Get Ahead of the Game – Practise and then Practise, some more!

If you sing something repeatedly, your brain will remember the action. This is called building up your 'muscle memory'. This means that the muscles get used to responding in a certain way and will learn to function automatically in the future.

We now have four songs to work on. These arrangements are not easy, and it is clear that some of us have not done our homework! We owe it to ourselves, our fellow In Flagrante members, and Elliot to showcase these songs at their best and rise to this challenge, and be proud of our achievements and Elliot’s belief in us.

Dionne Warwick or Cilla Black. You decide?

Anyone who had a Heart needs a powerful start with strong ‘Doos’ and a crescendo in the ‘Aahs’

The verse needs more energy and a bit of fizz, even though it is a quiet section and pull back on the last ‘Do’ in the verse.

Sops and Altos come in quietly with your ‘Aahs’ so it sounds like a gentle surprise.

Do not slide on ‘love you so’ – be precise with separate notes.

‘Knowing I love you so’ – this first ‘so’ is longer than you think.

Whereas ‘you’ and ‘to’ are very short.  Sops, take note!

Shape the phrases to ‘take me in his arms …’  and also  ‘and be so untrue’ and make them sound interesting and passionate but not too passionate

Sops, ‘What am I to do’ should be very strong and heard over the ‘Aahs’ of the other voices.

‘Every time you go away’ comes in as the Altos, Tenors and Basses sing their last ‘doo’

The rhythm from Bar 24 is tricky, with words missing for the Altos, Tenors and Basses.

Practice regularly, especially in this section.

Peace in the Valley was disappointingly messy on the previously learned parts, but not when Elvis sings. Homework should have been done on this so we can move on to the next section of the song. Where the rhythm changes to a more military style.  It should sound like an attack from all directions.

The ‘li’ on ‘lion’ is slightly longer.

Place the ‘t on ‘lit by ’onto the ‘by’ so the ‘li’ part sounds longer.

This needs a lot of practice, too!

Down by the Riverside was in a much better place.  Is this because we have done our homework or find it slightly easier?

After the key change where ‘Well’ starts, this section comes in sooner than you expect. Be ready to come in on beat one, then follow on with ‘I ain’t gonna study war no more…’

After realising we had a lot of practising to do, we started the new song, Any Dream Will Do, a popular song written by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice for the 1968 musical Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. It is generally the beginning and the concluding song of the musical, sung by the title character of Joseph.

This video documents Lee Mead's journey as the winner of BBC One's 2007 television series 'Any Dream Will Do'

In 1991, the song was released as a single by Jason Donovan, who then played Joseph in the West End musical production at the London Palladium. The single topped the UK Singles Chart for two weeks in June and July 1991. In Donovan's native Australia, Any Dream Will Do peaked at number 92 on the ARIA Singles Chart in August 1991. The song was also a number-one hit in Ireland and a number-three hit in Austria.

Elliot has told us this is a fairly simple version and that the Tenors’ dream has come true as they have the tune!

Poor Sops are challenged with Oohs and Aahs, so homework for them!

Keep the Oohs bright, and don’t preempt the last note, causing the Oohs to go flat!

Harmonically, it is not a complex song, but the different voice parts create many echoes but lack consistency. Mark your music score.

Sop 1s have three ‘Aahs’

Sop 2s have two ‘Aahs’

Altos have one ‘Aah’

So, it sounds like a cascade.

Let us get ahead of the game, work hard during the week, and show Elliot we can be amazing even if we’re not all wearing a technicolour Dreamcoat.

Elliot has told us this is a fairly simple version

Hang on, fairly simple version for the Tenors!!!

Oops! Did I Get That Wrong?

In 2015, Joni Mitchell suffered a devastating stroke. According to her friend, musician and neuroscientist Daniel Levitin, “When she got back from the hospital, she couldn’t walk or talk, and the doctors were so pessimistic about her recovery they didn’t even schedule follow-ups.” One of the greatest songwriters of the 20th century might be permanently silenced.

However, a breakthrough came when nurses at her home found Levitin’s number in the kitchen and called him. They noticed Mitchell responded to music from their phones and sought his advice. Levitin had previously collaborated with her to compile a CD of her favourite tracks for the Artist’s Choice series, a Starbucks project. The playlist spanned artists like Debussy, Marvin Gaye, and Leonard Cohen—an ideal foundation for personalised music therapy.

Levitin, author of Music As Medicine, emphasises that therapeutic music must resonate personally: “If you don’t like it, your cortisol levels spike, and you’ll reject it.” Fortunately, Mitchell’s favourites were already documented. Levitin directed the nurses to her living room bookshelf and supplemented the collection with meaningful songs like Herbie Hancock’s River: The Joni Letters and Graham Nash’s Our House, written for her.

Mitchell gradually recovered with support from speech and physical therapists, but Levitin credits music as pivotal. “Music, increases dopamine, the neurochemical that motivates action. Hearing songs that reminded her of who she is and what she values helped her face the challenges of recovery and stay committed to therapy.”

Oops, I did it again! 2000

There is slight irony as to where the Astronaut has been sent: Mars.

Elliot introduced the dreaded tongue circles last night.  For those of you who have not encountered Eamonn yet, be warned: He does them every week and starts with 8 in each direction!

The number exercise helps us work our brains and voices together and teaches us not to be embarrassed about making mistakes. If you make a mistake, don’t draw attention to yourself; just carry on regardless, and hopefully, no one will know except you!

However, don’t be afraid to be wrong and mumble when rehearsing.  Be strong and wrong, and then it can be easily corrected.

Anyone Who Had a Heart is a very dramatic song. It can be very loud by building up the volume and then lowering it again.

It is not just loud and soft; you can put feeling into the song by noticing the lyrics and their meaning. In the line, ‘Knowing I love you so’, aim for the ‘so’.

‘Anyone who had a heart could take me in his arms and love me to. You ….’ The ‘to’ and ‘you’ are very short and staccato

Keep the ‘Aahs’ bright and the ‘Doo, doos’ with strong ‘ds’ and short vowels.

Basses do NOT be lured on to the tune.  Sing your own tune instead!

Down By the Riverside, again, keep the ‘Aahs’ bright.  Sops come in confidently on your ‘Aah’ and make it swell in sound and then get softer. We reached the part where there was a change of key.  Not only that but new harmonies, especially for the Tenors and Basses. Please listen to the voice parts on Dropbox and practice for next week when your homework is marked!

Here's some guidance: there are three basic options for the notes: go up, go down, or stay the same! Mark your music score accordingly, and this might help.

Peace In the Valley was started part way through.

Sop 1s be prepared for the very high note on ‘sorrow’

Tenors have extra words ’Lord and’ after sorrow’, feel the blues notes on this.

Basses you go a complete octave down on your part ‘There’ll be no sadness and no sorrow’ Make sadness long (without hissing on the ‘s’) With ‘trouble’ in  ‘…no sorrow, no trouble, trouble I see’, the first ‘trouble is a long ‘trou’ and short ‘ble’, but the second time the notes are even with a long ‘see’, so watch for the cut-off!

Next week, we will complete all these songs and start a new one.  Please print it and bring all your music with you.

Everyone, please do your homework so you won’t have to say, ‘Oops, I did it again! ’

Me!

You're on the Tune until you're Not!

'Tenors then have the tune for a whole two bars until they don’t!'

All I can say is that the Tenors must have a lot of love to give as they are always giving the Tune away (a bit of poetic licence).

Oscar Hammerstein, knowing he was dying, met with some friends a few days before he died. One was Mary Matin (the original Maria and mother to JR Ewing) in the stage version of The Sound of Music. Oscar wrote something down on a piece of sheet music, folded it up and gave it to her but told her not to open it until he had passed away. After he passed away, she opened it, and it said:

A bell is not a bell until you ring it.

A song is not song until you sing it.

He was telling Mary that if it hadn't been for her terrific singing and selling of the Sound of Music, no one would have ever appreciated it. The song wasn't included in the film version of The Sound of Music.

Elliot was back in good voice with acute hearing again!

A warm-up with 1, 121, 12321, 1234321, etc, with a missing number.  A good exercise so you learn to sing the missing number in your head is good practice for finding your notes in songs by listening to the other parts and singing it until it is your turn to hit the right note!

We now have three songs in Dropbox, a couple of Gospel songs and a Cilla Black number. 

All sounds so simple, but don’t be fooled.  Be warned, they are not simple at all!

Generally, all three songs have:

At least five-part harmonies

Difficult, mixed timings and rhythms

Changes of key

Lots of words to fit in

Everyone singing the tune at some point

Repetitive once the first part is learnt

A blast from the past. We started with Down by the Riverside at a slower pace than written to enable us to learn these tricky notes.

Tenors & Basses starting us off can be a bit raucous (but don’t get carried away!)

Diction can be relaxed without the crisp ‘t’s and d’’s etc

Sops & Altos, give your ‘Aahs’ more expression and come in confidently so it is an extension to the tenors & Basses ‘more’ fading out in ‘study war no more’.  Keep the ‘Aah’s bright.

When it comes to the chorus, ‘I ain’t gonna study war no more….’ The timing of ‘study is still not quite right.  It is not a clipped even ‘study’. The ‘stu’ part is slightly longer than the ‘dy’ Please practice this as it is sung many times in this song and must be right!

Keep up the energy in this song.

Peace in the Valley is much slower, even slower than you think, so don’t be tempted to rush. 

Many times in this song you will find one word has more than one note!

DO NOT slide on ‘Oh, yes’.  Keep it clean with two definite separate notes.

With the ‘Ooh’s, even if they are the same note, give them a little push when sung the second time so it can be heard as if it is a separate note.

Enjoy another blast from the past "Anyone who had a Heart" is a song written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David, originally recorded by Dionne Warwick in 1963. Her version reached the Top Ten in several countries, including the US, Canada, and Australia, while Cilla Black's rendition became a UK number-one hit for three weeks in early 1964. Cilla Black's version was the fourth best-selling single in the UK that year, with around 950,000 sales. Burt Bacharach presented the song to Warwick in an unfinished state during rehearsals in unfinished form while she, Burt Bacharach and Hal David were rehearsing in Bacharach's Manhattan apartment for an upcoming recording session. He later backed Cilla Black to record it after Warwick's success with the song in America. In 2010, a BBC Radio 2 study recognised Cilla Black's version as the biggest female UK chart hit of the 1960s.

'Too Doo Be Or Not to Doo Be?' that is the question.

Another great challenge Elliot has set us with this song with many different time signatures, not to mention ‘Doo Doo be dos’ which need to have a muscular sound with short vowels (usually we are told to lengthen vowels!), making it like a full stop.

There are three ‘Doo, doo, doos and a ‘be doo’, then a count of ‘and a one and’ before a ‘Ba doo be do aah’.

Make the ‘Aah’ crescendo before going into two ‘Doo, doos and’ be doo’ followed by ‘Ba doo be do aah’.

Tenors then have the tune for a whole two bars until they don’t!

Not a bad attempt at all the songs.

We must listen and follow our Musical Director, not chatter while he goes through the other parts. It is distracting for everyone else,

You can learn from listening, even though it is not your tune, as it may be later in the song.

If you have a question, wait and ask the person who will know the answer (Elliot at present)

Next week, we will work in reverse and start with Anyone who had a Heart, working our way back through all the songs, so check your voice parts in Dropbox and familiarise yourselves with them so we can impress Elliot that we have done our homework

And remember, listen to our musical director, Elliot. How lucky are we!