No Fella A Cappella

My singing background is probably quite ordinary.  In primary school we had harvest festivals and Christmas concerts and then when I was about 10 our school was part of a big Christmas concert at the town hall.  I also remember singing with the girl guides in retirement homes around the holidays.  In high school I took part in Calamity Jane when I was 13 and then South Pacific when I was 14.  I had exams to worry about after that so didn't take part in anymore and then that was pretty much the end of group singing until earlier this year when I joined a new community choir that started.

I've really been enjoying singing with the community choir and through that an opportunity came up to join an a cappella choir so I thought I'd give it a go and last night was the first meeting.  I've never done a cappella singing before and until joining the community choir earlier this year I hadn't sung harmonies before.

We sang a lovely Maori song called Te Aroha which only has 4 lines.  I've linked to a youtube video of the basic song (not sung by my choir).

We sang these lyrics three times, the first time all together, the second time as a round with the last line split into the main melody and two harmonies and then the third time all the lines where sung as a main melody and two harmonies.  It sounded fantastic!  I can't believe that only one hour after meeting people for the first time we were singing so harmoniously together!

My Sunday community choir has now merged with a Monday community choir which means I'll be singing on Mondays and Tuesdays now!

Community Choir

Our community choir has been in existence for a whole 8 week term now, we've just started our second term and we're starting to sound like a real choir!

There are about 17 of us in total and after the first practice or so, those of us that were willing got split into 2 groups to do harmonies.  The Green and Yellow harmony groups have 4 people in each (I'm in Green) and the rest are in Red who sing the main melody.

Harmonies are kinda hard because at times it feels like singing off key on purpose and its even harder if its a song with a melody you know well.  Right now we have learned 7 songs, which are older pop songs from the 60s, 70s and 80s, and the choir director has told us we'll be getting a Motown medley soon.

At the end of last term we really shook it and did a bunch of new things. 

Instead of sitting in our semi circle facing the stage, for the first time we were on it!  Standing on the stage we are starting to learn to project and fill the space with our voices. 

Which also meant no lyric sheets!  I found myself not knowing what to do with my hands and missing having something to hold on to.  I think a few of us were the same, we didn't need the words as much as we needed to hold the paper! 

And we also got to sing some of the melody (where we don't have harmonies of course) and that really punched up the volume.  That made it really fun for us Greens and Yellows since we have had to stay silent and concentrate on our harmonies.  We're obviously sounding good enough that we can start practising the switch from melody to harmony and back.

I am so impressed by my fellow choristers and how far we've come in our first term.  In our first practise back of the new term, we were a little ropey at times, but we're doing this Tracey Chapman song and when the melody and harmonies come together it sounds so good!  We are working towards putting on a performance for our families and friends on the 20th September and I'm really looking forward to it.