Shameless plug!

Shameless plug:

Voces8 are launching their new album 'Aces High' on the 15th January 2010!!
Details here: http://www.kingsplace.co.uk/music/weekly-themes/voces8
Snippets of album tracks here: http://www.voces8.moonfruit.com/#/aceshigh/4537120598 or if that doesn't work, http://www.voces8.com/ >> 'Aces High mini-site'

(I'm probably biased, but I think what I've heard on the website is simply fantastic; I absolutely cannot wait to get hold of the album! It's due for general release on the 1st February.)

The rest of the blog still over at http://exploringsingup.livejournal.com/

Take the Lead! has moved ...

... to http://exploringsingup.livejournal.com/

I prefer LiveJournal because I can put cuts in the text (useful for especially long entries) and I decided to make the blog about Sing Up, not just Take the Lead! due the fact that Sing Up may present some opportunities to actually get into community music and I want to write everything about it all in one place.

So, see you over at Exploring Sing Up!

Take the Lead! session 1 (30.09.09)

{I wrote this partly from memory and partly with the aid of notes from a following workshop and Paul's notes about session 1. I apologise for rambling a bit but I wanted to try to get down everything I could.}

(Lee and Malcolm are participants; Lee is the wider opps provider for Bedfordshire Music and I don't know anything about Malcolm yet.)

Introduction: Paul introduced the project; he, Charles and Aga introduced themselves.
Ice-breaker (Aga): Our name, what we had for breakfast, then a rhythm for/with our names. We'd all repeat the rhythm. Next person, then repeat previous rhythm plus current, und so weiter going round the circle. So:

Lee, what he had for breakfast, rhythm (all repeat);
Second person, what they had for breakfast, their rhythm, all repeat their rhythm. Then Lee's rhythm & repeat + second rhythm & repeat
Third person, what they had for breakfast, their rhythm, repeat, Lee's & repeat + second + third rhythms with appropriate repeats.

If that makes any sense whatsoever.

The 'final performance' was from Lee round to Paul, and back again; we'd naturally fallen into a pulse which is useful for a real workshop situation. It was good because what people had for breakfast was interesting (on the face of it that statement may sound a little inaccurate but it's surprising!) and people's rhythms serve to reveal something about them too.

Warm-ups:
Paul's:
-”Copy me” [gets their attention]
- small hand movements
- stretching
- introducing noises to fit gestures
- up and down + pitch
- rubbing shins/thighs
- rhythms
- different consonants/vowel sounds
- sequences
- [Σ = characterisation, warming up the whole body, getting the mouth/tongue/vocal cords/everything else working, introducing sounds to be used later.]
- I can't remember exactly how we got to it, but we ended up doing something rhythmic in parts ... will have to get back to that. ( ... or not; I have totally forgotten. How frustrating. I do know there was an extended version in the Bedford Prep workshop – to be written up.)

Charles':
- Shrug and release
- As small and tight as possible / as tall as possible
- Wide / small
- Starjumps / spotty dogs [sequence / watch for change]
- Boom-chica-boom: 'Say Boom-chica-boom (+Repeat) – say Boom-chica-rocka-chica-rocka-chica-boom (R) – oh-oh (R) – eh-eh (R) – one more time (R)' (different characters: normal, BIG, Time Warp,The Queen -> 'no more times')
- Black holes / supernovae (noses are black holes; everything getting sucked in / supernovae: BANG!)
- Shake self from top to bottom – voice, go down. And vice versa.
- Voice starts in centre of earth ('eee' – 'He, not she') very slowly, following Charles' hand, ascends way out to outer space. mf; take breaths whenever necessary. [Pharynx lift]
- At some point there was brain gym: left index finger on nose/right index finger on left ear and swap, getting faster. Can be developed infinitely; gets the brains warmed up, learn quicker, respond better, etc.
- At some point there was the: stretch both arms up, left hand round to right side, give selves tight hug, breathe in / breathe out – feel the lateral support muscles working / ribcage / abdomen working, etc. Possibly at the beginning, or somewhere in the middle. I forget.
- Cowboy (~grin~):
> Cowboy posture
> 'Wah-wah waaah, wah wah wahhhh ... '
> Cowboy toffee – really chewy; have to chew noisily and with whole face
> Cowboy toffee makes us so happy we go 'YEEEEEEEEHAAAAAAAAAAAA!' whilst swinging lasso
- [Σ = complete deconstriction, characterisation ( -> emotion), all being totally loony => safe environment; wearing selves out => breathing properly; also physically awake translates to mentally awake.]
- Also did something in parts (probably, but not definitely, from the cowboy); leaders change on pharynx lift sound. [Already familiar with sound – right from beginning actually, with shake from top to bottom; re-enforced with actual pharynx lift exercise.]
- At one point early-ish in the warm-up Charles asked who played an instrument, asked us what, then proceeded to explain that a singer's instrument is their entire body, hence necessity for full warm-up.

We then went onto 'Rivers of Babylon':
- Charles got us to sing (using his hand to show the shape) - I think this was also using the 'eee' sound.

(Not sure about the time sig, as the song is in 4/4. Oh well, will modify if necessary.)
- Then he gave us some context about the song we were about to sing: some people were made to move to a place that wasn't their home; they were very sad about it and wrote a poem so we know how they felt. [Gets the kids suitably sombre, to get emotion into their singing. He says it works, even though they may have wound themselves up and be bouncing off the walls, they can still find themselves feeling sufficiently sad for the song.]
- Charles says the words; children repeat [emphasis and emotion – plus diction].
- Same melody - well, similar – plus words (diction!)
- Add harmony! Hand shape. Similarities / differences between melody and harmony.
- Parts:

I can't remember the order exactly of the warm-ups, especially Charles' (alas I really can't remember many specifics of Paul's; I've no idea why) - I'm wracking my brains but sadly my memory rather fails me.


The summary of points then (plus additions):
> Begin with movement: gets attention and obvious start for warm-up
> Add sounds: musical ideas, rhythms, anything will be needing later in the workshop / project
> Characterisation: emotion; easy to relate to obvious characters
> Absurdity: (to quote Paul: “I cannot emphasis enough the absurdity!”) safe environment, lose inhibitions (I'll vouch for that!)
> Deconstriction: warming up entire instrument.
> Brain gym: get the synapses firing!
> Technique: don't be afraid to use technical vocabulary – children are like sponges (especially with those synapses at full speed!)
> Use warm-ups to gauge ability: zum Beispiel, doing something in rhythmic parts reflects the group's ability to sing (or play) in parts. Even at a basic level it shows their natural rhythm – or lack thereof; highlights areas that may need improvement before progress can be made; conversely, strong areas which may need less attention.
> Work backwards: What are the goals for the session and for the project? What skills will be required? Even something as simple as, what will the words be: what consonant and vowel sounds will particularly be required? Perhaps percussive sounds. Use this to plan key exercises throughout the warm-up (more to follow in session 2's write-up). (Ties in to an extent with gauging ability.)
> Ownership: allow the group to contribute ideas. Steer the workshop in the right direction for the objective(s) but along the way allow the group ownership – they're more responsive for a start than if they felt the leader were dictating everything. (Again, more to follow in session 2's write-up.)

Additional, miscellaneous points (This is almost long enough for this section to be an appendix, isn't it? Oops!):
- Malcolm provided us with an interesting quote from Chinese Philosopher Lao Tzu: “To lead others, walk behind them” (in relation to ownership)
- Q: 'How long ought the warm-up to be'? A: Depends on how long the workshop is, whether it's a one-off or part of a project - and if so, how long the project is, and how far into the project the workshop is, age, etc. In other words, it's entirely left to the workshop leader's discretion! If part of, say, a set of 10 workshops, the first could be almost entirely warm-up techniques, but by the 10th only 10 minutes may be required.

Next post: my ramblings from the education day at Bedford School.

Take the Lead! Introductory post

I've decided to start a blog about Take the Lead!, a workshop leader course in Bedfordshire led by Paul Smith, Charles MacDougall and Aga Serugo-Lugo. I was going to go into a long ramble about Voces Cantabiles Music / Voces8 / Hatch My Ideas! but then managed to confuse myself ... it's late; the links provide further details! In short:
- Paul is the C.E.O. of VCM, a baritone, and community musician;
- Charles is a tenor, vocal coach, and community musician;
- sadly I know less about Aga but I do know he's an experienced community musician.
Here is a short video I discovered of the sort of thing they do (I alas know no more about it than the information on the webpage).

EDIT: I've since discovered that Charles and Aga are officially workshop leaders for VCM. Which makes sense!

The sessions are aimed towards singing workshops (this is either part of or inspired by the SingUp! initiative) but the majority of the processes and techniques we're learning apply to any workshop.

I have had a little taste of community music before this course; I was involved in 2007-08 as a musician on the Stepping Stones project (link takes you to this year's manifestation of it) with the Philharmonia Orchestra (education info here) and had an amazingly fun time ... I also learned a lot too, and the kids absolutely loved the workshops! (Useful.) They got an awful lot out of them, even though most of the schools were relatively well-off, with many of the children having instrumental lessons - there was one school that wasn't in such an affluent area, but the rest were ... well, lower-middle class, one could say. Despite the children already experiencing music, I was amazed at how much they grew throughout the eight workshops we did with them - in fact, even during the first workshop we saw a huge difference in many children, and I can safely say I was bitten by the community music bug!

Since then sadly my musical activity has declined: I finished my extra part-time year of sixth form so I then was no longer part of the school's string ensemble (such as it was), windband and jazz band; I also stopped attending Luton Youth Orchestra due to circumstances; and my attendance at Bedfordshire Youth Orchestra courses has been sporadic due to financial constraints. I do play in an orchestra (more chamber than symphony) called the Adelphi Players but as we are from far and wide (our leader is from Scotland and two years ago our double bassist was from Belarus!) and very busy people, we can only realistically rehearse thrice a year.

So, when Take the Lead! came along I jumped at the chance! Well, actually that's not quite true - I was a little hesitant at first (before the first session) because I couldn't quite understand what it was about - and if I don't know what to expect of something then I feel very fearful. Happily, however, The Choir came along just as I was trying to decide whether or not to attend, and it made me realise that this could well be a fantastic opportunity to, if not become involved with community music, at least learn skills that would be vital should I find myself presented with a community music opportunity at a later date. So I convinced myself to go along, see what it was all about, and go from there.

I can categorically say that was one of The Best secular decisions I have ever made! Part of me can't quite believe how hesitant I was originally, with hindsight; had I wimped out the mind boggles to consider what a fantastic opportunity I would have missed.

The intention of this blog is to record my experiences on this course, for my own record but also hopefully to inspire others to investigate community music - or even just to grab a chance about which they may be unsure. I'm hoping to be able to note down most of what we do and analyse why. Zum Beispiel:

Warm-up:
- Start off with Paul saying 'copy me'. Small movements with hands, progressing to sounds+movement.
Analysis: gets attention. Movement to gradually deconstrict and warm up; adding sounds gets them using vocal cords without thinking (shameless displacement, as Charles pointed out).
- All different sorts of sounds; mostly ridiculous
Analysis: gets everything warmed up: vocal cords, facial muscles, abdomen, diaphragm, etc. All different consonant and vowel sounds; very pronounced. Ridiculous: 'lose yourself' - lose inhibitions; stop feeling self-conscious. Becomes a safe environment.
- Progress to larger, more energetic movements (of course still with sounds)
Analysis: deconstricts the entire body (vital: a singer's instrument is the entire body). Energetic: wears them out = breathing properly!

... usw./etc. It'll hopefully usually be more specific than that but it's too late to be wracking my brains that hard!

This evening was the second session of TtL; so why have I only just decided to blog about it? I was mulling over a part of the session when we were leading small groups; three of us had a different part and we each had to lead some of the rest of the group (more detailed explanation to follow in the write-up of session 2) and it suddenly occurred to me: I had been rather afraid of the idea of having to lead a small group (by small, I mean three ... I am a self-conscious wimp!) and it took a couple of repeats to get into it. But then I found myself enjoying it and actually leading the group when to come in after our rests, even feeling confident - !!! - that, for me, is quite an achievement! It ties in nicely with something I've been mulling over since a conversation with Paul last Monday, but that's for another time.

So, that's an introduction to this blog. Feel free to ask questions; I apologise if I've been unclear about things (that'll be because either I'm unclear about it, or just because it's late) ... and enjoy.

Thanks for stopping by :)