“The beautiful thing about learning is that no one can take it away from you—and music is one of the most beautiful ways to learn.”— B.B. King

 

And what a great and beautiful evening of learning and laughing we had this week. Our lovely song Te Aroha from New Zealand is now almost perfect, we learnt the beginning of our new sublime arrangement of Summertime. We then spent a hard twenty minutes or so, working on that dreaded key change on Let the River Run. I’m not saying we’ve completely mastered it, but oh my goodness we didn’t half give it a good go at the end, the whooping and a hollering that happened at the end is just so wonderful to hear. I challenge anyone to have been thinking about anything other than singing at that moment, a great moment of companionship and a “we’re all in this together” and “I’ve got your back” moment. The feeling of “we did it” is something that will stick with me for a long time. Obviously we’re going to be doing it again next week, but I’m confident that things will only get easier from now on, and then we can start softening the edges a bit. But well done guys!

 

We then had a look at One Voice – I will bring my guitar next week, as I think it will make it easier to sing. I would like to get a few of the greens to move over to the reds for this as it doesn’t go too high, and we need more balance. Chaps I need you to try singing all three harmonies, and then choose which one you find the best to sing… We shall talk about it more next week. But if you have the time do watch the You tube here:

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-24qGCvo7A of the Wailin’ Jenny’s singing it… maybe put it on your playlist to listen to over the week to really get a feel for it. Enjoy ☺

 

We then practiced the ending for Forever Country – adding an arm swing of two beats to the left and 2 to the right to help… trust me, this does help! But I think our brains were slightly and understandably addled by the time we go to this! When we approach the ending, there is a pause, where we all need to breathe, look up and follow me (hopefully I knew where I’m going ha ha!) I shall try to come up with some more ways to make it easier to follow next week – I promise. But what fun… thank you, as the great Kenny Rogers said "I've always said music should make you laugh, make you cry or make you think."

Tick, tick, tick.

 

Until next time Bxxx