- Trills on a Tuesday
- Nov 16, 2025
- 2 min read
In not ideal circumstances with dim lighting and different acoustics, we could hear that our hard work is paying off. Even with less familiar songs we sang out and harmonised well.
The next two rehearsals will be in concert formation with a pianist and Martha will be able to give us her full attention and conduct us, so it will be critical that we know our words and music well enough to be able to look up a see the instructions and obey them!
Look out for an email from Martha with the running order and then have your music in that order so we can go through from start to finish and then maybe revisit anything that needs extra work.
There will also be an email with the choir formation. The last concert was a great success with the tiered format enabling everyone to see and be heard as we are not singing into the back of someone’s head! Please be patient and mindful that this is not an easy task placing over fifty singers and it is not always possible to satisfy everyone’s wishes.
The aim is for everyone to see, be heard and enjoy the experience.
Going through the whole programme will help us build up our stamina as well as instil confidence so we can be heard, especially the Altos, who are quite considerable in number!
Ole Le Loyla – please learn this by heart (not hearth, which is a fireplace and features in couple of our songs).
Everyone sings the Sop line all the way through to start
Sops sing on their own once then Altos join in the second time and Tenors and Basses join in the third time
The Sops keep going on their own with the first line and then the Altos join in with their first line then the Tenors and Basses join in with their first line. Then repeat once with Sops holding on their last note, altos holding on to their last note until the Tenors and Basses have finished and then we all raise it up to a loud ‘La’ and then go into another round all singing our harmony to finish.
If in doubt, watch Martha!
Other hints and tips:
Do not to hiss words with an ‘s’. If you are unsure where the ‘s’ should be, don’t sing it!
If Sops are singing a rare harmony line, don’t sing too loudly so the words of the tune can be heard.
Enunciate your words so the audience will be able to hear them clearly. Some of these songs will be new to them.
Don’t rush the endings. Watch Martha carefully and she will give you the right timing.
Never doubt you are good enough. You are putting in the work and we will have a glorious evening of song.
To ensure we have a big audience to sing to and for them to sing along with us, keep selling the tickets!
- Trills on a Tuesday
- Nov 6, 2025
- 3 min read
Not the 5th of November, gunpowder treason and plot, however, please remember: Ticket sales are booked by first putting the money into the In Flagrante bank account (do not use Jan Harvey bank account) and secondly sending a list of your guests emailed to janmharvey@icloud.com.
Tickets are non refundable and non transferrable. Should your guests not be able to attend their ticket cannot be allocated to another guest, however, they can be re sold.
If a guest is unable to attend, email janmharvey@icloud.com to have their name removed.
Any additional guests, please pay first and email janmharvey@icloud.com with their name/s
Running the choir costs money and your fees go towards the cost of hiring the room for rehearsals, MDs, ringers, pianists etc. We have also purchased the keyboard as well as the staging for our concerts, which has made a huge difference to our look and sound and we will benefit from these for many years to come, so a great investment.
A vote was held as to whether we would donate to a local charity from this concert and the majority vote was not to donate this time, keeping the funds to go towards our 10th Anniversary Gala Concert next year, which will be a very special occasion. However, if we have spare funds after all the extra costs are paid for, we will donate the proceeds, between the usual Captains’ Charities and a local charity.
We will NOT be rehearsing on Tuesday, 11 November, but we will be rehearsing on Wednesday, 12 November, in the downstairs bar. Bring any extra lighting if you feel you need it.
We were Happy Together which we sang very well. Altos, Tenors & Basses, remember to sing boldly and be heard clearly when singing ‘If I should call you up…….’
Crescendo ‘together’
Sop 1s sing your backing vocals gently on ‘Me and you and you and me….’
Remember to look up when singing the ‘Ba, ba, bas’. You don’t need your heads buried in your music!
We sang Try to Remember at our last Winter Concert, so it is memorable for most of us.
It is a song about nostalgia from the musical comedy play The Fantasticks (1960). It is the first song performed in the show, encouraging the audience to imagine what the sparse set suggests. The words were written by the American lyricist Tom Jones while Harvey Schmidt composed the music.
Sing ‘Try’ as ‘Trah’ which will help to keep the high notes in tune.
The Sops start us off with the Altos joining in with Tenors and Basses following with their ‘Follow, follow’.
In the third verse the Sops sing quietly while the Altos, Tenors and Basses ‘Mmmmm…..’ until it changes into an ‘Ooh’ which should be emphasised so you can hear the difference.
The Circle Game verses need the correct timing for example ‘wo-nder’ and ‘thu-nder’.
Remember ‘time’ is 6 beats long in ….’carousel of time’. Watch so we all end at the same time!
Diamonds are Forever, needs to begin quietly but dripping with intensity.
‘I don’t need love’ needs to be opened up and emphasised.
Remember: Tenors and Basses are no longer singing the ‘Oohs’ from Bar 15 -20
Sops are joining the Altos in ‘Touch it, stroke it and undress it’ and ‘Unlike men the diamonds linger’
Build up to a big crescendo at the end and hold the last note for a long time!
Snow – Sops and Basses sing the top part while Altos and Tenors sing the lower part.
Crescendo at ‘Soothes the dirty world with white…’ Sorry, not quite what we are singing, but from a favourite Christmas film.
Next week will be our last rehearsal for learning as the following two weeks we will have Tim, our pianist joining us so Martha can concentrate on polishing our performance and conducting us.
Keep up the good work and practice at home. It does make a difference giving you confidence and enabling you to sing boldly when we are all together.
See you all on WEDNESDAY 12 NOVEMBER
- Trills on a Tuesday
- Oct 30, 2025
- 3 min read
Firstly , The 2025 Black British Theatre Awards Winners Announced. The Black British Theatre Awards (BBTAs) lit up London’s Piccadilly Theatre last night in a dazzling celebration of Black excellence, artistry, and legacy. The UK’s biggest night in Black theatre returned with standing ovations, emotional speeches, and unforgettable performances, marking the seventh annual ceremony in spectacular fashion. Scroll down and........... RECOGNITION GROUP (BODY OF WORK) AWARDS
Best Sound and/or Lighting Design — Eamonn O’Dwyer Theatre Design — Georgie Lynch (Sponsored by Disney Theatrical Group)Book and Lyrics — Trish Cooke (Sponsored by Theatrical Rights Worldwide UK)Best Playwright — Anne Odeke (Sponsored by Brixton House in Association with The Writers Group)Best Casting Director — Heather Basten (Sponsored by Spotlight). How lucky are we!
We started the evening singing through the Christmas songs to familiarise ourselves with them as our audience will be joining in.
Look as if you are happy and excited that Christmas is coming as this reflects in your voice and demeanor and everyone will have a jolly time.
Let it Snow, Winter Wonderland and It’s a Most Wonderful Time of the Year are songs we have previously sung. However, to keep it simple we are just singing them as written unless we are told otherwise at a later date!
Wow! this brought back a few memories.
Wish it could be Christmas Every Day, we all basically sing the melody, and with a small harmony on the chorus/coda, and the Tenors and Basses ‘ding donging’
After ‘… let the bells ring out for Christmas’ for the first time, we go back to sing verse 2.
After the second chorus, there is a long piano instrumental before we turn back and sing verse 3.
After the last chorus, we go on to sing ‘Why don’t you give your love for Christmas’
I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day is a Christmas song recorded by English glam rock band Wizzard. It was first released in December 1973 and, as with most Wizzard songs, was written and produced by the band's frontman Roy Wood, formerly of The Move and a founding member of Electric Light Orchestra. Despite the song's strong, long-lasting popularity, it has reached no higher than number four on the UK singles chart, a position it occupied for four consecutive weeks from December 1973 to January 1974. The song was beaten to the 1973 Christmas Number 1 spot by Slade's Merry Xmas Everybody, which remained at the top of the charts for five weeks, from December 1973 to January 1974. The video shows the band dressed up in a winter-themed studio and then joined by a group of children who play instruments and join in with the singing.
Having a successful sing-through of these songs (only a little work needs to be done on the harmonies), this really gave us a boost, and we were set for going through our performance songs after a well-earned break.
Fairytale of New York was finished with the humming section and the ending. Crescendo into …’children sing’ and ‘Christmas Day’ at the end. We then sang it through from start to finish and it is in pretty good shape.
The Circle Game verses are as follows:
Verse 1 – Sops
Verse 2 – Sops and Altos
Verse 3 – Tenors and Basses
Verse 4 – Basses
Everyone sings the chorus.
Downtown – try to keep your eyes up as much as possible.
Verse 3 is very quiet to start and build it up to ….’and you can find…’
Altos – you know this, be bold and sing out and be heard!
This is in a good place, and all the hard work has paid off.
Keep up with your homework and practice the parts you know you have trouble with.
If we all do our part, together we will be amazing.
Trillers on the Perch
As a lot of the choir attend theatres, music festivals, art exhibitions etc you might be interested in this:
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