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Learn to Sing 2010 Diary: January |
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Salford Choral Society |
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Kathy McNaughton | 27 January
- 'What a work out I've had, it was terrific. I'm off to practice now.'
- 'I wanted to say my friends and I thoroughly enjoyed the first session.'
- 'What a most enjoyable evening. The coach was brilliant.'
These are just some of the comments received from our first very successful session. The fact that Manchester United and Manchester City were playing and the traffic snarled up horrendously did not deter 150 folks of every age showing up. The warm up exercises were fun but were nothing to the amusement generated by the session to sort everyone into voice parts. That done the sound they made when they sang 'Good Where You've Been' was amazing. They were so happy with it and rightly so, that they gave themselves a round of applause. Roll on week number two.
 More about Salford Choral Society
St George's Singers Anne Francis | 26 January
Phew! It all went very well.
Three registration tables set up in the church and three upstairs in the church hall, signs showing people with surnames from A-N to register in the church, O-Z in the church hall, Dave outside directing traffic, a team of choir volunteers to register and another group getting the church hall ready for St George's Singers' normal Tuesday rehearsal.
Our vocal coach (Timm Barkworth) plans to arrive early to discuss seating and organisation but there's SNOW and he's coming from the other side of the Pennines! However he makes it in time and before we start we ask him about the unusual way of teaching reading. We show him the booklet and he blanches - the computer/printer has done something very peculiar.
We go over to the church to find it absolutely packed. Our 200 participants enjoy an evening of learning how to breath, stand and sing in an accessible and entertaining way and finish the evening by learning the first of the four songs n the pack. As people go out they are very positive about the evening - and we are complimented on the organisation.
About 40 people come over to the church hall afterwards for a cuppa and to listen to the second half of the St George's Singers' rehearsal.
More about St George's Singers
St George's Singers Anne Francis | Pre 26 January
There have been some last minutes flurries of phone calls and emails but we think we have the final 200 applicants correctly in our database. They have all been given instructions for the first night of the course and nearly another hundred disappointed applicants have been told we are full up!
Now to make sure the first night goes smoothly. A sub-group meets in the pub before our full committee meeting. Our secretary will organise the registers, dividing the applicants into six alphabetical groups, our stage manager will produce signs showing everyone where to go, we'll have a team of people meeting and greeting, taking registers, giving out materials, and directing people. Our welcome letter is prepared and we decide to buy plastic wallets to create pack of materials for everyone - except that we haven't received the materials yet.
They arrive the day before the course starts, so most of the day is spent frantically packing course notes, song books, CDs and the guide to reading music into the wallets - and then organising the wallets into sets of six so that each registration table will have the right number of packs. We only have time to look briefly at the materials and are amazed at the extraordinary way the Learn to Sing course apparently teaches people to read music. What on earth do these hieroglyphics mean? However, no time for that - get everything loaded into the boxes ready to open up the church and the church hall at 5.45pm to get everything ready.
More about St George's Singers
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Content last updated:
16 April 2010 |
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