Tuesday 30 March 2010

OUR FOURTH ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING.

Coming into our fifth year, it's a good time to reflect on how far we've come from when we started _ a group of music enthusiasts, eager to sing, explore instrumental playing and find a way of making music together.

In the course of our meeting we did just that, remembering how hard we found it to hold a part in a round and keep in time with each other when playing an instrumental piece. We still have difficulties of course, but my goodness how we've improved and remarkable now how we approach a new piece with a much more confident attitude. Singing alone was also a complete 'no-no' but remarkable how the good atmosphere within our group has encouraged all of us to have a go.

Hockets, each individual singing a word or phrase of a song in turn round the circle, are now OK and a good way of raising the level of alertness in everyone.

For me, it's been so good to work with people who are prepared to go out of their 'comfort zone' musically and try a new skill, such as playing the xylophones, drumming, improvising vocally and on an instrument. Also, it generates a lot of fun as we don't take ourselves too seriously. 
So musically we're on a good track and we decided to enhance our progress by using what money we can afford to bring in occasional visiting tutors, such as drumming and voice tutors.

We're back on 20th April for our summer session which runs till 18th May.

HAPPY EASTER TO ALL.

Tuesday 23 March 2010

WE DANCE FOR JULIAN

Fats Waller's 'Numb Fumblin' was our opening music today _ the slow stride piano a perfect pace for our focus on posture, warming up movements and breathing awareness.
The voice warm up was next and and after that we were ready to give a full sound in SENJUA, in three parts.


PEACE, SALAAM, SHALOM, handed to me by a member who had carefully written down the music after hearing it sung en masse at a peace demonstration, is a beautiful round with a gently flowing 6/8 pulse which we picked up very quickly and enjoyed singing, hearing the sound of the whole group. We'll get the full effect next week when we'll do it as a round.


Moving on to concentrate on our individual voices, we sat down to sing LOVE IS COME AGAIN, a French hymn for Easter arranged by Martin Shaw. Its steady unhurried notes and open vowels give the opportunity to think about the sound we make with our own voices and to be conscious of that open throat and relaxed jaw, as well, of course, as enjoying the text and the melody.


On the instruments we returned to 'Carillon' in Carl Orff's arrangement, making a lovely sound with the four parts and those with good memories singing along.
Finally, directed by Diana, we achieved that unity of music and movement, joining in a circle dance while singing JULIAN OF NORWICH _ a good ending to our session on a fine spring morning.

Tuesday 9 March 2010

HARMONIES AND CHIMES


A good warm up of breathing exercises and scales prepared us for the long sweeping phrases of AND THE NIGHT SHALL BE FILLED WITH MUSIC which is now beginning to sound more fluid and delicate as we gain confidence. We sang it today as a two part round but the full effect of the harmonies will come when we sing in three parts.

BEAUTIFUL AFRICA is a great sing but really needs the alto harmony in the chorus. We did learn this some time ago and returned to it this morning, spending some time consolidating what some remembered from the past and giving new members a chance to learn it. We'll return to it next week.

The Sydney Carter song JULIAN OF NORWICH has a chiming accompaniment on glockenspiels which Rosemary and Carol learned quickly while we sang through the verses for the benefit of those who missed it last week. It sounded good but could take another two instruments which we'll add next week.

Remarking on how with all the coughing and tiredness at this time of year, we all really need a week in Majorca, the morning's music certainly helped by getting our energy flowing and we ended, as last week, with SPRING, SPRING, SPRING!

Tuesday 2 March 2010

WE DO SPRING

It was so good to be back, and many thanks to all for keeping things going in such an inspired way while I was in quarantine.

Our warm up this morning was a revival of the Zulu song of welcome, SENJUA and I was glad to hear that many people remembered the three part harmony, even from quite some time ago, making the full sound that is so attractive in African songs.

Then taking our cue from the brilliantly sunny morning, we learned the Sydney Carters hymn to spring from 1981 JULIAN OF NORWICH, the theme of which is 'All shall be well'. With its references to bells, this song will be effective with accompaniment from our glockenspiels.
As I explained this morning, in our group we enjoy songs that are musically interesting without being too 'wordy' but at this time of year there's one song that's just irresistible because of its playful text, full of joyful rhymes _ from the musical Seven Brides for Seven Brothers -- SPRING, SPRING, SPRING. We took some time to read through the three verses before we sang it and I'll be surprised if there are not a few sore jaws tomorrow!

After the break we had a good practice on the instruments, two new members catching on surprisingly well and getting the idea of using both hands to play up and down the scales. We will keep this up and be well prepared when we next start a new Orff piece.