YRCC 2023 Rehearsal Review April 25

 Bill, Blair, the One Voice trio, and Mad about Mozart all came early and did great! Bill brought a microphone and a cool mic stand that holds an iPad. I was able to use it during rehearsal and it was pretty neat. 

We did a very quick warm-up, just the most basic stretching.

1. Why We Sing: The whole choir sang the whole beginning section where we often have solos switching off (10-26: everyone sings). You have to sing very, very soft, please. It's a really good sound when everyone is quiet. The contrast between the P at the beginning and the FF at the end is fantastic!

2. Sunshine Medley: We did it! We made it work. The key is to relax and make it fun. But, let's look at a few things we cleaned up: Remember to hold melting in bar 32 and clear in bar 36 to the end of the bar. We have to remember to slow down at bar 42, in that alto solo section that introduces Don't You Worry Bout a Thing. That makes it easier to sing that difficult section. Sopranos had a hard time with the ahs on the word out in "check it out". I  thought the problem was the ties, but I'm looking at it again, and it's not. The ties are correct. You're singing 1 2 + + +   + + + +  + + + 4.  (your first ah in the word out lands on beat one, which is not what's written but it's okay). the word out is: ah-ah-ah-ah-ah, ah-ah-ah-ah, ah-ah-ah-out, followed immediately by don't you worry bout a thing. You tend to land on beat one, so you finish out on beat one and sing don't on beat two. Let the Sunshine is so much fun and sounds great. You don't have to read the music at all, just sing the melody twice, and then add harmonies, first just a few, and then, after a couple the first sopranos can go way up and the altos can divide if they feel like it, maybe some of you can sing with the tenors? We just have to all end together with an extra slow, the su-unnnnn shy-niiiinnnn. I'll try to get the audience to do it too, so it can be a bit sloppy ;-)

3. I Can See Clearly: This is amazing! It was so difficult at first with all the repeats and page turning, but we got it! We discovered a handy-dandy trick (thanks to Michele) for turning the pages and finding your spot. Use large paper clips, clipping one on the page at the location where you come in. This marks the spot and makes it easier to grasp that page with your fingers. Middle of page 6 at bar 25 and bottom of page 9 at bar 46 (for bar 45) is where I would put mine. 

4. We Rise Again: We reviewed section C again, where we sing the chorus for the first time and the tenors and basses have some cool stuff, special timing. Everyone but tenor and bass must sing softly here, a quiet first chorus, drama. Our audience will love this! You sound faboulous. 

5. Top of the World: Sweet! It's excellent. 

6. Happy Together: Something magical happened. The altos forgot which line they were supposed to sing, and ended up creating a really nice harmony part at 13. I liked it so much, we're keeping it! So, altos sing the top line a third down from the sopranos bars 13-21. At 21, altos go to the bottom line and sing the bottom to the end, indluding the melody line at 30. Go altos! We had to review the ending, after the ba-bas. We got it pretty fast though. I have to remember to count clearly and then you can find your way in. You all come in on beat 3, which is what the descant was doing. Donna helps you with your note with a good chord on beat 2. 

7. Viva!: A number of you were worried about this, but it's excellent! The audience will be so impressed! It does appear harder than it is, doesn't it? You've got this!

We talked about: Tickets for Children

We decided together to offer half price tickets to children 12 and under. Tickets will be $10 and we'll write the word CHILD on them. (Note: someone should bring a couple $10 bills for change to the concert. We had decided on $20 across the board partly so that we wouldn't have to worry too much about cash and change on concert day.)

We talked about: Red scarves for the "uniform"

We still haven't located Musette the cat and her basket with the extra ties and scarves, so anyone who has an extra scarf, an old one with the gold music notes, should bring it to the concert so that new people can wear one. We will spend some of the baking sale profits on new scarves and new ties to match so that we all can match again. I wonder if some of the women would like to have a necktie instead of a scarf next time. Blair has a few extra ties for now. The old and newer ties are very different colours, so maybe men can bring a red tie that they already have and see if it goes with what the others are wearing. On the website, there is a page called "Concert Wardrobe" which describes our uniform choices and shows how to tie your scarf or necktie.

Next week: Tuesday, May 2nd  Run-Through Rehearsal in the Sanctuary, upstairs

6:30 all small groups and solos

7:00 everyone in and ready to start 

Have your binders in concert order so that we're not searching through binders on stage. 

Concert order was sent in an email and is listed on the website under "Spring Concert Order" in the members-only section. (you'll need to log in with your password). Some print-outs will be available next week if you aren't able to make your own. 

YRCC 2023 Rehearsal Review April 18 and looking ahead into May

 Bill and Blair rehearsed their solos with Donna starting at 6:30. 

Warm-ups included listening to Stevie Wonder's Don't You Worry 'Bout a Thing to hear the way he sings Mama while we did some stretching. Stevie's mama is what I want. We Sang You'll Never Walk Alone as a warm-up and then for real.

1. On Eagle's Wings: remember the balance of melody vs long notes of harmony at bar 43 and bar 61

2. Viva!: sopranos got lost somehow, but found their way eventually. Consider listening to your part via link on our website. Or click here for the soprano part. 

3. Sunshine Medley: we spent more time on the Don't You Worry part, and it sounds good. If you're concerned about your part, let me know so we can look at modifying it. I really want us to perform this, and we'll do what we can to make it happen. Like the last section, Let the Sunshine, we can modify the arrangement, make it more flexible, easier, so that we can sing these songs. Do consider listening to versions of Don't You Worry 'Bout a Thing to get more familiar with how it goes. 

4. Walking on Sunshine: very good! It's great, and we showed that we can fudge it if we need to. I got lost in the overlapping part, and we just did a few extra repeats, and managed. We also did it perfectly the next time, so it's really going to be fine. Michele came up with a good trick for finding the pages of the segno and the coda. She clips a big paper clip to the spot we retun to on page 5, the segno, and to the spot that we end up at on page 11, the coda. It helps with finding the page and also helps with turning the page when you have something to grip on to. Brilliant!

5. Hallelujah: We had 5 minutes left so we didn't do We Rise Again, but sang this instead. It's always awesome. 

We talked about: The Bake Sale

There was some discusssion about how to manage our bake sale in this post-pandemic period of mixed comfort with everything. Putting a bunch of bite-sized baking out for people to grab doesn't seem so attractive anymore. It is the easiest thing to do, but it seemed that the other idea of making plates of a variety of items was the hardest. We decided on a compromise, suggested by Tab and the alto section. We will ask everyone to bring baked goods in small single servings/bite sized portions, not wrapped individually, as we have always done. All choristers will donate some baking, dropping it off as they arrive (starting at 1:00) Volunteers will serve guests wearing tongs, gloves, masks, buffet-style. Volunteers will also prepare one table of plates for people to grab, for those who might prefer that, during our first half. This means we need a good number of volunteers for the bake sale, maybe 6 or more. This was done by high school students in the past. They can get volunteer hours. Please help us find these volunteers. 

Next week: Tuesday, April 25th (last rehearsal downstairs)

Bill and One Voice at 6:30, Mad About Mozart at 7:00.

• We Rise Again
• Sunshine Medley
• Top of the World
• I Can See Clearly Now
• Why We Sing

Tuesday, May 2nd: Run-through rehearsal

This is like a dress rehearsal, without the dressing up. We arrive at 7:00 and we might end later than usual. We are upstairs in the sanctuary where we will be performing on May 6th. The sound guy, Doug, will be there and we'll be able to try out the microphones. We will go through the whole concert in order to make sure we know where to stand, sit, walk, and to make sure the whole thing will flow nicely. Your binders will be in concert order. I suggest you enter pages for the songs you're not singing too, so you can be clear on what you're doing while those are happening. 

Tuesday, May 9th: First stop of the seniors tour: Willow's Estate in Aurora

be sure to use the YRCC Google Calendar to see where we're going to be each week. 

Tuesday, May 23rd: YRCC Potluck Party and AGM

Annual General Meeting: We need to have one meeting a year with all of us: we elect and re-elect board members/the executive to run the choir (President, Vice-President, Secretary/Treasurer, PR.). There's a budget to approve, and any other business. We try to keep business short so that we can have some fun eating, sing for fun, and socialize. We arrive a bit early and bring food to share. 

YRCC 2023 Rehearsal Review April 11

 2 Small Groups met early: Tomorrow (Duet) and Together Wherever We Go. I was able to watch the second one, and they're fabulous, everything I'd hoped for. I also heard the One Voice trio, and wow am I happy!

Warm-ups included stretching and breathing and opening our throats to allow lots of air support. We sang Wonderful World to warm up. Just wonderful, and so appropriate as we enjoy blue skies and green grass and flowers in this funny hot spell. 

1. Happy Together: Super! We reviewed the ending from the ba-bas, and Kit agreed to sing the descant part with the first sopranos. We thought about adding a pause for getting our notes where we all sing the same, and sometimes miss that note. We did fine with Donna just giving us a good chord on beat one. 

2. Sunshine Medley: We looked at Let the Sunshine, the last part of the medley. We decided to be very loose and fun with it. You don't have to follow the notes. We'll sing it in unison twice and then we'll break out into harmonies, just winging it- it worked really well. We repeat several times, and I'll invite the audience to sing along, and I'll stop it when we're all worked up ;-) We went back a little and worked on Don't You Worry Bout a Thing, and also sang all the way through. I'm putting a couple links here again for you to listen to so that you're more familiar with how Don't You Worry Bout a Thing sounds. 

SAB arrangement

from the movie Sing!

This is so good, and you can hear the soprano part really well. There's a lot of embellishment, but the main idea is clear. 

3. Walking on Sunshine: You've got this. We seem to forget a little when we don't sing it often, so we'll sing it more ;-) 

4. This Little Light of Mine: Wow! It's so good. I think the soloists are great.

5. On Eagles Wings: So beautiful. I hear that some sopranos don't know about not singing at 43, top of page 6. You come in soft at make you to shine. Altos, you're it here on those long notes, so balance out the volume to let the Tenors and Basses shine on the melody, and then altos and tenor/bass are strong through that whole page. At 61, you switch. Tenors and Basses have those long notes and soprano and alto are on the melody and need to be careful not to be too loud. We need T&B strong throughout that page as well.  

We continue to sell tickets. At choir you can tap a credit card! 

Next week, Tuesday, April 18th

at 6:30: Because We Believe (Bill solo) and Blair's solo at 7 or so.

Next week's songs:

• Sunshine Medley
• On Eagles Wings
• You'll Never Walk
• Walking on Sunshine
• Viva
• We Rise Again

YRCC 2023 Rehearsal Review April 4th

I'm starting to get excited (hyper/instense/overstrung) about our concert! 

Small group at 6:30 was Mad About Mozart, and it sounds so good! I can't wait for everyone to hear it. We'll bring in all the other solos and duets again over the next few weeks. 

Physical warm-up was the Macarena (fun!), and the vocal warm-up was You Raise Me Up. That's cheating, because it's really not great to warm up your voice by singing, but we were laughing and breathing hard during our physical warm-up, so hopefully you didn't strain your voices. 

1. Blue Skies: I selected the soloists: Lauren on the first and Melinda on the second. Debbie is a back-up for both. This is really very good, sounds great every time, and it's a crowd pleaser in the seniors homes. We reviewed proper snap form, and how to hold your binder when you're walking. Here's a video to watch to see how the snaps and jazz hands look. Also, watch it to hear how good it sounds. You don't get a good feeling for how we look or sound when you're in your section. Soloists for This Little Light of Mine will be Debbie and Blair, BTW, with Lauren and Melinda as back-ups. 

2. I Can See Clearly Now: This is coming along great! The blue skies part was a bit off at first, but we fixed it. I highly recommend listening to the excellent parts recordings on the website if you're feeling like you were missing anything, or maybe you just missed a few rehearsals. Your part is played over a choral version, so you can hear how you fit in with the rest of the choir. Here's a link to a performance on YouTube.

3. Sunshine Medley: We went over parts in the Don't You Worry Bout a Thing section. In a medly, there's always a little stress in the transition from one song to the next. But, I think this section is also difficult because it's not as familiar as the other pieces and because there are ba-bas. Here's a link to a choral version that inspired me and a link to the version from the movie Sing. 

4. We Rise Again: I selected Lauren to be the back-up for Marlene's solo. That doesn't include the second soprano part, so I'd be happy if one of the second sopranos could step up for this song at least. Lauren did a great job, nailed it on her first try. I'm still not hearing the tenor part in the second group of oohs and aahs. Maybe we should consider having you all on the bass part? Let me know what you think. Unfortunately, we lost the recordings for this, except for the accompaniment and alto part. Here's a video for you to watch, where you can watch a singer from your section, see/hear what they're doing.

5. You'll Never Walk Alone: Such an awesome arrangement! We looked at the second soprano bits that we often miss. The second syllable of "alone" has an extra syllable on beat 2 of the next bar (a-lo- 231-own). I want that one, but won't be sad if the quarter notes in "dreams" are missing. Here's a video to watch.

Tickets are $20 and you can start buying them for friends and family. We can take payment by credit cared with Square now. Cash and cheque are good too. Posters are availble if you have a spot to post them.

Tuesday, April 11th

6:30 Tomorrow Duet, 7:00 Together Wherever We Go Small Group

• Happy Together
• Sunshine Medley (Don't You Worry)
• This Little Light of Mine
• Walking on Sunshine
• Wonderful World

YRCC 2023 Rehearsal Review March 28

I apologize for being late with my review, and thank you for your patience.

Mad About Mozart met at 6:30. They'll have one more full rehearsal, and then we'll bring back Together Wherever We Go.

We warmed up with Hallelujah, which is always fun and sounds excellent. I love our arrangement.

1.We Rise Again. We studied the oohs and aahs. Altos, yours is the only parts recording that is still available on the website - the others are lost with our former webmaster.

2. Sunshine Medly: We learned the first section, Here Comes the Sun

3. I Can See Clearly Now: Sounding excellent! We're still working on coming in strong on the right note at 45. We'll keep on top of it.

4.Viva!: We looked at dynamics, when to be loud and when to get soft. Big Mozart drama: I love it!

5. Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring: Lovely!

6. Why We Sing: Always moving and satisfying. I might change the beginning. 

We are selling tickets to our concert. Remember to bring cash, or a cheque made out to York Region Community Choir, but we can now also accept credit card payment with our Square machine. Try it out! Copy this picture of our poster and put it in an email to all of your contacts, so that people know we're back! Share the event on Facebook, or  one of my messages with the poster. Let's try to get a full house. We can set tickets aside for pick-up at the door, but they will need to be paid for in advance. 

Tuesday, April 4th:

6:30 Mad About Mozart

• Blue Skies
• I Can See Clearly
• Sunshine Medley
• We Rise Again
• You Raise Me Up

I've been updating the website with events in the ARTS LISTING section, under NEWS.

My friend Judy Craig collects events and distributes regularly a listing of all the stuff going on in our area. She also sends me the occasional additional email with a poster or some info, which I've been adding, so I changed the name to Arts Listing Plus. 

I'm going to add this poster below for the Men of Note concerts coming up the weekend after ours. 

YRCC 2023 Spring Concert Poster- Happy Together May 6th at 3:00

 

YRCC Rehearsal Review 2023 March 21

 Happy Spring!

Mad About Mozart met early, having encountered and overcome a couple obstacles. 

Lauren started the warmup, since I was talking to Michael, our new Tenor or Bass (squee!). We danced to Don't You Worry 'Bout a Thing by Stevie Wonder, but it was the version from the movie Sing! It's sung by the Elephant named Meena (I think I said she was a hippo), the voice is Tori Kelly. We sang along to Let the Sunshine by the 5th Dimension. These are parts of my Sunshine Medley.

Tori Kelly and Meena

Meena gains confidence singing

1. Top of the World: very good. I've started conducting this in 2 instead of 4, and we'll feel more of a dancing and romantic energy. 

2. I Can See Clearly Now: yes! We did very well. This has a very different feel from Top of the World, and even from the popular radio version- it's supposed to feel Caribbean, laid back and groovy. This is a good piece to learn repeats and special instructions like D.S.al Coda, and a good introduction to reading the instructions and notations on sheet music. If you need help, go to the website where you can find recordings of parts. We worked on getting our notes at the coda, at bar 45. 

3. Viva!: Mozart, Italian, but easier than I Can See Clearly: no repeats, nothing confusing. We looked at the section from 38 to the end. We're doing great, and next time we'll look at dynamics, when to sing loud and when to sing soft. 

4. Sunshine Medley: Introduction, although some of us (maybe a dozen people) started learning this last spring. This is a post-pandemic, opening-up song. We think about getting out in the spring after a long winter, worrying about all kinds of things, fears lingering, but with friends by our side we let the sunshine in, feeling more and more confident. At the end, we'll invite the audience to sing along with us on "let the sunshine". There are ba-bas. Everyone gets to sing the do-do part of Here Comes the Sun. The accompaniment is on the website for help. 

5. We Rise Again: We started learning the oohs under the solo, but also reviewed the different sections, A, B, C, etc. We'll keep on working on this, even though it already sounds so good! I hope we get closer to the way it's written, but even if we don't, it's such a powerful piece that our audience will love it. 

We were talking about: the concert date. Saturday, May 6th. We will announce the time and date next week, and we'll start booking our friends and families. 

Next week, Tuesday, March 28th

Mad About Mozart meets at 6:30 again (hopefully the door will open on time)

• Hallelujah
• I Can See Clearly
• Sunshine Medley
• Viva
• We Rise Again

YRCC 2023 Rehearsal Review March 14th

6:30 Small Group: Mad About Mozart is coming along swimmingly! We sang up to bar 46. Melinda and I were thinking we should give the little sections that we've been learning letter names, like in We Rise Again. I'll do that at the end of this review, so that you can start using them next week. One small issue: the doors are supposed to open at 6:30 but it wasn't until about 6:40 that we were able to get in. 

Warm-ups were fun, again. After a brief physical and vocal warm-up, we did a big physical warm-up. We danced to Lady Gaga's Born This Way. Such a fun song, and appropriate for pi π day, or PIE day (where affirming churches are public, intentional, and explicit about their support of the 2SLGBTQI+ community.) People don't expect to hear this song at a choir concert, but they did, in 2012! 

1. On Eagle's Wings: a choral piece that people expect to hear. I love this arrangement, the best I've ever heard of this hymn. We reviewed some alto parts, and all parts on the ending. 

2. We Rise Again: we did section C (see the post about our arrangement and the letter names I gave to sections). Tenors and Basses have a cool special part which I want to hear, so Sopranos and Altos have to be quieter. There's some moving around of parts, so please look at that post. 

3. Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring: we sang both verses all the way through and it's really very good. 

4. Walking on Sunshine: we did a quick review of the key change, and the tenor/bass part after that. It's very good. 

5. Happy Together: our concert title is Happy (singing) Together, or something like that. This is going to be fun, energetic, and kind of cute. The ba-ba section is super! We had trouble getting the note where we're all together in the last section, the ending. We've got to figure something out- maybe a pause and Donna plays a chord?

Next week: Tuesday, March 21st, the first day of spring, first full day of the Persian New Year, which this year falls on Mon, Mar 20, 2023 at 5:24 PM 

6:30: Mad About Mozart

• I Can See Clearly
• Sunshine Medley
• Top of the World
• Viva
• We Rise Again

YRCC Arrangement Review: We Rise Again

I found the old post on our arrangement of We Rise Again with my notes on who sings what that I was talking about. Click on that link, if you like, but I'll redo it here and now.

Our version starts with a solo, which Marlene has agreed to sing for us. I'm looking for a back-up for that solo and for help with the First Soprano part. (Sop1 is a challenging descant part. Preview it if you can).

The Second Sopranos and the Tenors move a bit, from their usual lines- down to the Alto line for the Second Sopranos and down to the Bass line for the Tenors. Make notes and draw arrows or lines where you move down and back up. 

I have assigned letter names to the sections of the song so we can refer to them easily.

Section A: The beginning up to bar 13 is section A. Solo (Marlene) alone

Section B: bars 13-19: Solo on the top line, the solo line. Everyone else sings mm, oo, ah, SATB in the choir bracket, as usual, except Tenors move to sing the top part of the Bass line at bar 16 (nobody will sing the tenor line there-it's boring and useless) and Basses are on the bottom. (Bass is the bottom throughout- easy, also Altos are in their usual home throughout- easy.)

Section C: bars 19-27: No solo. Soloist moves down to the Soprano line with the First Sopranos. This is a descant part. Second Sopranos move down to the Alto line to sing the melody with the Altos. This is a very high Alto part, so I'm not taking away the Alto's special moment, I'm giving them a hand. Tenor and Bass each in your own line. Watch out for bar 22 beat 2 (come in nice and strong before the melody) and we moved the Basses beat 2 of bar 25  to beat 3, so you're together with the Tenors on the word ocean for a strong beat 3. Let the Tenors and Basses shine in this section, and let the melody of the chorus be softest (all sopranos and altos soft). (like Hallelujah, we want to hold back with the melody of the chorus for extra drama, but here we also have the extra drama of the T&B parts)

Section D: bars 28-39: Like Section B, the solo, plus choir oohs (and ahs!) SATB, as usual. The oos change to ahs after "we look to" in bar 33: at the pick-up to 34 for SAT on beat 3 or 4, and in bar 34 for Bass. (so, it's: oooo we look to aaahh)

Section E: bars 39-43: No solo. Like Section C, Soprano 1 is on the Soprano line, Soprano 2 and Alto sing the Alto line. Bass divides here, so Tenor takes the top and Bass the bottom. Nobody sings the tenor line in section E. (I've got pencil scratches completely obliterating the tenor line- I don't like reading the Tenor clef)

Section F: bars 43-51: No solo. This is where Alto, Tenor and Bass have melody! Everyone is in unison, except First Soprano. So, the Tenor line can be scratched out again. Bass clef is easier to read,  right?

Section G: bars 51- end. No solo. Almost exactly like Section F, but higher and louder. Scratch out that Tenor clef line again. There are a couple special Tenor bits but we're not using them. First Sopranos have a special bit in bar 58 (watch-it's lower than you expect), and then there's the ending. Bars 62-65: Second Sopranos move up to the Soprano line where they're supposed to be, the lower part there. Altos are alone on the Alto line, Tenors sing the top of the Bass Line, and Bass sings the bottom of the Bass line. Nobody on the tenor line.

YRCC 2023 Rehearsal Review March 7th

 We danced and sang with Beatles songs as part of our warm-up. Yay!

The Mad About Mozart small group started today. It was fun, but kind of hard. I'm happy that Lauren is going to be leading the small group ;-) We'll see if we can get recordings, and for now,  here's a YouTube video. Maybe this will help. 

1. Happy Together: Done! The ba-ba section is much easier than it looks. We reviewed the parts, and they're also pretty easy. We'll have all tenors and basses on part 2 with the altos for now. Once we're all together, I might ask one or two tenors to sing part 1.

2. Walking on Sunshine: Done! But, we'll keep reminding the tenor/basses about their part after the key change. Something about the key change pulls them to melody. I'm actually starting to like it that way, but maybe if some of you could sing the tenor harmony, it would be better. 

3. Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring: Done! We sang both verses! It's so good. The second verse needs to be looked at because the words are not as well known and fitting them into the melody is a little different. Pay attention to the phrase/slur marks that show you where the syllables go. We'll need to work on dynamics, but it's really very good as it is. 

4. This Little Light of Mine: Fun! Debbie and Blair sang the solos and they were great! This is an important part of our theme of rising like the sun. We feel the light and blue skies because of love, because of God, because it's our nature to cycle through seasons, but, but we have the power to shine our own lights! We shine! Every day, we must decide to let our lights shine, every day. 

5. We Rise Again: Powerful. Marlene does such a great job on the solo that people won't notice if we're a little messy on the oohs and ahhs. And, the choruses, and the key change work so well that everyone will love this song. All you have to do, really, is feel it and sing with passion. I want you to feel that the rising again is not passive, just something that happens in nature, and we are happily aware of it. But, instead, I want it to feel like something that we do with intention and joy. We rise! We get up, get outside, and like the sun, we let our lights shine, and we rise again and again. Happy Together, because we stepped out of our homes, and got in our cars and drove to choir (or walked to choir- Melinda). 

Next week, Tuesday, March 14th

6:30 Mad About Mozart

• Happy Together
• Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring
• On Eagle's Wings
• Walking on Sunshine
• We Rise Again

Next Tuesday is PIE day: 3.14. Eat pie! I'll probably have a savoury pie for dinner. 

Also, at our church, it's a day to be Public, Intentional, and Explicit (PIE) in our embracing the 2SLGBTQ+ community. I'm on the Affirming Church Team, so I'll be serving pie on Sunday to observe PIE day. So, maybe we'll talk about gender and sexuality at choir?

Next Friday is St. Patrick's Day.  

Make plans to wear green (drink something green?) and have fun! If you have a chance to dance next Friday for St. Patrick's Day, take it.

YRCC 2023 Rehearsal Review February 28th

 Oh what a night! It was fun and it was productive. 

Part of our warm-up was singing to an accompaniment soundtrack of Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head by Burt Bacharach who recently passed away (Feb.8, at 94). He also wrote What the World Needs Now, which is in our archives. It's amazing how many of us knew most of the words. Well, not so amazing. Music does that. It stays in our memories wonderfully, even when other memories fade. Music is magical. Part of our warm-up included stretches that we felt more than usual because of having had to shovel snow. 

Bill met with Donna at 6:30 to practise his solo piece. It's so beautiful! You're going to love it. 

1. Top of the World: It's very, very good! We talked again about what the basses could do. I think we ended up deciding that it was easiest if they sang what was written, or an octave down from what's written, and not the melody/soprano part an octave down (except for the entry/solo section which is all melody an octave down, with no harmony). More harmony is good. Something that made me very happy is that it was our first song of the night, and everyone watched me at the end and held the note about three extra bars! I love when I can play with an ending. Thank you for playing with me so nicely!

2. Viva!:  I have a note on my copy of Top of the World that says "not so stiff; loosen up". Viva should have the same energy as Top of the World, uptempo, cut time, very positive but with the opposite note: "tighten up." We worked on tightening up the timing. It's very important to observe the rests, always, and to keep the notes for their written length, always. Mozart's music gets a lot of energy from precise timing, from contrasts between short notes and quick parts and longer notes and grander sections. Our pronuciation needs a little tightening up too. Some folks were saying pwee instead of pyoo for più, "più caro" So, I was yelling out pyoo, pew, Pepe le Pew, church pews, pyoo-pyoo like a cartoon gun. It rhymes with you, cue, and the fancy way that we sometimes say new (or Tuesday) to sound like there's a y in there: not noo shoes, but nyoo shoes. If you catch yourself or someone near you pronouncing a word differently from those around you, let me know. Precision is a Mozart key word. 

3. Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring: We learned the last section. Tenor and bass divide her to wonderful effect, especially that last note. We did it! And, it sounded great and felt great. Next time, we'll do the second verse. I want us to end on the words: "in the love of joys unknown" (plus a hmm). Can hardly wait. I love this. 

4. Happy Together: Our theme song! Our concert will be called Happy (singing)Together! I am so happy- for real, so happy- that we're singing together again. Not singing together during the pandemic was super hard on me, even with the Zoom choir nights that we had. They were so much better than not singing at all, but real live choir is the very best thing in the world to me. We all know this song pretty well and the arrangement isn't too "special". We had sopranos on Part 1 and everyone else on Part 2. We might put a couple of Tenors on Part 1. In the last section, the ba-ba section, there's also a Descant part for the first Sopranos. We didn't get there yet. We sang from page 7, stopping at bar 55. The eighth notes in the ba-ba section go "ba-da-bop ba" This helps you to observe that little rest and it tightens up that rhythm. When you sing bop, it's short. You close your mouth for a fraction of a second. Very cool. 

5. Walking on Sunshine: We did it pretty slow, and very few people got lost this time. Maybe you've been practising? When it's up to speed, it's going to actually be easier. You'll loosen up and watch me, and we'll be great. I love the energy of this one. Donna's accompaniment is some good rock-n-roll! It makes me want to dance. During that section with the overlapping repeats where each section has their own part, watch me. It's my job to do the counting, to show you when to come in and when to stop, so just come in when I tell you and stop when I tell you. If I add an extra repeat or get your section in  early, at least we'll be together. Donna is awesome at fixing things that I mess up, so have faith and have fun. I'll try my best not to mess up, though. We reviewed the tenor part on the chorus because we need to hear that harmony. It's tempting to sing melody, I know. We also reviewed coming in at the coda. 1-2-1-2 and don't it feel good. 

6. Hallelujah: We had a few extra minutes so we sang this as a bonus. So good!

Next week: Tuesday, March 7th

6:30 Mad about Mozart Small Group! Sign up on the website. There's an Event set up. There's a link to the sheet music there and on the website in the recordings list. 

• Happy Together
• Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring
• This Little Light of Mine
• Walking on Sunshine
• We Rise Again

YRCC 2023 Rehearsal Review Valentine's Day February 14th

It was so good to have a long break with treats, and most importantly, time to chat with our choir friends, old and new! Many thanks to all who set up and contributed to the treats. 

We always start with a warm-up. We begin with stretches to release tension in our bodies, our necks, our shoulders, and anywhere tension is lurking, even our hands. We loosen up and also bring blood flow to the areas we're going to use. We open our chests and breathe with our whole bodies. I want your whole body to support your singing. 

1. You Raise Me Up: Inspiring and touching, this sone is one of our favourites and our fans love it too. Do you know that we started singing this after Bill sang it in a concert of ours as a solo? We loved it so much that we all wanted to sing it. I think our audiences now do too, so we're going to ask them to sing the chorus with us. 

2. Walking on Sunshine: I thought it sounded pretty good last time we sang it, but this time I noticed that a lot of you have not sung this before and were pretty lost. So, we started at the beginning and learned parts. Please take some time to sing along with your part in the recordings on the YRCC website, yorkregioncommunitychoir.org. You'll need to log in with your name and email address and your password. You can reset the password if you forgot it. Open the pdf of the music or use your binder, then sing with the recording of your part. Here's a link to the baritone part. 

3. Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring: We talked about how this is often played at weddings because it is so romantic. The original German lyrics are a much more personal and passionate song about Jesus. So, it's not just the contemporary Christian songs that are weirdly romantic songs about a personal relationship with Jesus. "He is my life's strength, my eye's desire and sun, my soul's love and joy". We went ahead and learned parts almost to the end! It's so cool, and beautiful, and satisfying to sing! We don't have parts recordings, but we have the accompaniment that you can practise with. 

4.You'll Never Walk Alone: When you make friends with the people at choir, you might find yourself going for walks together, or going to a bar, or chatting on the phone, and you will never have to be alone. We have walked through storms together holding our heads up high. Singing this is so rewarding that we can always hold our heads up proudly after this. It's a super strong version of this very famous song. See if you can catch a Liverpool soccer match to hear the whole stadium singing it. 

Here's us in 2014 singing it:

Next week: Tuesday, February 21st 

NO CHOIR  REHEARSAL 

(Churches need their spaces for Pancake Tuesday dinners. Lent starts on Wednesday, so Tuesday is Mardi Gras, or Shrove Tuesday, and the tradition of having pancakes for dinner at church is pretty great.)

See you all on Tuesday, February 28th

6:30 Bill: Because We Believe

• Happy Together
• Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring
• Top of the World
• Viva!
• Walking on Sunshine

2023 YRCC Next Small Group: Mozart

 Mad About Mozart is our next small group.

It's a fun piece using Mozart melodies to tell the story of Mozarts life and works. 

You get to sing more Mozart and it's English and it's interesting!

I'm going to set up an Event on our Website.

Here's a link to that video.

Here's a link to the sheet music and a sound sample too. 

I'll add the sheetmusic to the website so you can have a look there too.

This small group will start in March. 

YRCC 2023 Rehearsal Review February 7th

Before I review the rehearsal, here's the poster for the dance I'm inviting you to. All of our friends and family are invited to this dance at church. It's a disco dance and there will be wine and pizza and snacks for sale, but you don't have to buy anything or pay anything. The idea is just to dance and have fun, share the love of disco :-)

You can RSVP to me, or just show up. You'll find me dancing.  

my choir family is invited

Together Wherever We Go met again and they're so good!

Warm-ups were not nearly as cool as the videos I sent. 

1. Top of the World: was supposed to be a warm-up, but we discovered that there were a few of us who missed a bunch of the learning on that one. We rreviewed the baritone parts, mostly. We're still not 100% sure, but it looks like basses are singing the baritone part an octave down instead of soprano two octaves down. Having basses is so good!

2. Viva!: We got all the way to the end! We've now learned the whole thing, but we'll be working on it for some time. Don't worry. Remember you can go to the website and there's a link to your part being played so you can sing along with it. 

3. Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring! It's a joy to sing this. We just got started, with the first two pages. We'll take it slow and we'll review and repeat a lot. Remember your homework: look at the phrasing and pencil in the words that don't quite sit where they should for your part. The notes in a slur, or phrase mark, all go with one word. 

4. Walking on Sunshine: This is a fun and fast song and it's easy to get lost. Keep an eye on the Segno at 44, the chorus. Mark the coda, the beginning of the end. Always be careful with repeats. Watch me for when to come in and when to stop in that funny section which builds in parts like the thing in I Can See Clearly. See the snip below. You can rehearse with a recording of your part. It's on the website. 

For inspiration, watch the music video! 

5. Hallelujah: Always wonderful! Singing this makes me happy. I love our version best of all the gazillions of versions out there. 

I'm going to announce the small groups and solos in another post. 

We're not having a small group or solo meet for the next two weeks. Next week is Valentine's Day and the following week we don't have our room. We are hoping to get space to rehearse in St. Andrew's Presbyterian just up the street at Victoria and Mosley. I've put the location in the YRCC Calendar and updated the small group/solo time slots too. 

Next week: Tuesday, February 14th. Have a nice dinner with your home loves and then come and sing with your choir loves!

We're going to sing:

• Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring
• Viva!
• Walking on Sunshine
• You Raise Me Up
• You'll Never Walk Alone

Choir Warm-ups and Strained Voices

 If you find yourself hoarse at the end of the night on Tuesdays after choir rehearsals, you could have used a better warm-up. Or, maybe you just drank too much coffee. Or, you couldn't shake off your work day. Maybe the music wasn't your style, not your groove. It's not always from singing too high or too loud. 

Just like muscle strain in your shoulders or legs, your vocal muscles can get hurt because of tension and doing something new, or unusual. So, you need to sing all week long and you need to do a warm-up, just like you do with sports or other exercise, to avoid vocal strain on choir nights. 

General relaxation and good health and practice are key to avoidinig strain. 

Try not drinking coffee on choir day, and stay hydrated. Many of you remember diligently to bring a water bottle, but maybe you should consider a soothing herbal tea instead. 

Whenever you sing, at choir or at home, get the kinks out of your neck and shoulders before you start, and take some good mindful breaths at the very least. A yawn is a good gentle warm-up exercise. A general physical stretch-and-relax practice is recommended, so we always do that on choir nights. And, some people massage the outside of the neck and face, or the inside of the mouth with the tongue. 

Humming is excellent. Look it up. Studies have shown lots of benefits. Hum whenever you think of it, and hum some warm-up drills before you sing. 

Sirens (or rollercoasters) are good and can be done on lip trills (raspberries) or tongue trills (rrrr) or on the sound "ng"(like at the end of the word sing-we need to try this one). If you can't do the trills, you need to relax more. Tension is a big part of the problem. There are videos which might help you to learn to do lip trills. 

There are all kinds of videos and articles online on the topic of vocal warm-ups, vocal strain, choral warm-ups, and singing in general. They don't all apply to what we're doing. You're not a professional singer and you're not a professional speaker. You just want to use your voice to sing for fun, and you don't want it to hurt. 

Here are some different kinds of videos on YouTube. Find one you like and do some working out regularly so you're not getting that "weekend warrior" pain. 

Gentle VOCAL WARM UP for SINGERS | Rehabilitative vocal warmups | 15 minute vocal warmup

Gentle VOCAL WARM UP for SINGERS | Rehabilitative vocal warmups | 15 min...

10 Minute Vocal Warm Up For a Strained Voice

10 Minute Vocal Warm Up For a Strained Voice

10 Minute Daily VOCAL WORKOUT! Vocal Exercise (subtitles)

10 Minute Daily VOCAL WORKOUT! Vocal Exercise (subtitles)

I love that last one! Sparkle every day, people! 

YRCC Rehearsal Review January 31st

The small group singing Together Wherever We Go met early. They have learned the song and the next step is to make it visually adorable. 

We warmed up our instruments and made sure we were allowing lots of air to come out of our mouths with exercises to open our throats and stretch the upper and lower limits of our range of sounds (not necessarily 'singing' sounds). We did a few vocal exercises too, with short syllables and long vowels resonating in our sinuses. 

1. Blue Skies: "nothing but blue skies from now own" fits our theme perfectly. We have snaps and jazz hands and two short 'scat' solos. The sopranos start with snaps (two bars before Donna comes in) and alto tenor and bass start with melody. The bar before the sopranos start, they stop snapping, 13 (its not easy to snap and sing; too much pressure). The bar before the solos start, everyone snaps, top of page 5, and turns the page so you don't look at the music until page 6. Everyone stops snapping when we start singing again, 53. Easy-peasy. At the end, everyone does jazz hands with their right hands, on the last word "on". Watch how we snap so that you do it the same as everyone else. 

2. I Can See Clearly Now: Nothing but blue, blue skies! We looked at the ending, from the coda 43, coming in at 45, to the end. A good ending is so important! Be sure to observe rests. Look at the top of page 10 and maybe mark those two beats at the end of bar 48 so that you're not holding "way" too long. 

3. Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring: We are singing the English words and we say "Jay-zoo". We sight-read through the first verse. It's pretty, but difficult. Your homework is to look at your part and see where your notes don't match the words as they are written. Altos and Baritones especially have some really cool parts. Look at the slur lines connecting notes to see where the words move and where they start and stop. For example, look at the words Love and Most, here below from page 3. Sopranos have 3 syllables on love and two on most. Altos have one syllable on love and 4 on most! Baritones have 2 syllables on love and one on most, and the location of the word most is deceiving. If I were singing baritone, I would cross out most and write it over the note on beat 3, where I need to sing it. Also, for the second verse, 'sic' from music falls on beat 3 so I would write that in too, maybe like this: zik. Be sure to make any markings in pencil. If you ever leave the choir, someone else will get your music, and they might sing a different part. Or, the director might ask you to do things differently from year-to-year. 

4. Viva!: Encourage everyone to live life well, especially those dearest to your heart (piu caro in vostro cor). We did the whole next section, from 19 to 32, starting with all the altos and sopranos on that optional solo section. It's so pretty with all of you singing! The most difficult part there is the baritone line in the first system of page 8. If you have a chance to listen to that part, please do. 

5. On Eagle's Wings: We sang the whole thing and noticed that some sopranos forgot to mark that they're not singing at 43, but only come in at "make you to shine" and make it soft and angelic, please. This section is all about the altos: look at their sun. The ending needs work so that we get it tighter. Make sure you are observing those rests on beats 2. 

We talked about small group and solo suggestions. I already have more than enough suggestions so that I won't be able to include all of them; however, if you have a great idea, I'm still all ears, open to suggestions, until next week. I have to decide at least who is going to rehearse next. Do we want an early group on Valentine's Day evening? Maybe that's not a good idea? We need to make some decisions next Tuesday. 

Here's the One Voice trio we were talking about. This version is not the original, but I like it a lot. It fits our theme beautifully: singing together, helping each other to make it through, surrendering to the mystery, singing with love and a will to trust. All of us=one voice. I just saw a video with a choir singing it, and I think we might want to do this next year. Oh, my goodness, it's everything, this song. Tab has agreed to join Melinda and Lauren on this. Thank you! 

Next week, Tuesday, February 7th

6:45 Together Wherever We Go 

• Hallelujah
• Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring
• Top of the World
• Viva
• Walking on Sunshine

YRCC 2023 Rehearsal Review January 24th

 Life is so much better with choir! 

I was a bit frazzled from my day at work but soon forgot all of that and had a wonderful evening.

We had a quick warmup only so that we could get singing asap.

1. Why We Sing- so satisfying. Not sure how I want to do the beginning this year. Maybe we'll do it differently. Not the back and forth? We discovered that could use another one or two additional first sopranos. If you'd like to try, sit in front with Anna next week. We don't have a lot of first soprano parts, but a few important ones, like this song and We Rise Again, and a few special bits, kind of like bass parts. The special bits usually go above C so you have to be comfortable singing D E F and up to G, and the odd A.

2. Top of the World- we've got it. We just sang it through and we'll keep on getting better. Sweet.

3. On Eagle's Wings- We looked at all the "make you to shine like the sun" and they are pretty cool. We'll keep on tweaking and improving, but it's really quite good already. Well done! Sopranos and Altos marked their music at 43 with a note to say "altos only and soft". Baritones have the melody there, and then altos have a really good "sun" there. Altos should be loud on "sun". Sopranos have a pretty "make you to shine" which should be strong but not louder than the altos. Pretty like angels floating above the melody. At 61, the baritone part has the special bit that the altos had at 43, a harmony above the melody. Don't slip into melody there. Soprano and Alto both sing softly on the melody: stronger than just the altos, but not loud. The baritone line has the melody and should be strong right through make you to shine like the sun and "sun" is good and strong, please. Altos have a special sun again too. We looked at the whole ending, with special attention to altos and baritones again. Watch out for the short movements onto beat one at: 88, 90, 94. Don't hold them longer-observe those rests on beat two! I might lengthen beat one at 94: watch! That's the beginning of the end and you need to be watching anyway. There's a rit.(ritardando, slowing down) there which means the tempo will depend on the conductor, so watch. We added a bass note to the very end "hand", a low A (or was it an F?).

4. Viva!- It's so cool singing Mozart and so close to his birthday, January 27th! We did really well and sang all the way through the first section. We sang in Italian! Some of us are a little worried about how to say the r sounds. It's not a big deal but maybe we'll work on it a bit. Pay attention to the rests. Don't hold notes longer than written. There are short half-beat rests, one-beat rests, and two-beat rests. This Mozart piece is delightful and good for learning how to read note values, because it's pretty clear and even 4/4 time. 

5. I Can See Clearly Now- We reviewed the changes to the lyrics here and there, and looked at the parts at 16. We did great despite a few new folks getting lost. It's a bit confusing, but we'll keep working at it. Be sure to have a look at the repeats and the notes about them. Make note of the segno at 25 and the Coda at 43 where you come in at 45. We'll need to go over those sections again too. No worries. 

We talked about: small groups and solos

If you have an idea for a small group song or would like to sing a solo that fits in our theme, please let me know as soon as possible. I'll need 4 or 5 at the most. We've started Together Wherever We Go and in 2 weeks, we'll start the next one. We'll need to plan for rehearsal time with Donna at 6:30. I've got 3 solo suggestions and 4 small group possibilities, and when I've heard from everyone, I'll see which ones fit best. 

Next week:

• Blue Skies
• I Can See Clearly Now
• Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring
• On Eagle's Wings
• Viva

YRCC 2023 Rehearsal Review January 17

 Our warm-up included breathing, stretching and yawning, sirens/rollercoasters, na-nas and do-dohs. 

1. Wonderful World was also a warm-up, as it's sweet and not too challenging. 

2. We Rise Again was not on my list for tonight, but the composer of this song, Leon Dubinsky passed away earlier in the day, and it felt good to sing him home this way. I also had Dorothy Street in my mind as we sang this beautiful song about how life doesn't end when we die. We learned today that Dorothy passed away on Sunday. Dorothy sang Tenor, and was vibrant and youthful, always busy and singing, despite some health issues. We were surprised to hear that she was 93. Inspiring. 

3. Top of the World is done! Well, we got to the end. We'll sing it a lot in the next few months, don't worry. Something we talked about is how you are encouraged to make notes on your music- in pencil- because I often change things. We added a bass part to this because I felt that the baritone line was too high for our basses. They will sing melody 2 octaves down, mostly with sopranos, except in the section from bar 66-bar 74. Donna made up a great part for them to sing there, a low harmony to the baritone part. Remember to sing the same rhythm as, move with, the baritones, and not the sopranos in this section. We reviewed the alto part at 52 which is a bit tricky. It comes again at 74. 

3. Viva! This is one of two classical pieces in our binders this season. It's short and exciting and we're singing in Italian! Yay! The Italian is so much better. And, you can easily learn this at home by following along with your part on videos on YouTube. You can get there through my channel, but I'll put the direct links on the website. The video is just the sound, nothing to watch, so you'll want to look at your music while you listen. Look on the pdf side for my Viva Notes on Pronunciation (and meaning).  It's not difficult and there are so very few words to learn- don't worry. You're going to wish it were longer. 

4. On Eagle's Wings is so good, but I want to make it even better. We need to look at all the "make you to shine like the sun" parts. That's our theme, sunshine. It goes with This Little Light of Mine, I'm gonna let it shine". Same thing. (also We Rise Again like the sun, see?) I had planned to go through all of them this week, but we ran out of time. I wish choir nights were longer! You can look at them on your own, but we will do it together. Sopranos have it easy but still have to pay attention. Altos have a couple special ones. Tenors have special ones too. Here's where to look: bar 11, bar 29, 47 and 48, 65 and 66, 85. I especially love 48 an 66, altos and tenors. 

Next week:

6:30 Small Group Together Wherever We Go Starts! I've got three early Tuesdays booked on the YRCC Calendar for you. This is going to be a fun and cute song with back-and-forth interaction with body language and dynamics to make it "delightful" Here's a video for you to watch. 

Some of you have started coming forward with ideas for solos and small groups. If you have an idea for a small group or a solo you'd like to sing that you think will fit in with our theme, please do let me know. It's great to have lots of ideas to choose from! If you have a solo piece, be sure to get the music for Donna to play the accompaniment and so that I can have a look. Once I've taken a look, I'll choose a few and we'll book time with Lauren and Donna for you in that early slot 6:30-7:30. 

Next week's plan:

• Blue Skies
• I Can See Clearly
• On  Eagle's Wings
• Viva
• Why We Sing