24 November 2022

With two weeks to our concerts, instead of three, we panicked. Then hummed you raise me up to warm up, and Hark The Herald for a second warm up after our notices. 

Friday 9th we are booked for the royal at 7 - 7.30pm. 

Dress code is same for all concerts, bright or choir tops with black bottoms. Tinsel optional. 

Hark The Herald was a little quite. Feeling low in number we needed encouragement from the choir master to sing out. Second run through and we nailed it. 

With songs in order again, we sang O Holy Night with more confidence and volume. Ho Oh Lee Ee night. Over the top annunciation is a must. 

Carol of the Bells a capela as usual. 

Good King Wenceslas fell into line, with only 2 gents in attendance tonight. 

See Amid The Winter Snow has a first verse that makes me think of childhood roast dinners. The tender lamb … 

Merry Christmas Everybody will be a fun ending to the solo and duo section. 

So for a break in festive numbers we listened to Because We Believe which will can sing at Easter. 

Then back to Christmas, Rocking Around The Christmas Tree because concert in two weeks time! Don’t panic! 

Such fun singing The Holy And The Ivy. We don’t know what happened but following a few hiccups we peaked. Let’s just leave it there…

White Christmas crooned it’s way into the room. And only time to squeeze in O Come All Ye faithful and Fairy Tale. 

Phew. I really do feel like I’ve been jogging. Well sung all of you that made it in tonight, and well done to you at home catching up with the blog and drop box. Last practice next week xxx

17 November 2022

Ed began by announcing that tonight’s songs would be practiced in the the order that we will perform them in. So I’d better be extra on-the-ball tonight, thought I. Then I dropped my blogging phone and slidden my gloves across the room picking up my folder. Great start. 

We warmed up. I tried to sing my very bestest, but there are notes where I think they will help us. 

Today Ed learned that next week, the last week in November is the worst week for behaviour in schools. 

Concert Order 

From 7pm to about 8.05pm. 

Hark the herald 

O holy night 

   We had some coaching as we played with volumes and really good diction and remembering the big finish ho-oh-oh-ly night. 

Carol of the Bells 

   Stop frowning down and your lyrics and remember to look up. Well. It’s getting there …

Good king W

See Amid the winter snow 

   As with the last song, the gents, though they be but few, did us proud. Ed was impressed that we had really improved since the first song and felt a little emotional. 

Merry Christmas everybody 

*Solos, duos and trios etc from 7.20 to about 7.40*

Rocking around the Xmas tree 

The holly and the Ivy 

White Christmas 

Walking in a winter wonderland 

O come all ye faithful 

Fairy tail of New York. 

Then it was time to run through these in order! Go! We went home knowing we had done well. 

10 November 2022

We warmed up La-la-la-la and Dum-dum-Diddley before our festive treats. No. Not mince pies. We had a play at sirens before discussing something secret. Hehe. Christmas concerts of course … see last week for information. 

Hark the Herald kicks off rehearsal tonight. At the concert the audience will be invited to sing with us when we start the performance with this song. The descant part is played by a trumpet.

Link to drop box here - https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/lzxyga8qb6hhwjaemsvqi/h?dl=0&rlkey=ufd4pdqsmtf2arv5pz92f7xbp&fbclid=IwAR0LamYzJzL7UaW6FCbhN5Yc5o2fN6xBIS_QNGfvHlKuQ7ex3DRnkbiePm4

Roll your rrrrrrrrs during O Holy Night - yes, all of them. Please do keep your mouths open wide for the word night especially. 

We split into 1s and 2s for Carol of the Bells. The bell sound (dong) should be made mainly from the nose. On the second run through we stayed in tune because we all remembered to support the high notes. 

See Amid The Winter Snow was next, giving the men time to shine, in that awesome chorus. Don’t forget the special ending. Let’s revisit that next week. 

We were 1s, 2s and 3s for The Holly and Ivy. We lost part 2s at one point. They seem to be a little quiet, so we swapped about a bit … 

We went Rocking Around The Christmas because Ed said it would already be ready great. 

Next a former solo of mine, Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas. Finally settled in the key of G. 

Then we were Dreaming Of A White Christmas is another one we can already sing well. 

And a descant for O Come All Ye Faithful if anyones up for it? For the finale of course, fairytale Of New York. 

Great work, choir! Keep it up and remember to read this blog. It’s full of top tips and no wrong dongs … xxx

3 November 2022

‘Merry Christmas!’ Ed balled as we commenced our festive half of the autumn term.  People grabbed booklets from the back of the hall. We are having 4 concerts on the books 7 and 8 for our choir concerts, 11 for The Christmas Cracker and finally a smaller number of us for the Chamber of Commerce dinner dance on Friday 9 ballroom, Royal Hotel. They actually only asked for 12 of us but this isn’t confirmed as yet. We don’t normally restrict numbers but they are willing to make a generous donation to our charity. Watch this space! 

We warmed up humming You Raise Me Up because Ed said we had 15 songs to squeeze in! 

Once In Royal David’s City requires support for those high notes so we don’t go flat. Ed demonstrated by not playing the piano for the first verse. 

O Holy Night made good use of a backing track on Ed’s phone. This song calls for great precision, especially when it comes to ssss and t’s. Ed sat at the piano. Beware spoonerism in the opening. 

O Come O Come Emmanuel rang out in the hall. I hope Liz in the office is feeling the festive vibe. But it’s a little weighty and might not make the the cut. 

Hark how the bells lead to a slip, 1s and 2s … Ed guided us through both parts. Don’t forget we have 4 rehearsals. We will be fine. 

Good King Wenceslas blasted from the speakers. Too much Gain. 

See Amid The Winter Snow is lovely. Ed recapped the mens part, covering the first two lines of the course. Can you reach that dramatic last note.

The fun really began at The Holly And The Ivy and we took our places. Or numbers. Rife disobedience ensued. But the result was better than Ed expected. 

Winter wonderland we know very well. Then we jumped to Rocking Around The Christmas Tree. 

Back to Hark The Herald. Know the descant part? Go for it! 

Are You Hanging Up A Stocking on your wall? No me either. One, it’s too early, and two, my ferrets would pull it down and hide it behind the sofa. 

Wow, Happy Christmas and keep singing xxx

20 October 2022

We almost had a dead piano tonight, and had Peter and Ed discussed the possibility of a replacement. This must have upset the piano just enough to get it working again. Just in time for Ed to announce it’s untimely demise. 

That meant we could warm up as usual. Although Ed did set aside the keyboard for some fun vocal-exercises, and a dum-dum-fiddle. 

We were introduced to Because We Believe and listened to it on Ed’s IPad, then to him singing it at the happily resurrected piano. Some of us joined in. Isn’t it lovely? 

But we have all been practicing being Barry Gibb for How Deep Is Your Love and I think we nailed it, making Ed laugh in pure delight as our over-vibrato filled the hall. Oh my. Does anybody read this and gain any insight? I do hope so. Especially if you didn’t come this week. This entire blog is your half term homework. Don’t come next week. 

We practiced the harmony parts then performed it with the backing track. We were allowed to congratulate ourselves heartily, then those who didn’t have one ordered a Christmas booklet from Ed. 

The piano was tinkered with so we could sing The Sound Of Silence. The last verse still has too many words that don’t want to fit. Ed wanted more harmony people, so demonstrated it again. 

We had a little bash at The Greatest Showman Medley and a stamp practice. Then stood to perform, keeping going even when the backing track gave up, and Siri called, I’m sorry! 

Finally The Wellerman filled the hall HUH and then it was time to go home, for sugar and tea and run. 

Well done and keeeeep singing all half term xxx

13 October 2022

With oodles of songs to get through we dived into a warm up. Have you got The Christmas Collection 2019 tucked away safely at home? Do have a look because next week you can order a set of you need one. 

We all ruffled through our pages to find Ave Verum Corpus. It went so well when we first sang it that I almost forgot to blog. I think I ran out of puff out on the last line. Ed sang out each of the parts in turn paying more attention to the second half. 

Time for a calypso so Ed whipped out the recording of the song for us to sing along to, then jumped behind the piano for a go without John. He also demonstrated the harmony for the chorus. 

The piano was all pitched transposed so that we could attempt The Sound Of Silence which was interesting. Ed wanted a lot more harmony. Harmony people sang with Ed to practice. 

Some choir members think we have sung How Deep Is Your Love some time ago but some of us only remember The First Of May. We practiced out Bee Gee impressions for the opening bars. The harmony parts needed some work. 

We dived into The Wellerman minus Scottish accents. There was a request to stand for this one, and we stayed stood to sing The Greatest Showman. 

All too soon it was time to go home to bed, well done DFS  Cat xxx

6 October 2022

Here for anyone not on Facebook is our Drop Box Link - 

Our Drop Box Link

Our Christmas concerts are booked for the 7th and 8th in our respective churches and a Christmas Cracker on the 11th of December. I’m sure we can look forward to learning Christmas Medley songs soon. After these fabulous facts we warmed up. 

Ave Verum Corpus to begin with, listening to Kings College acing it. Nothing like a bit of Mozart to get the party started. It actually made me fancy a few Christmas carols. Alexa? 

We have a show of hands for our preferred parts. This being a four part adventure. Ed sat at the piano and sang the alto part. Is there anyone else who wonders what they should be doing when? Takes me back to my days with Inverness Choral Society and I couldn’t quite read dots then either! 

Remember that our drop box has links to recordings of the parts, if you want to check those out this week. Ed felt like our song was coming together and reminded us to sing VERgin not virgin. 

Next, before explaining why he wants us to sing it, we tackled Four Chords. I have been playing this on my iPad while I cook dinner. It was actually mooted as a way to learn some new songs. So he said. There are a lot we don’t know in this entity that is Four Chords. There are even longer versions on YouTube btw. 

And How Deep Is Your Love? Check out Jacob Collier teaching this on YouTube. Lesley is going to ask Alexa. It sounded lovely. Ed woke up the iPad to conduct from the front. 

When first released The Sound Of Silence it flopped. Only when remixed and revamped did it do any good and Paul Simon and Fart Carbuncle went on to do great things. 

Ed sat at the piano to run through the harmony. And so we sang. Lovely lovely and jolly good. 

Time for Calypso which I also enjoyed in my kitchen this last week. It pairs perfectly with The Wellerman. We had a listen to that and a sing along with it. Must add it to your homework this week! 

At almost 8.30 there was enough time to squeeze in our The Greatest Showman and we stood to perform. 

Well done DFS. It’s not your awesomeness that makes me love you.  Cat xxx 

29 September 2022

The one where Jack popped back! Which was nice. He took the mic for a proper goodbye, after serving 10 years at DFS. We should be thanking him but he thanked us and shared some of his best memories. We gave him a huge round of applause. 

Jenny proposed a charity for us to support this year, who provide mental health support for young people. We usually have a vote but there’s really no need this year. We are all behind the choice of supporting WillDoes https://www.willdoes.co.uk/. 

We had a warm up then had a listen and sing along with 4 Chords a choral Medley and I could feel the concentration in the room. 300 songs later they were done. Ed sat at the piano to break it down. He said we did well, anyway. 

Our The Greatest Showman Medley was created by our choirmaster just for us. That’s why it’s so good. We tried very hard to get our stomps in the right place, and then had a sing through with the piano. Then it was time to break it down, especially working out some lovely overlapping to make us sound like a real choir. We stood to perform! 

The Sound of Silence has a sweet harmony. How lovely we all sounded. Ed played with the key a bit. 

Next we had John Denver sing Calypso to us. Sounds like a Disney movie that ought to be made I think.

Wow DFS you worked very hard tonight, go and have a biscuit xx