After warming up the joints to Fats Waller’s ‘Numb Fumblin’, we filled the lungs and used the muscles to power up the voices for good, resonant tone in The Waterwheel.
Moving on to a fresh key, faster pace and Scottish setting, we revisited Air fal al al o, with its lively melody and beautiful long phrases.
To our delight, Mairi treated us to the Gaelic version, which led to a discussion and many questions about ‘mouth music’. As a result, Mairi sang a fine example of it for us - an inspiration in rhythm and melody.
We continue to practise our xylophone technique, now reading as well as memorising the music. We are improving, but if numb fumblin is what Fats calls his playing, I don’t know what we should call ours!
