30 April 2015

The one with the two part hum warm-up...

In which I got completely lost and the men made a lovely thrum. I managed to stay with it the second time, and the third. 

The running order for our next concert is now live on the website and words will be available next week for those unable to print their own. Ed spelled out the running order very very slowly.

Running Order for All Saints Church, Easton, Portland 7.30pm 8th May
Part 1
1. On the Street Where You Live
2. Chiquitita
3. Get Around
4. Don't Sleep in the Subway
5. Lean on Me
6. Breaking Up is Hard to Do
7. Reach Out
8. Downtown
9. Waterloo Part

2 - Ed and guest singers
10. With a Little Help from My Friends
11. (Encore) Let's Go to San Francisco

On the street where you live first up, both in the order of things and to be sung tonight. Ed forgot the interlude of oooohs and Aaaaaaghs but most of us kept going! 

Chicken tikka next, which was coming along nicely. Don't forget the meaningful gap before the patch.

Get around, gets around fast doesn't it? Tiny little timing issue. See blog two weeks back. Ed introduced counting and clapping and wept, 'give me the rhythm,' till finally they got it. But would they keep it?

Subway next, extra fried chicken. Oh yeah. No one remembers to sing the sweet little response part for two lines of the last two chorus so we worked on that and then fixed a lyric. 

Ed attempted to complement our tone but no one was listening so we instead recived a lecture on behaviour. Then the complement of the year - we sound like one voice!

Lean on me was begun a Capella and when the piano joined in we were still in tune! Whoooohoo! That key change is still scary though! And we are having some nice gaps, Elaine already had a record of these in her folder.

This arrow is to remind everyone that there a key change coming up that no one wants to do ⬆️. 

Breaking up is hard to do, but that key change was excellent! 

Waterloo next! Missing out a song to slip this one in tonight (reach out). And Ed said marvellous. Even though there was a quick-bit that tripped a few people up. 

Time for reach out, HUH WHAT? Hah! This one needs some homework because the words don't seem to fit on the lines they are supposed to. Please. Keep singing, that's not why I love you! Cat xxxx

Dorchester Choir 29/4/15

The technology failed us this week, so we shared words, the one week I didn"t have my folder as I left in a hurry! typical! But it turned out to be a good exercise in remembering and I think we surprised ourselves.

The warm up was really fun, Ed was waving his arms like an air traffic controller, sending us up, down and all over the place. It sounded very harmonious and raised a few giggles.

Ed spoke about the concert on Friday the 8th May at All Saints Church Portland, its at 7-30 and will be a lovely one to ease us in. Iit's a very relaxed evening, and we will have the Weymouth choir to hold us up, not literally of course, we can go to the pub afterwards.

The choir mostly wear the uniform t shirt, as long as we get the colour right we can wear any top,with black bottoms. The colours are purple, orange, powder blue, sunshine yellow, lime green, and I think there is bright pink, if you look on the website at the choir logo, these are the colours. 

Now for some songs, we started with Don't Sleep in The Subway. Ed complimented us on not being a 'warbley' choir, and believe me this is a real compliment. According to Ed, we sound like a young choir, I for one will be taking extra care with hair and make up on Friday week!

Round Round Get Around was next up, we are really giving this one some wellie now.

A little Help from My Friends , Reach Out, and to finish, Breaking Up is Hard to Do. I think The King and I was in there somewhere, must pay more attention, too busy having fun, but after all is said and done, that is why we love DORSET FOR SINGING !                                                                                    

         See you next time, Carole M x                         

23 April 2013

Back in the dining room again ...when Jack played the new 'spooning-dinner ladies' advert before we started, and everyone tried to decide if that woman was me or not ...

Fulvia blew bubbles. That's all I'm going to say about the shenanigans on the front row during warm ups! They involved huge, great big, dirty, long notes and some of the biggest, loudest breaths we have ever seen. Oh yes. Ed likes big breaths ...

Announcements. Lots of concerts as follows:-

Fri 8th May All Saints Portland 7.30pm
Sat 16th May Canterbury 7pm
Mon 25th May Fayre in the Square timings tbc (daytime)
Sat 30th May St Andrews Preston 12.30pm
31st May Race for Life Kingston Maurward 10-45am - 12.15pm 
Sat 27th June 'Out Loud' 2pm outside Sausage Factory!
(We get the sausage factory but Ed gets the stage at debenhams ......)
Sat 11th July Rose Garden St. Edmund's timings tbc (daytime)

And here is a Sweet link which you can use to nominate an Unsung Hero for an upcoming BBC music event. which would be our Ed of course!

And finally squeezing a bit of singing, starting with Lemon Otter. But it went up went up where it never used to and left even Ed behind at one point! Comma comma down goes up! After breaking down breaking up a bit, it sounded lovely. 

Time to Get Around which was better that the last time in the dining room. Syncopated was the word. So was timing. 

Can we Sleep in the subway?, asked Ed tenderly, and we dived into to the song of the same name. It's was almost too easy, but we forgot to put a delay on the so. Ed hammered out a harmony which was really a nice echo. 

Lean on me I'm your blogger. Nice. Finding the right version was fun. Needs a bit of a nip and tuck, as we last performed it in the olden days (2009) ... Jack doodle numbers on the overhead projection. They looked like  the way the Wii-fit tries to appraise my attempts at yoga. 

Reach out darling, and make friends at DFS. HUH. Jenny got two in while everyone else remembered where it was supposed to go. Ed will go over the timing again soon. until then, go nominate Mr Unsung and have fun ... Love You XXXXX

DFS Dorchester 22/04/2015

After the long Easter Break it was lovely to see everyone again, and also to arrive, and leave, in daylight.

Jenny was on door duty for the first session of this term, but we need willing volunteers to take a turn on the door now and then, you need to be there by six twenty-five-ish if you feel you would like to help out.

We started off with our warm up, Ed reminded us that as we don't have time for a very lengthy one, it is a good idea to warm up as we go about our daily routine, whether that be at work, shopping, electioneering, whatever. Dorchester will take no notice, apparently they are accustomed to this kind of behaviour. Thats probably because they have a town crier, and an arts centre.

Notices - We are going to be joining our big brothers and sisters in the Weymouth choir for their upcoming gigs, and we will be showcasing all that we have been learning some time in june in the church. Thank goodness for the great acoustics.

We then set to work on a few songs. Lean on Me is a great song for building confidence, and Ed gave us some
nice easy harmonies, it sounded really good.

We did Reach Out, harmonies again, and of course that grunt, nobody did it in the wrong place this time, but it's much more fun when they do. We all love singing this one, memories of our misspent youth!

We ended the rehearsal with The Beatles song, A Little Help from My Friends. The words of this song don't really fit us, as we are on the whole, a, shall we say, somewhat mature, albeit gorgeous bunch. Our highs are probably a nice cup of tea and a cream cake, or a cheeky glass of something, with our shoes off! But hey, this probably applies to Paul and Ringo too nowadays. By the way, who was YOUR Beatle? 

See you next week, don't forget to sing your way around Tesco, Waitrose, Poundland, you know you want to.

Carole M x

                        

26 March 2015

The last one of the term ....which may or may not have been a little slurred....

Ed brought red wine for anyone that fancied a bit and I enjoyed being welcomed back as a minor celebrity after the spooning episode. 

Ed warmed us up then told us that after tonight we would not meet again for four weeks so don't turn up before then unless you are coming to the centenary rehearsal in three weeks time. 

As completely everyone was confused about all kinds of dates we left filling in diaries in favour of singing, with promises from our choir master to plop everything on the website later. 

Reach Out was the first song. We hadn't sing it since the beginning of term and maybe it sounded like it ... Over to you tube to see how it really goes. Some choir members had different words! Ed tied to split the room for some sexy overlapping and an almighty 'HA'. Jenny suggested more red wine for everyone. To help. 

Then ed got everyone to stand, and Jack recoded our efforts with his smarty-pants phone and eveyone did much better especially in the choruses! 

Get around worked on Sunday and we tackled it again. I enjoyed hearing the backing track for the first time and having our conductor out front too.

Then it was mingle time and I ate chocolate and chatted about TV adverts past and present and had my hair platted by Ruth. 

Songs to follow were Don't Take Your Love Away, and Waterloo, both lead by Lemon Otter in Canterbury. Final song of the term was put to a vote, and we rolled with Rolling In The Deep!

Thanks for a great term Dorset For Singing I love you lots, keep singing xxxxx

DFS Dorchester 25/03/15

DFS Dorchester 25/03/15               

We all remembered not to go to church. Many now familiar smiling faces, (one lone man, come on chaps, give us a hand here!) were gathered in anticipation, slightly worried about the rather exposing acoustic in the back room.

It was indeed, exposing, and knocked some of us down a peg or two. Ed thought this to be a good thing, as singing in a church with such wonderful acoustics could be lulling us into a false sense of gloriousness.

                           

So, feeling full of trepidation, especially as Ed was sporting a collar and tie, and Jack, was very professionally seated behind a desk, we launched into our warm up. After all manner of screeching, growling and facial contortion, he who must be obeyed exclaimed that these warm ups are not at all effective. He simply finds them very amusing. You now have the measure of things, but still we turn up each week!

We are here because we love to sing, and we sang our hearts out, Chiquitita is really coming on, we are sitting in a group for the harmony part and this gives us more confidence. Don't wait for the person next to you to start, just be bold. Better to be wrong with confidence, but you are probably right so go for it!

King And I very HIGH for some, but will sound gorgeous before too long, some lovely moments in it.

Then Round, round, get around, PUB. Simple.

We have been asked to sing at The Race for life on May 31st, less exhausting than running, but a nice thing to be able to do for a great cause. Some of you will know this, but I have heard that the atmosphere is second to none.

We are giving Ed a rest now until April 22nd, but keep singing, don't let that voice disappear after all that shouting and hollering !

A good few of us headed off to the Vivo Lounge, joined by Jenny, Ed's Wife , normally they send a nurse for him at the end of each session, but we are improving.

                                                                                                              Have a lovely Easter, Carole M. x

19 March 2015

More spooning ...

Well apart from learning that two DFS members were recalled by the casting crew, I have no idea what else went on at all saints that night! I was returning to my family after my spooning adventure in London!

I met people from all over including a girl from Owermoine, a woman from Yeovil, and a new friend from Winchester. We all had spoon playing workshops then dressed up in twos for our recalls, tasting some as-yet-unrevealed chocolate bars, and hamming it up with some silverware. I was delighted to make the director laugh! 

Whatever happens next I will be happy to have had that little bit of fun. It's awesome, the opportunities that being part of DFS can bring you, I'll never regret following Ruth through the doors in October 2008!

Keep singing though, it's not just about chocolate you know! Cat xxx

DFS Dorchester 18/03/15.

Ed showed off his amazingly clever new equipment this evening, he calls it 'white box', it's a thing, it's wireless, I'm a girl.

It seemed to work though, because our esteemed. leader gave us lots of praise tonight. We are sounding rather lovely, even sitting down, so imagine how wonderful the sound when we stand up. White box enables Ed to conduct us, so this is a huge asset. Jack also demonstrated its portability, that boy has so many uses.

We had a lovely, hissy warm up, followed by some loud shouting ones. We should have been together on this, but Jackie frightened the living daylights out of poor Ed by going it alone. He thought the choir was turning nasty, we had a giggle at Jackies expense. No one is safe here in the humiliation stakes.

All warmed up and ready for anything, we started with Chiquitita, harmonies coming along nicely there. Next up was I Get Around, and King and I to finish, all sounding much improved according to Ed.

At the beginning of the session, Ed told us he had. received an enquiry for us to perform at an event in Weymouth at the end of June, he asked if we would like to perform with the Weymouth choir, or on our own. Tthe general feeling was that we would like to join the veterans (sorry Weymouth) as we feel a little undersized just yet, but watch this space, we are ever growing!

Don't forget that next week we will be in a room at the back and not in the church. Last one before Easter so drinkies, probably the Vivo Lounge (turn left at the horse, down the steps). Our intention had been to frequent The Junction, but they have bolted the doors, could they have heard that we are recruiting men?

If you are a sensible person reading this blog, I can only apologize, I am a ghost writer, was that whistling I heard again?   TTFN, Carole x