Welcome to rehearsal notes for this week, hoping they are useful particularly for those who could not attend. It was particularly pleasing to have some more new people to sing with us and try us out.

Please return Christmas music as soon as possible and collect a further bundle of music to complete the repertoire for this term.

We continue to sing with masks on, socially distanced and ask that everyone takes a lateral flow test before the rehearsal.

After a vocal warm up, we looked at the following pieces:

1. Keep me

• Sing this with a ‘slow swing’ rhythm.
• We enjoyed initially sight reading through this piece. Try it. Note how the 4 parts fit together. Note 1^st and 2^nd time bars in Bar 10
• Mark up the page turn in Bars 5-6.
• Tenors note change of pattern of notes in Bar 6.
• Do not take a breath in Bars 17-18 to give continuity to ‘shield me’

2. We threw it all away

• We practised the Bars 17-19 ‘we threw it all away’ for entries and syncopated rhythm .

T&B come in after 2 beats in Bar 17, then watch for syncopation on ‘away’ on 4^th beat (2 quavers) of Bar 18 and hold into Bar 19.

S&A come in after a quaver rest in Bar 18. Same syncopation for ‘away’ on 4^th beat as for T&B.

The ‘we threw it all away’ phrase above repeats in Bars 33- 36, Bars 66-69.

• At Bar 99, note change to slower tempo, watch Mary!
• Observe the minim rest in Bar 40
• Mark up the page turn at E and be ready for Bar 64.
• Be careful to delay and shorten the ‘s’ sound at the end of words eg promise(s), glorie(s)
• Observe the syncopated rhythm eg Bar 24 ‘in our hands’, Bar 66 ‘in our hearts’, Bar 89 ‘in our thoughts’.

3. A Song for you

• We briefly reviewed this piece. Add at bar 90 – slower tempo for final bars

4. Jubilate Deo

• Look back to the notes from the previous week’s rehearsal on 10^th January.
• We worked on Bars 72 – 90, learning notes, rhythms and how parts fit together.
• Note quaver rest in Bar 84.
• Sopranos – to help with the high ‘Gs’ throughout the piece, soften the vowels and focus on tone and pitch. Leave detailed articulation of the words to other parts!
• Finally, we sang the piece through including final ‘Amen’ section to get a feel for the style – lively and joyful.

5. Celebrate (p34 Blue Book)

• A reminder – look at this piece and practise at home – will be sung unaccompanied from memory, both clapping and singing sections.
• In v3, join ‘music’ smoothly to ‘our music’ – no breath in Bar 19 to Bar 20b.
• Keep pronunciation of words pure and clean eg ‘our’ not ‘ower’.