26th November 2017 - at St Peter's, South Weald |
Apologies for unbalanced recording - have to find a better place to record from!
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The Linden Tree Carol is, essentially, very well sung. The most important aspect to improve is the contrast between the louds and the softs and the swells of volume that need to be applied, as marked. As with all our pieces, I would urge you all to make sure you know the words a little better so your eyes are up a little more watching me. I'm going to try to direct as best I can, given I have to support the men during this concert.
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This piece has the potential to be really lovely. However it will only be this if the Sopranos maintain their tuning! Remember this piece is in a key that is tricky to stay in tune. Sopranos, always work hard on keeping your notes in pitch - use the old techniques, eyebrows up, good breathing etc. Don't forget that it is even more important to maintain the tuning in verse 3. The other thing is to ensure that, all of you, make the whole piece smoother - join the words up a little better and it will come across more.
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Again, this has the potential to be a great number in our recital. And, again, I urge you to think of the dynamics - the louds and the softs. The "getting louder" and "getting softer" moments. Don't forget to breathe only where we've marked. It helps make the words make more sense.
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This piece needs more energy. You all sing it very well. To make it really good I would ask you to try and commit more of the words to memory (if you can). Don't forget the changes in dynamic that we've marked into the scores. And don't forget to keep the last three notes absolutely in tune! ALWAYS .....
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This is, by far, the hardest piece we are singing this Christmas. You are singing it really well, given this challenge. Sopranos and Soprano 2s - you need a little more confidence in verse 2, especially the start. This brings me onto giving you the best advice I can for the whole piece. You all need to know, off-by-heart, some sections of this piece (i.e. the end of each verse). This will bring your eyes up which will engage the audience better and give yourselves much more confidence. Please remember to watch at the end.
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This is our most well-known piece. Today it was a little slow (it was the first thing we did!). But I want to reiterate what I said this afternoon. You need to have lots of energy throughout this piece. Each voice part must know the words to their verses as close to off-by-heart as possible. We need to communicate this piece with the audience and, at the moment, the chorus does but the verses do not. Please try to spend time this week committing at least some of the verse words to memory.
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You sing this very well. However, it needs a lot more fluency and forward motion. This will come with a little more surety in the words. You all know the tune and the harmonies, now, become more confident with the German. Try to get your eyes up more.
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This has lots of energy! Apologies for hearing me above all of you. However I can still hear how well it fits together. Having spent some time on the ending, please go over the last page or so before next weekend. I would also ask that you learn the chorus off-by-heart. This will make your performance more assured.
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Conclusion - Final Notes: |
This year you are singing the music for each piece - even the difficult ones - very well. The harmonies are working well and, as my father said, the balance between the voices is good. My general assessment from Sunday's pre-concert rehearsal is that the most important thing to improve is your confidence in your words. In general, there are too many eyes looking down into the music. Too many eyes not looking up at key moments in each piece. It comes across as if you are not engaged in the music. I know that's not true but you have to give yourselves more confidence by committing more of the words to your memories. Read the lyrics through without singing. Listen to the guide-tracks a lot this week without singing along. Then sing along with them without the music - see how much you know. You might be surprised. When you know more of the words you'll be able to follow my directions regarding the dynamics. I'd like to see more smiling faces for Sunday's recital rather than furrowed brows.
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12th November 2017
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Below: Gaudete. Video is produced using the sound recording from the Zoom H2 Recorder.
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29th October 2017 |
This is part of the video I shot today; as you can see the video quality is quite good - I think we may need to fiddle with the audio if we are to make a decent quality video of our performances - its a little "hissy" at distance!
Today's rehearsal was very successful! Keep up the good work! Concentrate on trying to learn your words - as you have proved that you know (well, probably 95%) of your parts! :)
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15th October 2017 |
;Go to Guidetrack : Noel Nouvelet; Stille Nacht
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1st October 2017 |
10th September 2017 |
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A good start to the term! Do listen through the recordings and take note of any advice given that you feel is helpful to you. We will try to learn these five pieces to a performance standard this month. The foreign language songs will be taught in October. Well done today!!
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