Bohemian Rhapsody Recording Tracks

Hi All:

As promised, the guide tracks for recording Bohemian Rhapsody are now online. We've been working most of the afternoon and evening to prepare these tracks. We didn't quite finish but will have the alto track up tomorrow.

Have fun recording this song! Really rock it out, and it'll come across that much better in the video.

Remember, deadline for all recordings is December 6. Entries received after that may not make it for the December 12th concert.

The concert is held in conjunction with the Harmony House Music School, Saturday December 12th at 7pm, online. (same zoom link as you use for choir)

If you have any questions, or need assistance, get in touch. jeremy@harmonyhousecommunity.com.

Thanks,

Jeremy.

Glen Campbell plays 'William Tell Overture'

For most of the 1960s, Glen Campbell's brilliant guitar playing was known only by a select few top recording studios and artists. Long before Glen became known nationally as an outstanding vocalist, actor and TV personality, he was one of the most in-demand recording studio guitarists in the world. He could have earned a 7-figure annual income as a high-end, asked-for studio guitarist for years on end if that had been all he cared to do. How good was he? The Lone Ranger knows! You will enjoy.

Take a look at this video. It doesn’t get much better than this. "The William Tell Overture" by Giaochino Rossini. Many of us grew up watching the Lone Ranger and Tonto on black and white television. Years later, many of us watched the Glen Campbell show on TV as well. This video is a clip of a younger Glen Campbell playing the William Tell Overture (with symphony orchestra) and dedicating it to Clayton Moore, who played the Lone Ranger and Jay Silverheels, who played Tonto. You may never have seen Glen play like this before.

This is world-class guitar playing and Campbell makes it look easy; note he is playing a 12 string! The sounds of Glen Campbell on guitar and the symphony orchestra playing Rossini's "William Tell Overture" will take you back to those golden days of yesteryear, when the strains of Rossini's masterpiece coming over the radio meant the Lone Ranger show was about to begin.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUBhE00h9U0&feature=youtu.be

New tracks on CRC repertoire list

Hi All:

As discussed last practice, there are now practice loops under Bohemian Rhapsody for the specific measures where you may need extra practice. The loops are only a few measures each, and they loop 12 times.

Let me know if you need anything else to help you learn the song.

Jeremy.

Olive and Mabel video, plus French Apple Cake recipe.

As requested, here’s the link to Olive and Mabel, the adorable Labrador Retrievers and their hilarious owner:

Good for a wee laugh!

And the French Apple cake (with a smidge of rum ?

https://www.thekitchn.com/french-apple-cake-22943649

Enjoy!

New Choir Materials Online, Plus "Who Are You" video

Hi Everyone!

Log onto the members page of Classic Rock Choir at harmonyhousecommunity.com/members to see all the new materials for choir rehearsal, including I've Seen All Good People, Listen to the Music and Bohemian Rhapsody.

Plus, check out our video of "Who Are You" from last season. After many hours of editing and refining, it is finished and on Youtube. Find it on the Classic Rock Choir channel, at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V05wv9Gs--g

Leave comments, and you can even subscribe to the channel to help spread the word!

See you soon.

Jeremy.

1/2 Price Private Vocal Lessons for Choir Members

Hello friends! Have you ever wondered what a private voice lesson would be like?

We have come up with another win-win idea to help fill the schedule of our newest teacher at our music school.

We hired the beautiful Assell Zakarina to take on 1 day of teaching our budding musicians, but she would like more students so we are offering all choir members up to 4 private lessons at 1/2 price.

Assell just graduated from the exact same program at Capilano University that Sandi did back in 1996 (Jazz Studies, Vocal Performance) and she even studied with many of the same teachers! Assell is keen to help students of all ages and stages of development learn more about their voice.

Private lessons on zoom work REALLY well. It is very easy for the teacher to hear the student sing and give feedback, (the teacher sends the student back tracks for their songs and of vocal warm ups and exercises before the class).

We will add a picture of Assell to this post soon. A few people have already signed up! We'll post their testimonials after they've had their lessons so you can get a better idea of what you might gain from trying it out. 🙂

Yay!

Makin' It Work!

Hello All!

While it is true that online singing is not the same as in person, that doesn't mean we can't continue to get huge benefits from singing online together during Covid. It just means we have to change our expectations and our focus for the term. We can still have FUN! We can still LEARN! We can still CONNECT with one another through smiles and conversations and just simply showing up for one another. What we'll be missing without the in person connection we will make up for with personalized skill development and education!

REMINDER: This Thursday is our 2nd night of "sectionals"! The first sectional last week went really well, you can see and hear everything that happened by looking at the "Recordings" page. There you will find all the video recordings of our rehearsals PLUS soon to be posted audio recordings of warm ups and vocal exercises (from beginner to advanced), and the karaoke back tracks for our songs.

What is a sectional? This means I will be working with the alto section only and Jeremy will be working with the bass section only. We will spend the whole evening focusing on the ins and outs of these two sections, (we will not be covering any soprano or tenor part singing). And next week we will hold sectionals for the Sopranos & Tenors again.

We are doing sectionals to make better use of your time and energy, so you don't get bored waiting around for your section to have it's turn. Sectionals allow the group to be smaller and focused on specifics, so the learning curve is steep! So far everyone who has tried it has said it was AWESOME!

What are you supposed to do on your "off week"? Well, PRACTICE of course! I suggest practice from 7 - 9pm on Tuesdays as planned to keep your singing time regular, but of course you can do your practicing whenever you want and as many times as you want! That's one of the "pros" of online zoom lessons! You are welcome to log on and join us for live warm ups before we break into groups. And, if you feel strong enough on your part and it would be beneficial for you to sing along while I'm teaching the other part - that's totally fine too! Whatever works best for you, you are always welcome to be with us online. 🙂

On your own, you can either re-watch the video from last weeks rehearsal in full, or you can watch it in part and rewind and run over the songs as many times as you need to until you start to INTERNALIZE them! "Internalizing" is different from memorizing. Internalizing is when the song just comes flowing out of you and you don't have to think about your notes or your words - you've just sung it so many times that you don't have to think. THAT is when the MAGIC happens! And that is when we really EXPERIENCE singing on the vibrational level. ?

PLEASE REFER TO THE SCHEDULE to check when all your live rehearsals will be. We will post the video re-play of every rehearsal so that you have access to them whenever you want all term long. This will actually greatly speed up the learning curve "if" you use the recordings!

And for those of you who want to work on your personal skill set... we will also put up recordings of all the vocal warms ups, skills & drills (including ear training, sight singing and vocal technique) so you can play around with those over the term as well. The nice thing about working on "skills and drills" is that you will notice progress! And nothing feels better than progress!

See you all soon!

Sandi

Hello!

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