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| Alison Burns (Front Row RHS) with the Enjoy Music Group - Click to enlarge |
It was a treat for me today to take a back seat and hand over to ALISON BURNS, song maker, music educator, community choir and workshop leader. Our whole group benefited hugely from this exciting day.
With her gentle encouraging manner and deep knowledge of her material, she had us in the first half hour singing in four part harmony, a lovely arrangement of PACHELBEL'S CANON and since we only had to think about one word of text, ALLELUIA, we could enjoy the full impact of the harmonies as the four parts intermingled.
We moved on to a different style of singing in I'LL FLY AWAY, one of the songs from the film O BROTHER WHERE ART THOU? and again we were able, in a call and response way, to bring four parts together, at the same time trying to sing in that rhythmical style of the American spiritual.
Our lunch in the Centre cafe was a good social occasion for our group as we enjoyed the food, fresh and appetising, laid on by Anne Hunter and her staff. We always appreciate being able to take our morning coffee there but that's such a short time and it felt good to have more time to talk.
The afternoon session began by exploring the DRONE, which exists in much traditional music around the world and how it feels to hold a drone as well as sing over it. We then experimented with harmony, singing different intervals together to feel the quality of the various groupings of notes. After this, we could savour fully the harmonies and dissonances of the African song we learned, with its slow, reverential first part followed by a joyful chorus.
To finish off the session we sang ALWAYS THE SINGING - Click on the link
Everyone agreed that Alison's day was a great success and there was an immediate call to have her do a return visit. To read more about Alison click here to go to her Website
