A Toolbox for Better Singing.
What fun last night was! Thank you, all. So, here are a few bits and bobs from last night’s session––a nearly lovely Non nobis domine (I say nearly because we’ll do this again, and better), a little jocularity around Britten’s treacherous setting of the word “merry,” and our first complete read-through of the canon from … Read more
Hi All, I thought it might be fun to make recordings of our sessions from now on and post the best from each, just for our own information and entertainment. To our long-time members these first two will be perhaps a disappointment, something to remind us of what we are capable of. Our new members … Read more
I heard about this choir this morning on Radio 4, as I’m sure many of you did, and thought I should post it to the group. When you hear this choir and listen to yourselves (And yes, I’m going to record us one evening soon!) you’ll hear that you are anything but tuneless. You’re singing … Read more
Time for a folk revival? Ready for incense & candles? Beehives, Beatniks and Birkenstocks? Me, neither. But this is a great song by any standards, and while not an overly ambitious arrangement, I think it nicely captures the mood. Here is a PDF of the full score for printing. Audio – All 3 Parts Audio – … Read more
This will be a really nice change of pace for us. Don’t panic, it’s not too difficult to learn. The difficulty will lie in the dissonances that derive from singing the 3 parts of the canon together. When it’s right, it’s quite magical. I’ve included clicks in (hopefully) appropriate places to help you count the … Read more
Sorry I hadn’t gotten this one up before now. We must have done it back in the day before the website. But better late than never. Apologies, too, that this has no individual score parts. You’ll have to struggle along with all three together. But I did give you individual audio parts to listen to while … Read more
Carol has handily revamped some of the SAB writing in this arrangement and I have redone the audio files to keep up with the slightly more modern website. Hope this helps. Here is a printable copy of The Virgin Mary for you to download and print. The audio files are a bit under tempo to … Read more
Hi Group, Here’s the Rhythmaname Match Game sheet to test your rhythm reading, for those of you who missed our last session. Mostly for fun but good training, too. We’ll go over it next session. You can download the PDF here if you want to print it out. Which brings me to alerting you to … Read more
…..courtesy of Mike Howell, a man of many stories and many talents.
Here’s one of the all time greats of English folk music. From Wikipedia: The lyrics are first found in publications as far back as 1787. A broadside in the Bodleian Library, Oxford dates from about 1803. Early editions are often referred to as “The Lamenting Maid” or “The Lovesick Maid”. It was only with William … Read more