YRCC Rehearsal Review Tuesday 5-Apr-2022

 Tuesday, April 5th

Small Group:

Good Morning, Starshine was good except we forgot to warm up and we had no altos. Kit has offered to sing the first verse as a solo. Thank you! We’ve established that we’re not crazy about this arrangement so we’re tweaking it in several ways. The aim is for our performance to be cool, adorable, and cheery, a sweet hug. Someone suggested imagining driving in a convertible sports car, and I added “with a Muppet or two in the back seat”.

The Choir Warm-up this week included raspberries, rollercoasters, and librarian shh!s. We also repeated last week’s new warm-up: Sing an itty-bitty witty-pretty song, song, song.

1.     This Little Light of Mine

I’m gonna let my little light shine- we’re going to let our big bright lights shine- we carry sunshine inside us, our eyes, our smiles, our actions let the light out

Remember the repeat @35 page 6, remember the key change: Sop and Bass carry the key change. We had no takers for the solo here. I sang it and I love to, but it’s not an easy thing in a performance for the conductor to sing in the middle of a song, so it would be best if someone came forward to take this on, and a soprano would be best so that the harmonies stay full.

I need to figure out how to conduct in 2, showing beats 1 and 3, while encouraging the audience to clap on 2 and 4.

We were all feeling this fun song, enjoying it, and Donna even added a cool run at one point! Loved it!

2.     I Can See Clearly Now

Wow! We learned the tricky part at 38 and reviewed the segno @25! We’re doing great. We are hopeful that we’ll get the parts recordings, but if we’re not perfect, this will still be a good one.

3.     You’ll Never Walk Alone

Walk on and on and on through the wind, through the rain, with your head up, dreams tossed and blown, but you're okay because you know you are not alone and the storm will end

We reviewed the special (neglected) second soprano bits (@31 dreams, and @41 and again @64 the extra note on beat 2) and we all reviewed the section at 57. We sang through twice and it was beautiful. I learned that I really don’t know the alto part. Debbie gets a gold star for being on her own and holding her own.

4.     Somewhere Out There

and even though I know how very far apart we are, it helps to think we might be wishing on the same bright star (same wish, to be together, to hug, to share a meal)

This is so pretty and not difficult! Something a bit tricky is the repeat and the Coda. Remember the repeat to Segno (@25 too. Timing seems to be an issue here. Gentlemen, don’t be afraid to follow Melinda. She knows where she’s going.) and then jump to the Coda on the last page with that special alto bit nice and loud. Remember special ending--- tru-u-ue, come true.

5.      On Eagle’s Wings

I skipped the Sunshine Medley, so we had time to choose a bonus end song and we chose On Eagle’s Wings. Some of us took off our masks and stood physically distanced instead so that we could really enjoy singing out on this beauty.

We talked about:

Our seniors’ tour. Every week starting the Tuesday after the Victoria Day weekend, we’ll be out at seniors’ residences. We’ll need to look at numbers, ours and the pandemic’s, as we get closer. You can get the details on the YRCC Calendar. Thank you, Jane, for arranging all of this!

Our equipment. We don’t have a volunteer yet to take over the keeping and hauling of the equipment. Jack took it this week, but we are looking into the possibility of the church having a spot for it.

Having men from the police choir join us this season. We can use the early rehearsal time to help them to “catch up” to where they can perform with us if necessary.

Next week, Tuesday, April 12

Small Group at 6:45/7:00 again: Good Morning, Starshine

1.       I Can See Clearly Now
2.       Sunshine Medley
3.       Walking on Sunshine
4.       We Rise Again
5.       You Raise Me Up

Music to hand out: Wellerman, Farewell to Nova Scotia