THE TIN WHISTLE FOR THE FAIR LADY

For various reasons we were seven members short today (Majorca calls at this time of year); our warm up song The Waterwheel sounded secure if not strong, but the instrumental ensemble this morning shone.
White Swans was played by instruments, then sung as 4 part round and finished with a repeat of the instrumental section.
We continued, giving Dance to your Daddy the same treatment, with a 3 part ostinato in the instrumental part.
Finally coming on to the Orff arrangement of The Fair Lady, we played 3 instrumental parts aided by Jim Booth on the whistle, all of which accompanied the song, a beautiful old Scots tune in the dorian mode.
Next week we'll add the drum and cymbal.
Reminder: 6th May is also a drumming day with visiting tutor. professional percussionist, Signy Jakobsdottir.

MOVING AROUND TO BACH AND SINGING A 4 PART ROUND.

We warmed up to Bach's Concerto in A for oboe d'amore this morning and after the hilarity which accompanied our learning the movements, we followed on in silence, enjoying the music.
Returning to "White Swans", with some concentrated effort we made a good sound in 4 part harmony, and after the coffee break we played the melody on the xylophones, going on to instrumental accompaniment and improvised interludes.
We ended the morning by re-learning the words and tune of the old Edinburgh song about the ghost of Mary Queen of Scots, "The Fair Lady" and made a start on Carl Orff's instrumental arrangement for it.
As the Centre cafe staff are increasingly curious about our group, perhaps we'll invite them downstairs next week to hear a song or two _ before the coffee break, of course


Swan Lake HD from Jo Potts on Vimeo.

Thought you all might all like this one --

We Swan Around !!

Make a slideshow - it's easy!

It's a fitting round for our group as we sing every week watching these graceful birds do the rounds of the C.E. Centre pond. “White swans go sailing along” , a 4 part round, comes out in beautiful harmonies which sounded good this morning and got us off to a good start.
On picking up the beaters for the 3 ostinatos of Dance to your Daddy, it sounded as if all the practice we’ve been doing this year is beginning to pay off since everyone played confidetly and what’s more, kept time together, even when we added the song. We missed our coffee in the cafe this morning since it was closed for spring break, but we were delighted in our interval with stories from Irene’s granddaughter Dawn about her recent trip to Bangladesh. (Dawn played and sang well too!)
No meeting next week since I’ll be visiting family in Iceland but I look forward to more goodmusic making on 22nd April