Wheezing

Posted on December 20, 2022 Posted in UncategorizedTagged annual, Choir, Christmas, Cold, Cough, Illness, Mystery singers, WheezingLeave a comment

🤧

I’m fed up. My chest is wheezing and if I go out in the cold it gets worse. Thankfully the weather warmed up a bit today, but my voice is croaky, like a box of frogs. It had dropped so low I even recorded it! I could have been a bass singer, even basso proffundo! Given that my range is generally an alto (contralto) it was quite disturbing to hear the noise I was making. I was due to go out on Monday afternoon to sing with the Mystery Singers at a local park (I’d already missed singing on Saturday) and again in the evening to go Carol Singing around our local pubs. It’s an annual thing that the Mystery singers do on the evening of the Monday before Christmas. Not for me this year. Apparently a few of the others have had the bug too. I’m really fed up.

Tuning in…

Posted on December 5, 2022 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Carols, Choirs, Christmas, Christmas carols, Fun, Music, Mystery singers, SingingLeave a comment

I have a loud voice, and I love singing, so I’m in a couple of choirs. Tonight we were practicing our Christmas songs, mainly Carol’s for our annual singing performances. We are called the Mystery Singers and different groups of singers come together in November to practise music for the season.

We sometimes have people join who haven’t done this before and tonight as one of those occasions. I was standing next to a new singer and my friend on the other side of her encouraged her to listen to me. That would usually be fine, but tonight I was making some mistakes! I couldn’t catch the tune, I’m used to singing with louder singers and the group I was with were being drowned out a bit by the Sopranos, Tenors and Basses. Most of them already knew the songs, so I found myself trying to tune in and sing louder to make myself heard. It’s funny how you can suddenly become nervous about something you are usually capable of doing. Even so I really enjoyed the experience.

Mystery singing

Posted on December 19, 2021December 19, 2021 Posted in UncategorizedTagged bandstand, Cold, Fog, Happy, Mystery singers, Park, Photo, Silhouette, SingingLeave a comment

Singing in a bandstand is good because the roof helps the acoustics. Our group, called the Mystery Singers were out in the cold fog singing carols mainly to the empty park, although we did have a small audience. One group that totally ignored us was the local anti-vax group (or maybe the bah-humbug group). Very strange. They didn’t look happy.

At one stage the sun did come out and the temperature rose a few degrees but after a couple of songs the fog rolled back in again. I think people enjoyed our singing, we got some nice comments and applause. Now I’m warming up, it was freezing out there !

Wet carolling

Posted on December 21, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Choir, Clay Chorus, Fun, Music, Mystery singers, Night, Village Green, Wet weatherLeave a comment

We went out and sang upon our local church green tonight. All of us in masks. We each had a space marked with a CD on the ground. We sang four songs, Good King Wensceslas, Ye Shepherds arise, While Shepherds watched their flocks by night (Cranbrook version) and the St Day Carol (now the Holly bears the Berry…).

There were about seventeen of us getting very wet, but it was great to sing in harmony with people. We didn’t have an audience. But it was great fun.

Look up Penkhull Mystery singers on YouTube if you want to see us in full voice in previous years.

Community Spirit

Posted on December 18, 2018 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Choir, Choral, Christmas, Fun, Music, Mystery singers, Penkhull, Penkhull mystery play, Singing, Staffordshire, Stoke-on trentLeave a comment

Five public houses, one private house and a Christmas tree…. What do they have in common? We went Carol singing around them with the Penkhull Mystery singers last night.

From wassail songs, Latin carols, ancient hyms and fairytail of New York… We sang so much last night. Its becoming a local tradition to visit all the hostelries to sing to the locals and collect funds for the Penkhull Mystery play in the summer. Its a difficult way of doing it because it relies on the number of people in the pubs and we outnumbered everybody in each of the pubs. But it was fun! Singing the Holly and the Ivy in four part harmony, or Good King Wenseslas with the men and women split into parts. And we sounded good. We are becoming more balanced as a choir. More choral.

After the New Year the choir splits back up. It’s made up of members of two Choirs and other members who just get together for this. But the cameraderie will remain.

I’m looking forward to next year when we do it all again.

Mallaband-Brown

Tag: Mystery singers