Session VI

Special Guest : Mrs Aileen Ward

This last week of the ‘Ladies in Harmony’ Course got off to a riotous start with the warm-ups. Shoulders were rotated, heads were turned, and when we were ‘all shook up’ and breathing properly, those wails or was it whales resounded round the hall. Phillip brought out his ‘Panto Song’ with lots of mind-boggling actions. After that, when the howls of laughter had subsided, we all trooped off in our various sections to practise ‘Calamity Jane’, a long one to get through and quite a challenge to the new people who hadn’t had the benefit of hearing it all the way through before.

After the break there was more fun and games with ‘Always’. The basses changed places with the tenors so that the baritone line could be heard, that worked well musically. Our Chorus Directors were concentrating on matching sound this week. All singers in each separate part were aiming to sound like ‘one voice’. With lots of people this is not easy to achieve. Distinctive voices are for soloists, choral sound ‘en masse’ has to blend.

Our new singers are a great bunch, lovely voices and lots of enthusiasm for our weekly club rehearsals, which is wonderful and worth all the time and effort put into finding them. Thanks to everyone who did so much to make that happen, our Chorus Directors present and past, the management committee, the music team and all of our members, even the newest ones who responded with enthusiasm to the task. We can now carry on rehearsing and performing and helping our newest people to learn the repertoire as soon as they can manage it. Thameside is renewed and ready for action. Watch this space!