Hi all!
I am soooooooooo excited to finally have our bulletin board up so we can keep in touch with one another more easily. Please feel free to post here if you have anything you'd like to say to the group at large. Questions? Support? Get together for a social distance walk, or a zoom chat... (we had a zoom coffee with Jeremy's parents in Winnipeg this morning and it was AMAZING how it starts to feel like you are actually in the same room together! I don't know why we don't do this more often!)
We are particularly wanting to reach out into the our community and make sure everyone has connections to get us all through our first Covid winter together, so please do use this space (bulletin board and the directory) to contact one another. And if you know anyone who lives alone and does not have much support please encourage them to try our choir, you never know the magic that can happen when someone starts singing and laughing!
As our first email stated: "Let us co-create a learning environment of FUN & FREEDOM this Fall!
This Community Bulletin Board is where we can start creating. Post jokes, stories, videos... anything that will bring a smile to our faces when we log in! If we all make an effort to keep our community healthy and happy - you can be sure we will all benefit.
Please have a look at our "welcome" video.
We are going to provide you with a video recording every practice so you can practice with us any time of any day. We are also going to edit the practice recordings into smaller video clips so you can easily find a link to a specific warm up or song, ear training exercise (harmonizing or improvising) or sight singing exercise.
We REALLY want this website to be very easy for you to access and use your practice tools, so please let us know how it's going and if you have any suggestions on how we can make it work better for you. Check out the recording section where you can find listening tracks for each part of each song. You can start by choosing the track that has your part highlighted (meaning it will be louder and all the other parts will be quieter in the background, so you can still hear them, but your part is significantly louder and easier to pick out). Once you get good at singing along with the highlighted track, challenge yourself and see if you can sing with the "all parts mixed equally track". Don't forget to try to blend in!
For the BIG CHALLENGE.. see if you can sing along with the highlight track of a different part (so you're hearing someone elses part louder than your own). That's the real test to see how well you have internalized the song and how independent you are! It's great food for thought, and great inspiration!
We are looking forward to our first sectional practices tomorrow! (It will be interesting as I work with the sopranos while Jeremy works with the tenors in the next room). The following week I'll work with altos and Jeremy will work with basses. We will do that again one more time with each group before we all meet again as a full choir. "Sectionals" gives us all a chance to really focus in on the specifics for each section (soprano, alto, tenor, bass) without having to sit around waiting for your turn.
SAVE THE DATE! ZOOM COFFEE HOUSE SOCIAL
Just for FUN & LAUGHS, it's a chance to get to know others in our community. Consider sharing a song, performing a skit, (a lip sync?), karaoke, tell a joke, tell a story, show us your art... anything goes! Consider just showing up and watching/listening. The more the merrier! (literally!)
xoxo! Sandi