This week Jenny joined us on the keyboard and a sound check done as the speakers must be used. Then patience was tested while we were being placed into concert format. A little like learning our parts with the altos placed first, followed by the sops and then the tenors. To fit into the spaces so everyone could have eyes on Eamonn, we had to get up close to each other; something we haven’t done for a few years now!
Eamonn was not happy with the arrangement and said we looked like a rabble! More manoeuvres with the tenors being placed in the corner of the alcove and everyone closing up in front of them. Better, but not perfect.
Lady tenors swapped with altos so facing in a different direction with not the same people standing around made some feel uncomfortable, but we started anyway as time was moving on.
Emphasis is now on:
· Watch – keep your eyes up and watch Eamonn as much as possible
· Perform – engage your audience in the storytelling and emotions of the songs. We don’t want them to go home after the first half!
· Smile – look as if you are enjoying yourself. Your audience will enjoy it all the more!
No Fidgeting:
· keep to your spot so everyone can see Eamonn
· stay perfectly still while solos (vocal or piano) are performed. Don’t move or turn over the page ready for the next song or do so at your peril and get the Eamonn glare!
Let the audience enjoy it to the very last note.
Homework
· Learn as much as possible without having to look at the music
· Learn the last page – there is no more information on the page, so watch Eamonn for the endings.
·
Bridge Over Troubled Water – was good before, but altos need to be confident and all of us need to build up the intensity at the end as this is the final number in our concert. WE want to leave our audience begging for more! Bridge over Troubled Water" was addressed to Simon's wife Peggy, whom he had met that year. The "silver girl" in the song refers to her, and her first gray hairs, and not to a drugged hypodermic needle, as was believed by some in the United States. A Few Tweaks & Squeaks
· The Irish Blessing, which was delightful last week, had a few glitches. Giving Jenny the right music soon resolved this.
· The pedal of the keyboard squeaks and doesn’t add anything positive to our sound. WD40 next week will hopefully give us the sound of silence!
Heads up for next week:
· Patience
· Good memory
· Smiles
We can do it!
The tongue twister ‘Wicked Cricket Critic’ broke the choir last night. The first one to really defeat us.
To REPAIR this:
Practice at home
Simple
In Flagrante also has problems with deflating tyres, especially in The Sound of Silence… sssss!!
Ragged and nasty extra Ss in any song will make us sound dreadful and unprofessional. This needs repairing ASAP.
Keep heads out of the music at critical cut of points. Eamonn doesn’t want to see the tops of heads!
WATCH EAMONN, who will tell you when to finish cleanly. Some phases are longer than you expect.
Simple
Ba das in Only You and The Logical Song need to be fluid and interesting and finishing together.
To repair these:
Learn by heart
Feel the rhythm rather than reading the notes
Sound like medieval minstrels
WATCH EAMONN!
Simple
Well known songs like Scarborough Fair need the audience to listen as if they’ve never heard it before.
Keep the urgency going throughout
Hold the long notes for the right length of time
Give the phrases light and shade
Beware of the dunce hole
WATCH EAMON!
Simple
Eyes on Eamonn!
When the end of the song is concluded, watch and wait while the pianist finishes playing the last notes.
Jenny will be furious if you are looking through your folder for the next song! The lyrics of Scarborough Fair puts forward the concept of unrequited love. The yearning is felt throughout the song, creating a perfect medieval love story in the process. A young man delegates certain impossible tasks to his lover with the condition that she would have to finish those to be able to come back to him.
PERFORM, don’t just go through the motions singing the right notes! Watch Eamonn and he will guide you through each song – it will be worth it.
Eamonn was looking a little anxious and the scowls were slightly showing his disapproval with all the work we had ahead of us and a lot of chatter was ongoing, but he soon had us quietened down and warmed up. Then we forensically went through some more songs picking them apart and rebuilding them step by step to a harmonious sounding choir!
The Logical Song, a maniacal upbeat sound with lovely syncopation. Lots of words to fit in, but if the Doos and Bahs do not sound casual and full of enjoyment will be DOOMED!!!!
This is the last song of the first half and the then the audience will be heading for the bar. The Logical Song is a song by English rock group Supertramp that was released as the lead single from their album Breakfast in America in March 1979. It was written primarily by the band's Roger Hodgson, who based the lyrics on his experiences being sent away to boarding school for ten years.
Fields of Gold needs to sound luxurious and big breaths required to hold on to the long golds and watching Eamonn for the cut offs, as in all of the songs! In Lyrics By Sting, the singer described the view from his 16th-century Wiltshire manor house:
'In England, our house is surrounded by barley fields, and in the summer it's fascinating to watch the wind moving over the shimmering surface, like waves on an ocean of gold. There's something inherently sexy about the sight, something primal, as if the wind were making love to the barley. Lovers have made promises here, I'm sure, their bonds strengthened by the comforting cycle of the seasons.' The Irish Blessing is another song that should be a lush and lovely sound with the second verse, when everyone joins in, feeling like a warm hug
You’ll Never Walk Alone is challenging not only from the high notes to reach with accuracy and brightness, but the long phrases where no one is allowed to breathe!
We only have two more rehearsals and when Jenny, our pianist, joins us, Eamonn will have both hands, as well as his head to conduct us and give us the cut offs, highs and lows etc. The key to this synchronisation is we have to keep our eyes on him and not have our heads buried in the music. Especially on the endings when we all know the words and tune by then!
Sing Out is our gift to the audience for returning from the bar to listen to the second half of our performance. As such, it needs to be crisp and concise with good annunciation. This is an old favourite of ours that we sang in a pop up at St Pancras Station with Eamonn accompanying us on an old battered piano. It was well received there and it will be even better here.
Eamonn does think we are in a good place and we will definitely sing through all of the first half of the concert next week. If we have all done our homework, we might surprise him and get through some of the second half too!
