Improvisation
With only five weeks left with Elliot we still have a lot of ground to cover to learn some new songs as well as cementing in the ones we’ve already done.
It certainly didn’t help with the keyboard being temperamental and not working for the first half of the rehearsal!
However, with this challenge, Elliot was able to improvise and start us off with a warm up with tongue circles, singing up and down the range on an ‘ng’ siren, plus sticking our tongues out as far as possible and then speaking the numbers one to ten! Not as easy as it sounds!
It is good to exercise the tongue root in this way. It is not an easy or pain free exercise, but well worth doing!
Jan is going to give us some vocal coaching on our head and chest voices:
Sops – 29 September
Altos – 20 October
Tenors & Basses – 27 October
Please be there at 18:30 for an 18:45 start.
With this in mind, Elliot suggested thinking of the voice as one long continuum with one end being the head and the other end the chest.
those were the days
To get the feel of this he suggested Yodelling.
The master of Yodelling, Frank Ifield. ‘Yodel – ay’ is in the chest and ‘hee hoo’ is in the head.
Explore the ups and downs just using ‘Yodel – ay’ so you can feel it moving along the different ranges from chest to head and likewise for ‘hee hoo’ moving from head to chest.
As you explore the ups and downs, modify your vowels e.g. make ‘ee’ sound more like an ‘oh’ sound so the notes are better for the head voice. Likewise for the chest voice modify ‘ee’ sound to an ‘ay’ for a more meatier sound
We looked at Poor Wayfaring Stranger which is a well-known American folk and gospel song likely originating in the early 19th century about a plaintive soul on the journey through life. The origins of the song are unclear and it may have multiple influences. The likely use of coded language common in negro spirituals points to African American origins. For example, 'crossing the River Jordan' may refer to crossing the Ohio River on the journey north to freedom.
This song starts a Capella with all voices singing in unison quietly. Do not take a breath until after ‘stranger’.
When the voices split, the Tenors and Basses are together.
Remember ‘this’ is a low note in ‘wandering through this world of woe’. ‘woe and ‘go’ are long notes.
Keep ‘sickness’ crisp with no hissing.
Slow down slightly on the first time you sing, ‘to which I go’.
There is no slow down when sung the second time.
Keep your ‘dark clouds’ bright.
It does slow down at the very end, so you need to watch the direction carefully for the timing in ‘I’m only going home’.
We then went over Scarborough Fair where the phrases are very long and it is important to sing right to the end of these long phrases and not let them tail off.
After the break, we were able to get the keyboard working again so went through Those Were the Days, a popular song, with lyrics by Gene Raskin set to the Russian romance song "Dorogoi Dlinnoyu", by Boris Fomin. It is a reminiscence of youth and romantic idealism, recalling drinking, singing, and dancing in a tavern with a friend, imagining a rosy future that has not been fulfilled.
The first recording of Those Were the Days was released in 1962 by the American folk trio The Limeliters. The Welsh singer Mary Hopkin recorded Those Were the Days as her debut single in 1968. Also released in 1968 by Sandie Shaw, MBE. One of the most successful British female singers of the 1960s,
Georgian singer Tamara Tsereteli (1900–1968) and Russian singer Alexander Vertinsky made what were probably the earliest recordings of the song, in 1925 and 1926 respectively. The song appears in the 1953 British/French movie Innocents in Paris, sung by the Russian Roma chanteuse Ludmila Lopato.
In the early 1960s, Raskin and his wife Francesca played folk music in venues around Greenwich Village in New York, including the White Horse Tavern. Raskin, who had grown up hearing Dorogoi Dlinnoyu, wrote English-language lyrics to it. Raskin copyrighted both the music and lyrics in his own name, though he had created only the lyrics.
In verse 2 it slows down on ‘…. Smile at one another and we’d say..’
Don’t rush this song, feel the beat and keep in time.
Basses, as usual you are on the tune until you are not! ..’I saw your face and heard you call my ..’ is the tune and then the last note is different. It is the same note as you’ve just sung on ‘call’ so it is easy to find.
Keep the ..’la la las’ bright and sing them right to the end of the note.
In the last verse ‘Those - were - the …’ are all elongated notes before going into the final ‘..days, my friend…’ Keep the spark and energy to the end with the ‘la la las’.
Daydream Believer was recapped. The chorus needs to be much fuller.
When singing ‘Cheer up sleepy Jean…’ think back to the warm up and the vowel modification and sing, ‘Cheer up slippy Jean…’ which help keep the vowel bright and not flat!
‘Oh what can it mean to a ‘ should be in one breath before ‘Daydream believer…’
At the end, keep up the energy even though it is getting quieter.
Next week we will be starting a brand new song, so watch out for it in Dropbox.
We will also go over the songs we’ve already done, so be prepared for anything!
Ena Sharples with her grandson.
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