YRCC Executive 2014/2015

Introducing 

the Executive of the York Region Community Choir 

for the 2014/2015 Choir Year:

The Executive works together with the Director and Accompanist, and the Reading Committee, to choose music, decide when and where we sing, and make sure people are there to sing and to hear us sing, and take care of our equipment, finances, website and music library.The Executive is elected and the Reading Committee, Conductor and Accompanist are appointed. 

Our President is Lauren Solar (laurensolar@gmail.com). This is Lauren's second year as President. Lauren is responsible for everything happening. 

Our Vice-President is Heather Vickers (hvickers@bell.net). With experience as President and Public Relations Chair for the YRCC, Heather will be there to help Lauren and anyone else on the executive when they need a hand. Heather is also one of the Assistant Directors, helping to rehearse small groups. 

Our new Public Relations Chair is Roxanne McCormick (roxannemccormick@rogers.com). If you need to contact us regarding advertising, or to book us for a concert, or just need some information, contact Roxanne. The PR role is to keep us connected to the community.  

Daphne Young (youngdc@rogers.com) is our Secretary/Treasurer, having taken over from Michele Horton 2 years ago. If you want to write us a cheque, make it out to York Region Community Choir, and Daphne will put it in our account. We accept cash too. Daphne will keep our paperwork in order, creating and maintaining records like the minutes of our meetings and accounting stuff. Michele will support Daphne and will continue to represent us when we share condolences and congratulations. 

Trix Verge (trix.verge@gmail.com) is our Music Librarian and Webmaster. She has our music collection in her basement and makes sure we all have music to sing every Monday, and has extra binders made up for guests, or people who are checking us out. If you have a binder of music that belongs to us and want to know how to get it back to us, contact Trix. Trix is the one to go to for help using the website (although any member of the executive can also help you), and she makes sure that it's functioning properly. 

Carol Ford and Debbie Hood are the Registrars. They make sure the membership list is up-to-date and coordinate our Coffee/Social hours, among other things. They will be calling you if you're on the waiting list. Debbie's had our coffee (and tea) equipment and supplies in her basement for many years. She buys good Decaf. 

Heather Vickers, Teija Cumming and Enid Maize are the Reading Committee. They help choose music and order it from the publishers, shopping in person and on line. They are chosen for their ability to read music and knowledge of our strengths and weaknesses. 

Renate Naghavi (That's me.) is the Conductor/Musical Director of the YRCC. The Conductor chooses a theme and selects music for each season, with the help of the Executive and the Reading Committee, and with input from the Accompanist. The Conductor teaches the music with the help of the Accompanist, and leads the choir in performances. 

Anne Marie Vandekemp has been the Assistant Director, officially and unofficially for at least a decade. Since she is one of the original members of the choir, Anne Marie is consulted on everything from music to venues and managing member politics. Together with Heather Vickers, Anne Marie leads the small group rehearsals. 

Sapphire Navaratnarajah is our Accompanist. She is a talented pianist who helps Renate teach the music and accompanies the choir in rehearsal and in performances. 

Monday, Monday, How I missed my Mondays! Did you miss the rehearsal?

It was so so so good to sing again yesterday!

After a very long summer, members of the York Region Community Choir got together in a Newmarket backyard for a sound check and rehearsal for our upcoming wedding gig.

It was wonderful! It felt great! It was fantastic seeing you all again! It was so exciting that my baton ended up flying over the fence into a neighbour's yard! I was that wired.

Our sound system didn't end up working the way we wanted, and we're figuring out a Plan B, but that's why we were there.

The singing was way way way wonderful, enough to make up for the disappointment, though! We kept singing after we lost our accompaniment a couple of times, and our sound was incredibly beautiful. Our songs are beautiful. It's going to be great!

For those of you who weren't able to be there (or if you were and want to work on it before Sept. 8), please go to YouTube and watch the Blue Skies snaps to see how they go (search: Blue Skies YRCC). Sopranos snap alone at the beginning and everyone snaps during the solo. Also, please listen to Sapphire's recordings of your parts of In My Life to hear the timing of the ending "in my life, I loved you more". The word life does a much quicker thing than what we've been doing. Let's try to do it the right way.

The Newmarket Jazz+ Festival: Next Weekend!

Next weekend you'll hear lots of jazz "plus" lots of other great music at the Newmarket Jazz + Festival: the + means there's something for everyone, not just jazz enthusiasts (some jazz fans will be disappointed). Last year I saw quite a few excellent performances, lots of different kinds of jazz, and there was rock, pop, big band, folk, and fusions of genres too. For only $5/day you will hear and see amazing live music of all kinds. You can come and go all day with a wrist band, so you can go up to Main Street too. There will be events happening there too all weekend. You could go home for meals, but there will also be food and drinks for sale at the Jazz Festival and on Main Street of course. The whole event is licensed so you can buy beer and wine to sip on while you listen. Cool. There are things going on indoors too: kids' stuff mainly, and free workshops. Soraya and I will be volunteering there this year, so maybe you'll see us working, and you'll see us in the audience too. There are a few bands we saw last year that we'd really like to see again.

Missing Choir over the Summer?

If you're missing choir over the summer, like me, you can:

1. go to our website and look at some photos of us on Concert Night, May 3rd, and some old ones too;

   

   Do you miss this face?

2. while you're at the website, visit the Forum section under Members-Only to join a discussion or to start one; 
3. also on the website, under Members-Only, you can look up friends from choir using the the Membership Directory and send them emails or phone them up to chat or invite them out for a coffee, or a martini;
4. watch the YouTube videos of the concert. Like and Comment.Share your favourites with friends and family, and send them to your best choir friend with a joke about your/her/his face while singing;
5. visit our Facebook page. Post something, or comment on a post that's there;
6. sing in the shower;
7. sing in the car;
8. sing in the kitchen;
9. sing around a campfire;
10. sing on a lake;
11. think of more places to sing, and go and sing there.

Truly Our Very Best Performances: Seniors' Homes

We had another fantastic evening singing with seniors last night! What a great show! We all had fun and did a great job.

It's so much more relaxing singing for seniors in their homes! The casual feel of having the audience right there, only an arm's length away, in armchairs in the activity room or main lounge of the seniors' residence takes away a lot of our performance panic. The other thing is that we know our music pretty well by now, having had "the big test" at our formal concert. So, we sound really good!

I like to have fun with the audience and start talking to them right away. I introduce every song and I try to get the audience to laugh. At our formal concerts, I speak very little and don't comment on every song, but group songs into themes, letting the songs speak for themselves.

We do our songs, and we do them really well, since we're relaxed and the audience is smiling and friendly. Then, we pass around duotangs with a selection of sing-along songs from "Sentimental Journey Down Memory Lane," a publication by the Ontario Society of Senior Citizens' Organizations. Here's where we get really silly. I always make the same jokes and we always groan at them, while the seniors always laugh. We sing out loud, making up harmonies and fancy endings as we go, and the seniors sing along. I often walk through the crowd and encourage people. How wonderful to see tired old faces open up and shine and old bodies move to the music! Yesterday, there was a man conducting along with me in his own style, sometimes getting out of his seat.

The very best thing about singing with seniors is when they stop us as we're leaving to thank us. Sometimes they have cool stories to tell. Often, something we've sung has awakened a memory for them. Yesterday, a woman shuffled up to me with her walker, her eyes "legally blind," she said, to tell me that our songs from Nova Scotia (Farewell to Nova Scotia and Song for the Mira) reminded her her youth spent in Nova Scotia and of the time during WWII when she was a code breaker there. Cool! What a great feeling to bring someone back to a time when they were young and vibrant! How precious to see them vibrant again!

These are our best concerts, and they're the shortest and simplest. When they thank us at the end, we always say, "It was truly our pleasure. Thank you, for inviting us into your home to sing with you."

Videos of our show are now on line!

You can now see and hear how fabulous we were!
Standing in the choir and singing, you don't get a good sense of how we sound. You'll be amazed at how wonderful the choir sounds and how great we look when you watch the videos that Gerry posted. I've only watched a couple so far, and they're amazing!
Here's Song for Canada. Heather sounds beautiful, the French sounds really good, the descant at the end is powerful, and the ahs are excellent (really-listen)! I love it.
Enjoy!

A Real Success: What makes a wonderful show?

Your Best Concert Ever!!!

I can't tell you how many times I've heard this over the past few days. Saturday night's concert, Take Me Home, was indeed our best concert yet. It felt wonderful, didn't it? What a high!

The concert was far from perfect, though. And, I'm not looking forward to seeing some of the videos, reliving some of the messy moments. But, recordings are very different from live performances. Being there was exciting and the experience of the show was powerful. The recordings will not be able to replicate the experience.

So, if we made a bunch of mistakes, forgot words, lost control of our voices, had issues with getting on and off stage elegantly, didn't all wear black to the floor, and didn't smile like we're supposed to, how was it so good, the best?

1. When we sounded good, we sounded really great. 50+ voices are powerful and we had lots of really impressive music, with lots of perfect endings with good strong harmonies. Trinity Anglican Church in Aurora has excellent acoustics and a great sound system, so sound was excellent.

2. The music was excellent. We had a great selection of music, with a huge variety so that everyone was entertained and impressed. The theme was Canada and Home, so it was easy to find great music.

3. Emotion and passion. The theme was so good because it inspired passion and lots of emotions. We had the audience laughing and crying, singing and clapping along and pin-drop silent, feeling homesick and patriotic, and then jumping to their feet for 2 standing ovations.

4. The audience was great! They were friends and family and they want us to succeed, but we work hard to make them happy too. We engaged the audience and we gave them a good ride, with emotions going up and down, with the tempo and volume changing, visual and aural stimulation in good balance, but they were supportive coming in. And, it helped that it was a huge audience. There's a lot of energy in numbers.

5. Food and comfort. When people get together, you'd better have refreshments. We have the very best bake sale anywhere, ever. And, our space is comfortable, we fit. There are bathrooms upstairs and downstairs, there's space for us to move around and talk during intermission, and there's lots of free parking. The room doesn't get too hot or too cold. Physical comfort is a big deal.

6. Fun. The intangible thing. We enjoyed ourselves, and the audience enjoyed themselves, and that made us even better, so they felt even better, and so on. (Remember that TV ad: "When you're looking good, you feel good. And, when you feel good, you look great!) Right from the beginning, we could see the audience loving us and enjoying the music, so we responded with an even more joyful performance. Enthusiasm counts big-time, and I can't repeat enough that you should smile and relax and have fun when you perform.

As your leader, I try to start with enthusiasm. I get really excited about a show, so the energy is there with all that adrenalin. But it really begins before we even start rehearsing. I start with a selection of music that I love, and as soon as we start rehearsing, I try to get you to love it too. I put energy and love into each song, and when all of you do too, it's powerful.

I also prepare you for mistakes so that when I'm a bar late with your entry, Sapphire can fix it when we do all come in, because we are all together. We don't worry about our messy bits, but go on, and the parts that weren't perfect are quickly forgotten, if they were even noticed, water under the bridge. They will be there in the recordings, but the recordings are not the show. The show was magnificent! We were fantastic!

April 21st Review and Prepare for Monday 28th at Trinity in Aurora

Mon April 21

6:30-Edelweiss was wonderful, This Land is Your Land was good and we will have our music, NWPassage was wonderful (memorizing would be nice). Remember how we stood for all the small groups because they all sounded and looked good.

7:00 Soloists: Janet and the Kevins were excellent, loved Trix, and Stanley and Mona surprised us (Don't tell your friends and family-let them be surprised at the concert.) Heather with the Kevins was also excellent.

1. Farewell to Nova Scotia: Intro is the last 2 lines of the chorus. Remember at the end we do the chorus twice and then repeat the last line slowly and with harmony.
2. Take Me Home: we'll ask the audience to sing along, at the latest by the last chorus. 
3. They All Call it Canada. Tenors and Basses remember to come in BIG on your section.
4. Banks of Nfld. was amazing. I'm so glad we pushed ourselves to do this song! You're welcome for choosing Todd for this fantastic solo.
5. Hallelujah was lovely as usual with Gerry and Kit on the solos.
6. We Rise Again is so powerful! I take full credit for choosing Kristen's amazing voice.
7. Song for the Mira is such a great song. We have Trix, Louisa, Anne-Marie and Lauren on solos and Robyn on the flute and it's so cool!
8. In My Life is perfect- a Beatles song and a jazz choir arrangement. We worked on this a bit. Review the section starting on bar 41.
9. The Hockey Song. Yes!

Mon. April 28 Run-through Rehearsal (not a dress rehearsal)

6:00 Set-up and Small Groups and Soloists. We need all accompanists and anyone who is going to be at a mic. Solos and Duets then Small Groups (6:30) all done by 7:00.

7:00 Everyone if possible. Get on stage and see how we fit, where to stand. Warm up. Find our places on the side too.  See how the microphones fit, guitars, etc.  early Sound Check of choir with piano and choir with guitars.

7:30 GO! Start with O Canada and go through the show order. We won't sing all songs all the way though. We will definitely sing all of: Nella Fantasia, In My Life, Jamaica Farewell, Song For the Mira, Banks of Nfld., They Call it Canada.

Reviewing and Previewing April 14 and 21 Rehearsals

April 14  Sandra and Michele were selling tickets

6:20 This Land is Your Land: We're working on memorizing, but trying words-only first. Carol had emailed everyone with the words sheet she has made and you can customize it for yourself. Thanks, Carol!
6:50 Northwest Passage: We positioned everyone around the guitars, so Kevin and Heather are in the middle, and Todd, Ellen, and Janet fan out from Kevin, while Trix, Melinda and Lauren fan out from Heather. Sounded fabulous!

1. Jamaica Farewell was excellent. I like it better a bit slower, more relaxed. It tends to get a bit rushed. Tenors and Basses are doing an excellent job, and the Sopranos are doing well keeping their big group sounding blended and not too loud.

2. Song for Canada was also excellent. Don't stress over the ahhs. If we have 7 or 8 part harmony there, it's okay. It's fast and over before you know it.

3. We Rise Again: We learned the ending. It's fantastic! The whole song is beautiful and I can't wait to share it with our audience! We reviewed the first set of ahs.

4. Farewell to Nova Scotia: Fun! We created a longer introduction and reviewed the ending: we sing the chorus twice and repeat the last line slowly- watch me.

5. All the Little Rivers: Superb! Remember I want big Porcupine and shockingly little Saskatchewan, like the drama in Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves. We reviewed the top of page 7. It sounded even better when we sang it as written ;-) Tenors and Basses, whatever you can give me there will be great, just sing!

6. Banks of Newfoundland: Amazing! Sapphire convinced us that we could do it a cappella, and she was right! It sounded so good, much better! Just be sure to watch and move together.

7. Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves was gorgeous as usual. You did a great job of making a dramatic difference between the loud and big part and the soft and short part.

April 21 
Sandra and Michele will sell tickets. Get them in advance for a savings of $5/couple

6:30-7:00 Small Groups will each have a short run-through (Edelweiss, This Land, NWP)
7:00- 7:20 Solos and Duets will each have a short run-through (Stanley, Mona, Trix, Heather, Janet, Kevin)

• We Rise Again
• Banks of Newfoundland
• Hallelujah (Gerry and Kit)
• Hockey Song 
• In My Life
• Song for the Mira (Trix, Louisa, Anne Marie, Lauren)
• Take Me Home
• They All Call it Canada
• You'll Never Walk Alone

Rehearsal Review and Preview: April 7 and 14

Monday, April 7
6:40: Edelweiss
Northwest Passage had to cancel their early rehearsal, so only Edelweiss met. They were able to start a little later and enjoy some extra time.

Warm-up was Happy :-)

Shenandoah was great. We reviewed page 6 for the Altos and Tenors, and the top of page 5 (away you rolling river) for the Sopranos. Sopranos, remember you don't have melody there. Your "way"note is the same as the tenor's first note of "away", but an octave up. If you imagine singing "away" with them, go back up to that first note.

Take Me Home is the name of our concert, so we quickly learned Take Me Home, Country Roads by John Denver! It's super-easy, since everybody knows that song, or so it seems anyway. We're singing it the way we do sing-alongs. If you can harmonize, do it. If your neighbour is harmonizing in a way you like, follow them. It's fun and big and I'll probably ask the audience to sing along. (Kudos to Sapphire who sight-read the accompaniment.)

We Rise Again is almost done! We learned sections B and C, so all we have to do now is the ending! Review the hmms, oohs and aahs in both sections and First Sopranos and Tenors have a different harmony on this first verse, so review that if you can.

We tried out different soloists for Song For the Mira. Everyone is so good. It will be hard to choose who sings in the concert. The flute sounds so pretty! We spent a little time reviewing pages 8-11 for the Altos, and Tenor and Bass can review that as well. I love this song. It's the one that's been stuck in my head this week.

We sang through The Hockey Song and it's great!

We also sang through Nella Fantasia, which was beatutiful! I thought this would be the song to stick in my head, and I wished it. This is one of my favourite pieces of music.

It's funny, around this time of the season, I love all of our songs. I guess they're like our children now. We've raised them and can be proud of them, and see and appreciate the beauty in each one. Something for you to remember: Little mistakes will not make us love them less. And, others rarely notice the little things that our children do that disappoint us, right?


Monday, April 14
6:20 This Land is Your Land
6:50 Northwest Passage

1. We Rise Again: We'll learn the ending.
2. Farewell to Nova Scotia: Sing through
3. All the Little Rivers: review that transition at the top of page 6
4. Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves: Sing through
5. Song for Canada: Sing through
6. Jamaica Farewell: Sing through

Note: our last rehearsal is after this, April 21. We'll go over any tricky bits that need review. Think about what parts those are. I'll take requests.

On April 28 we'll be at Trinity Anglican Church in Aurora to rehearse with the sound guy, Doug, and to see where we stand, etc. If you cannot be at that rehearsal, but will be at the concert, you must let someone in your section know, so that they save a spot for you.

Our Beautiful Concert Poster: Paint the town with it

Take Me Home: YRCC Spring Concert, Saturday May 3, 2014

Time to start promoting our show!

Saturday, May 3rd at 7:30 in the evening.

The show will be called: Take Me Home.

Take Me Home, the annual Spring Concert of the YRCC will feature songs of Canada and Canadian artists, and music that takes us home. 

Tickets are on sale now! 

Advance tickets are 2/$25 when you purchase them from a choir member! 

Buy tickets for your friends and family now and save!

Single tickets are $15 each. 

Tickets at the door are $15 each.

Take Me Home

Monday, March 31 and Monday, April 7: Rehearsal review and preview

In case you missed the rehearsal, or if you want a reminder of what we did:

March 31st
6:20 This Land is Your Land
6:50 Northwest Passage

Our warm-ups included the harmony bits of Happy :-)

We reviewed the beginning and the ending of They All Call it Canada and sang it through beautifully.
We learned sections D and E of We Rise Again, and sang to the end, sight-reading the ending.
We sang Farewell to Nova Scotia, reviewing each section's verse and marking which words have extra syllables. If you want to work on this at home, here's a link to the video of the small group performance from last Christmas.
Banks of Newfoundland was beautiful. It gets better every time!
Song for the Mira was beautiful too! We tried out one soloist on each part and Robyn played the flute part on the top line. It's so special! We didn't have time to review anything, so we'll have to look at it again next week.


April 7th
6:20 Edelweiss
6:50 Northwest Passage

1. We Rise Again  B&C
2. Farewell to Nova Scotia review
3. Shenandoah review
4. Song for the Mira review
5. Song for Canada review
6. Hockey Song review

Music in Context: the Full Experience

The York Region Community Choir is planning a social event, a trip to the cinema, the SilverCity Newmarket Cinemas, to see the live broadcast of the Metropolitan Opera's production of La Bohème. 

I love the opera and have had season's subscriptions several times in the past, but I've never experienced opera like this before. I'm looking forward to it and I'm curious to see how it feels. I'm not expecting it to be as good as the real thing, but I'm hopeful that it will be a very close second best. 

People think they don't like "the Opera" because they haven't really experienced it before. They think they know what it's like, having heard bits of opera music on Bugs Bunny, or as part of a scene in a movie. Maybe they've heard someone singing (or attempting to sing) bel canto and decided it sounded like a bunch of warbling (probably a loose vibrato). But, they've never sat in an opera house and experienced a real live performance. 

I compare this to introducing people to baseball by having them listen to a portion of a radio broadcast of a baseball game. Or, watching a clip of a few moments of a baseball game and deciding it's boring. Even if you're watching a home run, and fans are cheering, it's not likely to interest you, especially if they show you one of those fat guys in a goofy uniform spitting tobacco. In a ball park, it's a totally different experience. I've only been to one Blue Jays game ever, but I really enjoyed it. It was exciting and so much fun! I similarly enjoyed a live Leafs game, and I dutifully sat through Hockey Night in Canada with my family on the couch.

There have been experiments where famous musicians have gone to play priceless instruments in subway stations or on street corners. Whether or not they were wearing fancy clothes, they did not make a big impression on the passers-by. I'm not surprised and I don't understand why others are. I've heard fantastic music in subway stations that I didn't have the time to listen to. And, it's noisy and unpleasant and there are all kinds of grumpy people moving about. What's good about that? Context is huge. Package the famous violinist in a designer suit, put him in a glitzy theatre, and people pay $100 each to hear him play. Package a rock musician as a rock star in a crazy get-up and put him in a stadium with laser beams and sweet smelling fumes and people will pay even more. 

I've suggested to the choir that they dress up to go to see the opera. It's part of the experience. One of my favourite parts of the opera is intermission. It sounds like a kid saying recess is his favourite subject! The intermission is when you get to enjoy the architecture, the fancy chandeliers, and the artwork of the theatre and see all the beautiful suits and dresses, the shiny shoes and sparkly jewellery! Being dressed up is worth it when you get to see all the other people dressed up. You can talk about the handsome tenor with your friends. And, during intermission, I always go down to see the musicians and their instruments in the orchestra pit. Weren't recess, lunch, and after school activities a big part of your school experience? 

I played a musical instrument, clarinet, and sang in High School. Most of my friends were in orchestra in Jr. High, so I loved the violins and violas, cellos and basses. I was involved in theatrical productions too. So, my empathy goes beyond the story and into the performance when I watch an opera. I'm completely immersed in the experience.

I also had the experience of playing softball at school, which was fun sometimes. I think that the experience of throwing and catching a baseball and hitting the ball with a bat is a big part of your experience of watching a ball game. Your mirror neurons kick in and you're part of the game. Smack! Run! Slide! Ouch! 

If we had more opportunities to make all kinds of music with all kinds of instruments and sing and act and paint sets, then we would be better able to enjoy the opera, the symphony, and the theatre. If we had lots of hands-on experiences of all kinds, we'd be more empathetic people in general, better behaved too.

Check out how massive this set for the opera Der Rosenkavalier is! 

This is a Met production.

Picture from The Recit, a Metropolitan Opera blog.

March 24 and March 31 rehearsal review and preview

March 24 
6:20 Edelweiss- sounding excellent, adding flute
6:50 This Land is Your Land- very cool!

Warm-ups included "washing away our day."

We had a coffee and treats break. The treats were so good, but there was too much! I didn't manage to try everything. The new coffee machine is excellent.

1. Hallelujah was excellent as usual
2. The Hockey Song is great and great fun! Gerry had his coach's whistle and it's loud!
3. All the Little Rivers is powerful and good. We had to do quite a bit of review in the middle a cappella section, and I have to work on the timing there and connecting that to the next part.
4. We Rise Again is going to be fabulous. We walked through how the parts move around and learned sections F and G, but just sight-read the ending.
5. In My Life was beautiful, but we need a bit of work on one section.
6. We didn't manage to sing Banks of Nfld! Too much time enjoying our break, I guess.


March 31

6:20 This Land
6:50 NW Passage

1. We Rise Again-moving back from ending-D and E oohs and ahhs (review what you're singing and mark your music) 
2. Song for the Mira-review
3. They All Call it Canada-review
4. Farewell to Nova Scotia-intro and chorus (prepare to mark your sheet, have a pencil ready)
5. Banks of Newfoundland-review

If you signed up for the opera, then bring in your money ($26/ticket) to give to Robin

We Rise Again Videos

Kristen had mentioned that she found our version of We Rise Again on YouTube, so I went searching, and here are a couple that are the same arrangement. 

I'm sure it will be helpful to listen to how it's going to sound with all the parts together.

Thanks, Kristen!

March 17 and 24: rehearsal review and preview

March 17
(St. Patrick's Day: we didn't have green beer, but several people wore green clothes)

Northwest Passage met at 6:30 and Sapphire and Renate finished recording!

We sang You'll Never Walk Alone. And, remembered how incredibly difficult it was at first, and enjoyed the fact that we conquered it and are able to ace it every time!

We reviewed the ahs at the end of Song for Canada and sang it twice, once with Heather and Melinda singing the solo and once with just Heather. Renate takes full credit for offering you Melinda's beautiful strong voice.

I also take pride in offering you Mary-Ellen's lovely voice in the solo in Nella Fantasia. We learned pages 9 and 10 and reviewed the ahs and solo at the beginning. Remember, the Sopranos come in at the top of page 7.

We finished Jamaica Farewell, learning from the beginning and adding that to what we learned last time. Sopranos should hold back throughout so that we can hear the tenor/bass section. Tenor/Bass should review page 5 where you do not have the melody. That F# that you start on is a 'ding-dong' below the melody, which you want to sing. When the altos sing Ja-mai-ca, your note is an octave below the 'mai'. Also, Tenor/Bass: on page 7 when you have sung "Kingston town", turn the page right away so that you're ready to come in on beat 1 with "At the market". And, at the bottom of page 8, come in on 1 with "Ackey rice", resisting the pull to beat 2.

We didn't sing Banks of Newfoundland as planned, but Todd was away sick anyway. Let's try to do it next week.

March 24

6:20 Edelweiss
6:50 This Land is Your Land

1. Banks of Newfoundland review
2. Hallelujah review (Altos, please listen to the "tricky bits" recording)
3. All the Little Rivers review
4. Hockey Song review
5. In My Life review
6. We Rise Again* starting at page 9, bar 43 (Section F)

* please do a "walk-through" before Monday night if possible. Read my post with music in hand so you can make notes in pencil on your sheet music. (My blog post about We Rise Again is right below this one) There are messy bits for each part which will be easier if you look ahead. A very positive note: Altos, Tenors and Basses have lots of melody!

We Rise Again: notes on our arrangement

We Rise Again is a beautiful song made popular by the Juno-award winning Rankin Family, as Rise Again on their third album, North Country. The inspiring and moving song, written by Leo Dubinsky, a native of Nova Scotia, is about immigration.

Our version starts with a solo, which Kristen has agreed to sing for us. Heather is her back-up and will sing with the First Sopranos (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 am assigning letter names to the sections of the song so we can refer to them easily. The beginning up to bar 13 is section A.

Section A: Solo (Kristen) alone

Section B: bars 13-19: Kristen's solo on the top line, SATB in the choir bracket, as usual, except 16-19, Tenors sing the top part of the Bass line (nobody will sing the tenor line there) and Basses are on the bottom (Bass is the bottom throughout).

Section C: bars 19-27: No solo**. Kristen 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.

Section D: bars 28-39: Like Section B, Kristen's solo, plus choir oohs SATB, as usual.

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.

Section F: bars 43-51: No solo. This is where Alto, Tenor and Bass have melody! Everyone is in unison, except First Soprano.

Section G: bars 51- end. No solo. Almost exactly like Section F, but higher and louder. There's a special Tenor bit at bar 53/54 so they have to watch out for that. First Sopranos have a special bit in bar 58, 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 there.

**Where there is a solo line on the music and I've indicated that there is no solo, that is because the solo line is identical to the Alto line (except bar 43, where it's in Sop1).

Working on our Music at Home

We're starting to get pretty good at recording and posting our music for extra rehearsal at home.

It's a new thing for us still. It took us a long time to start using recordings because the idea was that we should all be able to learn all the music on Monday nights alone and not have to commit to extra time. We also made a point of booking all of our performances for Monday nights, with the exception of our 2 public concerts, so that members could set aside only one night a week for choir.

Now that we have so many members, and so many of them are strong singers and excellent musicians, we are learning more music and more difficult music. (And, we've been able to accept some requests for other nights and even week days.) Most of the time, these strong singers make it possible for others to follow along and learn more quickly too.

Sometimes those strong singers are good because they are just really good and more experienced musicians, but I bet that most of the time, those leaders are good because they are able to review their parts at home. Maybe they play an instrument and can learn on their own, or maybe they use our recordings. Either way, a little extra work can go a long way.

For those of you who don't feel very musically gifted and like to follow, our recordings are an excellent resource. Sapphire plays your part on top of the accompaniment so that you can follow along on your sheet music. The sheet music is also on line, so you don't even need your binder to practise.

We are now looking into recording voices on top of the piano part because we've learned from Richard's recordings for the Choral Extravaganza that having the words sung is helpful. It's much more difficult and time-consuming in our experience, so that's something we have to learn to do better before we start that.

For now, we have each part played by Sapphire on top of the accompaniment. And, I'm pretty happy with how well we are doing with that.

Yup, this is what I look like when I'm rehearsing at home :-)

This picture comes from this website for karaoke music downloads. Have you tried karaoke? 

Here's how to rehearse at home using our recordings:

1. Warm up. You can simply do some of the exercises you remember from Monday nights, or you can find warm-ups online. There's this app for iPhone and androids that leads you in vocal warm-ups.
2. Go to our website, sign in, and go to the Resources page in the Members Only section. There's a short cut to Music Recordings on the home page too.  On the left side, you can click on the song you want to sing. The sheet music will come up. Minimize that. On the right side, you'll find the title of the song underlined, then under that, click on your part (SATB or S1 S2, etc). Download the mp3 to your music player (iTunes, or Windows Media Player, for example). Start the music and then pull up your sheet music. 
3. Sing your part along with the recording for your part. You'll hear the accompaniment playing softly and your part is loud. If it's really hard at first you can try dividing up the task. First, sing without words, singing only la-la or na-na. Then, speak the words without the melody, just fitting them in to the timing. Finally, sing the words. Stop and do the tricky bits over and over. 
4. Repeat. And, repeat. Some people make a CD of their parts to sing along with in the car or while washing dishes. 
5. Once you feel confident with singing along, try to sing your part with only the accompaniment. Download the accompaniment recording, the title of the song underlined. See if you can hold your part by yourself. If that's too hard, try it with the Soprano part, or if you're a Soprano, with the Alto part. Tenor can sing with Bass, and vice versa. It's fun!
6. You'll need to pay attention to the dynamics, where you're supposed to sing softly and where to get loud. It's best if you do this right away so you get in the habit of singing every section the way it's supposed to be. But, if you want to divide and conquer, learn one thing at a time, you can add this at the end. Each time you repeat a song, it should sound more beautiful.

Soloists: you will want to work on your performance differently. You have the extra task of memorizing your part so you can look at the audience, and you'll need to be more clear and concise than when you're singing with others. And, if you are on stage alone, you'll need to think about what to do with your hands. Sing your part looking in the mirror.

Here's a link to an article about rehearsing at home. There's tons of stuff online about singing and performing.

March 10 rehearsal review, and March 17 rehearsal preview

It's snowing and blowing like crazy right now, but Monday night was very pleasant, and yesterday was even nicer. We're lucky we don't have choir tonight :-) I'm planning to stay home all day.

Monday, March 10th was fun and we got lots done!

We learned the ending of In My Life and sang through the whole piece. If you have a chance, please review your part. It was mostly good, but needs some work.

We learned pages 8- the end of Jamaica Farewell and sang through the whole thing. It already sounds really good. We won't have parts recorded for this, but will have the accompaniment up on line soon. Many people know their parts really well from past performances. Listen to your neighbours. Sopranos and Altos, remember to sing softly and make sure you can always hear the tenor/bass part.

We learned the beginning of They All Call it Canada, so now we're finished and just need to review. It's sounding excellent! Review your parts on this one. It's going to be our finale, so we want it to be really strong.

We sang through Banks of Newfoundland twice. It gets better every time. Keep working on it.

Song for the Mira: we learned the oohs and they're beautiful.

Nella Fantasia: we only had time to sing through a couple of times. Trix sang Mary-Ellen's solo and it was lovely. I love this song. Please review your parts at home, especially the oohs at the beginning.

Next week, Monday, March 17th (St. Patrick's Day: Who's bringing the green beer?)

Northwest Passage is meeting at 6:30.
Renate and Sapphire will also do some recording, so we'll have to work out how to share the room. Our recording should be quiet, since we're mostly doing parts, which Sapphire does with headphones on.

1. You'll Never Walk Alone, just to keep it fresh.
2. Nella Fantasia pg 9/10, any other fixing
3. Song for Canada, refresher, review ending ahs maybe
4. Jamaica Farewell, beginning to page 7
5. Banks of Newfoundland

March 3rd review and March 10th preview

In case you missed it, here's what happened on March 3rd.

We had a bit of difficulty at the beginning with the room having been set up sideways.
If that happens again, we'll move the chairs.

Edelweiss met at 6:30 and they are sounding excellent.

1. We sang Shenandoah, and it was really very good! We reviewed the Alto parts at page 6 and the top of 7.
2. Song for the Mira is almost done! And, we have a flute! Robyn is going to play the oboe/flute part on top. So cool! We learned the main section pg 8-11. And, we sang through with soloists and the flute. 
3. They All Call it Canada is our theme song, and it will likely be our finale. It has a good, strong, dramatic ending, which we learned. We learned pages 4 and 5, and sang through to the end. It's lovely. We will not do the descant part where the tenors and basses have the melody on pages 10 and 11. So, Sopranos and Altos will not sing on page 10, but will come in on page 11 at the bottom of the page, at the D.S. al Coda with the words "From the Atlantic".  
4. We sang the Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves and it was beautiful! Made my Monday!

Monday, March 10th
It will be March Break, so a couple of you might be away. Some of you are already away enjoying the sun somewhere. Here's the plan:

This Land is Your Land will meet at 6:30.

1. In My Life: ending  
2. Song for the Mira: oohs
3. They All Call it Canada: beginning
4. Nella Fantasia: pg 9/10
5. Banks of Newfoundland: review
6. Jamaica Farewell: pg 8/9

Please return extra music

I've reviewed my plan for the season and have decided that we'll do Moon River next year. We can also return Welcome, Welcome Winter, Spacious Firmament and Come, Gentle Spring to Trix to be filed away. We have plenty of music to fill a 2-hour concert! We have one new song to learn and the rest is reviewing and cleaning up, so we should be fine. Please review the songs that are already online by downloading the recordings of your part and singing along.

Next Monday, please put those 4 pieces in your numbered folder (where you pick up your name tag).

Hand back:
1. Come, Gentle Spring
2. Moon River
3. Spacious Firmament
4. Welcome, Welcome Winter

Music we’re doing on May 3rd:

1. All the Little Rivers

2. Banks of Newfoundland

3. Chorus Hebrew Slaves 

4. Farewell to Nova Scotia (words only)

5. Hallelujah

6. The Hockey Song

7. In My Life

8. Jamaica Farewell

9. The Magic of Winter

10. Nella Fantasia

11. O Canada

12. Shenandoah 

13. Song for Canada

14. Song for the Mira 

15. They Call it Canada 

16. We Rise Again

17. You’ll Never Walk Alone

and these Small Groups and Solos

19. Edelweiss

20. This Land is Your Land

21. Northwest Passage

22. Gordon Lightfoot Medley

23. Home

24. Big Yellow Taxi

25. Somewhere

Prayer Breakfast Event March 26

The Newmarket Prayer Breakfast is Wednesday, March 26th, this year.

A few years ago, the YRCC lead the singing of O Canada and performed a couple of our songs at the Prayer Breakfast. Herbie Kuhn (the "voice of the Raptors") was the MC, and it was fun working with him.

This year the keynote speaker is from an organization called Hockey Helps the Homeless.

If you're interested, you can visit the website here.

Time Signatures With 6 Beats

Robin asked a good question at rehearsal last night. She wanted to know about the time signature for Banks of Newfoundland. How does it work?

The Banks of Newfoundland is in 6/8 time. That means that there are 6 counts in each bar and 8th notes count as one beat. When you count, you count 123,456. I conduct it in 2.

I showed you how 6 counts are supposed to be conducted, and it's just too messy. (Even when a song is slower, I don't use it. I'll do two sets of 3.) Also, the rocking boat feel of the song is the result of the emphasis on beats 1 and 4. Starting your ahs on beat 4 pushes the boat into the water. The soaring of the birds works the same way. I give you beats 1 and 4, and most of the time that's all you need.

In this sample diagram, you'll see what you mostly have in Banks of Newfoundland in the third bar, 2 dotted quarter notes. ( 1 quarter = 2 eighths, a dot adds half of the note value, so 2+1=3 beats, and 3+3=6: math!)

We have an example of  a 6-beat bar in Spacious Firmament too. Spacious Firmament switches between 4/4 and 6/4 time.

Look at section C on page 3. At the top of page 3, the time signature changed to 6/4. The second bar of C is in 4/4 and then it goes back and forth between 4/4 and 6/4 in that section.  

In 6/4 time, there are 6 counts, and quarter notes count as 1 beat. That works well with the 4/4 time where the bar has 4 quarter notes. So, a quarter note always gets one count. An eighth is half of a quarter (count: 1and 2and 3and 4and). A half note is equal to 2 quarters so it gets 2 beats. A whole note gets 4.  It's just the length of the bars that are different. Some have 4 beats and some have 6. Here, the song is slow and I conduct the 6/4 bars as 2 sets of 3. So, beat 4 is a down beat, and you get each beat counted out. 

Here's a simple review of 4/4 time showing the values of the quarter, half and whole notes. 

With 6/8 time, you just keep counting to 6. If you want one note to last a whole bar, it'll be a dotted whole note. 1 whole = 4 quarters, plus the dot adds half the value of the note, so 4+2=6. You'll see one in the last bar of Spacious Firmament. 

Feb.24 Review, and Preview to March 3rd.

After a weekend of Olympic excitement and Canadian national pride, we started our rehearsal off with our beautiful O Canada, a cappella. It's always great. Tenor and Bass could be stronger. But, we were missing some people.

We continued with They All Call it Canada, But I Call it Home, which Sapphire had just finished recording for the website. I still have that chorus ear-worming in my head. We learned pages 8&9, so we can now sing most of the song, since that part repeats. Take note of the Sign at the top of page 8, when we get to the D.S. al Coda, that's the spot we go back to.

We continued with In My Life at page 8. This next section is the dramatic version of the melody. The timing is really different and the accompaniment doesn't help us. We're ready to learn the ending! Can't wait!

The Banks of Newfoundland is now whole. We got the timing of the transition on page 3 (Birds Go) and at the bottom of page 5 (the ahs before the melody). We reviewed the ahs on page 5 too, and discussed the time signature. I'll write a post on it.

Nella Fantasia needs more review than I expected (ATB ahs), but it's pretty good. I love how it sounds with Mary Ellen singing the first verse as a solo! Sopranos don't come in until the top of page 7, but then you get lots of melody after that. Tenors and Basses please review this song. You can use both Sapphire's and Richard's recordings. Richard's are great because he sings your part, and with Sapphire's you get the key change information you need from the accompaniment.

Song for the Mira: we didn't get a chance to sing it, but it's going on line soon. We walked through who's singing what (see last week's post for solo assignments). One change that I'm considering is having solo 2 going all the way to solo 3. The choir doesn't come in until page 8. Which is where we were hoping to start today.

Edelweiss: this small group met after for a short run-through. Take note of who starts where and dynamics in general. The ending is big and loud. Some copies say soft.

Next Week, March 3rd

Edelweiss will meet at 6:30 
(This Land is Your Land will meet the following week, March 10)
Northwest Passage will meet at break. We could use a few more voices on this one. This group will meet at 6:30 on March 17.
Small Groups: check the calendar for your rehearsal times. You might need to plan extra rehearsals outside of Monday nights. 

1. Song for the Mira, pg 8-10
2. In My Life, ending
3. They All Call it Canada, beginning
4. Shenandoah, review
5. Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves, review

February Blah Music: Stoke the Sadness

I'm falling deep into the February Blahs today.

The restless sleep from the storm last night is probably a big factor, the weather for sure is contributing, all the moaning and complaining is getting to me, I'm uninspired, and I'm just really dragging myself around.

So what does a girl do when she's feeling down? She cranks up the sad tunes.

My first 2 choices for today's soundtrack were Lord I Need You, and Say Something. I wrote about Say Something on my Musical Empathy blog because it's just that good. It gets me crying like nothing. Here's a link to that blog post. 

Lord I Need You is good for some eye cleansing too. "Without You, I fall apart" are perfect lyrics for falling apart. I think the song is supposed to inspire you to pull it together, but it just has the opposite effect on me. I guess I just stop listening to the words after that :-)

Here it is, if you want to try it yourself.

I'll switch over to some happy music before the kids come home from school. I've already got a Mozart playlist ready for a transition. I can get myself out of the blues, these February blahs, with music. But, for now, I'm letting music stoke the sadness. 

Family Day rehearsal, and looking ahead to Feb. 24

Family Day was wonderful! We had delicious treats, but we're going to have to get a new coffee maker. Our old one decided to retire last night. Debbie will also buy us a can opener ;-)

We sang Jamaica Farewell to give ourselves a moment of escape. Lots of people remembered it and it sounded pretty good!

We finished the Hockey Song. It's going to be great! What a fun song!

We started They All Call it Canada at page 6. We learned the whole chorus and it was beautiful. Some of us remembered it from Brownies, Guides, or Scouts.

We started Song for the Mira, but just did a read-through and tried out some of the soloists and back-ups. It's another river song. The Mira is a river in Nova Scotia, Cape Breton Island, to be precise. The song is very well-known and had been done by lots of famous Canadians. Look it up on YouTube.

We continued with In My Life, singing all the way through to the bottom of page 7!

The small group doing Edelweiss stayed behind to sing it once through. Again, lots of people remembered it and it's a great arrangement that people are going to love.

Next week:

6:30 Sapphire Recording

They All Call it Canada we'll start building on that chorus
Song for the Mira start learning at page 8
In My Life next section
Banks of Newfoundland see last week (we switched Jamaica in for it this week)
Nella Fantasia  make it our own

We'll have Edelweiss stay late again, but not too late. Maybe just to point out a few things and sing it once. I don't think it'll take too long to learn that one.

Monday, February 10th review and preview to Monday, February 17th, Family Day Rehearsal

Monday Feb.10

Aurora Resthaven went well- after we all got in and down to the activity room! Wow, was that room decorated! It was a fun event, and we were so happy to sing for and with that big crowd!

While some of us were performing, the rest of us were singing the Hockey Song and Shenandoah. After break, when we were all together, we finished Shenandoah, reviewed the beginning of The Banks of Newfoundland, sang it all the way through (it was pretty good!), and started In My Life (we just learned up to 13, but sang all the way through).

Feb. 17 Family Day (nobody has to come early)

Banks of Newfoundland: we'll focus on the transitions between sections, now that we know how each section goes.
The Hockey Song: we'll put it all together
In My Life: we will continue with 13-22 and hopefully sing up to the end of page 7
They Call it Canada: we will do a read-through
Song for the Mira: we will do a read-through and think about who can do the solos
Song for the Mira Solos:
1 and 6 intro and conclusion (Janet, Trix)?
2 boys teasing girls (Tracey, Louisa, Kit)?
3 bonfires (Anne Marie, Daphne)?
4. witches and werewolves (Lauren, Debbie)?

***Don't forget to share some love with your choir friends past and present for Valentine's Day. You can send each other emails via our website. Test it out.

We'll have treats and coffee for Family Day with our choir family :-)

Review for Monday Feb 3 and looking ahead to Feb 10

Monday, February 3

1. All the Little Rivers: section E
2. Banks of Newfoundland: p3-4 by, p5 ahs, end
3. Hockey Song: section A, B
4. Shenandoah: beginning, p5/6
5. In My Life: first time sight-read

Monday, February 10

Small Group going to Aurora Resthaven for Valentine Concert (arr.6:45, sing 7-8, go to choir)
We're singing: Magic of Winter, Welcome Winter, You'll Never Walk Alone, Hallelujah, You Raise Me Up and sing-along songs from our songbooks.

All others rehearse with Sapphire and Anne-Marie starting at 7:30 as usual.

1. All the Little Rivers: review
2. Hockey Song: section C, E, G
3. Shenandoah: p6/7
4. In My Life: 5-13 (22 if there's time)
5. Banks of Newfoundland: beginning oohs, linking parts

Turned 50 today!

Tiara says 50 fabulous!

Snow Day

so I have my girls all day

Long-stemmed roses from my husband.

fabulous