Tag: Singing

Quiet day

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Robin

When it’s quiet here I can still hear the birds singing in the garden. Blackbirds and Robins seem to sing the loudest, but I can also hear Pigeons cooing and Magpies cackling in the morning as they dive and swoop around the trees.

The blackbirds were singing on top of our neighbours chimney pot, long and varied songs to call for a mate and to display where its territory is. Now they have become a bit quieter, they may have raused their young by now. The Robins still flit about but with the heat I think they are quieter too.

The world keeps spinning and the birds keep singing. I hope the birds keep coming back. X

Singing time

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Tonight’s rehearsal was fun. We discussed our performance on Sunday at Middlewich and agreed we had done well to cope with the Loud music from across the road at a local restaurant. Our choir leader was pleased with us and told us people had come up and shook her hand!

It was also good to perform alongside her and her friend Esther from the Boat Band. When you normally sing a capella and without microphones it’s difficult to tell how things are sounding, but we didn’t cause any whistles or squeaks or feedback….

So tonight we were planning which songs to sing in a mediaeval event in July, we started singing a French song and a few other old favourites. It’s surprising how things come back to you even if you haven’t sung them for years…. We were sounding quite good by the end of the practice session.

Today at Middlewich

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Just back from singing at Middlewich with the Loud Mouth Women choir. It was a bit of a competition with a band playing over the road! There were performers all afternoon at the White Bear in Middlewich. But there was a restaurant over the road which also had a band on and they were over amplified so that a lot of the time they were drowning out people at the White Bear.

I enjoyed our performance although it was hard to tell if people could hear us. We sang along with Kate Barfield and Esther Brennan from the Boat Band so it was a bit of a change for all of us as we had never done anything like that before. I couldn’t take photos while we were performing but I got photos of the Raj circus act that followed us…. They did various tumbling, acrobatic and juggling tricks and really got the crowd going with their drumming. I’m tired out now! Fell asleep when I got home x

Singing

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What are you passionate about?

When I was a child I would make up songs to send myself to sleep. I can remember lying under the covers and singing lullabies. I must have sung quietly as I shared bedroom with my sister!

As I got older I sang with the school choir, but my voice was untrained and would flip between higher and lower registers. I think they liked me in the school choir for the volume I could create.

As I got older I would go to parties and burst into song, usually something like “Swing Low” which has a lower tune that I could hit (I found out I’m a contralto I think). Finally I decided to try and control my voice because I went to a Christmas Carol concert and my voice was up high and down low, hitting notes an octave apart.

I started singing lessons and did the basic grade exam, I was learning once a fortnight because I couldn’t afford more frequent lessons. It was expensive and then my teacher decided to move away. Thankfully my best friend at the time had persuaded me to join a choir on the weeks I wasn’t at singing lessons. Now 20 years later I’m singing in that choir and another one, I’m confident enough to perform in public and I’ve realised how it helps my mental health. Singing relieves anxiety, it’s like art, it takes your mind off things for that brief time when you are creating musical sounds. It is a true passion of mine.

Music festival

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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!

Preparing

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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!

I was in it!

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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!

Audlem Festival

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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.

Summer is….

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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…..

Singing and yoga

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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