Hello fellow Choristers!
A message from Emma and Piper:
“Great rehearsal last week everyone! We were working on “Merge with the River”, but this week, we will be kicking our learning into high gear, as we aim to learn a piece by ear with Piper, as well as begin another piece with Emma. Technique is crucial for good singing, and we both firmly believe in establishing strong musical foundations – our goal is to provide you with this foundation and build the quality of your technique whilst having a great deal of fun doing this. Now that we’ve started this conversation, we’re on to even more quality music-making in the coming weeks!
We’ve gone ahead and annotated the music you have thus far to help facilitate at-home practice and at-home learning with counting, solfege, and scale numbers. Some might find that a numerical system might really resonate with them, solfege might do the trick, or help with precise counting could be useful — any method that works for you when learning is the best method. Please refer to the audio clips as we’ll, found on the member page, to help facilitate learning in rehearsals; it’s always great to come prepared with the tune in your head!
We want to just kindly remind everyone that we all have to follow our own individual pace, and as a group, we want to build and nurture a community in which we can all thrive as musicians. As we get to know each other more, we will also establish the pace of the group as a whole.
If you’ve got a tune down and you’re in need of an added challenge, try singing it with solfege during rehearsal. If you’ve got the solfege down, try clapping the rhythm while you sing. If you’ve got the rhythm and counting, try singing with the numbers corresponding to the scale/key of the piece. If we were in-person, we’d say, check in with your neighbour and support each other while learning.
There are so many ways to challenge ourselves during rehearsals, and when practicing, whilst still maintaining an patient and kind learning environment where we can accommodate everyone’s pace, and continue to settle into this new season of Hamilton Sings!
Thank you all – we can’t wait to make music with you on Saturday! We’ll see you then.”
The annotated music is in the members’ section of the website. If you would like a copy via email, drop us a line and we can send a link for large file transfer.
I won’t be able to make the rehearsal this week as I will be knee deep in mud for the Mud Girl Run in Binbrook, but I will be thinking about you all as I wade, and I look forward to next week!
Access to Our Members’ Area
Each week’s songs will appear in the members section for your perusal/enjoyment/practice, and Emma and Piper will also be providing some voice/somatic workshop materials as and when they are available.
Fundraising and Membership Activities
Blueberries fundraiser: Our lovely founder Sue has confirmed that blueberries will arrive on Oct 30th. We are looking for 3-5 volunteers for deliveries. Drop a line to hamiltonsings@gmail.com if you would like out help out – or let Denise, Andrea or Bill know on Saturday (you can put it in chat, and we will also ask our choir directors to announce it). Thanks all!
Feel free to send us your blueberry recipes and we will include them in coming updates.
Our Newfoundland cookie fundraiser will also be going ahead in November/December, thanks to the generous donation of time, energy and more from chorister Bill Nesbitt. We will have sign up launching soon, more details to follow.
We are looking for volunteers to join in and help guide the growth of the choir. If you have some time (it doesn’t take much, I promise) drop us a line at hamiltonsings@gmail.com and join a committee (e.g. fundraising, membership, communications, etc). Or just volunteer to help out with our activities. We’d love to have you!
More of our fundraising and membership-building plans and choir activities will follow in coming newsletters. If you have suggestions, please share! Send us an email: hamiltonsings@gmail.com
Also, don’t forget to register at http://hamiltonsings.ca/join/ !!
Enjoy Saturday,
Denise Bedell
Co-chorister
