I'm feeling great after our gold-star rehearsal performances last night! It was also wonderful for me to sit with the small group and sing their song and enjoy harmonizing. What a special thing it is to sing together! We're so lucky we get to do this every week!
The small group that met at 6:30 was singing their second song, Colors, when I arrived, and I didn't have to think twice before accepting their offer to join them. It's a special song, and it felt wonderful harmonizing with some of my favourite choristers and with Donna's asoundingly beautiful ad-lib accompaniment.
Our warm-ups included singing "meow" (miao?) like a cat and talking about why that's useful. I had forgotten, but it's really just a nasal tone exercise that releases vocal tension, and the silliness of it releases performance tension. And, then we had to compare it to dog sounds like "woof" which Lauren taught us is also used to manage airflow. I've found a bunch of different dog sound exercises today, and other animals sounds too. So, I think we might want to have some fun with more animal sounds in the future. I have to apologize for going off track on the dogs vs cats tangent. I had just read a strange post about feral cats, and it was so irreverent; sorry. We did a few different physical exercises too, and that came from my reading about maintaining stability and balance as we age. I'm going to be using more of that going forward, as we can all benefit from better stability and balance not just for performing but also in our everyday lives.
1. It's a Grand Night for Singing: It was truly grand. We had a good laugh after we finally mastered the ending. Singing what is written always sounds good. I don't know what we were doing before, but this time, we just went over what is written in the second ending on page 5 and it was excellent. We needed some work on that last bar where everyone except the Basses moves up, and First Sopranos go way up: a big ending!
2. Why We Sing: The four soloists/quartet at the beginning makes it build with much more drama. We figured out who sings what there, and we'll give it another go next week. This is the opener this time, our first song. We've traditionally used it as a finale and sometimes as an encore, but this new arrangement with the first verse and chorus by a small group works well as an opener. It's a good introduction to our theme too.
3. Canon of Joy: This song will follow Why We Sing in the program, and the emphasis is on everlasting JOY and the message on page 7: Though our hearts be tried and troubled, still our song none can destroy. "All our days" and "everlasting" are positive and wonderful, not boring. Remember that it's your job to make sure it doesn't sound boring, each time you sing joy, bounce on the dj sound and release the oy with grace and beauty. Watch me for dynamics, sing page 5 softer, then louder both times.
4. We Rise Again: Awesome! Now that we're so good, we can think about looking up from our music as we sing the second and third chorus. You're all singing the same thing every time, except the First Sopranos. You shouldn't need to look at your music. We were reminded that we're supposed to hold our binders up so we can read the music and easily look up at the conductor and/or the audience, high enough so you don't have to look down, and angled so that your face is not covered. This will also help with your posture as you sing. Your head should be held high and facing forward, back straight, shoulders back. Looking down, neck bent, shoulders in, is not going to sound good or look good, and it will hurt in the long term.
5. Hymn to Freedom: This comes before We Rise Again in the program, but both songs have good, big endings. I'm not sure about my order anymore. I've been having second thoughts (and thirds).
6. One Voice: This is our finale, but, although it's excellent and builds to a beautiful big ending, it's too short to inspire a standing ovation.
7: Thank You For the Music: This song is second-last. It's awesome, but doesn't have a big ending, and it's a little bit too self-centred. Someone suggested Hymn to Freedom might do the trick?
8. Here's to Song: This is going to be stuck in my head all week again. I love this, and it will be the first song in our last set. It's not a finale song, is it? Back to the drawing board.
We talked about:
Scarves: many people forgot to bring in their scarves. We need to do a big assessment and cut some in half. There are a number of double-sized scarves out there, so they won't be too small when cut in half. We originally cut them in half, but then mistakenly sent some out too large. Bring in your scarf next week.
Tickets: Buy any additional friends and family tickets next week. Online tickets are $25 and they'll be $25 at the door as well. The new website is up, and tickets are available there: yrcc.ca. We have a little more work to do to integrate the members-only content from the old site and to redirect from that web address. But, it's looking good!
Concert Order: Jane's been working on the program, and I've entered the concert order on the website. But, now I'm going to be thinking about possibly changing it. As always, the run-through rehearsal is our chance to hear how it flows and to see how it looks (people moving, microphoness) before the program is set, so we can make last-minute changes. I have to give you an order next week so that you put your binders in concert order for the 28th run-through rehearsal. Next week is our last chance to go over parts, and on the 28th, we won't sing through every song, so think about what you might want to review next week before we move on to performance-readiness.
Seniors Visits: Jane is working on booking our Spring Seniors Tour. It will start on Tuesday, May 12th. As soon as we get some bookings, I'll enter them on our calendar (s). We have a calendar on the website now, so I'll figure out how best to use that. And, I'll set up Events for you to sing up in on the old site. This allows us to manage how many of each part we get at our seniors performances, since some places are small and some choir members can't make all of them.
Next week: Tuesday, April 21st We're in our usual room at the Admin. Ctr.
Bring your scarves!
Small groups:
6:30 Canada's Song (Free to Be), 6:50 Colors, 7:10 My Life Flows On (How Can I Keep From Singing).
- Canadian Sing-alongs
- Here's to Song
- Grand Night for Singing
- Why We Sing
- I'd Like to Teach the World
- Circle Game?
- Anything you want to go over
Binders will be in concert order, so there's not searching for music between songs.
Small Groups and Soloists: be prepared to start as early as 6:00!
Eveyone be there early 7:00 and be prepared to end later than usual!
All instruments will be there.
All props (geese, chairs, campfires) to see how they work.
Wear comfortable clothes and shoes so you can move around. Maybe bring a snack?
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