GOING SOLO

 

Thank you Lisa for recording the session on Monday night, I’m so pleased that you did as we would have missed listening back to all the hard work and PROGRESS that we made.

 

Being out of your comfort zone is never easy, and I was certainly feeling a little nervous without Mr Gannon by my side – he takes all the responsibility of the logistics of running my choir, from ensuring all the right equipment is loaded in the car, taxiing me to the venue, opening up, switching on lights, putting on heating, laying out the room… and that’s before we’ve even started singing  – he sees to the recording of the sessions and then at the end of the session makes sure that everything is secure and stowed away, transported back home, so he was very much missed. Simon and Keith probably also felt a little out of their comfort zones, missing Martin and Clive, but they did so well, and kept smiling. Listening back to Lisa’s recordings on my walk down to Church Norton this morning, I was actually really pleasantly surprised – last night, because I had so many things on my mind, I wasn’t sure if the session was ok as I knew we spent a lot of time working on The Chain. But now I realise this work was so worthwhile, and I know we need to do it again next week, and we will probably have to do it more times in the New Year, but this song is going to be so good to have in our repertoire bag. Just think, Chasing Cars, Close to You, Summertime, Let the River Run, Happy Together etc, etc, all of these complex 4-part harmony acapella songs that we have learnt. I just wanted to say “well done!”. In the new year when we start our two new songs, chosen by you, the choir, which are accompanied by piano, I think we are going to just keep getting better and better as singing acapella (unaccompanied) is hard, in fact many choirs just don’t do it, so whilst you may feel a little lost at times, know that you are working and improving your singing skills every time, and it’s so good for us to stretch ourselves especially in such a caring and friendly group.

So enough rambling from me, the second part of the session we made some more progress on our Christmas songs.  Next week, we will begin with another good work through of The Chain and then spend the remainder of the session singing our Christmas Hallelujah, I Believe in Father Christmas and Listen the Snow is Falling.

 

So your homework this week is if you can find the time is to listen and sing along with the learning tracks for The Chain several times, so that you can really start to feel the flow of the song, it really will help you.  Don’t forget to send in your favourite Christmas carols, old time favourite Xmas songs so that Gel and I can try and get a nice list prepared for us to enjoy on our last session this term, on the 15th December. Send them to the WhatsApp group.

 

Thank you everyone for all your offers of help this week – the choir works as a team, and you are all wonderful. B ☺