Next Rehearsal - 02/06/24

Our next meeting is next Tuesday!

February 6, 2024 7pm-9pm
Raleigh UU, Peace Hall, Rm. 101
3313 Wade Avenue
Raleigh, NC 27607

We welcome all safe and respectful Pagan and Pagan-adjacent adults of any skill and experience level! We're community-focused rather than performance-focused, so we don't hold auditions and we welcome drop-ins. Because of the music that is best-known and most-available, our starter songs trend a little Wiccan, but we will be seeking to incorporate all kinds of Pagan and Pagan-friendly music. You can help! We welcome recommendations and leads on pertinent music that is in the public domain or is low-royalty. 

There are no fees or dues for participating, but we do gratefully welcome any cash donations* to cover the cost of renting our rehearsal space. (Donations have been so generous that we're in the black!) We will have a receipt book on hand to log all donations and post aggregate info (without personally identifying information) to the blog so everyone can see where their donations are going. *We are not currently a registered 501c, so we don't have financial accounts and I can't speak to whether or not your donation is tax-deductible.

If you are experiencing any symptoms of a contagious illness, especially Covid-19, please defer your attendance until you're feeling well. We'll all be breathing the same air in that meeting room and, while you are absolutely welcome to wear a mask, it isn't exactly conducive to singing.

We will have name/pronoun stickers available at our meetings. Whenever possible, we will have sheet music printed. The sheet music is also available on our Drive. The only things you need to bring are your voice and the vocal-chord-friendly, non-staining (to respect our hosts) drink of your choice!

We're so excited to see everyone on Tuesday!

- El Pethybridge, Administrative Director
TrianglePaganChoir@gmail.com

P.S. In addition to this blog, there are a number of ways to stay updated on our events. We have a mailing list for weekly email reminders and can even send you an Invite directly through Google Calendar. Email us at the address above to be added to both or either of these lists. You can also find us on Facebook at our Page and in our Group, where we share Events and other info. If you'd like to be added to the Invite list for our Facebook Events, please follow our Page or join our Group (otherwise FB won't let me send it to you) and drop us a PM. Here's the FB Event for our Feb 6 rehearsal.

Rehearsal Summary - 01/30/24

We had a very cozy meeting of the Triangle Pagan Choir. Including your TPC directors, there were six of us this week. Unfortunately, a number of our usual folk were unable to make it, but we still filled the room with lovely harmonies! And, good news, someone who's been wanting to but unable to come for several weeks was finally able to make it! 

Bizzy lead us through some exercises to help us feel the connection between body and voice, physically and energetically, with a focus on sitting and standing postures that best support our breathing. She introduced some new warmups that, I have to say, were really fun and my favorite so far! We continued working on "Crescent Moon", "Imbolc Round", and the "Imbolc" and "Closing the Circle" portions of "The Wheel of the Year". We also began working on "Moon, Sister Moon". (The sheet music for those is available on our Drive.) 

We also spent a some time discussing our Imbolg traditions and plans, since it is immanently approaching. I'm a Brigid devotee, so Imbolg is an important day for me. Bizzy seemed to imply she thought I should link to the Imbolg ritual I wrote, so here it is. It's a mix of traditional and original elements, with a focus on the transformational elements of Brigid's purview. I wrote it as a group ritual but I think it's relatively adaptable for solo ritual. Because it's sort of modular, it shouldn't be too difficult to pull whatever elements are useful to you and/or add whatever elements you want. I don't use this ritual every year, my Sabbat celebrations tend to follow a narrative arc throughout the year, but I do tend to use this general structure, adapted for what is called for in that turn of the wheel. I hope that, however you celebrate, Imbolg brings you hope, inspiration, and reinvigoration!

We haven't yet been able to find the time to record practice tracks outside of rehearsal but I was able to make some recordings of our rehearsal and upload them to the Drive! Sorry for the rough quality! Naming convention for the files:
"Msr" is Measure, to help you find the correct place in your music.
"Rhythm" is Bizzy clapping out the rhythm for us.
"Piano" is Bizzy playing the notes.
"Instruction" is Bizzy giving helpful information about a selection.
"Practice" is the "my turn, your turn" format, where Bizzy gives us the example, then we all sing it.
"Runthru" is where we all sing while Bizzy plays the notes.
"Runthru w Accompaniment" is when Bizzy is playing what a pianist would play rather than the notes we're meant to sing.

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. It might be helpful to write the notes in over the music, like this:

Because of the generous donations last week, we'd already booked our rehearsal space for next week! This week, we received another generous donation that will go a long way towards covering our rental fees two weeks from now. We are so very grateful to all those who donated; thank you so much! If you would like to track our accounting, you can view our donations and expenses spreadsheet and receipts on our Drive.

Now I'm off to do the prep work for next week! We can't wait to sing with y'all!

- El Pethybridge, Administrative Director
TrianglePaganChoir@gmail.com

Next Rehearsal - 1/30/24

Our next meeting is next Tuesday!

January 30, 2024 7pm-9pm
Raleigh UU, Peace Hall, Rm. 101
3313 Wade Avenue
Raleigh, NC 27607

We welcome all safe and respectful Pagan and Pagan-adjacent adults of any skill and experience level! We're community-focused rather than performance-focused, so we don't hold auditions and we welcome drop-ins. Because of the music that is best-known and most-available, our starter songs trend a little Wiccan, but we will be seeking to incorporate all kinds of Pagan and Pagan-friendly music. You can help! We welcome recommendations and leads on pertinent music that is in the public domain or is low-royalty. 

There are no fees or dues for participating, but we do gratefully welcome any cash donations* to cover the cost of renting our rehearsal space. (Donations at our last meeting covered the costs for our next two meetings! Thank you all so much!) We will have a receipt book on hand to log all donations and post aggregate info (without personally identifying information) to the blog so everyone can see where their donations are going. *We are not currently a registered 501c, so we don't have financial accounts and I can't speak to whether or not your donation is tax-deductible.

If you are experiencing any symptoms of a contagious illness, especially Covid-19, please defer your attendance until you're feeling well. We'll all be breathing the same air in that meeting room and, while you are absolutely welcome to wear a mask, it isn't exactly conducive to singing.

We will have name/pronoun stickers available at our meetings. Whenever possible, we will have sheet music printed. The sheet music is also available on our Drive. The only things you need to bring are your voice and the vocal-chord-friendly, non-staining (to respect our hosts) drink of your choice!

We're so excited to see everyone on Tuesday!

- El Pethybridge, Administrative Director
TrianglePaganChoir@gmail.com

P.S. In addition to this blog, there are a number of ways to stay updated on our events. We have a mailing list for weekly email reminders and can even send you an Invite directly through Google Calendar. Email us at the address above to be added to both or either of these lists. You can also find us on Facebook at our Page and in our Group, where we share Events and other info. If you'd like to be added to the Invite list for our Facebook Events, please follow our Page or join our Group (otherwise FB won't let me send it to you) and drop us a PM.

Rehearsal Summary - 01/23/24

We had another great meeting of the Triangle Pagan Choir! Bizzy walked us through some warm-ups and helped us get mindful about our bodies and how they affect our voices. We continued working on the three pieces we started last week, "Crescent Moon", "Imbolc Round", and the "Imbolc" portion of "The Wheel of the Year". We also started working on the "Closing the Circle" portion of "The Wheel of the Year". (The sheet music for those is available on our Drive.) 

Bizzy was able to provide us with physical sheet music this week and we decided our policy will be to send it home with whomever wanted it and keep a base stock of about 10 copies that she brings each week for people who don't have their own copy. But, alack and alas, no one had folders! I plan to bring some next week to share out, if the ADHD doesn't get me!

Bizzy and I are trying to find time in our schedules to record rehearsal tracks for each vocal part of each piece. In the meantime, I was able to use a keyboard app and my rudimentary musical knowledge to plunk out the notes and record them on my phone. I won't subject you all to the unrhythmic mess that babbled out of my untrained fingers bumbling over the app's clunky keys but I do recommend this strategy if you're trying to practice at home. (This is by no means an official endorsement but the app I used is "Voice Training - Learn to Sing" by the developer Learn to Master.)

We received such generous donations this week that we were able to secure our space rental for the next TWO weeks! That's a 100% increase from last week! We are so very grateful to all those who donated; thank you so much! If you would like to track our accounting, you can view our donations and expenses spreadsheet and receipts on our Drive.

There were several people who weren't able to make it this week, but we still had a total group of ten people, including your TPC Directors. We were short on Altos, due to people swapping parts or not being able to make it, so imagine a Jazzy Uncle Sam poster here that says "Altos! We need YOU!". We were excited to welcome several new folks and expect even more next week! We can't wait to sing with y'all!

- El Pethybridge, Administrative Director
TrianglePaganChoir@gmail.com

Next Rehearsal - 01/23/24

Our next meeting is next Tuesday!

January 23, 2024 7pm-9pm
Raleigh UU, Peace Hall, Rm. 101
3313 Wade Avenue
Raleigh, NC 27607

We welcome all safe and respectful Pagan and Pagan-adjacent singers of all skill and experience levels! (We're currently limiting this to adults to keep things simpler.) We're community-focused rather than performance-focused, so we don't hold auditions and we welcome drop-ins. Because of the music that is best-known and most-available, our starter songs will probably trend Wiccan but we will be seeking to incorporate all kinds of Pagan and Pagan-friendly music. You can help! We welcome recommendations and leads on pertinent music that is in the public domain or is low-royalty. 

There are no fees or dues for participating, but we do gratefully welcome any cash donations* to cover the cost of renting our rehearsal space. (Donations at our last meeting covered the costs for our next meeting! Thank you all so much!) We will have a receipt book on hand to log all donations and will post aggregate info (without personally identifying information) to the blog so everyone can see where their donations are going. *We are not currently a registered 501c, so we don't have financial accounts and I can't speak to whether or not your donation is tax-deductible.

If you are experiencing any symptoms of a contagious illness, especially Covid-19, please defer your attendance until you're feeling well. We'll all be breathing the same air in that meeting room and, while you are absolutely welcome to wear a mask, it isn't exactly conducive to singing.

We will have name/pronoun stickers available at our meetings. Whenever possible, we will have sheet music printed. The sheet music is also available on our Drive. The only things you need to bring are your voice and the vocal-chord-friendly, non-staining (to respect our hosts) drink of your choice!

We're so excited to see everyone on Tuesday!

- El Pethybridge, Administrative Director
TrianglePaganChoir@gmail.com

P.S. I'm expanding the ways we connect with people! I can send rehearsal event invitations directly through Google Calendar, so you never forget! If you have a Gmail account and you'd like to receive these event invitations, please send an email to the address above and let me know. I'm also starting an email updates list. If you'd like to receive reminders through email, send an email to the address above to let me know. Right now the plan is to send one reminder on Wednesdays and no other updates but I'm willing to pivot later based on feedback.

Rehearsal Summary - 01/16/24

We had a great second meeting of the Triangle Pagan Choir! After Bizzy walked us through some warm-ups and breath work, we started working on three different pieces, "Crescent Moon", the Imbolc portion of "The Wheel of the Year", and an Imbolc chant. (The sheet music for those is available on our Drive.) It was a relatively small group of seven but we had enough people to cover each vocal part and it sounded marvelous!

In more excellent news, we were able to raise enough money to cover the costs of space rental for next week. We are so grateful to all those who donated; thank you so much! If you would like to track our accounting, you can view our donations and expenses spreadsheet and receipts on our Drive.

There were a lot of interested people who weren't able to make it this week, so we expect an even larger group next week! We can't wait to see you all there!

- El Pethybridge, Administrative Director
TrianglePaganChoir@gmail.com

P.S. I'm expanding the ways we connect with people! I can send rehearsal event invitations directly through Google Calendar, so you never forget! If you have a Gmail account and you'd like to receive these event invitations, please send an email to the address above and let me know. I'm also starting an email updates list. If you'd like to receive reminders through email, send an email to the address above to let me know. Right now the plan is to send one reminder on Wednesdays and no other updates but I'm willing to pivot later based on feedback.

Next TPC Rehearsal - 01/16/24

Our next meeting is in a couple days!

January 16, 2024 7pm-9pm
Raleigh UU, Peace Hall
3313 Wade Avenue
Raleigh, NC 27607

We welcome all safe and respectful Pagan and Pagan-adjacent singers of all skill and experience levels! (We're currently limiting this to adults to keep things simpler.) We're community-focused rather than performance-focused, so we don't hold auditions and we welcome drop-ins. Because of the music that is best-known and most-available, our starter songs will probably trend Wiccan but we will be seeking to incorporate all kinds of Pagan and Pagan-friendly music. You can help! We welcome recommendations and leads on pertinent music that is in the public domain or is low-royalty. 

There are no fees or dues for participating, but we do gratefully welcome any cash donations* to cover the cost of renting our rehearsal space. (We went out of pocket for the first two weeks but it would be great if we could become self-sustaining!) We will have a receipt book on hand to log all donations and will post aggregate info (without personally identifying information) to the blog so everyone can see where their donations are going. *We are not currently a registered 501c, so we don't have financial accounts and I can't speak to whether or not your donation is tax-deductible.

If you are experiencing any symptoms of a contagious illness, especially Covid-19, please defer your attendance until you're feeling well. We'll all be breathing the same air in that meeting room and, while you are absolutely welcome to wear a mask, it isn't exactly conducive to singing.

We will have name/pronoun stickers and sheet music available at our meetings. We also hope to be able to provide digital access to the sheet music via Drive in case attendance exceeds our expectations. The only things you need to bring are your voice and the vocal-chord-friendly, non-staining (to respect our hosts) drink of your choice!

We're so excited to see everyone on Tuesday!

- El Pethybridge, Administrative Director
TrianglePaganChoir@gmail.com

Inaugural Blog!

Hello and welcome to the Triangle Pagan Choir's brand new blog! This is one of the many places where we'll share updates, such as meeting info and financial transparency info. At the time of writing, we're preparing for our first ever meeting tomorrow!

Tuesday January 9, 7pm-9pm
Raleigh UU, Peace Hall
3313 Wade Ave.
Raleigh, NC 27607

There have been reports of possible severe weather but it is expected to pass us by to the south, so we don't anticipate it impacting our gathering. We'll keep an eye on the weather and post updates if the situation changes. [Update 1/9/24 3:40pm: While the weather still seems manageable for many, it is not manageable for some, including our Musical Director. Our Administrative Director will still be there to host a meet-and-greet and get community input. Also, the music is being uploaded to the Drive, so if anyone has a keyboard or is adept at sight-singing or improv, we might still be able to get some singing in.] 

We welcome all safe and respectful Pagan and Pagan-adjacent singers of all skill and experience levels! (We're currently limiting this to adults to keep things simpler.) We're community-focused rather than performance-focused, so we don't hold auditions and we welcome drop-ins. Because of the music that is best-known and most-available, our starter songs will probably trend Wiccan but we will be seeking to incorporate all kinds of Pagan and Pagan-friendly music. You can help! We welcome recommendations and leads on pertinent music that is in the public domain or is low-royalty. 

There are no fees or dues for participating, but we do gratefully welcome any cash donations* to cover the cost of renting our rehearsal space. (We went out of pocket for the first two weeks but it would be great if we could become self-sustaining!) We will have a receipt book on hand to log all donations and will post aggregate info (without personally identifying information) to the blog so everyone can see where their donations are going. *We are not currently a registered 501c, so we don't have financial accounts and I can't speak to whether or not your donation is tax-deductible.

If you are experiencing any symptoms of a contagious illness, especially Covid-19, please defer your attendance until you're feeling well. We'll all be breathing the same air in that meeting room and, while you are absolutely welcome to wear a mask, it isn't exactly conducive to singing.

We will have name/pronoun stickers and sheet music available at our meetings. We also hope to be able to provide digital access to the sheet music via Drive in case attendance exceeds our expectations. The only things you need to bring are your voice and the vocal-chord-friendly, non-staining (to respect our hosts) drink of your choice!

We're so excited to see everyone tomorrow!

- El Pethybridge, Administrative Director
TrianglePaganChoir@gmail.com