AN AFRICA SEASON

Perhaps it helps, in the dark cold days of January, to think of sunny Africa and for the past weeks we've been enjoying the energetic rhythms and warm harmonies of some African songs.

A Call and Response song is always a stimulating way to warm up the voices at the start of our mornings and we've been learning KYE KYE KULE, a traditional song from Ghana.
 Following on after that we come together in the four part harmony of the Zulu song HAMBA NATHI. 

Our bass section is particularly strong just now and it seems to give this song a real African flavour. Remembering that it was used on the soundtrack of the film INVICTUS, about how the poem of this name inspired Nelson Mandela during the years of his confinement on Robben Island, we then sang MANDELA DANCED written by Ian Davison about Mandela's visit to Glasgow in 1993.

TEN THOUSAND MILES, with its harmonies arranged by Alison Burns, now comes across beautifully, and secure now in the four parts, our next challenge is to memorise the words.

We are almost word perfect from memory with SAE WILL WE YET, a favourite with many of us which is now sounding really convincing and we ended the morning with another Alison Burns song, ALWAYS THE SINGING.

A WONDERFUL DAY

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