A Happy New Year to all.
It was good to be back singing despite the restrictions of masks and socially distancing. These arrangements work well and help people feel safe. We trust that all attending take a lateral flow test earlier in the day.
It was particularly good to welcome some new people to sing with us.
Please return Christmas music as soon as possible.
We ‘warmed up’ with vocal and rhythm exercises – necessary after the break. The focus of the rest of the rehearsal was on learning notes, rhythms and part singing by revisiting repertoire from September 2021. We looked at the following:
- Celebrate (p34 Blue Book)
- This will be sung from memory- the clapping and the singing. So, take a look and listen during the week
- We practised singing the 3rd verse to the end to get the continuity at Bar 20b into the final section of singing (Ah) and clapping from Bar 27 to the fff ‘Celebrate (clap) Celebrate’ in Bars 37/8
- Join ‘music’ smoothly to ‘our music’ in Bar 19 to Bar 20b
- Jubilate Deo
- We spent time learning the notes – From Bar 2, S &T initially singing followed by A&B
- From Bar 21, read the notes of the 4 part harmony and note how the parts fit together.
- In Bar 36 – 37, hold the word ‘praise’ but leave the final consonants as late as possible eg ‘PrAIse’
- Bottom of p9 – get ready for page turn
- Bar 106 onwards – Amen section. Watch out for the 4 part harmony (mainly S&T together, A&B together) but watch rhythms and how the parts fit together.
- We threw it all away
- We sang this through several times to check notes and get a feel for the verse structure in the piece.
- In the copy – put in A at Bar 21, B at Bar 37, C at Bar 54, D at Bar 70.
- Watch for syncopated rhythms throughout eg Bar 7