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
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