Good bye October

We had a great week of rehearsal!  I hope all singers will practice at home every week.  The recorded music is available on line, and they can either sit at the computer and sing, or you can download to your preferred device. If you would like a CD, you can e-mail me with the request at cindyachristensen@gmail.com.  Here is the website address and link:     http://jerryjan.com/sherwoodchorale/mainpage

This week quite a few kids from our choirs are involved in the VPA's production of Into the Woods. I hope it's a great experience for them all week.  Please take time to go see the production on Thursday Friday or Saturday!  For cast members who are in the Children's choir--I'd like them to stay for choir until 5:15, and then head over to get ready for the evening rehearsal.  It is slated to start at 6:00 with the 5:00-6:00 hour for getting into costumes, so I think it will be okay to compromise on that last 1/2 hour of practice and split the difference.


Children's Choir
It is so interesting how using spacial movements with the arms helps kids recognize and sing correct pitches.  There is a certain repeating phrase in "The Holiday Season" where the ending note is one pitch higher on the second repeat.  The kids struggle in singing both phrases with the different ending note, but when I go back to the gestures that I used when teaching it initially, they do it accurately!  Now I've got to figure out how to keep them remembering without the gestures, because they really aren't  choreography!  These kids are really singing well, with heart and soul. It's really very fulfilling to me to see them develop confidence in those melodies, and then to sing them like they own them! 

Notables
Singing Jingle Bells in 2 different key signatures simultaneously makes for a very quirky rendition that the kids thing is so fun.  They did a good job this week at holding on to their parts and not getting distracted.  I also had them sing it in 2 groups by starting the song 4 beats apart.  It sounds crazy, but it's so good for them to learn to be independent.  Next week I will try it again, with 3 groups which will be quite a challenge I'm sure.  I love warm ups!  The kids are getting better at solfege, and I'm finding in all the choirs that it clarifies a lot of little issues in the music that come up.  I can quickly explain some interval pattern, and they respond so well correcting misunderstood notes.  Our music is coming along well, but we need some practicing at home to happen in order to have things ready to choreograph in the next week or so.


Footnotes
For only having 8 girls, they are so strong.  I'm very pleased at how well these girls are harmonizing.  They are learning very quickly, and they have a very nice blend.  They love warmups that have a lot of harmony, and are always asking me to repeat things from previous weeks!  I threw in a "name that tune" warm up of "thumpity thump thump" from Frosty the Snowman..  It was a little too slow to recognize at first, but they got the interval so-re, which is a little tricky, and that made my day!  They have quite a lot of music to learn, so memorizing at home is pretty necessary this week.  Please encourage them to use the CD  if they have it, or go online for the recordings there.

We had a great outing to get character shoes at Dance Togs and they are giving us a group discount.  Afterward we took a little side trip to Beaverton Bakery for some delectable treats.  I found it quite amusing that 2 of our little petite girls split a pumpkin pie-and ate the whole thing!  Way to celebrate the season, and take advantage of an opportunity.


Chorale
We have A LOT of music, and with only 12-15 minutes per song in rehearsal that means we've got to work smart!  Our focus from here out should be on blend, tuning, interpretation, dynamics and cleaning/tightening each song.  That means memorization is starting this week, and fishing for notes is over!  Please take time to do a little wood shedding on your parts this week!  Here are some suggested areas to work on to nail down some notes on a few of our songs:
It's Beginning to Look...p. 12 to the end
Jazzy Bell p. 4--especially tenors
Snow Carol--women German from mm5 to mm16
Pata Pan-p. 10 to end

Thanks for your continued enthusiasm and support.  I certainly enjoy working with  you each week!

This Thursday, I will come to rehearsal late, but choir is starting at 7:30 with Russell directing.  Please come review the music, I will have specific things for you to work on with Russell.

NEW SEASON Off to a Great Start!

Hello Choir People-
We began rehearsals for our choirs the 3rd week of September and we have been going strong ever since. We have 3 kids choirs now, and I'm very happy to have Jill Spencer, Shelley Christensen and Samantha Cirilly working with me.  Jill is assisting with the Children's and Notables choirs, Shelley is teaching a dancing segment during the Footnotes rehearsal, and Samantha is teaching a pre-rehearsal, optional dance class for the Notables choir.   Also we appreciate Hannah Simpson and Kristin Chicoski accompanying our choirs.

Here's a little run down for each of the choirs with a few pictures from our first performance just 3 weeks after we started rehearsal! This was a fun way to get us out into the community at the annual Onion Festival sponsored by the Sherwood Chamber of Commerce.  It was a low pressure gig, and I think the kids got the year off to a good start.  Thanks to everyone who came out to support us!

All Choirs at the Onion Festival October 8, 2011

Children's Choir
We started the season by learning a round--I Put Music in My Life.  The added gestures helped the kids gain a sense that the melody for each phrase is in a different register, low, medium and high.  It also helped them see a clear distinction between each phrase and each entrance for the round.  They learned it quickly, and it was enjoyable for them to hear harmony on the first day.

We also learned a partner song, This Little Light of Mine to help them gain some further exposure to harmony.  A partner song presents a melody for a verse, then a different melody for another verse, and then the 2 melodies are sung simultaneously to create harmony.  It's a very simple, and effective way to teach kids to learn and hang onto a voice part.  With the added choreography, it became even more fun and challenging.  The arrangement we worked on is from a book of partner songs entitled "All Aboard the Partner Express" and it includes choreography suggestions, which were very useful for a very busy choir director to grab onto!

The third song we worked on was Kids of the Future from the movie "Meet the Robinsons".  To keep expenses down, I just provided them with a page of lyrics with a few musical hints and notations.  I added some gestures that helped them gain some melodic contour understanding, and I was pleased to discover that some of the words really fit a few solfege signs that were accurate with the actual notes.  It was gratifying to see how easily they picked up the song while using these gestures.  There is a lot of unison or repeated notes  in the song, and the gestures helped them to notice that, as well as the general up and down contour.  I took out some of the gestures for our performance at the Onion Festival, but some where just too fun, so we kept them in!

Children's' Choir singing "Kid's of the Future"

Notables Choir
This choir also learned the round and partner song that the Children's choir learned so that they could perform them jointly at the Onion Festival.  Additionally they learned Into the Light from the movie "Tangled".  This was a big hit as far as choir enthusiasm goes.  They learned this song by wrote with lyric sheets only, and a lot of cues from the director for rhythm and pitch.  I also wrote in many musical hints on and around the lyrics to help them learn the song.  This was a good song to get the ball rolling and work on singing in unison and following the director.

Notables Choir singing "I See the Light"

Footnotes Choir
This group of 8 girls began right off the bat learning a choreography for Hakuna Matata from "The Lion King". They quickly caught on to the group songs for the Onion Festival, and spent most of the rehearsals on Hakuna Matata.  I was pleased with how easily they learned the harmony, and focused on the choreography that Shelley taught to them.  They are really engaging well in rehearsal, and I expect very good things to happen in the weeks to come. 

Footnotes "Hakuna Matata" final pose w/ 7 of our 8 girls!

The Sherwood Chorale is back with 36 voices strong!  We decided to sing at the Onion Festival as well, which enabled us to not sing Christmas songs on Sept. 22 when we started rehearsal! That was just a little too early for "It's Beginning to Look A lot Like Christmas".  Some how I just couldn't do it, so I made some revisions on my arrangement of The Star Spangled Banner, we revived Riversong from our Spring concert 2 years ago, and got our selves ready to sing at the festival.  Now we are at full steam ahead working on our Christmas music--and with the weather change, I think we can handle it!

Sherwood Chorale singing "Riversong"