Full of Surprises

We had a most challenging warm-up with the Grand Old Duke of York!  Singing it with ‘up’ missing and then ‘down’ missing and then ‘up’ and ‘down’ missing was not easy! It certainly gets your brain working and coordinating your voice to sing at the right time!

Fairytale of New York moved on to the part where it goes from the really quiet reflective stage to the lively jig.  The rhythm of the phrasing is important: ‘… wind goes right through its no place….’ ‘through its’ is very quick and sounds like one word ‘throughits no place ….’

The Irish lilt sound comes into play with ‘for’ having three notes in ‘waiting for me’.

There is a surprise in this song as the Sops don’t always have the tune!  ‘Sinatra was singing ….’ Starts with the tune and then goes into harmony, so Sops be prepared!

Altos be bold and sing out confidently.  You are the linchpin to the In Flagrante sound!

Happy Together needs to be bright and sparkly with an equal sound in all parts (altos sing up and Sops and Basses tone it down).  Make the ‘ther’ on ‘together’ bright with raised eyebrows!

Diamonds are Forever – in the part ….’desert me..’ put the ‘t’ onto ‘me’ as in ‘deser-tme’

And ‘when love is goooooone’ feel it rather than trying to sing every note! After the long ‘gone’ don’t forget to come back in again with the next phrase. Don’t let it take you by surprise!

Lean on Me is a song written and recorded by American singer-songwriter Bill Withers. Lean on Me” already carries so much heart as Bill Withers wrote it from a place of genuine empathy and community. Having John Legend, Stevie Wonder, and Bill Withers together makes it especially poignant.

Bill Withers' childhood in the coal mining town of Slab Fork, West Virginia, was the inspiration for this song which he wrote for his album Still Bill after he had moved to Los Angeles, and found himself missing the strong community ethic of his hometown. He had lived in a decrepit house in the poor section of his town. He made an effort to keep the lyrics simple

We first performed this song with the arrangement by Elliot Clay in 2018 and again in 2023.

Emphasise the start of each phrase. There a few surprises in this song. Sops, Tenors and Basses be bold with your ‘Carry on for’.

Altos this is your moment to shine singing the words out boldly while all the other parts are ‘Oohing’ underneath you.

For any of you who have previously sung this, you know Sops and Altos have the tricky timing of ‘Might’. The Tenors and Basses sing ‘I just might’ and then you quickly come in with your ‘might’ so it’s like a little fast echo.

We finished peacefully with Peace on Earth which is slow, so don’t forget to breathe after the phrases before singing ‘Peace on earth’.  This is the opposite of what we are used to as we are usually told not to breathe!

We are still working on the mystery of Zoom settings and are determined to get it up and running.  WE thank you for your patience in this rather long process!

Keep up the good work and look out for the updates in Dropbox.

Zoom it's a mystery