Another Cancellation- Tuesday, February 18th

 

YRCC 2025 Rehearsal Review February 11th

What an excellent rehearsal! I had several moments of absolute bliss. The harmonies, the songs, the people... bliss.

The altos met at 6:30 and Lauren and Donna helped them out with tricky spots in a number of songs, including looking ahead to Song for the Mira and Imagine, which was impressive.

We had a brief warm-up, just getting kinks out, relaxing and stretching our instruments.

1. Blue Skies: We have snaps, jazz hands, and there are two solos. We discovered that we'd been singing bar 22 wrong all these years. We now have recordings of parts, so if you sing alto, tenor, or bass (part ll), please review "shining so bright" at bar 22. Also, a number of  part ll people forgot about the last blue skies; landing on skies at bar 73 is different. I'm hoping to have everyone snap at the beginning, not just the sopranos. It should be possible. You can snap and sing, right? There is no page turn there. 

2. We Rise Again: We have a soloist! Melinda can do it, and does it well. I would love to have a back-up, so please give it a try and let me know. We have stressed over this song in the past, and I don't want to stress over it. It's always been excellent, even though it's never been perfect. There are all those oohs, and then the first chorus is especially difficult for the tenors and basses. We might try to do that first chorus as written, but we might not. When everyone except the first sopranos is on the melody, it's powerful. We'll work on the mm-ooh-ahhhs. They're cool. The tenors move a lot, down to the bass line whenever that divides, and back up to the tenor clef/treble clef an octave down. Second sopranos are on the alto line singing the melody most of the time (the chorus, and page 9-bar 61. At bar 62, last system on page 12, there's a little bit of shuffling for the big ending. But, again, don't stress it. It's big and loud and awesome, always excellent, even when it's not perfect.

3. Imagine: We have an option to have 2 short solos at the beginning. I'm not sure if we will. I like that this arrangement gives everyone the opportunity to sing the song with good strong and simple harmonies. There are a few bars that have rhythms we'll need to work on. We all sight-read through the whole thing, and it's already sounding good.

4. On Eagle's Wings: We worked on all the different "make you to shine like the sun" sections. They're so good! We are excellent on the choruses and the ending now. Even though we haven't spent time on the rest, it's also excellent. This song is beautiful. You sound fantastic.

5. Shenandoah: Same thing here. We haven't worked on this, except for the oohs at the beginning, but people remember it, and new folk are following or studying or just amazing, and it's really very beautiful.

6. Song for The Mira: Such a pretty song! We only had 10 minutes, but we went over the parts on pages 8-11 where the choir sings the chorus and the last verse in SATB.  We have recordings if you want to review that at home. Again, the new folk are excellent at following or they're studying or just amazing. I was impressed. Reminder: we're not going to learn the oohs. Just like Song for a Winter's Night, it's going to be a solo piece with the choir coming in at the end. It worked well and I liked the way the focus is on the soloist and their words. Here, we have more solos and very good lyrics to listen to. 

At break time, Juergen treated us to a German love song, as a Valentine's Day gift. Will you be singing a love song to your sweethearts? 

Next Week: Tuesday, February 18

6:30 Anthem Small Group (I would love to see 12 or more people in this group)

• Canon of Joy
• Imagine
• Shenandoah
• Song for the Mira
• Wonderful World
• Hallelujah/You'll Never Walk Alone

YRCC 2025 Rehearsal Review February 4th

 My birthday was yesterday, and it was wonderful. The joy started the evening before, Feb. 4th, at choir. My beautiful choir sang Happy Birthday, and it is a little thing but it felt really special. Also, the awesome way you sang You'll Never Walk Alone was so powerful, I was high for hours. I love my choir!

The small group singing Together Wherever We Go met at 6:30, and they were amazing! We created a little choreography for it, and it's sweet!

We had a brief warm-up and then sang O Canada. O Canada, we stand on guard for thee. We love being Canadian and we are singing quite a few Canadian songs, as we always do. We represent our community, York Region; something I am always mindful of.We added our national anthem to our binders because we need to sing it more often.

1. All the Little Rivers of Canada is one of our obviously Canadian songs. It's pretty hard but we're making good progress. We learned sections, A, B, and C. So now we can sing the whole thing except for section E, which is a cappella, and a little bit of F where it's special. If you feel like you want to work on this song, we have recordings on the website. Please make good use of them. Make sure you're accenting the word HEY, and then ride and rapids in C/F. It's very effective. Be very dramatic with the dynamics in G/E, the chorus which we learned last week. Coppermine Winnipeg Porcupine is very loud and then suddenly you're very soft for Saskatchewan Columbia. It should feel to the audience that they're riding waves up, up, up and then whoosh! down, then up, up, up agian. 

2. Canon of Joy is not difficult. The challenge for me is getting the right tempo that's not too slow for the Canon and not to fast for the Ode to Joy. The challenge for you is turning the pages (repeat page 5, then DS al Coda and repeat page 5 again, skip to page 8 for the Coda/ending), and not getting bored with your Canon notes. If you get bored, you'll sound sloppy and the opposite of joyful. Try to put some emphasis on beat one every time, so you kind of bounce on the J of joy. We spent some time on page 7 where everyone has the Beethoven. 

3. Song for the Mira is more Canadian content. We will have up to 6 soloists. We're going to omit the oohs, even though they're pretty. We're going to have a flautist play with us, because it's sooo prettty and it will add an element of surprise for the audience, a lovely special sound. We didn't start learning the song, but just looked at what to expect. There is one chorus and one verse in 4 parts, and the rest is solos. However, we might add some choir bits. If you want to get a head start learning this, you can use the recordings on the website. 

4. Hockey Song is soooo Canadian, and our audience will love it. We learned parts, but don't stress over it. (If you must stress, there are recordings of all the parts on the website that you can study) The chorus is so powerful that the rest is more about the words. We'll make sure that the audience hears those names and we'll try to enunciate well throughout. Remember to watch in between the sections for entries. Sometimes, you'll need to wait a little longer. You'll see on page 4, there's a note for the accompanist "vamp if necessary".  I found this definition: "A vamp is a section of music that is repeated several times while dialogue or onstage action occurs. It is usually directed by the conductor's cue." Theatre. You hear choral vamps a lot in gospel music, where the worship leader/soloist tells a story while the choir repeats a short phrase, and sometimes a bridge in a song is a vamp of a phrase, sometimes sung in changing keys that lead to the final chorus or a coda. I love vamps. You'll sometimes hear me saying, "We'll repeat that as often as it feels good; just watch."

5. You'll Never Walk Alone was fantastic! It's one of our most powerful songs. We could perform it today, it's so good. If you haven't sung it with us before, you might want to listen to the recordings on the website. 

We talked about Bill's funeral. We have a tentative date of May 4th, the Sunday after our concert. We are going to sing You Raise Me Up and Anthem, from Chess. There is a sign-up in Events for the Small Group Anthem.

Next week, Tuesday, February 11th

6:30 Alto Sectional: your chance to do extra review of your parts by yourselves

• Blue Skies
• Imagine
• On Eagles Wings
• Shenandoah
• Song for the Mira
• We Rise Again

My Fundraising Thing: CNOY the coldest night of the year

 

We Walk February 22, 2025!

The Coldest Night of the Year #CNOY is a winterrific family-friendly fundraising walk in support of local charities. Let’s change the tune for people experiencing hurt, hunger, and homelessness... because it’s cold out there.

I've been participating in this walk since 2017. I have quite a collection of toques. Every Year there's a different toque that you can get if you raise $150 or more. (see below)

It's cold out there. Again this February, together with thousands of Canadians across the country, I'll be walking and fundraising to support people and families experiencing hurt, hunger, and homelessness in my community.

In Newmarket, we support Inn From The Cold.

 "Inn From the Cold collaborates with individuals experiencing homelessness, supporting them on their path to stability through a comprehensive array of services and programs that include daily drop-in facilities, emergency housing/shelter, employment social enterprises, transitional housing, and permanent housing solutions. A continuum of services from basic needs to securing housing assists our clients on their journey to wellness and self-sufficiency."

Here is something you can do about homelessness. Help me fundraise, or come and walk with me.

Here's a link to my fundraising page.

https://walk.w-ith.me/Renate

Please, give generously by clicking the "Donate Now" button on my page. Thanks!

.

TONIGHT CANCELLED -Tuesday, January 28th, 2025

 

It was cool! YRCC at Ray Twinney on Centre Ice

Sunday, January 26th, 2025

We had such a cool experience, singing O Canada on centre ice at a hocky game at Ray Twinney in Newmarket! Whooooo!

There's a nice picture of us by Greg King of Newmarket Today, see below. Here's a link to the article.

There's also a little video that captures the moment I cut off the audience at the end of O Canada, part of a video montage posted by the Toronto Jr. A Canadiens on Instagram.

YRCC 2025 Rehearsal Review January 21

Wow! I'm very late with my rehearsal review. I do apologize. 

We had a very productive rehearsal, even though we had to quickly add O Canada, with sheet music on our phones. We're singing O Canada at a hockey game at Ray Twinney on Sunday. It's a promotional and fundraising game called "The battle of Yonge Street" The Ontario Junior Hockey League is hoping that Newmarket will be home to one of their teams. The Aurora Tigers will play the Toronto Jr. Canadiens. Sopranos from Denison High School will join us as will Marianne, their teacher, who sang with us at our rehearsal. I'm told she has a beautiful voice. The altos are happy she's joining them to sing O Canada on Sunday. She sings with a choir in Toronto (can't remember which one). 

Read More Here

It will be good to have O Canada in our binders. I think we should keep it and sing it from time to time to remember to stand on guard for our beautiful nation. 

1. Wonderful World was our warm-up song. We did the briefest warm-up because we took a long time to get started.

2. O Canada. Tenors, Basses, and Altos, please practise with the recordings on the website. Sopranos have the melody throughout. Let's see if a big ending sounds good when we rehearse on Sunday. 

3. Shenandoah: We started at the very beginning, a very good place to start. We learned our ooohs, and then we sang through sight-reading.

4. All the Little Rivers of Canada: We learned the chorus at section D. 

5. Hockey Song: We learned the chorus at section B, and sang every chorus in the song, and then sang the ending. 

6. On Eagles Wings: We also learned the chorus and sang every chorus in the song. We stared by looking at the chorus at 43 and 61 where one group sings the chorus and the other sings long notes in harmony. Tenors and Basses, be sure not to go straight to the melody note when you turn the page after "And he will raise you...", on page 60. Make yourself a note that it's a high harmony note. We'll have to review the "Make you to shine like the sun" parts next time.

7. Hallelujah: We spent a moment on all the parts right after the first solo (we're going to sing it with solos this year- let me know if you'd like to sing one of them). "It goes like this" remember, is different form the versions on the radio. And, the sopranos do not have the melody. Tenors have the melody here. We'll need to sing a little softer so that we can hear them. 

8. You Raise Me Up: We're going to sing this with a solo at the beginning too. Stanley did it for us, and he's done it before. If you'd like to be considered to sing it, let me know. 

Next Tuesday, January 28th:

• 6:30 Small Group Together Wherever We Go (Sopranos and Altos) Please sign up on the website. I'd like to see at least 6 women in this group and up to 12. 
• All the Little Rivers of Canada
• Canon of Joy
• Hockey Song
• On Eagles Wings
• Song for the Mira
• You'll Never Walk Alone

YRCC Performing O Canada Jan. 26 at Newmarket JHL Hockey Game

Tomorrow,  Sunday, January 26th, we meet at 3:30 inside the main entrance to find our rehearsal spot at the Ray Twinney Recreation Centre. 

You'll be wearing your white top and black bottoms with your red scarf or tie. You'll want to have sturdy (black) shoes or boots. You'll want to have a layer on top, a black jacket or cardigan that you can open up or take off when we sing. 

You will get your O Canada sheet music to put into your binder.

You will take a pencil and cross out "our sons" and write in OF US. We will sing:

True patriot love in all of us command.

We will rehearse with the 5 sopranos from Denison High School with their teacher Marianne who has agreed to sing with the altos.

We will be on centre ice at 4:25 singing the National Anthem, and the game starts at 4:30. So, you'll be on your way home or into the audience pretty quickly. 

Have fun!

YRCC first 2025 Rehearsal Review January 14

It's my first rehearsal review of 2025! This is our 30th Anniversary year! 

The YRCC was founded in 1995 as an inclusive alternative to the York Regional Police Male Chorus. You can see quite a bit of our history on the page on the website called Time Capsule. (Click that. It's a link.) It's found on the main/top menu right before the Photo Gallery. The  Photo Gallery is also a fun walk down memory lane. Those pages are available without needing to log in, so you can share them with friends and family. 

Tuesday's rehearsal was also our "festive party" since we didn't have time to celebrate the holidays together before the new year. Happy New Year, Everyone! We had a variety of sweet and salty snacks and some refreshing beverages (no red beer, or any other kind, though) while we caught up with our choir friends, chatting up a storm above the loud party music. 

We didn't do any learning, but sang through a lot of our music, almost all of it, just sitting and singing. We talked about the songs a little and why they're on the list. Mostly, I chose songs that you choristers identified as your favourites. And, I chose songs for their historical importance (choir history, that is) and to create variety in the program. As the 30th anniversary celebration theme, I want to focus on what the choir means to us choir members: joy, escape, friendship, community, contributing/volunteering, pride and purpose, etc. When you are part of our choir, the choir will be a part of you for good, forever.

Here's what we sang:

1. Halelujah
2. Blue Skies
3. All the Little Rivers of Canada
4. Canon of Joy
5. Monday, Monday
6. Shenandoah
7. On Eagles Wings
8. Hockey Song
9. You Raise Me Up

Next week, we start learning and reviewing parts. If you want to get a head-start, you can go to the website and log in to see what recordings we have there, and I've got videos on my YouTube playlist for this season.

Next week, Tuesday, January 21st, we're going to sing:

• All the Little Rivers
• Hallelujah
• Hockey Song
• On Eagles Wings
• Shenandoah
• Wonderful World

Renate's YouTube Playlist for this YRCC season, Spring 2025

 I've started making a playlist every year so that you can find parts recordings or other choirs singing songs we want to sing, for inspiration and to help you learn the songs. 

This 2025 Spring Season is our 30th Anniversary season, so most recordings are of  the YRCC singing our songs, but there are also some parts recordings, and some other videos of our songs for inspiration. 

Renate's YouTube Playlist for this season.

There are some surprises, like this one. Enjoy!

 (I shed some tears, as you can imagine, seeing choristers who've left us.)

Start date for 2025: Tuesday, January 14th

 Just a quick note to remind you that we start next week.

Stay home and rest up. 

This season is going to be big: our 30th Anniversary!

30 Years of YRCC 1995-2025

YRCC PR Role Remains Open- Yours to Create

YRCC chorister, have you considered joining the executive/board? We meet infrequently but also communicate via email and in person at choir. When we meet, it's always a fun and positive experience with wine and snacks and great conversation. 

The PR position is open, and since it's been shared by the rest of us and now Robin (contacting seniors' homes), the responsibilities and tasks are flexible. You can bring your gifts and skills to us and we'll work with you. 

Basically, PR is keeping us connected to the community around us. The stuff that used to be done by a public and media relations person would have been contacting and booking venues for performances (and keeping track of them, details, contacts...) advertising (online and print media), and creating posters and programs and tickets for our concerts. 

Our advertising has been kept low-key for several years because we had a long waiting list for quite some time. And, we were happy to have only limited extra performances, outside of our 2 regular concerts. Our social media presence is primarily for the choristers. 

Lauren, Jane, and Robin and I are taking care of the all of that, but if we had a PR person, you could take over some or all of those tasks if you like. 

Ideally you would be a creative person with an interest in communications, social media, graphic design, and love the choir and singing with us. If you don't want to be a member of the board, that's okay, but we'd love to have a new friend at our meetings. 

I would love to see someone coordinate photography and videography at our performances. We had a member's family take videos of us at concerts for several years, but not for the past decade. Photos are kind of random. Whenever someone shares them, we post them. 

Photos and videos could be used on our website and I would love it if someone took over our Facebook page, and maybe added some other social media spaces for us. I'll keep my blog, but you could post on the website, a blog or vlog could be a cool addition. Our website will soon be getting a make-over, bringing it up-to-date for our current needs. You could help with that, and help with keeping it up. We use a website host that has support, and our website re-design will include some support as well. Whatever you know will help, and you will have opportunities to learn.

Let me know if you have time and interest in doing any of these things, and especially if you feel called to take on the PR position on the executive. 

Still Have Your YRCC Binder?!!! Hand it in asap.

 If you are still in possession of YRCC music and/or your binder, it's never too late to return it. 

Ideally, we get all the binders back with all the music in them at the end of each season. That way, the sheet music can be filed away for future use, and the next season's music can be prepared for each member before the first day of the season, in September or January. 

At the end of a season, there is usually a binder bin on somebody's front porch. This year, it's on Anne Copsey's porch in Newmarket. If you're a current member, you can find her address and phone number in the membership directory on our website. The members listing is only available after you log in, so make sure you have your password handy. 

If you are a past member, you can email yrccinfo@gmail.com and we'll help you out. 

We pay quite a bit of money to have legal copies of music (prints from purchased pdfs or printed scores from the publisher) for every chorister singing. Membership fees help to cover those expenses, but we want our fees to remain as low as possible. 

Thursday Nights On Hold for the Holidays

 

YRCC Post-concert Seniors' Tour Winter 2024

I'm so happy with yesterday's performance at the Renoir! The choir, a good number of you and a lovely balance of parts, sounded excellent, maybe better than on Sunday. I think we were all more relaxed and having fun, and it liberated your sound. Those seniors were very lucky. I love my choir!!!

I am so happy that I agreed that we could do Song for a Winter's Night with everyone singing the two solos. It was beautiful, not as dramatic/special as with the soloists, but it was lovely to have everyone singing. It sounded pretty and powerful, and seeing everyone enjoy that song was heartwarming. The seniors' visits do this for us; liberating and heartwarming.

As always, I had tons of wonderful praise from our audience, praise and gratitude. They loved being able to sing along! You could see it and feel it, but they also expressed it. 

Remaining Senoirs Tour: I need more sopranos, but more everything really, for the upcoming visits. Please sign up and come to sing. You will be so happy that you did! However, of you're sick, you can't come into a seniors' residence/care home. Don't feel bad, just let me know and I'll cancel your "registration" so someone else can take your place. It's fun and easy with lots of sing-along Christmas/winter/holiday songs. 

Binders: Don't forget that you need to return your binder and all music by December 20th. If you can't do that at a seniors' visit, you will need to drop it off at Anne Copsey's house: 402 Silken Laumann Dr., Newmarket. There's a bin by her front door.

YRCC 2024 Rehearsal Review November 19

This past rehearsal was unexpectedly upstairs in the sanctuary at Trinity Anglican in Aurora, where we have our concert! It was cool to be there and Donna got to play a nice real piano, but the pews are not the best place for a choir to sit. So, luckily, Melinda was there to help and together with the tenors and basses who were there early, we gathered the chairs that were here and there and set them up for rehearsing. We did have a chance to use the "stage" for a couple things, but we were still working on stuff quite a bit, so there weren't enough opportunities. Thank you to everyone who helped to move furniture and make the rehearsal work. We spent our time on cleaning things up and made excellent progress.

1. All That Holiday Stuff: Both soloists were excellent. Sopranos, make sure you're ready to come in on beat one of bar 54 at the page turn from 7 to 8. "All that stuff" is special there. Have fun with this song; it's meant to be light and a little wild. 

2. Your Song: Be sure to read the notes you've made about the tricky spots. We've gone over them so many times. You got it on the second try, but at the concert, there's only one shot. 

3. 12 Groovy Days: It's even more fun than All That Stuff, a little crazy and funny. The sign holders are: 8-track=Nadine, 2 shoes=Lynn, 3 headbands=Colby, 4 bugs=Robyn, 5 rings=Jane, , 6 suits=Blair, 7earrings=Peggy, 8 disco balls=Philip, 9 blankets=Kit, 10 doorbeads=Lauren, 11insence=Winston, 12 lamps=Kim. I thought that would be a big challenge, but they did great! It's going to be very effective. (wait 'till you see the actual signs Jane made, which I regrettably left at home). Watch me to stay in time at the Complete Disco section. 

4. Song for a Winter's Night: The soloists are excellent, and we did pretty well on page 9 and 10, but I think we'll have Donna play our parts as we sing instead of singing a cappella. 

5. Santa's Wish: This will be fine. It's a lovely story and it introduces our encore song, which is a huge theme in our concert. Our soloists will have the most work, but they're going to be great. 

6. I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing: I confused the poor Tenors. They stay on Part l with the Sopranos throughout on this song. No moving. Alto and Bass on Part ll. Remember the "that echos on" part is the Tenors on the first echo and Altos and Basses on the second one. Everyone sings the first one. 

Please keep checking the website and calendar for updates about where we're supposed to be and what time, and all that. We do announce things at rehearsals, but there's always a chance you'll miss that moment, busy talking or looking at your music. 

The concert order was emailed to everyone. If you missed that email, let me know. But, you can also pick up the order from the website. 

Next week, Tuesday, November 26 is our run-through rehearsal at Trinity Anglican in Aurora. We run through the whole concert to make sure the order works, to make sure we're standing, sitting, walking with ease and grace, and so that the sound guy, Doug, can figure out how to make us sound best. People who will be using microphones: soloists, small groups, duets, will be coming early-6:00 please. All others come at 7:00 and be prepared to stay late, as late as 10:00. This rehearsal prepares us for the show next Sunday, so we feel confident and look spiffy and polished. 

Put your binder in concert order, so that when you arrive at 7:00, you can get on stage and be prepared to sing one song after the other without searching for the music. It's got to be handy. You might want to put a flag/sticky note on the songs that come after we sit and stand up again, and after intermission. Make sure the flags will not be visible to the audience. 

Tuesday, November 19th 2024: YRCC Rehearsal Moved again

This is a good move and a small one. Trinty Anglican is moving us upstairs to the sanctuary.

That's where we will be performing, and where we're meeting next Tuesday as well!

I've sent an email to everyone. 

See you soon! 

YRCC 2024 Rehearsal Review November 12

The small groups made excellent progress but we ended up starting a little late. We did a very quick physical warm-up, seated, did a couple rollercoasters for a vocal warm-up and started on our work. We did a lot of work!

1. We Wish You a Merry Madrigal: we hadn't sung this in ages, but it was very good! We sang it with accompaniment and then without. We did it! I'd like us to perform this a cappella, to provide the audience with a very different sound. It's a cool little piece. We seem to have lost the parts recordings, so I've inserted by link a recording of a concert performance of ours. Remember to watch at the end, as usual. I conduct in two throuout  (cut time,   ), except for the 3/4 section which is one beat per bar, but the last bar is in four (common time  ). 

2. Peace on This Silent Night: Beautiful and pretty easy. It's in 2 parts. l is ST, ll is AB most of the time. At the beginning, Tenors start alone, then Sopranos are alone at 11. Everyone comes in at bar 23 with a crescendo to bar 27. At the quiet section at 67, S is alone on part l and everyone else sings part ll, Silent Night, softly. We'll ask the audience to sing along at 91, so Tenors have to join Sopranos on part l. I'll cut the audience off for our ending. 

3. Song for a Winter's Night: Lauren wasn't able to sing her solo, but luckily we have a back-up and Robyn did a great job. Bill was absent again, so I asked Philip to try the second solo, and I'm so glad I did. It was excellent. It's so good when someone with a voice I like is willing to sing a solo! Philip will be that soloist, with Bill as back-up. We worked on page 9 again, reviewed the Alto part again. Altos, you can look at your part with the recording on the website for homework. At the top of page 10, the oohs that we turned into words should be very soft and fade away. The Alto melody can be strong. I changed my mind about the last line. All Sopranos can sing that, softly, instead of having the soloists come back for that line. The last note is now an ooh instead of a mmm, and louder. We can try a sfz?

4. I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing: Easy-peasy Part l is Sopranos and Tenors, Part ll is Altos and Basses. We don't have parts recorded, but it's not difficult and many of you know it well. It will be our encore song. There's one part where Sopranos and Tenors divide, at bar 81, the echos part. Tenors have a 3 beat rest in bar 82, then come in with an echo. The Altos and Basses do that last echo. Watch out for dynamics, when to sing louder or softer. 

5. Santa's Wish: Every time I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing comes up in this song, sing melody. Disregard the notes with harmonies. Simple is good. All you need to do is pay attention to when you sing and when you don't sing. The Storyteller will be Melinda with Jane as back-up. Jane did an excellent job singing that solo! The Santa role will go to Colby with Winston as back-up. Winston did a fine job as Santa, very convincing. 

6. Grownup Christmas List: This is going to be Robyn's solo. Cathy is the back-up. Just remember that the solo goes all the way to the first chorus, and that first chorus is very soft. Then at the repeat, the Sopranos and Altos take that note "As" (as children we believe, second verse) and the Tenors and Basses come in on beat one with oohs. The second chorus can be louder, and every subsequent chorus is louder still. We reviewed the bottom of page 7, bars 40 and 41 (tricky) to the end. We have recordings of all parts on the website. 

7. Why We Sing: Cathy will be the soloist. Kim is back-up. Solo goes from the beginning up to the pick-up to 26 where everyone comes in quietly. This will be very dramatic. Just before this we sing When You Believe, with its big drama and big ending. Then we start this soft and clear so that they listen to the words, and we do a straight-up powerful version, with no descant, but a good loud ending that should give us a standing ovation. 

8. When You Believe: Sang it right through to the end but didn't have time to review any parts. It's going to be fantastic!

Wow, did we ever get a lot of work done! 

Next week, Tuesday, November 19th

6:30: Tenors and Basses sectional help 7:15 Christmas Lullaby

Next week is our last learning week. So, we'll get any last messy bits cleared up. Think about what you'd like to review. We will be meeting in the basement of Trinity Anglican in Aurora, where we have the concert, and where we were rehearsing while our room was being renovated. Take a look at the YRCC Calendar, it's been updated. Buy your tickets and pay for your poinsettias. Remember to get your friends and family booked, hook them in with a dinner invitation. They'll be full from the bake sale so it'll be a light dinner. 

• All That Holiday Stuff: Soloist is Melody, back-up is Kit (we need to give her a chance to rehearse it). 
• Your Song 
• Santa's Wish
• Twelve Groovy Days
• Christmas Auld Lang Syne?
• Star Canon??
• When You Believe?
• Song for a Winter's Night?

The week after next is our run-through rehearsal, where we sing the whole concert, small groups and soloists and everything, making sure we can enter and exit with grace and we know where to stand and sit. I'll  make sure you have the concert order before then. Beware: it has happened that when we go through the order, something doesn't work and I have to change the order. Don't panic. For the concert, you'll need to have your binders in concert order. And you will have the final order by the end of the run-through rehearsal. No scrambling to find the music on stage! Small groups and soloists come early to work with the stage and microphones.

NOV/DEC YRCC Schedule: Check our Calendar regularly

Please keep checking the YRCC Calendar for info on where you're supposed to be for the next little while. 

Here's a link

Here's a screen shot:

YRCC 2024 Rehearsal Review November 5

I’m feeling very positive about our upcoming concert. I have to admit, I was feeling a little frightened. I was worried that we wouldn’t have enough time to get all of our songs in shape for performing in less than a month. But, I’m happy with the progress we made yesterday. I was thinking I’d have to scrap Santa’s Wish in addition to For Unto Us. We still have work to do, for sure, but we’re going to be fine.

Partly, the time I spent with the Alto section in our early rehearsal starting at 6:30 helped me to feel better. Those Altos are truly a special group of singers. A little bit of focus on the tricky bits in When You Believe and Song for a Winter’s Night, Groovy Days, and Your Song made a huge difference. Well done, team!

Christmas Lullaby was also much better in our short rehearsal before choir. One thing that made a difference was standing up closer together. Also, having Donna there was a huge help. 

1. After a brief stretching and stress-releasing physical warm-up, we went straight to work on Why We Sing. This is our finale piece, and one we’ve done very often. So, we need to shake it up a little. We’re going to have a soloist on the first section, where we sometimes had 4 soloists. Just one clear voice singing those words will have a special power and tenderness at the same time. We will use little lights on this song, right after When You Believe which introduces them. The soloist alone will hold the light up, and the rest of us will join in after. I’d like to add some movement with this too. I have to figure out how and when. I’d like us to move on the chorus, stop for the “music builds a bridge” part, then start at the chorus again. Maybe we sway two times per bar to match the cut time, or just one per bar? I’ve removed the descant for this season. I want this to be clear and strong, not too showy. I think that the descant is cool, but I want a unified sound instead of a fancy one. 

2. Song for a Winter’s Night is so beautiful! We reviewed page 9 and 10, with some time at the page-turn and top of page 10. Remember that you are singing the words that the altos have, just with your notes, and adding a finishing note on the last word, drifting. You need to watch me for the timing of those words. I’ll give a beat for each word, they slow down somewhat, and we need to be together. You can watch the video linked from the website. It's lovely. The soloists were excellent. Both were the back-ups. This is why we have to always have a back-up soloist. 

3. Your Song had a few messy parts that we fixed! I’m very happy with how well we did. At the top of page 4, before bar 36 on beat 4. It's weird how the I comes on beat 4 and then you have a rest on beat one before the rest of the sentence. Maybe listen to the tenors and basses singing "Show" and count show-2-3 "I". Or, sing your oohs: ooh-1-2-3-I/ or ooh-sho-oh-oh-3-I? Also here, we did a little bit of math. Two eighths equal one quarter. The words "not much but it's" are all equal in length (look at the tied eighths) and on they fall on the off-beat. Middle of page 6, Soprano solo on the word "how" of how wonderful life is. You have to come in strong on that beat 4 too. Think "words-2-3-HOW wonderful". That one happens twice. Altos, Tenors, and Basses, please support this timing but observing that rest accurately-don't hold that note too long! You must stop singing to give the Sopranos time to come in on beat 4. Sing with them "I" in your head. We worked on the CODA too. The notes for "Words" needed fixing, and from that moment on, you need to watch me for the timing. Things slow down and speed up and slow down again. That last note is not P as written but a sforzando piano. Hit the note, come off of it to soft and a quick crescendo-diminuendo. Watch. Watch throughout for those sforzandos. Donna has recorded parts for you. Go to the website to download yours and listen to review. Watch the video and sing along. I'll post the video below again. 

4.Santa's Wish: Soloists tried their parts and sounded very good. We're looking at this song as a solo/duet with a choir singing back-up. We're just the back-up vocalists. This is going to be simpler than written. Whenever the choir comes in, we sing the melody, I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing and softly at first, only getting "choral" toward the end. Here, we are interpreting "in perfect harmony" to mean peace and unity rather than musical harmony, so unison is stronger anyway. There's a little bit of special stuff at the end, but no harmonies to learn. Please watch the video of the Tenors singing Santa's Wish, below. It's sweet and it will give you the ooh and ahh part. I'm happy that we're going to be able to perform this. 

5. Twelve Groovy Days: It’s a little chaotic, but that’s part of its charm. Jane is making signs to hold up so that the audience gets the words, which are funny and sweet. That will add a little timing craziness which will hopefully put the audience on our side, feeling our challenges and proud of our successes. I’m pleased with the work the sections are doing on their parts, coming in on time. The key changes are something to look at but not worry too much about. Donna has those under control but you need to listen to her and to each other too. We had to review that “leventh day of Christmas” section. (Complete Disco!) If you’re stressed about it, or missed the rehearsal, listen to the recording please. Boogie down, chicka-chicka.

At break, tickets were sold, for cash and cheque, but some of us waited for the Square machine to pay with a credit card next week. Please be sure to invite family and friends to the show! Buy them tickets in advance to make it easy for them. Paid tickets can be left at the door for people. Pay for your poinsettias too with a credit card next week. 

Liz handed out paper to write your top three YRCC choir songs of all time to help the Music Selection Committee choose our 30th Anniversary season music. 2025 is the 30th Anniversary of the YRCC. You can provide input until next Tuesday. 

Robin has booked our seniors' tour! I'll have those entered on the calendar and in the Events section of the website as soon as possible. Please start watching the calendar for details on timing in the next few weeks, and up to the end of the year. 

Remember to hand in your binder before you go away for the holidays! The Music Selection Committee and Peggy and Anne will be working hard to select and order music for the spring and to fill your binder with the spring music. Please cooperate with this huge task by getting your binder in as soon as you're done (after the concert or after your last seniors' visit). 

Next week, Tuesday November 12th Buy tickets and pay for poinsettias

I want to be able to appoint all the soloists and back-up soloists.

6:30 The Twelve Pains of Christmas (please bring props) 

7:15 Christmas Lullaby

• Grownup Christmas List (soloist)
• Peace on This Silent Night
• Santa's Wish (two soloists)
• Song for a Winter's Night (two soloists)
• We Wish You a Merry Madrigal
• Why We Sing (soloist)

(note: All That Holiday Stuff soloist is Melodie with Robyn as the back-up, When You Believe soloists are Mona and Stanley with Robyn and Blair as back-ups)

My Singing Night at Trinity has a new earlier time

My Singing Night at Trinity Newmarket has a new name and earlier time. We sing from 7-8:30. 

But, don't come tonight! We're not meeting because of Halloween. We want to be at home to see the trick-or-treaters. Please consider coming on Thursdays in November. It's a dark month but we can brighten it up by singing together. 

No need to bring anything or prepare in any way. I prepare a playlist and we sing songs that we choose from it, singing along to popular recordings with the lyrics scrolling. It's like karaoke but without the microphones and drinking and divas. It's more like a campfire sing-song. 

Here's the latest poster:

YRCC 2024 Rehearsal Review October 29

Another beautiful sound I love to hear: the buzz (and occasional cacaphony) of my choristers chatting and laughing together. We had a coffee social breaktime with treats brought in by the executive and decaf coffee and tea and all the essential snack time accessories brought in by Kit. A few of us wore Halloween costumes. Daphne was the most festive and adorable. 

With Donna and Lauren sick, Renate led the Christmas Lullaby small group alone with the help of a recording. Well, it was not ideal. So, we're going to have the Christmas Lullaby rehearse at 7:15 for the next few weeks. I've updated the calendar. Please take a look.(see below)

I'm so very grateful for Tabatha! Tabatha was asked only hours before our rehearsal if she could step in for Donna, and she came! We are so very fortunate. 

1. Star Canon was our warm-up. We needed to get straight to work. It was very good. I had to remind the Sopranos to watch for the times when they need to come in on beat one, especially on the last two pages where it's a bit of a challenge for them to read the middle line. It's still the top of the choir bracket. The top line is the "small group" which for us is the tenor and bass section. 

2. Christmas Auld Lang Syne is finished! It's such a good piece; so many great melodies in that medley. And, it's fairly easy to learn the harmonies. As I said yesterday, the pianist has the most work, because she gives us all the transitions and the different moods. Thank heaven we can depend on our wonderful accompanists! Watch me throughout, but especially on the last piece, so that we're observing the rests together and slow down together. Something we found challenging: on the Christmas Waltz, there's a part that's very different from the version we sang last year. On page 10, bars 85 and 86: true 2-3 and. The and comes in much sooner that what you want to sing. It's right on beat one of the next bar. Watch out for the very long Christ-mah-ahss at the top of page 13. We have to all get to the s together. Watch me. 

3. 12 Groovy Days also gives a lot of bang for our buck. It's tons of fun and not a ton of work. We spent time on the grooviest section, starting at the pick-up to 63: Complete Disco! is what it says. And, I was singing the first part wrong. "And on the 'leventh day" (tha levin, not thee eleven). Groovy! Also, we did the ending starting at bar 94 . Sopranos divide on page 15. Watch me for the Boogie Down at the end. Because it's a bit chaotic, we'll hold signs up for each of the gifts, clearly printed words. I think the audience will enjoy it more when they understand what the silly gifts are. 

4. When You Believe is going to be spectacular. Jane asked me if I wanted the tea lights again this year. We had them for our star theme, and it was very effective. I didn't know, had no plan. And then, minutes later I was on Facebook and When You Believe showed up sung by an enormous choir. Toward the end, they all lit up lights! Bam. That's it. We're going to hold up tea lights for the ending. We have a couple bars to turn them on while we sing that very slow and loud Ashira Ashira Ashira and pause before the big finish. This huge group also swayed their bodies. I think we might be able to do that during Why We Sing, which is our finale number. Hold up lights and sway for our last song. Ta-da!

5. For Unto Us a Child is Born. Sorry, it's cut. A few people were disappointed that I decided to put this aside for this year. We will definitely come back to it. We spend quite a bit of time learning it and came very close. However, we are getting close to our concert date and still have lots of work to do. A few people were very happy to not have to worry about this one. I'm looking at Santa's Wish as well. It will be simplified or also dropped. 

INVITE EVERYONE TO OUR CONCERT!
Jane had posters for us to take. I'm posting mine at my church. Do you have a place to post things? Carol had tickets too. Please be sure to buy your tickets as soon as possible, and book your friends and family. Send them an email or a text with the poster pdf here and png here. and maybe write out the details for them to copy. You could also make a calendar event or use our calendar event and invite people from there. If you're on Facebook, invite people to our Facebook Event. Invite them out for pizza after or over to your place after for pizza, or a charcuterie board and champagne,...

Next week, you can pay for the pointsettias too! This is an excellent way to make the church look festive and fancy, and we get fantastic flowers to take home or to give to our guests. 

We have square so that you can tap your credit cards! (cash and cheques are good too)

Next week: Tuesday, November 5th

6:30 Alto Sectional Rehearsal (7:15 Christmas Lullaby)

• Song for a Winter's Night
• 12 Groovy Days
• When You Believe
• Your Song

Below is a snip of our calendar in the agenda/schedule view. Please take note of the upcoming early rehearsals. Next week the Alto section is coming at 6:30 for special sectional review. Christmas Lullaby is going to take a few minutes of that early time to go over their song. 

The following week Pains of Christmas comes back, and then after that the Tenors get a sectional rehearsal at 6:30. Each week Christmas Lullaby comes a bit early.

At Trinity Anglican, for our run-through, we have small groups and soloists coming early to work with microphones. Everybody comes early so that we can go through the whole show. We might end up going late, so I entered 10:00 as the end time. It will be a long night for us. 

YRCC Calendar

YRCC 2024 Rehearsal Review October 22

 I wish you could hear what I hear! The choir sounds beautiful. I know you get worried because you can hear the people around you and sometimes they're not singing or making mistakes (mistakes mean you're trying, you're on your way). But, I hear lots of people getting the parts and I hear all the sections harmonizing and blending together. It's awesome. 

The Christmas Lullaby small group met early and they've finished learning the song. Now, we just have to polish it up and get more practice with it. Rutter songs have a special choral sound which is really pretty, and you are nailing it. 

The choir warmed up with stretches and breathing and rhythm exercises to a groovy version of Your Song by Billy Paul (known for Me and Mrs Jones). We all clapped and snapped on beats 2 and 4 with confidence and some bouncing and dancing. 

1. We sang Your Song beautifully. There were a couple spots where Sopranos (maybe Altos too) didn't come in with confidence consistently. At the top of page 4, before bar 36 on beat 4. It's weird how the I comes on beat 4 and then you have a rest on beat one before the rest of the sentence. Maybe listen to the tenors and basses singing "Show" and count show-2-3 "I". Or, sing your oohs: ooh-1-2-3-I/ or ooh-sho-oh-oh-3-I? Middle of page 6, Soprano solo on the word "how" of how wonderful life is. You have to come in strong on that beat 4 too. Think "words-2-3-HOW wonderful". That one happens twice. The ending is excellent. You're watching and doing exactly what I want you to do! Yay!

2. For Unto Us: It's coming along. We spend time on the last section, bottom of page 7 to the end, with lots of time on the last system of page 8 (pay attention to this line when you're reviewing on your own, especially if you missed this rehearsal) If we get the ending strong, people won't notice -and won't remember if they do notice- messy bits along the way. And, really, Handel is messy, with all the parts doing different things most of the time. 

3.Twelve Groovy Days of Christmas. This was our first time looking at it and we did great! We started at page 13, bar 79, to learn all the 12 days first. It was not too hard. We learned parts up to bar 94, and then we sight-read the whole piece. It's fun and special and I think I want whole sections where solos are indicated, so that it sounds stronger and clearer. We might want to hold up signs with each of the 12 things so that the audience understands what we're singing. So, you can have a non-vocal solo, if you get to hold up a sign.

4. Santa's Wish. We walked through the lyrics to get an idea of what's going on here. It's kind of a solo/duet with choir back-up. There's a storyteller and the Santa character that he/she meets, and the choir joins the Santa part singing I'd like to teach the world to sing, and there are some oohs in a bridge that we all sing. We looked at the parts from 53-68, and sight-read to the end. 

5. The Medley (Christmas Auld Lang Syne): We looked at parts from the beginning to the Christmas Waltz. We're almost done! It's pretty easy and sounds really good.

6. We didn't get to Grownup Christmas List. Please take a look at this at home if you're feeling nervous about this one. It's really good already since many of us have sung this recently.

We talked about: The Website. The executive met last week to review the work we (mostly Jane) did researching options for updating or overhauling our website, the quotes we have from website developers and app providers, and the costs. We decided to continue using Wild Apricot but pay for a re-design with better mobile function. The designers will also teach the admin members how to use it more effectively. We will need to increase our membership fees a little. Starting September 2025, one year will cost $100 (still a steal) and one season will be $60. Considering that many activities cost $20/ evening, this is still a very affordable community program. 

We talked about: spreading the news of the concert. Jane designed posters and tickets, and they'll be available in hard copy next Tuesday. The pdf and jpg/picture versions are attached here and here. 

I've created a Facebook Event that you can send to people on Facebook. Go to the Event, and share from there, instead of the choir's post. That way, people can respond with "Going" or "interested".

For everyone who's not on Facebook, you can send them an email with the poster attached as a pdf or with a picture of the poster embedded in the email (my preference). 

Of course, another nice way to invite people to the concert would be to send them a card in the post with tickets included as a gift. Wouldn't that be deluxe? Invite them to dinner after too! With champagne. I can dream, can't I?

Next week: Tuesday, October 29th     Halloween at Choir

We're having an extended break with social time, coffee and treats! Treats will be supplied by the executive. If you need an excuse to wear a costume, here it is. Let's celebrate Halloween at choir. 

6:30 Christmas Lullaby Small Group

• Christmas Auld Lang Syne
• For Unto Us
• Santa's Wish
• 12 Groovy Days
• When You Believe

YRCC 2024 Rehearsal Review October 15

We enjoyed another successful and satisfying rehearsal, ending off with lots of Christmas! It was a cold day that started with frost, and it was a perfect time to start singing more Christmas music. 

The Christmas Lullaby small group met for the first time and were able to get through so much of this beautiful choral piece. It's so beautiful, and the chorus is really very sticky; it sticks in your head. You'll find yourself singing the ave Marias all week long. 

We had a fun warm-up stretching, dancing, and singing along to Lollipop by The Chordettes. We did some rollercoasters and noticed how our range is much wider when we are doing raspberries, lip trills. 

1. When You Believe was beautiful. We sang it with Mona and Stanley singing the solos and the duet. Everyone comes in at bar 11. We reviewed parts throughout, especially the Hebrew section, which we slowed down to get the sounds and the rhythms right. Please do a little homework on this if you find you're having a hard time. There are lots of recordings to sing along with, and there's a video to help with pronunciation too. 

2.  Grownup Christmas List sounds very good with a solo on the first verse. We'll do it that way. Cathy and Melinda went for a test drive on that solo, which starts at the beginning, and then ends on bar 14, just before the key change. Everyone comes in at bar 15 "No more lives torn apart..." Don't come in too strong after that first verse. When we go back to the segno, at the top of page 5, everyone starts on page one on the second verse on bar 7, "As children we believe" and there's an ooh for the Baritones right on beat one. The second time we sing "no more lives", it's louder. We spent some time on the bottom of page 5 at that bridge, especiallly bars 28-31. Another tricky spot was at the bottom of page 7, bar 41 with the triplets, and the big ending. So good!

3. Santa's Wish: This is a new thing that I adapted for choir from a piano solo. I couldn't find a choral version but I really love this song. So, we tested out my arrangement. Notice that a lot of it is focused on two soloists, a storyteller and Santa. The choir joins Santa singing I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing. And there are some pretty ah ah ohs. We just walked through and took some time to think about who would like to sing those solos. Please listen to the song in the video at the bottom of this post. I'd like to keep that slowish, ballad feel, nostalgic and just a little whimsical. 

4. Christmas Auld Lang Syne: A new Christmas medley, well, actually an old one, but it's so old that very few of you have performed it before. It won't be hard. We sang through sight reading it twice! The Sopranos are very lucky and have melody throughout, I think. Altos and Baritones have lots of sections with only 3 or 4 notes. This is energetic and jazzy (swing notation)! The Christmas Waltz which we learned last year is one of the songs. It won't take long to get this performance-ready.

5. We didn't rehearse For Unto Us a Child is Born, but we talked about how useful the recordings are. Winston suggested that you might be able to play with the settings of YouTube to slow down the tempo. Try it out! You can also try out some of the many rehearsal recordings that people have uploaded to YouTube. I've got a couple in my playlist, but there are many more. 

Colby brought a box of the book that he had published! Quite a number of us bought one, and Colby even signed some. So exciting, and I'm so proud of our Colby. 

Here's a link to my YouTube playlist again, and a link to the page on the website with recordings. You'll need to sign in to the website. The recordings of parts for Your Song are there!

Next Tuesday, October 22nd

6:30 Christmas Lullaby Small Group

• Christmas Auld Lang Syne
• For Unto Us
• Grownup Christmas List
• Santa's Wish
• Twelve Groovy Days of Christmas
• Your Song

YRCC 2024 Rehearsal Review October 8

 I love my choir! It was so much fun singing together last night and we still got a ton of work done. 

The Pains of Christmas small group had some challenges with timing but we worked it out, mostly by slowing the song down and getting really frustrated and mad at all the pains. Hilarious. I recommend that everyone in that group spend some time singing along with YouTube videos or other recordings of this song to be able to sing/yell your part without needing to look at your music. Here’s a link to a video. We’ll have the lyrics on a couple of music stands but you want to be able to use your prop to clarify what you’re saying. We remembered to have a warm-up for this small group, something we often forget.

Our choir warm-ups included stretching, breathing, rollercoasters,  and mi-may-my-mo-mu, among others.

1. All That Holiday Stuff is done! We’ll need to practise and perfect this, but we learned all the parts and sang it through wonderfully. Melodie did a fine job on the solo. She’s the most devoted fan of Christmas that I know. 

2. When You Believe: We made very good  progress moving backward from the end, learning the section at bar 29, then bar 21, then 11. We sang from 11 to the end! The beginning is a duet, so we’ve done all our initial work. Now we have to get more comfortable with it. You will want to review the Hebrew section, for sure. There are links to each part, plus there’s a link to a tutorial on the pronunciation of the Hebrew words. It’s not the best because it’s the words on their own and not in the song with the rhythm, but it might help you to feel better if you hear each word how it is by itself. I suggest you sing along with a choir, and here’s a link to a choir singing it very nicely and clearly. If they can do it, we can too. 

3. Santa’s Wish: We’ll have to wait until next week to get the music, but I’ll put it on the website so you can look at the electronic version. I played a recording of the Tenors singing this song. I created a choir arrangement based on this: here’s a link to the video. It’s my wish too: the world singing in perfect harmony. 

4. For Unto Us: Wowza! You guys are amazing. I discovered that there are a bunch of people in the choir who have sung this before, and it makes a huge difference for us. Having even one person in each section who has some experience with this is a big help. We reviewed parts from the beginning and added on everything to the end of page 7. We’ll continue to review parts and add on more, and it will keep getting better and easier. I recommend doing some homework on this piece as well. Here’s a link to my YouTube playlist where you’ll find videos of your parts. You can find more by searching YouTube. There are lots of different sounding ones for you to choose from. 

5. Grownup Christmas List: most of us have sung this before, and it will be very easy to get this one brushed up and shiny again. I’m considering using a soloist for the first verse. Think about whether you’d like to sing it. This is our theme. What we wish for, our wish list, changes over the years, over our lifetimes and over generations too. As adults, the older we get, the less stuff we need or even want, and the more we wish for togetherness and harmony, peace in our homes and our communities, and in the world.

Next week: Tuesday, October 15th (right after Thanksgiving Monday)

Christmas Lullaby small group at 6:30  (videos of parts are up on the website)

• Christmas Auld Lang Syne
• For Unto Us
• Grownup Christmas List
• Santa's Wish
• When You Believe

YRCC 2024 Rehearsal Review October 1st

October started well, indeed. We had a very productive and thrilling rehearsal. If you missed this one, you'll definitely want to read this and do a little homework to catch up.

First, the Pains of Christmas small group had a blast and did really well with their song. We discovered that the challenge with this one is to come in on time with your part. I think that the props will help, and standing in order, more or less could help too. We'll try out some strategies next week.

Our warm-up was a stretch, dance, and sing-along to Billy Joel's Uptown Girl. Fun!

1. All That Holiday Stuff: we're almost done learning this! What a great job everyone did with their parts, super! I reconsidered having the solo at the beginning, and think it would be fine. Lauren and Robyn were the first to have a go. Please let me know if you'd like to be the Christmas enthusiast for this solo. We stopped learning parts at the bottom of page 11 at the sfp (sforzando piano) with a crescendo. That notation means that we hit the word sleigh hard, with force, and then drop quickly to piano before getting gradually louder and louder again. Drama; the drama leads to the next section which is a kickline (think Rockettes) at double forte (extra loud)! We sight-read to the end. We've got this.

2. For Unto Us a Child is Born: Wow!!! I had planned for us to just walk through this one, singing along to a recording, to see what was going to be challenging and to let everyone know that there are videos of each part by itself to help you learn it. I've put links on the website, but you can go to YouTube and search "For unto us a child is born tenor part", for example, and get a number of rehearsal aids. So, you'll have options with speed and formats you might like better. I suggested that if the sheet music is too small for you to read, you could get someone to enlarge it to regular paper size (8 1/2 x 11). You can legally make a "working copy" for marking up and study. We ended up starting to learn the parts, ahead of schedule! And, we got to my favourite part at the bottom of page 3, the double forte "Wonderful". We sang along to a recording of this at my Thursday singing night as an example of a classical song with la-las (melodies without words that we sing, like the whoas in Uptown Girl. We laughed and sang parts of all the parts.). Here, every section has a turn with a big long oh, on the word born. The sopranos start with one in the 4th and 5th system on page one. What we did to make it a little less intimidating is to focus on the first note of each set of 4. Those sixteenth notes don't have to be super fast and they don't have to be super accurate. If we can all land on the right note on the beat, it will be very good. You'll see that Donna plays that part too, and she will be accurate for us. We were reminded of "Tup Tuppa", our choral version of Bach Badinierie. We laughed learning that, it was so hard, but our conductor Svetlana pushed us and we did it, and it was really impressive.

3. When You Believe: We sang in Hebrew! We got through the whole Hebrew section, ending on "I will sing, I will sing, I will sing!" (my favourite part) at the bottom of page 10 and then we sang to the end. It was awesome. Some people had printed out the Hebrew helper from the PDF side of the Music and Recordings section of the website. Excellent! There is also a video link on the Recordings side to help with the pronunciation if you want. But, we did pretty well on our own. I demonstrated how the ch sound is similar to the French or German rolled R, but softer, in the same way that the F sound is softer than the V sound, but produced in the same way and in the same place in your mouth. (that's called voicing in phonetics, pairs of voiced and voiceless sounds. ch is voiceless). You'll get it, but you can substitute an H sound, maybe a hard or hissing H? Play with your voice. For me, it's more important that you get the notes and the timing right. There are videos of choirs singing our arrangement of this song on YouTube, and I've put a couple on my YouTube playlist. Mona and Robyn sang those solo parts. 

4. Your Song: We learned all the parts all the way through! And now, we're singing with some big dramatic dynamics. I played the version that inspires me, from the YouTube recording of the Vocal Collective, a choir in New Zealand. We listened to their beautiful sforzandos at the ends of most sections. Remember, the sforzando is a forceful accent, a sudden and strong attack, on the beginning of a note which then sometimes goes very soft (sfp) and then louder. You could make a note on your sheet music in pencil. Write SFZ or put an accent on top of the word "v" and a crescendo <. Watch me for my big crescendo arms. We learned the oohs on page 3. The sopranos divide here. The notes are nice low alto notes, but second sopranos can sing those very nicely too. Donna will record parts for this song, so look out for that on the website, coming soon. In the meantime, sing along with the video:

Next week: Tuesday, October 8th*

      *Note: we will be rehearsing in the room across the hall.*

Small group at 6:30: Twelve Pains of Christmas: bring props

• All That Holiday Stuff
• For Unto Us a Child is Born
• Grownup Christmas List
• Santa's Wish
• When You Believe