GOOD TO BE BACK

After our three month recess, it was good to meet up again. We were all conscious of feeling the voices a bit rusty but it's wonderful how the group feeling takes over and the energy builds.
Our springboard for loosening up the limbs, the back, the head, in fact the whole body, with easy movements while concentrating on deep breathing, was a vocal piece by Grassroots from Zimbabwe, singing in typical warm, rhythmic, repetitive and mesmeric style.
We continued after that with some rhythmic clapping, making a variety of vocal sounds in the gaps between claps. This loosened up the face muscles and we began to use our voices with some abandon.
Scales then focused us on the quality of our own voices, concentrating on accurate pitch and good sound.

EARLY IN THE MORNING is our new vocal warm up song.
The words made us laugh and we felt like moving to its funky rhythm.

Early in the morning
When I wake up
Early in the morning
When I wake up
I brush my teeth,
I eat my bread,
I drink my coffee and go back to bed,
Early in the morning
Early in the morning.

Building on the good sounds of the warm up, we then learned a short song which has 3 parts in harmony, GAUDEAMUS HODIE.
Our 2 bass singers readily picked up their part and we sang well together, leaving the third part to be added next week.
Due to a problem with keys, our instruments remained locked up today, so after a chatty coffee break, we finished the morning with ALWAYS THE SINGING and BRAND NEW DAY.