew that Ed appreciated men's Bums so much?

You make me feel so young DFS. we are having a new ending with 4 X so young and no high part ... Please run across the meadow and not around it please. The effect is much more romantic ...

Then we ended with goodbye to love! Which we know really well so that's the treat at the end of all our hard work. I wonder what will be in store next week? I will send a quick appeal to ed to give me the practice running order and I'll say my prayers so I'm not too rubbish that we all have to go put for kebabs instead. Love you. Get Your YouTube on! Cat xxx

12 June 2014

The one where Fulvia ruined the hiss with one of her pouts. Then we went all gregorian with a wonderful low hum ....

Tonight we did notices before warm-ups and embarked on a massive singathon through the rainbow, I mean through the 20th century which we have already left far behind us. Sorry about that I just typed what we sung!

I had enoght time to take a breath and list the numbers in our marathon, apart from the ones I am much too young to know of course...

Dream a little dream of me

Somewhere over the rainbow

It don't mean a thing (if it ain't got that swing)

A nightingale sang in Berkeley Square

You make me feel so young

Oh! Carol!

Top of the world

The shoop shoop song

I wanna be the only one

Then we discussed how well we felt the songs had gone, popping them into piles of yes, no, and potential. The shoop shoop song won, and then we looked again at Dream a little dream of me, including the original key via YouTube. Then Ed lifted it to c + 3 and we had at it all over again. Bonus points if you remember who wrote it ...

Then we did Somewhere over the rainbow again but all I could here was the sublime Eva Cassidy version, so this time I did some listening to us being Judy Garland, weighing up pies, and sliding all over the place like top trombone players. Somewhere Rover doesn't bare mentioning here. Then we sang it scared, and it was much better. Key is E flat minus 3... 10 out of 10 for lyrics the like of which we don't see nowadays!

Back to the nightingale again in E flat minus 2 ... Followed by You make me feel so young, but most wanted to drop down a little on account of that high note! B flat - 2 helped to keep away from a weaker sound on the high parts. Then Ed demonstrated a cool, funky ending. 

Oh! Carol! Being rather high the first time around had another outing, and felt much more comfortable at G - 4!

Back On top of the world again were we, and that old thigh slap helped us to leave the meaningful gap that was missing in the first run through! We did ok with the original key and Ed reminded us of the lovely man parts we tried last time. Oooer.

Cher voices out for a bit more shoop shoop, and we lovely DFS fell naturally into a balanced split and Mr Ed was pleased, then showed us some harmony parts for the mid section. 

Squeezing in secret love to finish, I felt all gooey and lovely as I listened to the lyrics, coz it's no secret I love you to bits and you fully deserved your round of applause! Well done Xxxx

5 June 2014

Not now Ron...

Apparently we had really good feedback from our concerts espially the one at All Saints Church. Ed thought there were some very good highlights and promised to get more of Michael's footage up. A member of the congregation told one of our number that some of the songs were not suitable to be sung in church. Haha. She obviously wasn't there when I sang Honey Honey at Wey Bay Methodist church but that's a whole 'nother story!

Ed asked for a show of hands for a concert at the Pavillion on Tuesday 22 July during school holidays. Same format as usual with choir singing and some solo slots. Many people can make that, and put up thier sticky hands, so it's going to be firmly booked. 

Sexy new choir folders will be available to buy from September, to facilitate us breaking away from staring at the screen. Ed is changing his job at wey valley which will help him to ditch school paperwork and do more DFS paperwork and possibly get videos edited and uploaded. 

Then we cracked on with Secret Love, a brand new song to sing at the pavilion. After singing it through Ed added a disco beat. Look out for 'a no-pen door'. We don't want any of those! I hadn't actually heard this song so I felt very young and got on with some fabrication on the blog. Harmonies and descant parts will be added next time. Then DFS added a meaningful gap and Ed declared it perfect before making everyone stand and perform. Is anyone else like me and needs to hear it 20 times before they know it? Hhmm. Now I don't feel so young any more. 

Next new song was Hard To Say I'm Sorry by Chicago. We gave it a go with a backing track and found out he had legs. Listen in on you tube folks!

Dear Darling is a dreadfully modern song and we went straight into the backing track leaving me at a loss for a tune again! I will definitely be spending some time with you tube while I chop celery.

Ed asked for a vote as this song felt very different. Homework might help and we could revisit this song later. 

Bonfire Heart sing-a-long next with James Blunt leading. Bless him. 60% yes votes for this song. There was a suggestion that our brand new WHOLE ROW of men could sing the lower lines. 

Toto's Africa was slapped up on the screen next, very much inspired by another music festival entry this year. But there seemed to be too many words to fit into the lines. 

In impromptu Freddy interpretation from Ed as we we rocked our way through One Vision. This one would work well with a soloist. 

From the redicolous to the sublime, we ended were we began with, with a bit of Secret Love, disco beat included despite to votes from nay-sayers! We ended on a good note. Yay! Harry got a round of applause for being better behaved than Jack, and we are invited to bring in raffle presents for Carol to collect and collate. 

23 May 2014

The All Saints that is a church not a school ...

Dorset for Singing gathered to wow Portland once again with their rich and varied repertoire, during their fourth visit to the Easton Church. We must be good to be asked back again, and we met the new Mr Reverend, and sang our socks off after eating all the custard creams...

All except Michael Greenaway who ate all the Malted Milks, but he needed the sugar after perching on the edge of a pew all night working the video camera to avoid nightmare editing later ...

Here is one that Ed and Jack have put up for us to enjoy - more please dear Team Hintze!




Some nice Solo work from Ed, Julie and the infamous Blogger,and  for those that asked i was singing this lovely song by Audrey Assad. Thank you for the hugs, and the lovely things you said.

We did not have a very big audience, so might need to work that PR head of mine and see if Ed slips me a free kebab for phoning Wessex FM about the next 'Do'.

See you soon for our final set of practices, leading to a top concert somewhere back in Weymouth, when we will endeavor to make hearts happy and raise more money for Julia's House ....See you soon, Love you LOADS - Cat XXXX

22 May 2014

Ed stood at the front with his music stand ready to conduct the penultimate practice! And reminded us that Fair In The Square starts at 11.40 on Monday.

Ed will be setting up from 6pm tomorrow, and needs our good selves sat in the front seats from 7.20 and then he coached us in acting confused when requested to sing something for an encore. I will make sure my fiancé shouts 'More!' 

Let The River Run still had issues with Ar-ses and Ass-es (careful now) and needed a brighter sound for the bridge, which moved from an Mmmmm to an Ooooo...

Long And Winding road is going to work really well in church, despite not being Jack's favourite song. We are missing the overlap echo bit, bit Ed said it was too late to thrash that one and so Jack was happy especially because after tomorrow's concert we are putting the long and winding road to bed!

Heaven Is [still] A Place On Earth. Please bring your Ooomph tomorrow. 

So then we sing Sing which I keep faking as its in such a funny key and I mustn't wreck my voice for my solos and sexy duet with Ed after half time. Please be reminded that 'clearer' rhymes with 'hear-ya'. And we did it again. So I sang it like a man!

Now the audience have got used to us and its time to take them in a new direction, and we may hear them singing along as we sing So Happy Together! Which reminds me, I still don't have a sheep, which might have helped Ed not miss out a line ...

Bread maker, I mean Starmaker, has been eliminated from Monday but is still in the line for tomorrow night! More cheese please, a lot more GLEE! Oh yeah baby ....

1st Of May is sounding lovely if you like snakes. We didn't even run it all the way through. Because we needed to slip in some Dreaming! Always the danger of an extra YOU in that one. Ed was pleased, and he even let us miss out Goodbye To Love, and even The King And I.

The medieval version of Midnight Blue was ditched in favour of Mr HinTze delivering a lecture in rhyming couplets and t'was lovely indeed. Punchy please. See you tomorrow at 7.20 raring to go. 

Love you and see you then xxxx 

15 May 2014

The one with the announcement... Yes the one about me and Mike. I think I really would like a whole bunch of Dorset For Singing at the wedding, now you mention it. How much do you charge?

Oxford people to stay behind at the end. 

Portland concert is next week and we will be supporting a lovely duet between Ed and Julie - the prayer!

Performance in the square has the same set but swapping Starmaker for Dreaming, the Blondie one ...

Time for a river-run through ....

Ass-king not arse-king for the taking please for Let The River Run, we need a nice flat northern 'A'. We had to get all the water puns out of system before a second run through. And Jerusa-lum not Jerusa-lem. Just so we are singing from the same hymn book. 

The Long And Windy Road is a real audience pleaser and will make them sigh. After the excitement of the river this ones going to take them places they never knew Dorset's Best Community Choir could take them!

Next they will be in heaven, for it is a place on earth. 

And next with a special guess soloist we sang Sing ...

We may not even always be in tune, but I think we are generally So Happy Together! 

Starmaker next. No one groaned. Much. But choir did put their everything into it and Ed was pleased. And everyone forgave little Jack for being tired from doing SATS and hiding the words at one point. Life is good!

 

It isn't The First Of May anymore, but we relived that heady moment. The Apples. The kiss. Your mum shouting you in for your tea ... 

Then along with YouTube we did our special parts for Midnight Blue. Ooo Yeah. 

Then Julie took a perch next to Ed so we could do some oooo for a song we have not done for a while with choir. Cool Duet choice guys. 

Love you. See you next week ...

8 May 2014

The one where you only stay behind if you haven't sorted out your Oxford issues ....

11.40 is the time for our performance at the fayre in the square venue on bank holiday Monday 26 May. 

We reviewed our running order for All Saints and jumped straight in with Let The River Run! It was rather flat and lacked something. Make sure you get a warm up before our concert because we need to give it our best. We divided to share out the overlaps. Ed wanted to give this another run through to break it down, but stopped when he was happy!

The Long And Winding Road lacked drive. It must not become a long and winding dirge! Ed demoed a few actions but we won't be trying those. So the second run through was about finding more DRIVE, seriously no pun intended!

Heaven Is A Place On Earth was ok. More harmony parts please!

Sing - The Gary Barlow number we remembered very well, with Catherine back for the solo part. We discussed the overlapping sections which worked so well last time we sang this! More people needed for the echoes too! At the second run through we were looking to work that overlap and we were treated to  Jack's upstaging of Ed. Haha. Julie said we should do the ending without music and we cracked it. Yay!

How Happy Together! 

Star Maker sounded good but more lower harmony in chorus would help to really build that up. 

First Of May was ok!

Goodbye To Love gains a Pass too! Yay! 

Comments were invited from choir members after our first run, through but no one was brave enough. 

Ed wanted to take to the piano and run through Midnight Blue, mostly our parts. Needs some YouTube listening, so that's your homework chaps!

We stood for You Raise Me Up, which is very apt and going to be our secret encore so please don't read this if you are coming to the concert. The rest of you, well done Dorset For Singing and have a great week! Cat xxx

1st May 2014

Hello everyone on our late return to summer term... Blogging live from the jolly old school hall ...

Concert in three weeks folks, so we are revisiting a couple of old friends for our Portland concert on Friday 23rd May 7.30 ... Solos welcome! We will be singing at the Fair In The Square on that bank holiday Monday too .... Time to be confirmed to end all confusion. 

After a super fast warm up, we tackled The First Of May ... I will have to tell Mary when I get home. She is 6 on the second and this is a favourite choir song! After doing really well that we dug out Star Maker, we're happy now! Ed said we might not need to practice again ... B Flat please Ed!

Ed wanted to reintroduce Midnight Blue which is mostly a solo by him. Jack added in an In and then took it out again. Priceless. And in the Bee Gees flavoured bridge, Ed added in an In and there were frowns. You have to be here, really! Over to you tube, to reINstall all the INs again ....

So happy together! This song makes me want to work/animate a puppet sheep. You know, just at the end there... Look out for the eyebrow moment of course. There won't be a dry seat in the house! Mind the treacle folks. Over the top annunciation please. 

We decided on You Raise Me Up too, as That church always asks for an encore. We also considered Sing, the Gary Barlow version, not our Karen again! So we could try that next week if Ed reads this blog post. He doesn't read these, does he?

Jack found us Raise me up words that were not quite complete, but we didn't do too badly having a crack at that!

Then jack found a karaoke version of SING, and we waited for it to buffer ... We did a lovely job of that too so we can leave the hall smelling quite sweetly tonight!

Carol nominated Good Bye To Love for our finale, and all stood to make a joyful noise. Superb. Love you, keep singing. Running order next week xxxx