Next Rehearsal – 06/04/24

Our next meeting is next Tuesday!

June 4, 2024 7pm-9pm

Raleigh UU, Peace Hall, Rm. 101

3313 Wade Avenue

Raleigh, NC 27607

**Update** Unfortunately, I'm going to have to cancel tonight. The vast majority of our regulars have told me they're unable to come and I'm simply under too much pressure right now to "play to an empty room". I'm so sorry for the short notice to anyone who may have been looking forward to tonight. -El **

We've been staying flexible recently and working on what feels right in the moment. The strongest contenders for this week are probably the Summer Solstice piece from the "Chants" set or possibly one of the recent submissions from Reclaiming. If you'd like to be an overachiever and come prepared, the sheet music and recordings are available on our Drive.

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. 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, sheet music, and folders available at our meetings. The sheet music is also available on our Drive. The only things you need to bring are your voice and the vocal-chord-friendly drink of your choice!

The UU campus has multiple lots, buildings, and doors, so we have a video demonstrating how to get to our rehearsal space from either lot. (Apologies for my winded smoker wheezing!)

We can't wait to sing with y'all 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 June 4 rehearsal.

Rehearsal Summary - 05/28/24

There were five of us who could make it this week. After warm-ups, we worked on "Summer Solstice Chant" from the "Chants" set and got two recordings. We also took a sneak peek at the Lammas piece and discussed some possible alterations to the lyrics, which I imagine will be discussed more when we begin working on that piece. We also did a very casual run-through of "Moon, Sister Moon" simply because I saw it and got it stuck in my head!

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.

We received $40 in donations this week, which covered our rental fees for our next rehearsal, with a little left over to go towards the one after that! Thank you so much for your donations, we really appreciate it! If you would like to track our accounting, you can view our donations and expenses spreadsheet and receipts on our Drive.

I anticipate working more on our Summer Solstice song or reviewing some recent submissions next week. We can't wait to sing with y'all!

- El Pethybridge, Administrative Director

TrianglePaganChoir@gmail.com

Next Rehearsal – 05/28/24

Our next meeting is next Tuesday!

May 28, 2024 7pm-9pm

Raleigh UU, Peace Hall, Rm. 101

3313 Wade Avenue

Raleigh, NC 27607

We've been staying flexible recently and working on what feels right in the moment. The strongest contenders for this week are probably the Summer Solstice piece from the "Chants" set or possibly one of the recent submissions from Reclaiming. If you'd like to be an overachiever and come prepared, the sheet music and recordings are available on our Drive.

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. 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, sheet music, and folders available at our meetings. The sheet music is also available on our Drive. The only things you need to bring are your voice and the vocal-chord-friendly drink of your choice!

The UU campus has multiple lots, buildings, and doors, so we have a video demonstrating how to get to our rehearsal space from either lot. (Apologies for my winded smoker wheezing!)

We can't wait to sing with y'all 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 May 28 rehearsal.

P.P.S. I've realized that Wednesdays are so busy for me that I'm going to keep being "late" with updates every week. So, instead, I'm going to try out doing updates on Thursdays and see how that works out.

Rehearsal Summary - 05/21/24

There were five of us who could make it this week. While shuffling through my sheet music, I commented that it was funny we hadn't ever done "We All Come From the Goddess" since it's maybe the most commonly known Pagan song. That seemed to pique people's interest, so we reviewed various versions. Some versions alternate with "Hoof and Horn", some versions list deities, some versions do both, some versions do neither. The version we have sheet music for is what you might call the "basic version", so we spent some time singing that in increasing tempo. After that, since it was so close to the full moon, we spent some time on "Full Moonlight Dance" and played around with singing it in rounds. Singing in rounds is a challenge so we definitely need more work on that aspect of this piece but, as always, it was a learning experience. 

If you'd like to review any of the pieces we've been working on, 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.

We received $20 in donations this week! Thank you so much for your donations, we really appreciate it! If you would like to track our accounting, you can view our donations and expenses spreadsheet and receipts on our Drive.

I anticipate working on our Summer Solstice song or reviewing some recent submissions next week. We can't wait to sing with y'all!

- El Pethybridge, Administrative Director

TrianglePaganChoir@gmail.com

P.S. I've realized that Wednesdays are such a busy day for me that I'm going to keep being "late" with updates every week, so I'm going to try out doing updates on Thursdays, instead.

Next Rehearsal – 05/21/24

Our next meeting is next Tuesday!

May 21, 2024 7pm-9pm

Raleigh UU, Peace Hall, Rm. 101

3313 Wade Avenue

Raleigh, NC 27607

We've been staying flexible recently and working on what feels right in the moment. The strongest contenders for this week are probably our sigil song, the Summer Solstice piece from the "Chants" set, or possibly "Full Moonlight" from the "Chants". If you'd like to be an overachiever and come prepared, the sheet music and recordings are available on our Drive.

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. 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, sheet music, and folders available at our meetings. The sheet music is also available on our Drive. The only things you need to bring are your voice and the vocal-chord-friendly drink of your choice!

The UU campus has multiple lots, buildings, and doors, so we have a video demonstrating how to get to our rehearsal space from either lot. (Apologies for my winded smoker wheezing!)

We can't wait to sing with y'all 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 May 21 rehearsal.

P.P.S. Sorry I'm late with updates this week! To be honest, I fell ill on Wednesday and have been so sick that I completely spaced it.

Rehearsal Summary - 05/14/24

As you would imagine, the flash flood advisory kept a lot of people home this week, so there were just four of us. Emori didn't feel safe driving, so we had more of a planning meeting than a rehearsal. We decided that instead of singing to recordings, we'd talk about possible songs to add to our repertoire. Two of us looked over the Pagan Song Book kindly donated by a member back in February, while two of us looked at a resource another member had found online, Campfire Chants from Reclaiming. Nothing really jumped out at anyone from the Pagan Song Book but we found two songs we liked from Campfire Chants, "Weave and Spin" and "Sweet Water" by Starhawk. We're also considering "Kore Chant" by Lauren Liebling and Starhawk. We welcome suggestions and feedback on these selections or others you'd like to incorporate!

If you'd like to review any of the pieces we've already been working on, 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.

We received $20 and a rain stick in donations this week! Thank you so much for your donations, we really appreciate it! If you would like to track our accounting, you can view our donations and expenses spreadsheet and receipts on our Drive.

Hopefully the weather is more conducive to rehearsal next week! We can't wait to sing with y'all!

- El Pethybridge, Administrative Director

TrianglePaganChoir@gmail.com

P.S. Sorry I'm late with updates this week! To be honest, I fell ill on Wednesday and have been so sick that I completely spaced it. 

Next Rehearsal – 05/14/24

Our next meeting is next Tuesday!

May 14, 2024 7pm-9pm

Raleigh UU, Peace Hall, Rm. 101

3313 Wade Avenue

Raleigh, NC 27607

*Update* We're under a flood advisory. It's too close to rehearsal time to cancel so I'm about to head out and Emori is getting ready to give it a go as well. If you work but don't live in Raleigh, it might actually be safer for you to wait it out with us here. Everyone else, I wanted you to have the info and what you do with it is up to you.*

There are a lot of possibilities for this week! We've been staying flexible recently and working on what feels right in the moment. The strongest contenders for this week are probably our sigil song, the Summer Solstice piece from the "Chants" set, or "Dark of the Moon" from the "Chants" set, since we accomplished so much with that in our last rehearsal. If you'd like to be an overachiever and come prepared, the sheet music and recordings are available on our Drive.

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. 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, sheet music, and folders available at our meetings. The sheet music is also available on our Drive. The only things you need to bring are your voice and the vocal-chord-friendly drink of your choice!

The UU campus has multiple lots, buildings, and doors, so we have a video demonstrating how to get to our rehearsal space from either lot. (Apologies for my winded smoker wheezing!)

We can't wait to sing with y'all 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 May 14 rehearsal.

Rehearsal Summary - 05/07/24

We had a really productive rehearsal this week! Including your directors, there were seven of us present. As has become our routine, we warmed up with some breath exercises and "rolling hills". Since this rehearsal was on the night of the dark moon, we focused on "Dark of the Moon" from the "Chants" set. While we had all sung the piece before, we had never successfully combined all three parts into the round, as intended. We spent some time reviewing each melody, then split into parts and practiced singing in the round. I won't lie, it was difficult, even after reviewing a recording by Libana several times. One of our members, who always has to arrive late because of work, accidentally got assigned to a part he'd never sung before but he did admirably under the circumstances! By the end of the night, we were somewhat comfortable with the piece, so we adjourned to the courtyard for a final round, which finally produced a recording useful enough to be worth uploading! I think we'll definitely benefit from working on this piece more but I think we accomplished quite a lot for just one evening!

If you'd like to review any of our pieces between rehearsals, 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.

We received $1 in donations this week. Thank you so much to everyone who's donated, we really appreciate it! If you would like to track our accounting, you can view our donations and expenses spreadsheet and receipts on our Drive.

Next week could see us working on our sigil song, our Summer Solstice selection, or maybe we'll be so excited about "Dark of the Moon" that we'll want to keep working on that. Whatever it is, we can't wait to sing with y'all!

- El Pethybridge, Administrative Director

TrianglePaganChoir@gmail.com

Next Rehearsal - 05/07/24

Our next meeting is next Tuesday!

May 7, 2024 7pm-9pm

Raleigh UU, Peace Hall, Rm. 101

3313 Wade Avenue

Raleigh, NC 27607

I expect we'll continue working on our sigil song and begin working on "Summer Solstice Chant" from the "Chants" set. If you'd like to be an overachiever and come prepared, the sheet music and recordings are available on our Drive.

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. 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, sheet music, and folders available at our meetings. The sheet music is also available on our Drive. The only things you need to bring are your voice and the vocal-chord-friendly drink of your choice!

The UU campus has multiple lots, buildings, and doors, so we have a video demonstrating how to get to our rehearsal space from either lot. (Apologies for my winded smoker wheezing!)

We can't wait to sing with y'all 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 May 7 rehearsal.

P.P.S. P.S. Sorry I'm so late this week, we hosted Beltane last minute on Wednesday, then I was ill on Thursday, then I was driving all day Friday! 

Rehearsal Summary 04/30/24

We had a really fantastic rehearsal this week! Including your directors, there were eight of us present, including a new person! Since this rehearsal was on May Eve Night, we focused on our Beltane selection, "We Dance Around the Maypole". At some point, someone (Emori, probably) realized that it could be sung to the tune of The Addams Family theme song so, in the playful spirit of Beltane, we got extremely silly and spent most of the remainder of rehearsal on a version that starts with the usual melody and then transitions into the Addams Family melody. Yes, we got recordings and they're up on the Drive! At the very end of rehearsal, we went out to the courtyard. We did a set of "Full Moonlight Dance" just because we wanted to. Then we danced in a circle singing "We Dance Around the Maypole", despite not actually having a maypole. (Follow the links for those videos.) We did a lot of dissolving into giggles this week!

If you'd like to review any of our pieces between rehearsals, 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.

We received $21 in donations this week! Thank you so much to everyone who donated, we really appreciate it! If you would like to track our accounting, you can view our donations and expenses spreadsheet and receipts on our Drive.

I expect next week we'll continue working on our sigil song and begin working on "Summer Solstice Chant". We can't wait to sing with y'all!

- El Pethybridge, Administrative Director

TrianglePaganChoir@gmail.com

P.S. Sorry I'm so late this week, we hosted Beltane last minute on Wednesday, then I was ill on Thursday, then I was driving all day Friday!