Our next meeting is next Tuesday!
Only three of us were able to make it this week ('tis the season to be sickly, fa la la la la) but we managed to learn "Dawning of a New Day", the second of the Solstice songs we wanted to have ready for the song circle at the TAPA Solstice party on Saturday. I'm not as adept at music theory as Emori or some of our other members but it's a fairly straightforward piece, so I did my best to plunk it out enough for us to learn it. We added a rest where there isn't one to allow time for a breath. We made it a three beat rest, to mirror the other, but it might end up working better as a whole four beat rest. We learned it at a fairly slow tempo but that sounded a bit too much like a dirge, so we also tried it at a more cheerful, faster tempo. It seems like there are some interesting ways to play with both the tempo and dynamics to make it more interesting, so maybe we'll do that next week!
If you'd like to review any of our material, the sheet music and recordings are available on our Drive. For the naming conventions of the recordings, see the document in our Drive. You can also listen to the TPC playlist of recordings of some of the pieces by professional artists on Spotify. If you're trying to practice at home and can't quite discern your note, you can use a keyboard app to plunk out whichever ones you're having trouble with. (This is by no means an official endorsement, but the app I use is "Voice Training - Learn to Sing" by the developer Learn to Master. It labels the notes on the keyboard and gives you real-time feedback on what note you're singing.) If you need a tutorial on how to read music, this one seems sufficient for helping you figure out which note you want to find on the keyboard.
Our next meeting is next Tuesday!
Five of us were able to make it this week. Emori was unable to attend, so we started out with a vocal warm-up track from Spotify and then worked on "Gods Rest Ye", which not everyone had worked on yet. We experimented with singing it in different ways. We tried singing along with a karaoke track from Spotify and also singing it a cappella and found that a cappella worked much better for us. We also experimented with singing it at various tempos and found that we sang more enthusiastically at a faster pace. We also spent some time discussing the lyrics so that we were more mindful about what we were singing and found that made us more enthusiastic, as well. We didn't get a recording this week but you can listen to the linked recording from a previous rehearsal.
If you'd like to review any of our material, the sheet music and recordings are available on our Drive. For the naming conventions of the recordings, see the document in our Drive. You can also listen to the TPC playlist of recordings of some of the pieces by professional artists on Spotify. If you're trying to practice at home and can't quite discern your note, you can use a keyboard app to plunk out whichever ones you're having trouble with. (This is by no means an official endorsement, but the app I use is "Voice Training - Learn to Sing" by the developer Learn to Master. It labels the notes on the keyboard and gives you real-time feedback on what note you're singing.) If you need a tutorial on how to read music, this one seems sufficient for helping you figure out which note you want to find on the keyboard.
Our next meeting is next Tuesday!
There were five folks who could make it this week, two of whom were new! I'm sorry to have missed our new folks (due to having to drive out of town for the day) but I hope to meet them next week! My husband reports that the rehearsal was spent mostly on the harmonic exercises we've been working on to enhance our choral skills.
If you'd like to review any of our material, the sheet music and recordings are available on our Drive. For the naming conventions of the recordings, see the document in our Drive. You can also listen to the TPC playlist of recordings of some of the pieces by professional artists on Spotify. If you're trying to practice at home and can't quite discern your note, you can use a keyboard app to plunk out whichever ones you're having trouble with. (This is by no means an official endorsement, but the app I use is "Voice Training - Learn to Sing" by the developer Learn to Master. It labels the notes on the keyboard and gives you real-time feedback on what note you're singing.) If you need a tutorial on how to read music, this one seems sufficient for helping you figure out which note you want to find on the keyboard.
Our next meeting is next Tuesday!
Six of us were able to make it this week; unfortunately, that didn't include Emori, but we muddled through. We had a new person this week, so we worked on a piece that we all knew the tune to, a Paganized version of "God Rest Ye Merry" that was suggested by one of our members. I think we did pretty well, considering we didn't have a musical director, but I'm looking forward to polishing the piece with Emori's help!
If you'd like to review any of our material, the sheet music and recordings are available on our Drive. For the naming conventions of the recordings, see the document in our Drive. You can also listen to the TPC playlist of recordings of some of the pieces by professional artists on Spotify. If you're trying to practice at home and can't quite discern your note, you can use a keyboard app to plunk out whichever ones you're having trouble with. (This is by no means an official endorsement, but the app I use is "Voice Training - Learn to Sing" by the developer Learn to Master. It labels the notes on the keyboard and gives you real-time feedback on what note you're singing.) If you need a tutorial on how to read music, this one seems sufficient for helping you figure out which note you want to find on the keyboard.
Our next meeting is next Tuesday!
Five of us were able to make it this week. As I anticipated, we were all in pretty low spirits. We had a lot to talk through, so we just had a cathartic conversation and didn't worry about working on any pieces. We briefed folks on last week's meeting with a representative of another local Pagan organization. It went well but we're still waiting for some clarifying information from them. We also discussed the possibility of having additional private rehearsals for folks who are willing and able to make an additional time commitment. Emori was concerned it might make the folks who couldn't make that commitment feel left out but the initial feedback we've gotten is positive. We'll continue asking for input on the subject until we feel confident we've heard from everyone in the choir.
If you'd like to review any of our material, the sheet music and recordings are available on our Drive. For the naming conventions of the recordings, see the document in our Drive. You can also listen to the TPC playlist of recordings of some of the pieces by professional artists on Spotify. If you're trying to practice at home and can't quite discern your note, you can use a keyboard app to plunk out whichever ones you're having trouble with. (This is by no means an official endorsement, but the app I use is "Voice Training - Learn to Sing" by the developer Learn to Master. It labels the notes on the keyboard and gives you real-time feedback on what note you're singing.) If you need a tutorial on how to read music, this one seems sufficient for helping you figure out which note you want to find on the keyboard.
Our next meeting is next Tuesday!
We will not be holding rehearsal on Election Day (Tue Nov 5) because we do not wish to be a barrier to our members' ability to vote and because we rent our rehearsal space from a designated polling place and do not wish to interfere with their operations or those voters' ability to cast their ballot in a timely fashion. We look forward to resuming our regular schedule on Nov 12.
We wish everyone a blessed Samhain and a safe Election Day!
There were seven of us this week and we did a bit of this and a bit of that. We started out catching up, since some of us haven't seen each other in a while and Emori had a birthday! Since we had some folks who weren't present last week, we briefed them on the Winter Solstice party invitation and got their input. Then we went into the chromatic harmony exercises and got all the way to seven this time! (The previous record was five.) I think doing these exercises periodically is really helping us train our ears; we seem to have found our notes much more easily than in the past, the harmonies were lovely and haunting! Speaking of haunting, we apparently have a haunted recording! We'd recorded some of the chromatic harmony exercises and when we were ready to move on to "Samhain's Door", I put my phone to the side. As we were preparing to sing, my phone started playing a previous recording of "Samhain's Door" all on it's own! Once we settled down from the strange occurrence, we did actually sing "Samhain's Door" but, when I asked Emori if we should record it, they responded, "Absolutely not; we already have a haunted recording!"
We wish everyone a blessed Samhain and a safe Election Day! (No rehearsal next week; please vote!)
If you'd like to review any of our material, the sheet music and recordings are available on our Drive. For the naming conventions of the recordings, see the document in our Drive. You can also listen to the TPC playlist of recordings of some of the pieces by professional artists on Spotify. If you're trying to practice at home and can't quite discern your note, you can use a keyboard app to plunk out whichever ones you're having trouble with. (This is by no means an official endorsement, but the app I use is "Voice Training - Learn to Sing" by the developer Learn to Master. It labels the notes on the keyboard and gives you real-time feedback on what note you're singing.) If you need a tutorial on how to read music, this one seems sufficient for helping you figure out which note you want to find on the keyboard.
Our next meeting is next Tuesday!
We had five folks present this week and had TPC business to discuss, so this was more of a planning session than rehearsal. We were recently asked by a local organization to perform at their Winter Solstice party, so we spent our time discussing if we felt up to that, if we felt up to offering a song circle instead, and what our future ability to offer performances might look like. There is no formal deadline for a response, so our members are welcome to continue offering their perspective. At this time, we do not plan to offer this performance but are still gathering information and considering the possibility of leading a song circle or providing materials for individual members to offer the song circle outside of official TPC activity.
If you'd like to review any of our material, the sheet music and recordings are available on our Drive. For the naming conventions of the recordings, see the document in our Drive. You can also listen to the TPC playlist of recordings of some of the pieces by professional artists on Spotify. If you're trying to practice at home and can't quite discern your note, you can use a keyboard app to plunk out whichever ones you're having trouble with. (This is by no means an official endorsement, but the app I use is "Voice Training - Learn to Sing" by the developer Learn to Master. It labels the notes on the keyboard and gives you real-time feedback on what note you're singing.) If you need a tutorial on how to read music, this one seems sufficient for helping you figure out which note you want to find on the keyboard.
Our next meeting is next Tuesday!
Unfortunately, I was too ill to make it this week but four other people were able to, including my husband, who was kind enough to give me a summary. After some brief warm-ups, Emori returned to the harmonic exercises designed to train our ears and vocal flexibility. For anyone who is unfamiliar or needs a refresher, each singer or set of singers take a note in a series of harmonies, which Emori assigns a number. When everyone has their series of notes down, Emori calls out numbers for everyone to switch to that harmony. This exercise is challenging but very useful for building choral skills. It's also specifically targeted at improving our facility with "Dark of the Moon", which is the piece the rest of rehearsal was spent working on.
If you'd like to review any of our material, the sheet music and recordings are available on our Drive. For the naming conventions of the recordings, see the document in our Drive. You can also listen to the TPC playlist of recordings of some of the pieces by professional artists on Spotify. If you're trying to practice at home and can't quite discern your note, you can use a keyboard app to plunk out whichever ones you're having trouble with. (This is by no means an official endorsement, but the app I use is "Voice Training - Learn to Sing" by the developer Learn to Master. It labels the notes on the keyboard and gives you real-time feedback on what note you're singing.) If you need a tutorial on how to read music, this one seems sufficient for helping you figure out which note you want to find on the keyboard.
Our next meeting is next Tuesday!
We had a fun and productive rehearsal! Nine of us made it this week, including two of our new folks from last week. We started out with some gentle scale warm-ups and a spontaneous sing-along of "Do Re Mi" from Sound of Music. After that we worked on "Samhain's Door" from the chants set. It's a bit of a tricky piece to get used to, especially the way the lyrics are written in the sheet music, and we still have a little bit of polishing to do but we managed to get confident enough with it to make a recording! We closed out the evening with a casual sing-along of some fun Halloween songs from pop culture while we packed up and reset the room.
If you'd like to review any of our material, the sheet music and recordings are available on our Drive. For the naming conventions of the recordings, see the document in our Drive. You can also listen to the TPC playlist of recordings of some of the pieces by professional artists on Spotify. If you're trying to practice at home and can't quite discern your note, you can use a keyboard app to plunk out whichever ones you're having trouble with. (This is by no means an official endorsement, but the app I use is "Voice Training - Learn to Sing" by the developer Learn to Master. It labels the notes on the keyboard and gives you real-time feedback on what note you're singing.) If you need a tutorial on how to read music, this one seems sufficient for helping you figure out which note you want to find on the keyboard.
Our next meeting is next Tuesday!
We had so many new folks this week! Of the nine of us present, four were new people! Emori couldn't make it but we managed to muddle through pretty well thanks to the rehearsal tracks one of our members has been putting together for us and guidance from one of the new folks, who is a music and voice teacher. After warming up with some exercises on Spotify, we worked on each of the three melodies of "Dark of the Moon" and, when everyone felt comfortable with those, we spent some time on "Harvest Chant".
If you'd like to review any of our material, the sheet music and recordings are available on our Drive. For the naming conventions of the recordings, see the document in our Drive. You can also listen to the TPC playlist of recordings of some of the pieces by professional artists on Spotify. If you're trying to practice at home and can't quite discern your note, you can use a keyboard app to plunk out whichever ones you're having trouble with. (This is by no means an official endorsement, but the app I use is "Voice Training - Learn to Sing" by the developer Learn to Master. It labels the notes on the keyboard and gives you real-time feedback on what note you're singing.) If you need a tutorial on how to read music, this one seems sufficient for helping you figure out which note you want to find on the keyboard.
Our next meeting is next Tuesday!
We had a productive rehearsal this week! Seven of us were able to make it. One of our members has been using an app to create rehearsal tracks for us with just a "piano" playing the notes. So, once they finish and figure out the best way to get the files to me, those will be available on the Drive. They spent the first bit of rehearsal trying to figure out how to get us sheet music that makes it more clear how all the parts of "Dark of the Moon" interlock with each other, which would be a huge help! The rest of rehearsal we spent working on two pieces, "Harvest Chant" and "Equinox Chant", since Mabon was so recent. We almost missed "Equinox Chant" because it falls in the Ostara spot in the order of chants in that set but the lyrics are not Ostara-specific, so we went for it. There were some tricky bits we had to work through and we still need work on stagger breathing (especially me!) and starting phrases together but I think you can hear in the recording how well our listening exercises are paying off; other than our low voice, we all blend together enough that you can't really pick out individual voices.
Last week, I went through our sheet music and tried to find recordings of each piece on Spotify. I couldn't find recordings of the majority of them but there were several we've been working on or would like to work on that I was able to find recordings for, so I've put them on a TPC playlist. You can also make your own personal practice playlist by downloading our tracks from the Drive onto your phone and adding them to a playlist on Spotify.
If you'd like to review any of our material, the sheet music and recordings are available on our Drive. For the naming conventions of the recordings, see the document in our Drive. If you're trying to practice at home and can't quite discern your note, you can use a keyboard app to plunk out whichever ones you're having trouble with. (This is by no means an official endorsement, but the app I use is "Voice Training - Learn to Sing" by the developer Learn to Master. It labels the notes on the keyboard and gives you real-time feedback on what note you're singing.) If you need a tutorial on how to read music, this one seems sufficient for helping you figure out which note you want to find on the keyboard.
Our next meeting is next Tuesday!
We will not hold rehearsal this week (September 17, 2024) due to the threat of the potential tropical storm and anticipated low turnout. We look forward to resuming rehearsal next week on September 23.
Unfortunately, we had to cancel rehearsal at the last minute. Emori sent me a text message saying they wouldn't be able to make it but I never received it. I only found out when I texted to tell them I wouldn't be able to make it because I was exposed to a highly contagious illness.
If you'd like to review any of our material, the sheet music and recordings are available on our Drive. For the naming conventions of the recordings, see the document in our Drive. If you're trying to practice at home and can't quite discern your note, you can use a keyboard app to plunk out whichever ones you're having trouble with. (This is by no means an official endorsement, but the app I use is "Voice Training - Learn to Sing" by the developer Learn to Master. It labels the notes on the keyboard and gives you real-time feedback on what note you're singing.) If you need a tutorial on how to read music, this one seems sufficient for helping you figure out which note you want to find on the keyboard.
*EMERGENCY CANCELLATION*
Due to a series of extremely unfortunate events, we have been forced to cancel tonight's rehearsal. My sincere apologies for such a last minute cancellation.
Emori sent me a text message saying they wouldn't be able to make it tonight but I never received it. I only found out when I texted to tell them I wouldn't be able to make it because there's a high chance I've been exposed to a highly contagious illness. Again, my deepest apologies for this extremely unfortunate circumstance. -El
Our next meeting is next Tuesday!
We had a great rehearsal this week! Emori had the other six of us do the same harmonic exercises we worked on last week. We didn't spend all rehearsal on it, though, because it was the Dark Moon and "Dark of the Moon" is the piece these exercises have been meant to prepare us for! You may remember that three of us got that piece pretty well under out belts; however, one of those three wasn't present this time and I was singing a completely different part, so all but one person was essentially attacking a new experience! We didn't get to a point where it felt like a recording was desirable but I do feel like we're making progress! I spent the car ride to dinner afterwards hyperfixating on how the melodies interlock with each other and I think I found some key moments that will help us improve.
If you'd like to review any of our material, the sheet music and recordings are available on our Drive. For the naming conventions of the recordings, see the document in our Drive. If you're trying to practice at home and can't quite discern your note, you can use a keyboard app to plunk out whichever ones you're having trouble with. (This is by no means an official endorsement, but the app I use is "Voice Training - Learn to Sing" by the developer Learn to Master. It labels the notes on the keyboard and gives you real-time feedback on what note you're singing.) If you need a tutorial on how to read music, this one seems sufficient for helping you figure out which note you want to find on the keyboard.
Our next meeting is next Tuesday!
