As it's not really Sing Up, I won't write about the Voces8 launch concert here, but a public post can be found in my other journal here if anybody's interested.

(My being absurdly excited was richly rewarded!)

I wouldn't normally post about a session before I could properly update, but tonight I need to get some things off my chest.

I can't explain it but I'm buzzing differently tonight from after every other session - not because we've been running around and making total idiots of ourselves, like session 2; although we did a bit of that - it just feels different. Probably a contributing factor is that there were only eight of us, which by the nature of these workshops, completely changes the dynamic and the songs and warm-ups we can do. I shall elucidate in the actual write-up, but I do prefer smaller groups. (I can hear better too!)

- I talked to Susan before the workshop began, and got to know her a little. I also asked her about Sign Up, and she said I'd be most welcome! (I would like to point out that when I discovered Music and the Deaf [capitals theirs; I'm not going into that!] and Sign Up, I almost fell off my seat with excitement! I was bouncing for days afterwards, even more so than when I discovered Sing Up. I was and am still ridiculously excited ... but Sign Up shall have to wait for a separate entry. Possibly after Monday.)

- We did some technical things! Hooray!!! I've been trying to explore my voice, working out what sounds it makes and how, and the different registers - and the natural thing to do is to look on the internet (with discretion; I'm not totally stupid) and attempt to begin to make sense of it all. But it doesn't really work when one has no idea what each different part of the vocal system (for want of a better word) is or does. I haven't even worked out what the registers are, come to that - I know some (chest voice, falsetto, whistle) but there seem to be different terms encompassing different registers ... so confusing. Hence I've given up for now, and am sticking to working out what my voice does. So, for Charles to do some technical work with us was brilliant.

- Wir haben progress on the volunteering front :)

- Bean casserole!


I think I'm currently more excited about writing up this session than I am about the (*ahem* shameless plug alert!) 'Aces High' launch concert on Friday - !! This is likely due to the latter not having sunk in yet, especially as I almost missed all of the saver tickets (the next available was £24.50, I think - really couldn't afford that!). However, it will be brilliant and I will be excited by the time I get there, even if it doesn't sink in until I'm on the train to London!


(I'm an utter idiot. I've not slept very well for the past few nights, and getting myself all excited again about Sign Up was possibly not the wisest of deeds! Ho hum.)

Hooray for Sibelius demo and screenshots! I shall post what I can of the songs we used during session 4, though this will likely be an 'entry in progress' for a while because the process is unexpectedly slow. I also apologise for any notation errors in melodies or lyrics - please feel free to pull me up on them!

Great Day:
( Parts )
We spent quite a while doing different things with Great Day; after a bit we started clapping along, and then we walked around the room in a line, snaking back and forth. At one point we passing each other by, which meant that we could hear more clearly the harmonies between our part and the others as we passed. It was great fun!


Kumala Vista (probably not the correct title):( Transcription of nonsense )
This one sparked a discussion about appropriate pitching. Charles taught us it an octave below the above, and all of us sang it at the same pitch. Susan commented that as it was all in chest voice, her voice was hurting, and her point was to make sure we pitch it right for whatever our group is - children or adults. Charles said he finds G-D to be the 'golden fifth', in the middle of the range for everybody - not too high for the men, and he was expecting the ladies to go up the octave (because, I paraphrase, he's 'definitely not a counter-tenor; singing top Ds would be rancid').

We started off with 'Oh diddli-oh doh ... ' as the ostinato, then put everything else on top - effectively each two bars (as written above) constituted one line, and as a round it works when each group comes in after one line.

Right, as my laptop is evidently unresurrectable – at least by myself – I'd better get on with writing up session 4 (9th December 2009) before we get to session 5 next Wednesday (13th January 2010) … today is Thursday (7th) Friday 8th so that's not even a week's time. Providing the weather lets up and we're not all snowed in - well, here's hoping. (I think watching lots of Star Trek could be a contributing factor towards not having got round to writing up yet, oops!)

The plan had been to practise before the session, but to cut a long story short I had to be let in by the cleaners as the code seems to have changed, who had no idea anything was supposed to be happening (most disconcerting) and was asked to wait in the foyer. I didn't wish to be awkward so didn't practise – however it did afford an opportunity to look through our new kingdom songs (for the Sunday practice mentioned in the previous post) whilst waiting for others to turn up, so that was useful. Time ticked on and it was almost seven o'clock before the first lady turned up (I can't remember her name; I must find out next time! I know she's from Woburn Sands and does Music Mites at The Stables … still not her name comes to mind), and we waited a short while before everybody else started to arrive. Charles and Matt were among the last to arrive before the cleaner let us into the hall – Paul didn't actually arrive at all; his car blew up on the way! How frustrating for him. That completely changed what we did during the session as Paul had all of the materials for the songwriting, but it was a great session nonetheless; very helpful indeed.

The first part of the session Charles handed over to us, to talk in pairs about warm-ups (ones we've done as a group, or others we know) and then to lead them. It was very interesting and jolly good fun!

( Warm-ups! )


The second part of the workshop focused on Charles teaching us some songs; these were, in no particular order and probably without correct titles:
Kumala vista
Great Day
… the Zulu one
Scrumptious food

The first three he taught us in parts, so that (hopefully) we all got a chance to sing every part – in at least one of them he divided the group differently each time the parts changed, which meant that for example, some of those already singing part one were singing with those who changed onto part one – the groups overlapped.

( A little commentary )

I’m definitely looking forward to the next session – and hoping desperately that I will be able to attend the concert on the 15th (King’s Place, London, for the launch of Aces High – exciting stuff!) but this is alas all weather permitting. I just hope the snow and ice will have thawed enough for getting to the respective destinations without risking life and limb – we shall see what next week holds.

EDIT: I am actually ridiculously excited about being able to buy Aces High - still, it's a good exercise for patience and self-control!

(Non-edit:) Lyrics for songs to follow shortly; maybe some melodies too at some point. I haven’t yet mastered writing melodies with words underneath – I’ve always used Sibelius for that! It’s probably about time I learned …


I forgot to mention, Lee left for Australia at the end of last month. The music service will never be the same again! I would like to say that had it not been for Lee – directly, and indirectly – I'd not have even given Take the Lead a go, so I really am very grateful to him (he knows but I thought I'd mention it here too).

I was hoping to post the write-up of Take the Lead session 4 today, but I was writing it on my laptop ... which decided to stop working today. This is irritating. It's been on its last legs for over a year and has had a couple of resurrections so I'm not giving up hope but nor am I holding out any! If it doesn't work tomorrow I'll start from scratch and get it posted because I want to get it done - though I was over halfway through so I'm hoping that starting from scratch won't be necessary.



While I'm here, a little good news: On Sunday I went to a small gathering to practise some of our new songs (Jehovah's Witnesses don't use traditional hymns, and we have a new songbook we'll be using in January) and I think Take the Lead actually helped me be confident enough to sing out! I was asked along specifically to help lead, because I can sight-sing and therefore (hopefully) sing the melodies right - usually to sing out in a group of 20-25 would terrify me witless, but after a few songs I found my confidence - and my voice! If I'm honest, I didn't realise how much voice I had ... I'm not saying it was particularly good, but there was more of it than I'd ever thought.

Later on in the evening we sang a song that none of us had ever looked at before. As we listened to the piano accompaniment once through, I was going through the melody in my head, and decided to start humming it ... and then went for it, singing it out. In front of everybody else. Not a huge thing, I know, but for me it was quite something! And I know that a lot of the confidence that I needed to just go for it came from Take the Lead :) (Though the sight-singing itself definitely came from being a string player - good old D major ... )

To the tune of 'Ten Green Bottles':
Ten green signal lights, standing by the track,
Ten green signal lights, standing by the track,
And if one green signal light should suddenly change to red,
There'll be nine green signal lights, standing by the track!
(etc. ... )

I think it makes sense to post here songs and activities that may come in useful, as the aim of the blog is to keep everything about Sing Up together. It'll likely end up resembling a Sing Up scrapbook or something ... so hooray for tags!

Woops, the comments settings were wrong ... or I just forgot to think about changing them; the latter may be more likely, sorry.

So, please feel free to leave comments!


♪Gre-ea-ea-eat day; the sun's gonna shine on everyone!♪

This post is a bit 'odds and ends' in nature, before I write up about session 4.


- This was the first session in which I didn't feel inadequate!!!


- I had the confidence to ask what I knew was a potentially stupid question and didn't recoil when I started to feel a little silly :D


- Dm, dm, dm, tsch tsch tsch
Dm, dm, dm, tsch tsch tsch
Dm, dm, dm, tsch tsch tsch
Dm, dm, dm, tsch tsch tsch

Gre-eat day,
Great day and the sun is shi-inin'
Gre-ea-ea-eat day,
The sun's gonna shine on everyone!

Shinin', sun is shi-inin'
Shinin', sun is shi-inin'
Shinin', sun is shi-inin'
Sun's gonna shine on everyone!
OR
Shine on, shine on me-ee yeah,
Shine on, shine on me-ee yeah,
Shine on, shine on me-ee yeah, the
Sun's gonna shine on everyone!
{I can't remember which; both sets fit the rhythm}

Shiiiiiiiine, why won't you shi-ine on me,
Shiiiiiiiine, why won't you shi-ine on me,
Shiiiiiiiine, why won't you shi-ine on-the
Sun's gonna shine on everyone!


- Kumala kumala kumala vista
Ohhh-oh-oh oh oh na-vista
Eeci-meeni deci-meeni oohaah la-eeni-meeni
Doh diddli-oh doh, d-doh doh, sh'-di'n'da'n'

[The last two points are words (or in the case of the second, transcription of nonsense!) to two of the songs we learned from Charles, so I don't forget them. I'll probably notate the songs, but haven't time today - the words hopefully should remind me of the melodies.]


- Shameless plug (in case anyone other than Paul does actually read this blog!):

Voces8 are launching their new album 'Aces High' on the 15th January 2010!!
Details here: http://www.kingsplace.co.uk/music/weekly-themes/voces8
Snippets of album tracks here: http://www.voces8.moonfruit.com/#/aceshigh/4537120598 or if that doesn't work, http://www.voces8.com/ >> 'Aces High mini-site'

(I'm probably biased, but I think what I've heard on the website is simply fantastic; I absolutely cannot wait to get hold of the album! It's due for general release on the 1st February.)

( Preamble )

Charles' warm-up: [This was supposed to be approximately three minutes long, rather than a 'MacDougall 45-minute special' (if only I could remember the exact quote!) as the purpose of the session was not warm-ups, but songwriting; it ended up more in the region of five minutes but considering our usual warm-ups, five minutes was really rather impressive!]
Bungalow:
Leader {sings}: Bungalo-ow, bungbungalo-ow
Group repeat
Leader {speaks}: Hey [name], hey [name], show us how you bungalow!
Group repeat
Person {speaks to pulse}: My hands are high, and my feet are low, and {with action of own choice} this is how I bungalow!
Group {still to pulse}: Your hands are high, and your feet are low, and {copy action} this is how you bungalow!

I think actually I'll snag the reflection on 'Bungalow' from Paul's notes because it covers everything, and words it better than I would:

“Another name game song with opportunities for individuality and self expression[*] was led by Charles. Incorporated into the game were the following types of warm up:

Body movement – physical, facial and vocal warm up
Spoken voice – from whispering to full voice engagement
Low pitch/High pitch – stretching the voice as high and low as it could go
Varied rhythm linked with movement
Different dynamics – quiet, loud and in the middle
Characterisation – very important! Putting emotions into our music
Performing as a choir and as a soloist in a safe environment
Call and response style learning – both as leaders and followers”

*Charles made this point about the creativity that was produced: some picked up and carried on from him, e.g. he finished quietly -> they started quietly; others were resolute -> had chosen their action and stuck to it. Good to have both types of creativity.

Paul's warm-up:
Copy him.
- As usual, different consonants, pitches, characters (including the fireworks!)

Soundscapes:
(Abstract soundscape)
- Think of sound (pulse 4) – perform all together.
- Then non-vocal sound (oops! Mine had already been non-vocal), perform all together.
- As loud as possible / as quiet as possible.
[Potential to explore more, of course, but that wasn't the focus of the session.]
(Themed soundscape)
- Split into two groups
> Within groups: choose a theme (anything)
> All think of a relevant sound -> perform all together
> Sounds chosen for basis of soundscape
> Melody!
- Each group then perform their soundscape; other group have to guess the theme: fireworks / crime


Songwriting:
- What do we need? => Verse, chorus, tempo, words, instrumental, bridge (when boy bands stand up and step forward – very cheesy!) rhythm, melody, chords, etc.
- happy / sad? Chose happy (Charles joked that he hoped we didn't actually want a happy song, because whenever Paul tries to write a happy song it still turns out sad!)
- Play first chord, choose number 1-7.
- Play chords, choose more; like progression?
- Changed some, add a couple (because the cadence didn't sit well to Charles' very soul! If only I could remember the exact quote there too!) Settled.
- Chords for chorus
- Play through verse + chorus; what do they sound like? - theme
> Christmas
> away, trying to get back for Christmas
> our workshops (what trying to achieve, how get there)
> trapped -> freedom
> holiday
> cosy
- Verse chords introspective, not obviously happy (ahem, Paul); chorus simple and happy.
- Words for verse and chorus: chorus has to be the message of the song. Verse tells the story (wanders about – ours totally does!!)

Paul played the chords 'on repeat' for each group (we were still in our two groups) to write one verse and chorus. Lack of time => just write the chorus, though for our group Ed sang a verse, then we all sang the chorus; in the other group Malcolm rapped a verse and then they all sang their chorus.

The purpose of our songwriting, I shall also snag from Paul's notes:

“Understanding how songs work is very important if you want to be a good workshop leader. Songs can exist in many different forms, but there are key elements when building a song. When you come to rehearsing a new song with a group, if you can work out what each part of the song has been written for, this will help you to understand how to teach it. Various parts of songs have patterns to look out for, and if you are able to work out which bits of each song follow which patterns, this will help you teach it to the group you are working with.”


Overall I think it took the group as a whole a while to settle down and relax. One thing I forgot to mention (  ...  )

However. It was enjoyable as ever, fruitful, and we really made progress. In his notes Paul mentioned that the soundscapes were “very impressive work and showed clear learning from the previous session”, which is always nice to read! It's actually really helpful that we have session notes and e-mails peppered with encouragement like that :D

The encouragement for next time is to think about warm-ups we could lead, and to think about giving it a go (yikes); and bring in any resources that may come in useful for songwriting (Philharmonia Stepping Stones pack you're going to come in handy!).

Speaking of which, and I shall leave it at this: Charles gave us a good giggle with ( The Mummification Hokey-Cokey! )

Well, at least I got it written up before the next session this Wednesday! At last.

( Mini pre-amble )

Paul's warm-up:
Copy me:
- hands
- sounds
- stomp/lunges: LOUD (diaphragm)
- stretching out
- characterisation – had nonsensical conversation [interesting!] - authority figure / timid
- emphasised consonants – especially 'W'

Charles' warm-up:
- shrug / relax
- tense / relax whole body – DECONSTRICTION
- black holes / supernovae (really energetic! i.e. supernovae = jump as high off the floor as possible)
Cowboy:
- cowboy toffee, really chewy! => Jaw working
- running through village (moderate jog on the spot)
- being chased! -> faster
- duck bullet!
- jump over wagon
- slide through saloon doors [ideally without falling over! Oops and ouch]
During Charles' introduction of the cowboy character in session 1, he told us he had cowboy boots. We didn't believe him, mainly because a) it's Charles and b) he was wearing a three-piece tweed suit ... he turned up for session 2 in cowboy boots!

Soundscapes:
Cowboy:
On our horses! Three sounds, to pulse of four:
> Badaboom-tsch to the Wild-Wild West
> Wah-wah waaah, wah wah waaaah (p-tsch p-tsch)
> Rollin' rollin' rollin', rollin' rollin' rollin' ...
Group split into three smaller groups + three leaders (Paul, Matt, another lady). On Charles' signal, leaders turn to the next group and lead them.

Q (Paul to the group): Was that a soundscape?
A: Yes – sounds depicting aspects of the Wild West
Q (participant, possibly Lee): why constantly on the horse? Just characterisation or actual reason behind it?
A: unlocks knees. People stand with knees locked; not good to sing with locked knees! Psychological: 'singing' = tense up. Idea of workshops is to get them singing without realising – takes away psychological associations and gets them singing naturally. Charles said the higher he sings, the lower he bends his knees (in singing lessons): “shameless displacement” - tricks the body into not thinking he's trying to sing high. So movement whilst singing distracts the body from the singing aspect!
[ - I'd just like to point out that I tried consciously unlocking my knees. I can't stand like that! It feels that, unless my knees are locked, there's no muscle support just above my knees, and I have to have at least one locked else I feel about to fall over! I have no doubt that Charles knows what he's saying (and I've noticed that when singing at the meetings, I unconsciously clench all of my leg muscles, which obviously isn't good. I'm trying to work on it) but I can't relax and stand with my knees unlocked. If I try, I'm concentrating on not collapsing!]

Next soundscape:
> Close eyes and think of something. Anything.
=> Various suggestions: English country garden, trains, Egypt, bridge over a brook (real place near Bedford; sounds nice!), etc.
> Decided on Egypt.
> Close eyes, think of Egypt. Visualise selves there, sounds, smells, textures, etc. Then, think of a sound.
> All together, to pulse of four, perform our sounds.
> Then, groups of four: each group perform sounds, rest of group choose one and do it too. Repeat for other two groups.
> Split into groups based on the sorts of sounds we have: embalmers, sand / pyramids, slavery.
> Each group organise their sounds (can't remember whether unison was preferred, but polyphony was allowed as long as it was justifiable; or whether it was the other way round!) [PULSE!!!]
> Each group to perform (I think) and then instructions to add some melody, to fit with Charles' melody (can't remember it but it was in an ... adventurous key!)
> Each group perform, then each member of group to lead others on their line. [eek – discussion to follow]

An observation was that we all seemed to come up with a narrative within our groups – the embalming group had scooping out guts and brains, and scarab beetles; the pyramid/sand group had sand whooshing, the wind blowing open the pyramid door, and sunshine coming through the opening; and the slavery group ended up with ... (actually, we went through a couple of possible incarnations, so I'm not sure what our final narrative was) ... we had the slave heaving a couple of blocks before having to stop to rest, the master telling the slave to get up and carry on, and the shophar (shofar? - EDIT: shohphar, in the original Hebrew) calling the slaves to work. (We er, originally had it within eight beats, but to then incorporate melody we ended up having to extend it over twelve beats. There's creativity for you!)

A bit of personal observation and rambling here: ( Ooh yikes! )


That was pretty much it, although two miscellaneous points:
( More yikes )

Heh, it probably sounds like it was pretty much a bad evening overall, the number of times I made myself feel a complete numbskull (note: nobody else made me feel that, only myself - !!) but it was actually rather fun. Especially being cowboys ~grin~ And very educational. I actually had an 'OHHHH yeah!' (*lightbulb pings on*) moment during our ending discussion, though I can't for the life of me remember what it was. I wasn't sure whether to feel happy that I'd realised whatever it was, or whether I'd actually been exceedingly slow to realise it!


(Oh, by the way? I pulled all of my muscles during the session – despite our very thorough warm-ups!! My body truly is feeble! I couldn't walk properly for almost a week O.o)


Before I forget: just a little something else. Charles mentioned, in connection with melody, that leaders can steer creativity into the desired direction. For example, a child might have an idea that's slightly melodic; the leader can then manipulate the idea a little into something a little more melodic – it's still the original idea (child's happy; ownership) simply steered more in the right direction. This can be applied to any musical aspect – a trick of the trade, one might term it.

Next post: Take the Lead! session 3

The concert was BRILLIANT!!! I can't remember all of the songs they sang, although I knew most of them (hooray for the internet! The internet doesn't do them justice though, by any means). These are the ones I can remember (in no particular order):

Magnificat Primi Toni - Palestrina
Nunc Dimittis - Gustav Holst
I Got Rhythm^ - Gershwin (^ = arr. Jim Clements)
Me and My Shadow^ - Jolson/Rose/Dreyer
Jailhouse Rock^ - Leiber/Stoller
Il est Bel et Bon - Pierre Passereau
Mack the Knife^ - Kurt Weill
Hark by the Crystal Fountain* - Thomas Weelkes
O Clap Your Hands - Orlando Gibbons
Steal Away - spiritual
Straighten Up and Fly Right^ - Cole/Mills
Fever^ - Davenport/Cooley
Feelin' Good^ (possibly; I'm not sure) - Newley/Bricusse
Slap That Bass^ - Gershwin / Gershwin

Encore: James Bond Medley^ (I think it was a medley; it may not have been. Could just have been one I don't know.) - various

*Charles took great delight in telling us a little about the character of Thomas Weelkes. He was fired from his post as .. what was it? Organist and master of the choristors at Chichester Cathedral for being drunk, and he wasn't best pleased. So he waited until a procession of archbishops? well, dignitaries of the church, anyway, and urinated on them from the gallery! (How verifiable this is I don't know, but it was certainly an amusing anecdote. Numerous sources report that he was dismissed from his post for habitual drunkenness, profanity, and blasphemy.)

It was, and how can I put this? AMAZING! Such great fun! I knew from YouTube videos that they really perform, rather than just sing, and I saw a bit of that during the performances earlier on in the day. But the concert had a completely different atmosphere; they were really engaging with the audience and having a ball ~grin~. The audience was – well, I was pleasantly surprised at the turnout, but it wasn't huge. So it kind of felt quite an intimate concert, which was really nice. I think it's probably the best concert I've ... what's the word? seen? heard? both. Hehe, it turns out the controller of Radio Three, who also happens to be involved with organising the Proms, was there. I have no doubt he will have been impressed ... watch this space?

It was an amazing, fun, educational day. Really, really brilliant. I'm so glad they invited us along; it's a real shame the others missed it (most likely because they were working. Alas).

Next post: Take the Lead! session 2

The masterclass was for the part songs for the then forthcoming House Singing for the senior school. There were five ensembles; alas I didn't write down all of the song titles because I didn't actually hear any of them! I only knew some of them because I recognised the songs. So, the main points:

First ensemble:
- Important to look as well as sound good. ENSEMBLE; effectively one instrument [did Barney really say that? Either that or my notes are wonky]
- Emotion: imagine no words; communicate emotion still. Also overall shape of piece.
- Basses and tenors, back up the melody. Harmony, give the shape.

Second:
- Stand together! Be an ensemble!
- Try less conducting – breathe together (standing closer together helps) [on the floor was tape for Voces8; standing within the tape meant they all stand quite close together. Somewhat closer than the boys were!]
- Pyramid of sound: basses give the most, melody (counter-tenor) gives the least [it made sense when Charles was talking about it; I'm not sure I can explain it sufficiently to do it justice alas. It was a few weeks ago now ... ]
- Key changes: practice!!! Listen to the bass.

Third (This may have been 'On the Dock of the Bay'; I forget):
- Own the solo (not vice versa) – guts! and showmanship.
- Middle: unify vowels
- Basses: 'bom' – round, resonant. And groove! [Dingle spend a while helping the basses with it; it was interesting]

Fourth (The Bare Necessities):
- Learn from memory.
- Solo makes its way around the parts; need to see where it goes (and hear for certain).
- Character
- Don't need conductor (stand and breathe together – already discussed)
- Make it fun! Project and perform the solos.
- Basses: line is inherently boring (bom) – make it fun, live it. Be a bear!

Fifth (Teddy Bears' Picnic): [The arrangement we attempted and failed at music school. Sadly. It was fun!]
- Vital to choose a song suited to the group's voices and personalities; commendation for succeeding – 'genius', to quote Barney.
- Characterisation! (Treble perfect for the teddy bear.) Never shy away from the obvious characterisations (e.g. Dingle/Paul) – cheesy but it never ceases to raise a smile. USE THE GROUP.
- Choreography [choralography? Charles and Andrea] – character of the piece. [Stand in, with 'teddy bear' in the front; others in semi-circle behind him. Stand with hands on knees/thighs, in 'telling a hushed secret' kind of stance.]

I don't know which group won the unison song – I know it was Crescent but I've no idea which group that was. St Peter's won the part song, with Teddy Bears Picnic – yay :) That made me smile. It seems that the ensembles didn't end up taking much notice of Barney's advice to stand together – or if they tried, ended up drifting apart nonetheless. Ah well. The Teddy Bears' Picnic looks to have been characterised more than their original performance in the masterclass, which is good.

Next post: Voces8 concert.

I Got Rhythm at the end of the workshop:

Taken almost straight from my notes on the day, the write-up of the Prep School workshop:

Straighten Up and Fly Right
Q: meaning of a cappella? Who sings what instrument?

Paul's warm-up:

This turned out rather longer than anticipated (I suspect this pattern may continue for the rest of this journal, so apologies in advance) so I have decided to split it into parts. So that which follows is my preamble:

Voces8 did an education day (well, afternoon) at Bedford School the Monday after the first session of Take the Lead! (5th October 2009), followed by a free concert, and we were invited to observe the afternoon (workshop and/or masterclass) and of course to attend the concert. Initially I hadn't been sure – mainly because I was scared, I will confess! - but after being so impressed by Paul and Charles I decided to Google Voces8 and was blown away by what I discovered. So I decided I ought to at least give it some serious consideration, and eventually decided to go (if the invitation were still open – happily it was). I am so glad I did!

Monday morning I wasn't feeling too well. My IBS had been playing up over the weekend and was still giving me grief; all the while I was in Luton I was quite apprehensive about the afternoon. I also had no appetite whatsoever, so was feeling a bit dizzy but could manage barely more than an inch of baguette. So er, I was altogether not feeling great and quite scared still about the afternoon. My two main fears were that I'd get to Bedford School in plenty of time but end up finding out that the location of the workshop had changed and end up being there ~only just~ on time; and that I'd be the only one there observing.

Well, I got to the Erskine May Hall at 2.40pm (the workshop to start at 3pm) ... asked a few teachers if they knew where Voces8 were but nobody had a clue. It got to ten minutes to ... five minutes to ... almost 3pm ... and nobody came for the workshop. Eventually I noticed a stream of boys (most of whom looked young enough to be in the Prep School) plus teachers going past, so I decided to enquire. It turns out the workshop was in fact in the Great Hall. Stupidly somehow I got to the main building but was totally disorientated; I had NO IDEA where the Great Hall was (had totally forgotten since the BYO concert 2 ½ years ago) so ended up feeling a wally before having to wait to ask the secretary for help. Oops. So, fear number 1 was realised!

Fear number 2 was realised when it became evident that nobody else was coming to observe. Where I'd chosen to sit (whilst simultaneously flustered and trying to work out the best place to stand a chance of being able to lip-read whomever was leading) I felt hideously exposed but got myself too flustered to move. Gha, I hate being a phobic wimp! (I also hate the way being a phobic wimp makes me self-centred so my apologies to whomever may be reading this. I just find myself having to mull things over.)

However, I survived. And had a jolly fun time too! It was also exceedingly useful, as both Paul and Charles used warm-ups that were almost identical to what we'd done the previous Wednesday, so we could see how it works with the children.

Next post: Prep School workshop

Preamble to the first session of Take the Lead!, 30th September 2009:

I got to Bedford School fairly early and on my way in a lady asked me where the music block was, so we walked together. Lee and Aga were already there, and when said lady (Neslyn) started discussing project dates with Aga, I started to feel a little nervous as my doubts began to resurface. I hadn't been sure about coming as I thought maybe it was just for those who were already workshop leaders, or at least, currently involved in community music. But I was there and it would be an utter waste to completely wimp out, so I told my brain to shut up and just wait to see what it was about. Charles appeared a little while later, after whom some others arrived, followed by Paul (who introduced himself to, and welcomed, me – made me feel at ease, for which I was very grateful), then a few others, including someone I recognised! Mrs Robinson – Ruth, the mother of a few Harlington / Parkfields children. She didn't recognise me but I plucked up the courage to speak to her, and I'm glad I did :) Sarah had been planning to come but was still in Newcastle - but that made me feel a bit relieved as I knew she couldn't possibly be a full-time community musician, due to the very nature of being at university. Phew.

We waited until 7.15 to start, as there were still others coming who hadn't been there quite at 7. During this time talking to Ruth I noticed something about the recital hall that I'd forgotten – the acoustics. Argh. Great for music = rubbish for speech; I really struggled to hear her. Granted, she was talking fairly quietly but I struggle with speech at a normal level – or any level, for that matter - in there. So a further two hours of solid lip-reading were to follow; I tried not to think about it and just get on with it. Thankfully Paul is very easy to lip-read; Charles slightly less so but okay, and Aga ... I don't recall struggling. It was hard work but it could have been so much worse. Hooray!

Ruth very kindly gave me a lift home, and on the way naturally we found out a little about each other. She isn't actually involved with community music and finds the prospect of leading a workshop somewhat terrifying. If anything she seems more timid than me, which at least makes me feel slightly less of a fraud! I think I'm fortunate in that once I settle down with a group of people I'm not too scared – though how I fare attempting to lead, remains to be seen. It'll be an interesting experience for the both of us, I think.

Next post: The write-up of the actual workshop.