Back in the room and not on Zoom! Hooray!
What a difference, especially as we had a new Christmas Medley to learn.
Always a challenge, particularly for those of us who do not read music and have to learn by ear but it we are in good company. Paul McCartney, Taylor Swift and Prince to name but a few.
Ricardo was insistent we sang “Christmaaaaaas” rather than “Christmasssssssss” as too many ‘Ss’ sound messy. He took us through each song in the medley, going over each voice part. The second sopranos have a real challenge with their harmony.
Next, time to try out our Spanish with Jose Feliciano's Feliz Navidad
In the ‘Walking in a Winter Wonderland’ section the altos are happily singing the tune until the tenors come in and steal it from them. Then they have harmonious notes to singing instead
We went from beginning to the end, which had a very dramatic finish as Ricardo was bringing out his film composer side!
Now we have a feel for how it is put together, we need to practice during the week to perfect it or, at least, improve on what we’ve learned😉
Back to The Rhythm of Life. At one point the tenors were sounding like ‘The Nightmare Before Christmas’. Ricardo soon sorted them out!
This is still a work in progress with the changes of rhythms and all the words to fit in with everyone singing different things at the same time!
The end needs to be built up from very quiet feet and gradually getting louder and louder until it is a huge crescendo at the end. Then we can all breathe again!
With only seven more rehearsals and more new songs yet to come, we have a lot of work ahead of us. With dedication and teamwork, we can do it!