YRCC 2026 Rehearsal Review February 24th

Notice! Next week's rehearsal is at Trinity United Church in Newmarket again. 

We got bumped, and my church is welcoming us again. Enter by the side/Park Avenue doors. If they're locked, they'll be unlocked soon, but you can text me or Lauren and we'll send someone down to open the doors. If those stairs look like too much of a challenge that night, let me know and I'll get the key for the elevator and I'll take you up (and down again if necessary). I'll have my cell number on a sign on the door. 

It was so good to be back, and a number of people were also back after various viruses and illnesses. Yuck! 

After a brief warm-up, we stood and sang our national anthem. After watching some of the recent Winter Olympic medal ceremonies, we were disappointed to see so many athletes neglect to sing their national anthems, and we were proud of our men's team for singing ours proudly and energetically on the ice! We are happy to be prepared in case we ever find ourselves on a gold medal podium, except, maybe some of us will have to think twice to remember to sing the melody so we don't accidentally launch into our parts. But, at least we'll be seen mouthing the words, right?!!

O Canada!

Small Group: My Heart Will Go On is excellent! Next week we'll just polish it. 

1. O Canada: watch out for the ending. We decided to sing it as written, including the extra note on "for". I'll probably slow it down too, so watch and don't improvise. 

2. Song for Canada: we are still getting a little lost in the ahs under the second/French verse. We spent quite a bit of time reviewing parts. Please take some time to review on your own if you're having trouble still. We have recordings for you to practise with. There are short ones, just for the ahs. We're still getting lost at the ending, and we'll need to do that together. The French team was in good form last night! 

3. (It's a) Grand Night For Singing: I moved this in my binder to "G" instead of "I". We learned the Interlude, pages 6-8. We sang from the Interlude through to the end. Now, we've looked at the whole song, since the whole thing is just chorus, interlude, chorus. We took note of the rests everywhere. In many places, the rests make sure that you're able to enunciate ends and beginnings of words clearly.  On page 7: light'-- too lovely (not li-too lovely). Page 8 something to do'-- with you (not doowith) We also talked about how to pronunce "grand night" since there's a tie from grand night, so we can't stop to make a clear d at the end of grand. In this case, you have to squish your d into night. So we have graaaaandnight, noticing the t is strong and quick with a rest after it. Look at "moon is flying high". That rest makes sure you can be clear on moon, and separate it from is. So it's moon'- -iz, not moo-niz.  Page 4 starz'-- are, not star-zar. We have links to recordings on YouTube for you to practise parts with. 

4. Here's to Song: We also finished learning this song! What?!! Yes. We learned the second verse, the tricky one, and we've already learned the chorus, so that's it. We have solo-chorus-verse2-chorus-solo-chorus-ending/chorus. The third solo will be without oohs, like the first. We have enough oohs and ahhs in other songs this year. We'll learn those oohs another time. We had this strategy with Song for a Winter's Night, and it worked well. That second verse is pretty fancy, and the chorus is big, so we've asked Donna to record parts for us. However, we will be reviewing the whole song. Fear not. 

5. We Rise Again: mm-oo-aah, we decided to do the oohs and ahhs under the solos in this song. I was willing to let them go, but those who spent years learning them want to make sure they can use them again. So, please sing them loudly to help your new neighbours to learn them. There are only a couple tricky bits here, most of the time, Second Sopranos, Altos, Tenors and Basses are all singing melody, the chorus in unison. The first sopranos have the hard part, like a descant on top. We have recordings of parts so you can listen to your oohs and ahhs. This is a very rewarding song to sing! I love the big ending.

Soloists: make sure I know what songs you're willing to sing, and which ones you want the most (some of you are willing and able to do any and all). I have to determine who the soloists and back-up soloists are on all of our songs. I will consider your voice style and range, and need to try to be fair. I have received emails from a few of you.  

Next week: Tuesday, March 3rd   at Trinity United Church in Newmarket 461 Park Avenue
enter by the side/Park Ave doors. Parking is an issue. Give yourself extra time to find a spot. 

6:30 in the music room: My Heart Will Go On

7:00 in the music room: Song Sung Blue

7:30 everyone in the Fellowship Room (big room with sofas, opposite washrooms and music rooms. You can arrive early, after 6:30 once the room is available, and start setting up the equipment and chairs)

• Hymn to Freedom
• Grand Night for Singing
• Song for Canada
• Thank you for the Music
• We Rise Again

YRCC 2026 Rehearsal Review February 17th

I'm so sad that I had to miss choir! I've had a terrible flu, and even today can hardly speak, let alone sing. I'm tired and cranky and I'm very much looking forward to being myself again. 

We're so lucky to have Lauren, who can take over when necessary. And, we're lucky to have Tab, who took over for Donna this week, as Donna took a well-deserved vacation to visit family in Ottawa. I think we both should have a night off once in a while. You probably enjoyed the change of pace and different perspective on things. 

Lauren sent me a detailed summary of what she did, so I can catch up, and you can too. 

The small group that met at 6:30 was My Heart Will Go On, made famous by our Canadian superstar, Celine Dion. The song represents our need to sing to support us in difficult times. Good progress was made. There are only a couple of tricky bits to learn, and that will be easy. Please review your music if you are in this group.

1. Here's To Song: Excellent progress! You did the choruses and the ending. You also did the a capella part and it went well! Lauren identified a couple of places that need work, and one of them is "Kings have riches widely lain" where there's dissonance. That's always an issue, but we'll get it. 

2. Thank You for the Music:  Lauren says you really worked hard on the oohs under the solo third verse. That part is difficult in many ways. The end of the solo is particularly challenging and I don't really like the way it's done, so we'll need to work on simplifying it. You reviewed the chorus, and did the ending!? Wow. The coda is not crazy, but I'm impressed. Something Lauren mentioned was messy is at the top of page 4, "all I want is to sing it out loud". Take some time to listen to the recordings on the website, and/or on YouTube if you're finding that challenging, but we'll work on it together some more. We'll have it perfect by May. 

3. One Voice: Skipping the solos, you sang through a couple of times. Let's keep on top of this one. It's good, but we can't lose it. And, we'll work on the solos with Melodie, Lorraine, and Stanley too. Something you might want to review with the recordings is going from page 5 to 6 and into the key change. We'll do it together again, of course, but if you have a chance to work on your own, it will help us all. 

4. Hallelujah: Sounds like you had fun! I love to do something new with an old song (just look at all the pencil notes on some of your music!). Melinda suggested that all the baritone voices sing the solo, then 4 altos and 3 sopranos join them to sing the first verse and first hallelujah, then, all women sing the second solo, and finally everyone comes in at "blaze of light". Sounds good. It's much more dramatic when you start off softer, and grow bigger toward the end. There were other suggestions that Lauren noted, and we can certainly try some. 

5. Why We Sing: This one too is most powerful when you start of soft and sweet and save the strength for later. That's one reason that I've given the beginning to solos and small groups in the past. And, there's some turn taking between sections in the beginning to keep things softer. I'm thinking about having solos in the beginning again. Anyone interested? Let me know. 

Next week: Tuesday, February 24th

Small Group 6:30 My Heart Will Go On 

• Here's to Song
• Grand Night for Singing 
• O Canada
• Song for Canada
• We Rise Again 

 

Here's to our Winter Olympians!

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YRCC 2026 Rehearsal Review February 10th

We had another very busy Tuesday evening learning our music for our May concert. I try to remember, whenever we're not perfect, that we have more than 2 months of rehearsals left. We're doing great! 

We were at Trinity United Church on Main Street in Newmarket last night because our room at the regional building was needed, so we were bumped. It was a little tricky finding parking once the few spots at the back and in the library lot were taken, so if you were not early, you ended up being a little late. No worries. It was expected. Thank you to those of you who did arrive early and helped to set up chairs, and thank you to everyone who helped put them away and get the equipment and all of us down the stairs at the end of the night. Teamwork, that's what a choir is all about, right?  

We had a productive Soprano Sectional Rehearsal at 6:30. It is always nice to have extra time for one section to focus on their parts, and it's good to have a different "teacher" sometimes, with maybe a different way to tackle tricky bits. Thanks to Lauren for arranging that! We really missed her, but we managed. Next week, small groups start rehearsing in that 6:30- 7:15 time slot. I'll set up the groups in Events on the website. And, I'll announce them here and on the home page of the website every week. 

Our warm-up included a breathing and gratitude exercise that I saw. It's supposed to be calming and energizing at the same time, and I think it worked. We then did lip trills, which some of us still cannot do. We talked about putting aside your usual sense of self (who you are, eg "ladylike") and letting loose with a different version of you when you're doing this kind of exercise and when you're singing. It came up again when we talked about posture and breathing to support your voice at the edges of your vocal range. If you're interested in the theory behind this idea, look up "ego permeability". This ability to stretch your identity is also key to learning new languages (which is how I was introduced to it, studying second language aquisition). "Put on your performer panties."

1. Canon of Joy: We tried to get this to sound fresh and inspiring. The message is that we sing an everlasting song of joy despite our trials and tribulations, but we sound like this song is a trial and tribulation, which, to be fair, it kind of is. The challenge here is not the notes. The notes are not difficult. The challenge is to sound pretty and positive, joyful even, when you're singing a boring part. Try to sing page 5 a little differently each time. When pianists have to repeat a note several times, they use different fingers on the same key, called finger switching, instead of hammering that key with the same finger. It creates interest because different fingers can have different intensity and it saves muscle strain. Think about how you can hit the notes differently to create interest and save boredom. The phrasing is a bit difficult, keeping smooth without big gaps of breathing is not easy. We need to use the technique called staggered breathing. It's a key teamwork thing in choirs. We breathe at different times from our neighbours so that the sound can continue without gaps. The other way that we work as a team is that we listen for the other parts, to hear whether we need to be louder or softer in relation to them. It's also my job to let you know when your group needs to adjust your volume. I was  mentioning trying to sound like a cello instead of a trumpet, and we can all use that kind of thinking here. Think of Pachelbel's Canon at a wedding, played by a string quartet, all pretty and light, and when the Beethoven comes in, it's also one of the string instruments and not a brass section of an orchestra. When we're all singing the Beethoven, we're still a pretty string quartet at a wedding, with passion, but peacefully, not with agression. 

2. Here's to Song: We had our first good look at this new piece, and we learned most of it. We learned the chorus, not perfectly, but we got through it and it's repeated a few times, so that's most of the song. The most difficult part is the second verse, and we will spend considerable time on that, starting next week. We're going to simplify the piece the same way we did with Song for a Winter's Night when we first got it. We gave two verses to soloists, focused on the chorus and spent time on one verse in 4 parts. So, with this song, the first verse is clearly a solo, the second is the 4-part choral verse, and the third is a solo with oohs which we're going to skip, and just keep the solo like the first verse. Very manageable. I have Winston in my head for the solos, but please let me know if you would like to try one or both of those. This can be anyone, and we can have two soloists. And, I'll need back-ups in any case. We will have lots of opportunities for back-ups to sing the solos at seniors homes- we'll have 5 or 6 in May and June. 

3. It's a Grand Night for Singing: Our second brand-new song! And, it's also chorus-heavy. It's actually just the chorus two times with an "interlude". We got through the chorus pretty well for our first time looking at it. Watch out for rests. We must observe the rests, so that we can breathe, and so that the timing and enunciation are sharp. 

4. Hymn to  Freedom: We just reviewed those jazzy ahs. We sang page 7 and 8 only.  

5. Thank you For the Music:  We sang all the way through from the beginning to the end, but the focus was on the chorus. The soprano section reviewed parts during the sectional rehearsal, and it seems we can use more time for the altos again to review that. We heard Robyn and Cathy on the solo, but didn't learn the ahs below the solo. Coming in at the bar before the segno is easy when we're not singing our ahs. We'll continue to work on that transition, but make a note that right after the solo ends, we go to the bar before the segno "so I say", not overlapping. The soloist gets to hold that note one extra beat, at least, maybe more...

Next week, Tuesday February 17th 

6:30 Small Group: My Heart Will Go On (please sign up on the website to join this group)

• Here's to Song
• Hallelujah
• One Voice
• Why We Sing
• Thank You for the Music 

 

 

 

YRCC 2026 Rehearsal Review February 3rd

We worked hard again, learning ahs, which are not our favourite. And, we had some beautiful moments of harmony, friendship, and esprit de corps. 

We started a bit late, so our warm-up was brief. It  started with the singing of Happy Birthday to me! Thank you! I will share that with Lauren whose birthday was last Friday. (mine is tomorrow, Feb.5) After that, we relaxed our tense bits, and then sang the Auld Lang Syne that WWI soldiers sang: We're here because we're here because we're here because we're here. I played recordings of the two new songs we got, It's a Grand Night for Singing and Here's to Song. When you look at the words of Auld Lang Syne, it reminds me of Here's to Song. Make sure you get those 2 new pieces next time if you weren't there. 

We heard about the passing of our choir friend Lyn Gadd. She was our music librarian for a while, housing all of our stuff and preparing binders for us every season. She was a lovely person, gentle and kind, small in stature but with enormous genrosity. She is remembered with fondness and esteem. 

The tenors and basses met early at 6:30 for a sectional rehearsal. It was so good, and we were all impressed at how well they did during rehearsal. Thank you, Lauren for leading these special rehearsals!

1. Thank You For the Music: We reviewed the first section from the beginning through the chorus, and the second verse. The chorus is big, and we sing it 3 times, so having got that under our belts, we're in great shape. We kind of had an "ah" theme today, but we left these ahs (under the third verse) for another time.

2. Song for Canada: We sang the whole thing, and it was really very good already, even though many of us got a little lost and faked parts ;-) Then, we learned the ahs. Ah! It was so good! Now, we're not getting lost. And, the French Chorus (la chorale française) sang the second chorus for us beautifully. We do have recordings of the ahs on the website, if you're still feeling a little lost, or if you missed this rehearsal. 

3. Hymn to Freedom: We sang the whole thing, and it was really very good already, really! We could only get through by faking the ahs, however. But, now that we learned them, wooo-hoo, it's sooo gooood! It took several repetitions of each phrase, for each section, but we did it. Again, if you're still feeling like you're faking it, or if you missed this rehearsal, please use the recordings on the website to practise those jazzy ahs. 

4. One Voice: Colby was not surprised that it ended up being excellent, and I know that there are others who know this song really well, but I am really impressed by the new folks! This song sounded beautiful, wonderful, amazing. We had excellent soloists, Melodie, Stanley, and Lauren stand in front so we could hear that beginning part. They made it look easy, but it's really quite challenging. We spent time on the transition from page 5 to 6 again, and from there to the end. The ba-bas were golden.

5. Here's to Song: We had just heard a bit of a folksy version of this song (from my YouTube playlist) before we started, and just put the sheet music in our binders, but we sang through the whole song! Donna was awe-inspiring. We stumbled through, with a focus on the melody, just kind of looking at what lies before us to learn this song. There are big sections of harmonies and choral fanciness, and solos, one with ahs under (we'll see if we do those or not...). This song inspired our theme, and the concert will be called Here's to Song. 

Next week, Tuesday, February 10th  Trinity United Church, 461 Park Avenue

6:30 Soprano Sectional (all your tricky bits) 

We were bumped from our room and couldn't get our usual back-up space, so we're rehearsing at my church, Trinity United in Newmarket. It's at the corner of Main St. and Park Ave, opposite the Newmarket Public Library. We will enter from the Park Ave. side, and there's a small elevator there. We'll be up one level, one short flight of stairs up. Let me know if you think you'd like to use the elevator. We'll need a key and someone with permission to run it (me). We're not upstairs in the sanctuary like last time. This time, we have a room with chairs, carpet, and washrooms right across the hall. 

• Here's to Song
• Canon of Joy
• Hymn to Freedom
• Thank You for the Music 
• Grand Night for Singing

 

Happy birthday to me and Lauren!