New paintings and regular art updates.
Describe one simple thing you do that brings joy to your life.
He often sits up in the tree
Ot atop a chimney pot
He starts to sing
His voice raised
In skirls and slides
Whistles and trills.
Old blackbirds sing longer
And better, complications
Added each year.
Attracting and announcing
Territory and partnership.
His music gives me joy
Taking the time to listen
Releases peace,
Simple and sweet.
Something in my brain ‘dings’
I remember how the song ‘sings’
Music has a way of sticking
Notes together, metronome ticking.
Sound comes back as mouth opens
Words come out, with the vocals
Songs from months or years ago
We remember how they go!
From some dark corner of my mind..
My vocal chords my brain reminds
The timing, tempo, notes and all..
Into a pattern they all fall
My joy as memory keeps going
And music, memories it keeps sowing…
Singing at Audlem Music Festival today with Loud Mouth Women choir.
I have filtered it through Photodirector to make the participants blurred out. We enjoy singing, but not everyone wants to be identified across the whole world. Data should be protected if that’s what people want.
We sang about 15 songs including: Cockles and Mussels, Da do Ron Ron, Melizway, Summer is icumen in, Song of the Sea and a lot more. Some of them were in different languages, like Maori and Zulu. We learn by repetition and don’t use sheet music.
Everyone seemed to enjoy it and they even joined in some of the songs that our choir mistress helped teach them. It went so well that we have been invited back to do a concert!
It was a lovely day out, my only qualm was that I haven’t driven very far in two years and I think I was holding up the traffic as I gingerly negotiated lots of narrow bends, when we got to the village itself there is a warning system to let you know if there is anything coming the other way. I was very alarmed when a massive tanker truck was round the corner! We squeezed through, thankful I had been driving slowly!
We are singing at Audlem music festival in a few weeks. Loud Mouth Women are learning some new songs, and last night we were a bit short on numbers. In one particular song I was the only person to sing one of the parts! I was a bit nervous and forgot the tune on at least one of the lines. When you sing in a choir you try and tune in with other singers. So much depends on memory, pitching the right notes, getting the beat right and knowing if you have to do a movement or a clap…. In some of our songs that are international we do a Maori wiri-wiri. Next week is the last rehearsal and then we have an hour long performance. Wish us luck!
What was the last live performance you saw?
Our choir members sang at a celebration for the completion of a project a few weeks ago. We were involved with a performance at The Potbank hotel at Spoke in Stoke on Trent, which also included the Boat Band (above). Our choir leaders are members of the band. We sang sea shanties and some interesting pieces, like the Eerie Canal and A Wonderful World which Louis Armstrong sang.
Being part of a choir is something I would recommend for helping your mental health. I only sing a couple of times a week and wish I could do more. Singing takes you out of yourself. Singing at a performance boosts your confidence. I’ve sung many times over the years and I don’t get overwhelmed with nerves anymore. OK it’s usually only to a few people, but if I’m giving pleasure to other people then that’s good.
As to an actual performance that I saw, but was not involved in? That goes back a few years I think. We went to the theatre and saw a play about suffragettes. It was interesting, it brought out a lot of the issues women were affected by in those days. I wish I could remember what it was called? It’s so long ago that I’ve forgotten! I don’t know if it was during or before the pandemic? Life can be hard to remember!
What’s a job you would like to do for just one day?
I would play the trumpet at a gig! I started learning before the pandemic, but of course that intervened. I am also having problems with my health and I haven’t held or played my trumpet for three years now. It’s probably seized up, I know I have!
I’d learnt enough to play scales and a few short tunes. But the trouble now is fear. Fear of failure, of not being able to do it any more. So the trumpet sits in its case in the living room. It’s not a good thing to let go of the start of something, I regret not pursuing the skill.
I admire jazz trumpeters and also players in brass bands. But holding it and positioning my mouth wasn’t easy and I wanted to be better at playing than I was. Perhaps that is the problem. Too much expectation, not enough skill.
To play for one day. To an audience. That would be a thing. Maybe I should start again, ask for someone to teach me?
Maybe…. It would be thrilling!
In small writing. Loud Mouth Women choir will be performing at Audlem Music and Arts Festival on 28th May 2023. We will be singing for an hour at the Methodist Chapel there. Audlem is a small village on the road between Woore and Whitchurch in Cheshire. We have sung at many of the festivals there during the late May bank holiday. I think we are trying to actually teach the audience some of our songs during the performance. Not long to go. I’ll find out the time of the music set later.
An ancient song…
Summer is icumen in
Lhud-e sing cuckoo
Groweth seed and bloweth mead
And springs the wood-e noo
Sing cuckoo
Ew-e bleateth after lamb
Low th after calv-e coo
Bullock starteth
Buck-e parteth
Merry sing cuckoo
Cuckoo cuckoo
Well sing-est thou
Cuckoo, nay stop thou never noo
(Foot/Burden)
Sing cu-ckoo noo sing cuckoo
This is an ancient summer song from England. It’s rustic words are a real tongue twister to sing. Our choir tackle it at this time of year. I tend to sing the burden because it’s a simple repeating line. You need good breathing though because it runs along below the main song and usually starts before and ends after the rest of the choir. We sing the music as a round, normally four groups for the tune singing summer is icumen in.. Summer is icumen in.. One group after the other. The foot/Burden group is usually split into two groups of two and start Sing Cu-ckoo… Sing Cu-ckoo…. Over and over.
As a side note, the first time I saw the song was in the film ‘the Green Man’ with Edward Woodward. The villagers sing this after he is captured as a sacrifice. I always get a little chill down my spine when we sing it! You can probably find it on YouTube…..
Is the cost of living crisis affecting whether you buy or collect art?
As a small time seller of art I’m interested in how the rises in inflation and reduction in pay rises is affecting the Art economy. I’m sure decisions are being made that people either put off buying, or don’t buy art at all.
Art is everywhere, in designs of clothes, furniture, architecture, advertising, maps, car design, and even the Art in people’s walls. The Art economy is worth Billions to the economy as a whole, but I think it is under recognised. We like to be surrounded by visual and auditory stimulation, but do people even notice it’s there. Do you notice a painting on a restaurant wall? Or classical music played in a supermarket. I wonder how things will work out?
Two of my favourite pastimes,
First chair yoga. I can’t get down (or up) off the floor, but I’m trying to do the yoga positions as well as I can to improve my mobility. I can’t lift both my arms above my head, and I do go very wobbly if I try to do a balance, but I do my best. Yoga gradually helps you stretch and move and I hope will build my core strength. I would never do ‘hot’ yoga, I’m trying to find a bit of enlightenment not strong exercise.
After a break I joined in singing with Loud Mouth Women choir. We are learning music from the 1950’s, a sea shanty, a Samoan call and response and a new song for the coronation, so it was very varied. Good also to see three new choir members, I hope they enjoyed it. We may be doing a gig soon, watch this space. X
Mallaband-Brown