Vision In Voice - 28 October 2009

Hi all!

Here's the rundown of this weeks Vision In Voice session.

We had 13 singers present this week. This included 2 new members who heard about us on the Radio. It was great to see new singers joining in.

The session began at 9:30 on Thursday 28. October 2009 and we started with some new warm-up rounds. Jane first played the tune and then sang us the words. after a couple of repetitions those who could pick up the words joined in until everyone came in after about the 5th repetition. It was a great, fun song and I couldn't get it out of my head all day.

The next song we sang was a new one which we started last week. It is the most beautiful sounding song and it will eventually be sang in a round. The voice range is really big and really tests out the singers voices. After a couple more weeks, we should have it down pat and we'll try it in a round.

We then got into one of our favourites. This week however, we tried to split the group into 2 parts, so that we could sing the song in a round. Everyone had to concentrate on the beat of the song as it got faster and faster. Unfortunately, one group got ahead of the other and we all ended up singing in unisen! (But it was still great fun and everyone had a laugh and enjoyed it nevertheless!)

After that we learned some new parts for some Christmas carrols and experimented with different voices in each harmony part. After the sesssion ended, we received some comments from workers inside the Library and council building that they heard us singing and loved the harmonies and said how great we all sounded. That was the first comments we received from anyone who heard us sing!

After a quick water break, we all went through another Christmas song. Everyone picked up the new verses quickly and we all then learned the harmonies for the chorus. After going through the song one more time, we went on to another song that we've been practicing for a few weeks. With all the singers, we split into a three part harmony with High, Medium and Low voice parts. We are starting to learn a new rythem with Body percussion, (clapping hands, tapping feet, taping different parts of our hams, shoulders and bodies). I've only heard the version a few times so it'll take a while to learn it.

Then we sang another old favourite from Jamaica, which everyone got into with lots of energy and excitement. We sang the song straight through and we all had a ball.

To end with, we all had an improvisation session, where we were given a short line and everyone could change what they liked and harmonise with whatever melodies or fill in the gaps with anything they wanted. This was my favourite part of the session. Everyone really went for it and expressed themselves so freely. It was such a great sound and we all got into the groove. Some singers even addes other song parts to the tune and it sounded incredible! After a few minutes of complete expressive freedom, we then slowed down all together to end the song. WOW! It always amazes me how many different sounds and harmonies we create.

During the last few songs, I had a friend drop in after she heard us singing from outside the Library. We got another great comment on how good we sound and how the group has grown in such a short time.

The session ended at 11.15 am and we all went out of the hall humming and singing our favourite songs of the day. Everyone had such a great time and we'll all be back to do it again next week!

I hope to see you there too!

Josh