Unfortunately, Eamonn was not well enough to lead us last night, but the lovely Ricardo came and stepped in at the last minute, so we could carry on from last week. Get well soon Eamonn.
Ricardo easily slipped back into his role starting us off with Chicken Tikka and a pint of lager!
Alison Moyet singing Windmills of Your Mind. You can never get enough of Steve McQueen.
We then recapped The Windmills of your Mind. The Altos admitted they were given homework on this last week. Like the Lady Tenors, they have a lot of their harmonies on one note. Sounds simple until you have to sing it with energy and enthusiasm. The lynch pins to the song!
Ricardo mentioned that it reminded him of The Nightmare Before Christmas! After the first shock (and maybe a guilty conscience from the altos), he explained it wasn’t the singing that reminded him, but the underlying piano part. That caused great hilarity and no one was offended.
We worked on the dynamics of the song to make it sound more interesting.
The term ‘fp’ was explained to us: it means starting strongly at the beginning of the word and fading to quiet. It is not an easy thing to do, but will come with practice. Keep a look out for ‘fp’ on the music score and remember the technique.
The Zoomers were having problems with hearing the music and singing last night. Hopefully, it will all be sorted out for next week.
After a short break we went through Make You Feel My Love but for those of us who struggle with one note melodies: Stacy Kent- One note Samba
We had only been through this quickly with Eamonn, so Ricardo took is through everyone’s part especially the Ooohs and harmonies.
The harmonies are important in this song and everyone is tempted to just sing the tune. As usual the sopranos are mainly on the tune, whereas the other parts are sometimes on the tune and then have a short harmony to sing.
It is worth marking your music score to highlight the harmony parts so you are ready for when we reach that part and it doesn’t come a great surprise or, indeed, gets missed altogether.
Mostly the verses start after the beat. However, remember bar 17 and 57 starts on the beat.
Altos take care to be ready and ensure ‘When’ is sung loud and clear on the first note when singing, ‘When the evening shadows and the stars appear’
Everyone else be ready to start on the beat of: ‘I could make you happy, make your dreams come true’. With everyone starting at different times it sounds a little like a Zoom session when the mute button isn’t on! Not a pretty sound!
Of course, it’s not just the beginning or words that important, but the endings too.
A good tip is to put the consonant at the end of the word on the ‘rest’ sign . That way the ending is crisp and clean and we all finish at the same time!
Great news: our concert date has been set for Wednesday 12 July 2023 at Royal Mid Surrey Golf Club. Put the date in your diary and book any holidays around it, if possible.
Easter break: we will not be meeting on 11 & 18 April 2023.
Keep singing at home, work or wherever works best for you. See you next week.