Rehearsals Start - 3rd June 2008

Hmmm, I think I need to clean that out...

My regular choir's finished for the summer now, but I've joined another one that's formed temporarily to Sing for Water, raising money for WaterAid. There's about 70 voices drawn from several choirs across Wiltshire and we have just 6 weeks to learn 7 songs. In reality it's 3 weeks to learn them as the last 3 weeks will be polishing the songs to performance standard. We met in Trowbridge for the first rehearsal on Tuesday night - 2 songs down, 5 to go! There were 3 choir leaders there, so the way of learning the songs was quite different to what we've been used to as the different parts could be learnt pretty much at the same time instead of our usual in turn. Our local performance takes place on 8th July and we'll then be going to London in September for the big Sing for Water concert at The Thames Festival, where a choir of 1,000 voices will be performing.

We learnt a E Marabini, a South African song on Tuesday - with a really catchy, cheerful tune. However, the translated lyrics are quite sad:

What has happened with the Marabini dance. It has taken them away. We will look after this child because it indeed, has no parents.

The other song was called Talk to Me and consisted mainly of the women singing 'Talk to me' and the men going 'Dum dum dum dum' - sounds familiar eh?

BBC Radio Wiltshire was there and will be returning to record most of the rehearsals, plus hopefully the concert itself. Chris, our choir master was interviewed by them last week and said there are quite a few people who haven't sung before who will get to performance standard in the time we have - well that happened to me last year and it's happening right now to one of NAH's ex-colleagues who's joined the choir. The radio wants to see if Chris' claim comes true - so it feels a bit like one of those choir reality shows that's been on the telly recently. We had a lady dressed in pink waving a microphone in the middle of us all for 2 hours on Tuesday night - and she nearly ran me over in her radio car on the way in to where we're rehearsing!

The Practice CD

Half way through rehearsals having gone through each song at least once, we were given a practice CD containing all the songs. There's a track for each part for a song, plus one with all the parts combined. Some of the parts are also split (so we're singing eight part harmony instead of the usual 4-part), so for these songs you have to listen carefully for which speaker your allotted split part has been allocated to. It means lots of concentration is needed, even at home.

I have to sneak in my home practising as NAH doesn't like to hear me singing. Luckily, he goes swimming training in the morning on a regular basis, so I have a quick half an hour going through each song before he comes home. I have tried singing along in the car, but gave up after I was so busy singing on the way to rehearsals, I missed the turning to Trowbridge and went off to Warminster instead!

Focus on the Horizon - Ist July 2008

The 12 Apostles, Great Ocean Road, Victoria, Australia - December 2003 (11 since 2005, the first one's now rubble)

This piece was written as part of the monthly Garden Bloggers Muse Day - an optional meme held on the 1st day of the month, where bloggers offer a piece of prose or poetry appropriate to their thoughts or mood.

I'm a non-gardening muse today, but I'm sure that doesn't matter. I had initially toyed with presenting Pam Ayres' I Wish I'd Looked After My Teeth after a particularly bad tussle at the dentist's yesterday which is still painful. However, he's assured me that I do look after my teeth rather well, so it's not really appropriate.

Instead I've chosen a song for you today. It's one of the ones we'll be rehearsing tonight for next Tuesday's Sing for Water concert. Unfortunately this particular song hasn't been on the radio as part of our regular broadcasts, so I can't reveal the wonderful sound of it - yet. However, I love the words of this particular song. It's very simple and the writer (Roxanne Smith) has managed to re-create the impression of waves with the way she's woven the music around them. But I think the words speak for themselves too and also chime with the more philosophical muse I've been lately. Our recent holiday proved how by removing ourselves from everyday life for a while, the important things become much clearer - as in the song's 'focusing on the horizon'. Now we've been 'carried back to the shore', both NAH and I are much more at peace.

I need to gaze out beyond the sea
To focus on the horizon
Let the water lift me up
And carry me to the shore

Let the waves, carry me (gonna)
Let the water, carry me (carry me to the)

I need to gaze out
To focus
Let the water
Carry me to the shore

The Concert - 8th July 2008

Our weeks of hard work paid off on Tuesday night and we gave our all for the performance. I had an absolute blast and it seems to have gone down well, judging by the audience's reaction and the piece on yesterday's radio. The whole concert will be broadcast at some point - I'll let you know when that happens. Hopefully it'll include the set from our support act The Chausettes which included Chris and Ali, two of our choirmasters. Their finale Hit Me Baby One More Time had me in fits of giggles, especially when Chris was a Bass version of Britney Spears!

Like all good fundraising concerts we also had a very moving film about Wateraid's work and the following extract from Chris' e-mail to us all yesterday sums up what we've achieved so far:

You have every right to feel extremely proud of yourselves for last night. I knew it was going to be OK after our run through, but the performance exceeded all my expectations. You sounded fabulous, looked gorgeous and also seemed to have a good time too (the audience always pick up on that).

We also collected nearly £600 on the door and will almost certainly make £1,500 with the ticket receipts. Add this to the Bristol profits and we're looking at over £4,000 from the two concerts. If we hit the average minimum target of £50 a singer in sponsorship (and many of you have already raised more than that), we can add £10,000 to the money we've raised.

You can see from the film last night that that will have a significant impact.

You have made a difference.

Thank you.

Chris, Candy and Ali *

Now for the concert in London on the 14th September!

* = Our choirmasters

Rehearsing for London - 13th September

Tomorrow's the BIG day - the Sing for Water concert in London. So I found myself in Trowbridge at lunchtime for another rehearsal. A number of the songs will be sung quite differently in London - in a much simpler way. Apparently we were given a much more complicated mix for our concert in July to make the performance more interesting. However moving 800-1,000 singers across The Scoop in London (where we'll be performing) can't be done, so I'll be somewhere at the side of choir for tomorrow's performance and there I'll stay.

But our choir masters don't want us to rest on our laurels. So we had a completely new song to learn today, in an African language to boot. Luckily for us, most of the song (Obatala) is calling (i.e. a soloist or group singing the song's verse), and we just sing the response back. It's a catchy number, involving African drummers too. The tempo quickens as we go along, which was a little difficult to master at times, but we have a rehearsal in London at 9.30 am tomorrow to put the final polish on the song. That means we leave Corsham at 6.30 am, a time I previously didn't think existed on a Sunday. I'm grateful Corsham's the final pickup, the Trowbridge singers will be picked up at 6 am. :0

Flushed with Success - the London Concert

One of the more unusual volunteer opportunities WaterAid has on offer

I re-discovered a number of things I'd forgotten on Sunday (14th September) - getting up in the dark, the 5.30 am Shipping Forecast on Radio 4, mist laden fields and empty roads. They were all worth it for the experiences later on that day. Sing for Water forms part of the Thames Festival - an end of summer extravaganza held on the banks of the river. A heady mix of dance, world music, stalls on all sorts of watery themes and of course song. All of it free, except for the food and drink. It's really hard for me to adequately describe the day - except to say it was one of the best, ever. I hope the following pictures will give you a flavour.

1,000 people in rainbow coloured tops with nothing to do but sing our hearts out...

... to an audience of 1,500+, who gave us a standing ovation at the end...

... conducted by Michael and Roxanne (who wrote Focus on the Horizon), exaggerating every movement so we could all see what was wanted...

... right in the heart of London opposite where Zoe could see from her perch on the Epsom Downs...

... with some of you actually making donations over at my Open Garden whilst we were singing. Thank you so much! You've helped to exceed my second target of £750. Today (16th September 2008) the donations stand at £813. Shall we go for a third target of £1,000? Oh yes, I think so.