26 April 2018

And after such a long time, we finally met again in the hall at All Saints with a shiny new booklet containing 13 new songs, in no particular order. 

Our first concert will be at Fayer In The Square on 26th May so we quickly got our Dum-Dum-Diddley on ... and the rest of a jolly decent warm up.

Here for those who do not Facebook, is a little summary of this terms songs by Ed the Choirmaster..

“—A Million Dreams 

From the hit film ‘The Greatest Showman’ this is an uplifting song with some lovely powerful moments.  Not one to take too slowly

And So It Goes 

Written by Billy Joel a lovely ballad requiring very precise diction.  Some moments to soar and other moments for soft, clear lyrics to come through

Have a Nice Day 

By Stereophonics, a catchy sing-a-long chorus with an opportunity to belt out some backing vocals in the chorus

Have I The Right? 

A 1964 hit for The Honeycombs this is a classic 60’s stomping good song with a great solid chorus

Hold on Tight 

ELO song with a classic rock ‘n’ roll pattern, even a verse in French to show off our linguistic skills!

I Believe

Who remembers Robson and Jerome? Well before they showed the world their version of this ascending masterpiece, it was recorded by Frankie Laine and was the first hit song ever to be broadcast on television. It was especially written to offer people hope after WW2 and the Korean War.

I Get a Little Sentimental Over You 

Not to be confused with ‘I’m Getting Sentimental Over You’ (easy mistake) this bounce-a-long song by The New Seekers is a straightforward swinger!

I Got Rhythm 

The Gershwin Brothers lively, jazzy ditty from the musical Girl Crazy, this went on to become a jazz standard.

Now Those Days Are Gone 

Almost completely al fresco (!) this was a song recorded by the multi-coloured ‘Bucks Fizz’. They took a step away from ‘making their minds up’ to create this lovely ballad.

Rocking All Over the World 

Anyone who doesn’t know this song is hereby kicked out of Choir 

Sometimes  

A little known powerful movie theme track sung by Shirley Bassey, this is from the film ‘Champions’ starring John Hurt.  It has quite a few key changes and will sound great when sung with mucho agusto! 

Under the Moon of Love 

Showaddywaddy brought us this great song which will split into 3, yes 3 parts!  Dropbox also has the sheet music, I do spoil you!  

Viva la Vida 

Coldplay making an appearance in our repertoire with this number which is quite anthemic and has rather a lot of words!!”

So we started with Under The Moon Of Love and split it into sections because we didn’t know it as well as we thought we did. Lovely visual joke on the sheet music, not one of our regular jokes! 

After performing stood shoulder to shoulder we stayed in the 60s to have a go at Have I The Right? Hmmm. We had a look at the original version on you tube so that first we could giggle, and secondly so that Ed could point out all all important growl and the staccato sounds. Such fun. That was lively. 

Staying chipper we sang I Got Rhythm with Ed demoing the into before the chorus which was the bit most of us knew! 

And gently into I Believe went we who always believe in our collective singing abilities, and after a little work we stood to perform this one. It’s going to be super lovely and good. 

A little French for us again, in the shape of Hold On Tight another up-tempo number to wake us up again. Some ‘yeah’s are missing from the lyric sheets and they are nice and slidy like that amazing 15-count ending. 

And to finish, all enjoyed Rockin’ All Over The World ending as energetic as choir started! Ed gave us homework of listening to the other new songs to get familiar with them! 

Well done DFS, you did good, welcome back, and keep singing, love Cat xxx

22 March 2018

All well and present in the hall, we began to warm ourselves with a fantastic Dum Dum Diddley Dum and more ... followed by reminders of the concerts next week, and the aproaching end of term. Feel free to bring biscuits or cakes to be sold with the teas and coffees. The running order has been a little tweaked but we will run through it tonight, too. 

Build Me Up Buttercup started us off before Ed promised us some really cool songs coming up in the new term. No Hintze were given though ...

Hallelujah is a slow song but needs a bright beginning so it doesn’t sound like dirge. Ed shifted back to the piano to help with harmony parts. And with free choice on the last note we stood to perform. Ed wanted us to sting from lyrics sheets so the screen went blank. Everyone knew the chorus off by heart. Praise the lord. 

And we have all been practicing Perfect so we sang it but rather far from perfectly. Never

Mind. Ed has it covered. 

Voulez Vous has that looooong intro and no one must come in too early. Not halfway through either after the instrumental! This song certainty has some tricky pauses and gaps. Jolly good. 

How Far I’ll Go has traps too and a bunch of people fell into it with aplomb. Splash. At this point in the concert Ed will turn his organ round to do 2 or 3 solos, cake, and back in with I Only Want To Be With You when everyone ran forward to collect lyric sheets. Sang itself basically. 

The Rose has a very quiet back and consequently suffered from false startings. We stood for some work on giving colour to long notes. Popping and dripping were suggested. 

And we livened it up with Since You’ve Been Gone. And it was alright. And followed by Song Of The Sea. 

And with time left for only one song, The Vicar Of Dibley won. 

Well done DFS, enjoy the concerts next week and keep singing, back on the 26th April, Cat The Blogger xxx

15 March 2018

Out next concert at St Nicholas church is two weeks time, parking in Dorchester road and of course please feel free to sing at the concert at URC the night before too. Cakes and biscuits will be sold at the URC to help raise monies for choir charities! 

And Dum Dum Diddly off we went! Followed by more notices, when we learned that DFS Tour was called off, and it’s suggested that we do a DFS day trip would be in order instead. Thanks were given to all that came to sing on Saturday where DFS sounded great and the acoustics were marvellous! Members of the public joined in with some of the singing and even added actions too. 

We have two songs to consider that have not been rehearsed for a while, they have already been voted off by DFS Dorch and replaced with others. 

We attempted a noisy and confident start with Build Me Up Buttercup, and continued with Voulez-Vous, which sounded full of joy on Saturday. Remember Masters not Mar-sters, of the sea, and nice and gentle with the Ah-ha, no laughing policemen. At all. Then after working on those for a bit, with a ton of conviction we stood to perform and it was very much better and with lots of improvements. Thanks Ed. 

And thanks to Lily we know How Far I’ll Go quite well. Don’t forget to snatch lots of little breaths or cooperative with a neighbor to cover each other’s big breaths and it should all come out in the wash. Hopefully not pink. 

Since You’ve Been Gone with its heavier than ever backing track popped up for rehearsal next. The harmonies were lacking so it was time to thrash those out at the piano. 

We revisited Karma Chameleon and popped the key up a bit. I’m sorry I don’t manage to grab those for the blog anymore. I think it’s classified information. Or is it classical? Back-burner is were this song ended up after a quick vote. 

The song that practically sings itself, Perfect, also came under consideration so next week we will deside whether to sing it all together in the concert or have a soloist? It’s so lovely I’ve been singing it a lot at home. 

Next Hallelujah with the silent H was followed by I Am What I Am starting with low voices as usual. Hold onto your Am at the end. 

Finally, just for fun, we sang Do You Hear The People Sing before having a collection for The Street Pastors here in our twin. Remember them when you are tucked up in bed at the weekend, keep singing and remember I love you xxx. 

8 March 2018

Back again after snowmageddon we all Dum Dum Diddley’d and further warmed up, before finding out today that we would be having backing tracks, and a conductor Ed. In notices, our trip is still pending enough singers. We have a concert at St Nicks church broadway on Thursday 29th March, not forgetting the URC concert the night before with the lovely DFS Dorch. 

The running order will follow and was sung in order tonight, beginning with our wake-up song - 

Build Me Up Buttercup and it needed more fire in its belly! Do not mix up your babies and your darlings or we will sound silly. 

Hallelujah saw me terribly distracted by texts from a poorly 11 year old so I sent her snippets as we sang to make her smile! You don’t know how far your voice goes sometimes! 

Voulez Vous has a nice funky backing track with a decent intro and a dad-dance to go with it too. Ed too responsibility for that fact that we fell apart on this one, and gave us a second chance, both to sing it right and see his groovy moves, and it was much better. 

How Far I’ll Go has two very important gaps! And follow the commas for tiny little breaths so you can keep going. After going all through the running order, we came back to this song again. 

The Rose requires us to be uniform in our singing of river, razor, etc. making them a tidy three syllables! 

And with very heavy-metal backing, even heavier than the original, comes Since You’ve Been Gone and our choir master was very excited! It sounded nice. Too nice. 

The Vicar Of Dibley. Breathing is vital. You can squeeze in a little one before ‘beside’ if you feel short. 

I Am What I Am found Ed’s smart watch announcing that trying to conduct DFS results in a Dynamic Workout with three bourbon creams. I wish my Fitbit was half as impressed with our singing because some of these numbers really feel like we’ve been jogging. This song being so fast is no exception and because of that requires really good diction. 

And for a special treat at the very end we sang Jerusalem! Wow! 

Well done DFS, I love you, keep singing, see you soon xxxx

22 February 2018

We were welcomed back after half term by an urgent Facebook post telling us we were meeting in the dining room this very night! Quell surprise! 

We started with notices with news of a first appearance on 10 March in Dorchester, and St Nicholas church in broadway would love to have us sing there in the future too. Look out for posters of our Easter concert available next week. 

The Vicar Of Dibley was tonight’s warm up. Mega posh please with par-stures not PAstures and feel free to rolls your Rrrrrrrrs. The last forever is a very sweet solo filled by this weeks volunteer. They don’t nessesary need to sing it forever .... 

Since You’ve Been Gone well we have had half term, but who’s remembered how to sing this one? It sounded lovely but really demands a different style to Vicar Of Dibley. It needs to be the most raucous we have ever been. So we all made rock faces and tried again, to the sound of Ed growling over the piano. Just remember tho if it hurts, don’t! I was afraid of snapping an elastic. Braces please, not knicker elastic! 

And while ‘up there’ some of us whipped off our hoodies and dived into Build Me Up Buttercup with full enthusiasm. We laughed as parts fell off the organ, and we quickly ran out of steam. Hallelujah. We had a listen to a live recording to identify places for big pauses and just to enjoy the recording. The big paws were officially dropped. Party on, DFS. Lots of high harmony would be lovely too. 

We will sing How Far I’ll Go to keep the youngsters happy, because it’s sure to be a crowd pleaser. We know some of the lines have too many words in, but practice will make Perfect and although it had not been sung for a while, we did a really good job of it and it will be included in our indoor concerts. We gently slipped into The Rose. 

The suddenly the blogging app crashed and lost half of my blog post just as we decided to end with I Am What I Am and run for the door as the clock struck 8. Keep singing, and I’ll keep blogging, recover the missing notes and click publish to reward you for a lot of energetic work tonight! Well done DFS, The Cat XXX

8 February 2018

And so, with extra small people because it was half term, DFS gathered in the dining room where everything was ready for us apart from Ed’s organ. Of course we won’t be here next week, but the following Thursday we will be back in the hall again. 

Songy warm-ups instead of excersize warm-ups began with Hallelujah and we got to vote on PAUSE or NO PAWS, with a demo first, and THE PAUSE won. 

Out now is our trip itinerary, but nothings set in stone as yet, Voulez-Vous? Then Ed stopped leading us astray and added another Sylabul to ‘La question’ so we will see how that turns out. It was sounding a bit choral and Ed wanted more pop. 

The church organ came out for a song revisit, The Vicar Of Dibley. Parts will be available soon in the form of sheet music, for any who read such like and would like to sing other parts. 

Karma Chameleon popped up in a different key. One day I might blog which one we settle on? It’s going to sound fabulous once Ed has created the backing track. Since You’ve Been Gone requires raucous singing and contains a few little pitfalls for tired DFS members to stumble into. One is singing whoa not Oh, but we still sounded a bit too nice. 

And gently does it with The Rose that sounded proper well good then we ran through How Far I’ll Go and Build Me Up Buttercup which is coming along nicely. The penultimate song was I Am What I Am, when it’s important for everyone to know where they am, and for the finale, we took votes and sang Hallelujah. 

Well done DFS you worked well in the room with no acoustics to speak of, go home and have a nice cup of tea, listen to you tube and see you after half term, love, The Cat xxx

1 February 2018

Traffic may, still an issue near the school but the hall was full of happy choir members ready to warm up before notices. 

No letters for Chichester are available this week, because much of the itinerary remains to be confirmed. Watch this space. 

New songs can be suggested to Ed in many ways, verbally at choir, by email or little notes are all fine but DFS Dorch members have gone a step further and written in a poly pocket on headed paper, and even included a DVD of a certain to medleys. Maybe we will sing them, who knows. 

The Rose was our first song, and we looked at those timings again, with Ed playing metronome, before attempting a brand new song Since You’ve Been Gone. We were encouraged to apply controlled raucousness and decided to change Oh’s to Whoa’s, but do watch the numbers and the meaningful gap. A few choir members were left exposed. Don’t be that person. Ed outlined the harmony, following the melody starting with the note from the first verse, and we stood to perform. Dare to power-grab. 

With only a 30 second break on our bottoms, shuffling papers to find the words, we stood again to belly dance. I mean song Voulez Vous. Those timing are still giving us a run for our vocal-money. 

But Hallelujah it was time for another song. Please drop your aiches DFS ...

Build Me Up Buttercup OOOO-oooo-oooo baby, and onto the anthemic I Am What I Am  beginning with men only for those important first two opening lines, and we ended with Lily singing How Far I’ll Go recorded at Fulvia’s 60th Birthday. We were allowed to sing along if we wanted to but we all listened before singing the last two choruses with Ed and his piano. 

Wow DFS didn’t we do well? Keep singing, that’s not why I love you xxx

25 January 2018

Once more into the hall dear friends, Ed began by checking everyone had all the words to all the songs we are working on. Warm up began with some copying of scales and then some of are classics, such fun. 

We have been asked to to The Rose Garden, on the 14 July and we have time to decide if we want to do that, because it will be after choir has finished for the summer. 

4th May is our Chichester trip, and next week there will itineraries available from next week and you can hand in deposits from then too if you like. 

We began with Build Me Up Buttercup and ran head first into that dodgy note, then we had a good talking to, and totally nailed it, to the choir master’s extreme surprise, even though he made us do it twice more before slipping into The Rose. But the naughty high harmonies came in a verse too early, and then everything sounded a bit sad. Maybe choir were scared to get it wrong, so Ed had to reassure us of his love, plus a couple of starting notes for good measure. 

And up tempo again to Voulez Vous just in case The Rose made anyone, not Jack, fall asleep. I decided to do a Facebook Live video just to prove I can actually sing now and I got lots wrong. Haha, or is it Ah-ha? Take good care not to be Pirates, or even emphasise the Ah not the Haaaaa.  

Back to earth, and English, Hallelujah, not forgetting the free-for-all-ending and I waited to see who would go for it. Ed went for it. Well done choirmaster! Then he introduced a harmony, a low one in the second second verse, and a high harmony hitting a note that he’s not achieved before. Nice. No gap must be left between the ends of the verses and the Hallelujah. Hallelujah said Ed, when we seemed to have got it, Lovely. 

And to see who did their homework we sang How Far I’ll Go which is quite a jog. After a run through we did it A Capella to sort out some of our timings, before having a whizz through Karma Chameleon. My mum once video’d this off top of the pops, and we played it twice as fast because our player would do that. Ed sang the nice overlaps and harmonies like a boss. 

Grand finale, I Am what I Am, starting with men only for the first two lines. I love you DFS, keep singing! Xxx