Our wonderful patron, Logan Mayor Pam Parker, came to visit Freedom Train's rehearsal last night. Poor woman, she was "in the wars" as she said - coming down with a cold and suffering from a bad knee.
So what was the first thing we did for her?
We sang her a healing "hum-bath" of course! This freeing vocal playtime not only sends healing vibes to the listener, but also to the participants!
I simply love these improvs - celebrating the sacredness of each voice, blending with all the others to create an awesome sound. And all without "parts", "beats", lyrics or a conductor! Just letting it go, letting it out, giving voice to our soul. I find it truly inspiring, relaxing, releasing. That's the way we need to sing every song!!
Mayor Parker's previous visit to the choir in August 2008 was when we had only been together for 3 weeks. She was so impressed then that she offered the group a $2000 grant towards choir equipment (which funded our hand-dyed silk sarongs, choir banner and choir mics). We are very grateful for this generosity and encouragement.
This time she was again blown away by the talent in the room and found it hard to believe that about half the choir members had not sung at all or much before joining Freedom Train.
Mayor Parker could really hear the progress made and how far the choir had come in such a short space of time. I totally agree with all she had to say!
I was remembering with Laxmi & Egil afterwards that even a year ago, the group was still in the very early stages of choir-dom and just developing the skills to be able to learn parts and blend them together, harmonically & rhythmically, etc etc.
Learning California Dreamin' took what seemed a long time back then, as did Pachelbel's Canon & Please Mister Postman. I don't mean that as a harsh criticism. We move at the pace that is right for us at the time. We build our skills and our confidence gradually. In forming a new choir, we gave ourselves the gift of being beginners, permission to learn!!
Remember, Freedom Train started from scratch less than 2 years ago - no auditions and no experience necessary. This really is a people's choir!!
But through this ongoing practise, how soon Freedom Train have come to be singing more complex parts & longer songs. How we are learning them more rapidly, really listening & really feeling, singing more freely & strengthening our vocal muscles, creating a more beautiful sound as a group.
And this progress is only going to continue - the sky is the limit! How exciting is this journey!!!
Rehearsal log:
The choir sang our Live & Local Expo concert set for Pam:
Freedom Train (round)
Let It Go (next time I would like to do this starting with a trio or sextet)
Ahakama
All You Need Is Love
which she loved!
Inanay
After Pam's departure, John Rodriquez took a turn at being the choir leader taking us through Inanay, the lovely Indigenous language lullaby we learned last year.
It was a very different experience for John, going from being a choir member singing one part, to being responsible for all the parts coming together in time and in harmony. There's a whole different level of skills involved there. But the choir were kind "guinea pigs" for John and with our support he had the piece sounding fantastic.
(John is filling in a session for me as leader of Mixed Beans choir when I'm away in May, so it was nice for him to have the opportunity to practise on a real live choir and have our help and support through the process.)
California Dreamin'
I asked the group to choose what they'd like to do in the last 20 minutes, and surprisingly there were a number of requests for California Dreamin'.
It's an acappella arrangement, & we hadn't sung it for nearly a year. A number of new members were obviously not with us then. I was pleasantly surprised to find the group picking it up pretty rapidly and what probably took an hour to learn last year, we had up & running in 20 minutes. It's nice to revisit previous repertoire. The piece will improve amazingly with this year's increased skill levels.
Last year we had our lovely friend Mary guest with the choir to sing the lead solo spot.
This time around, I am hoping for a few of our regular Tenors to take the spotlight and sing the lead voice SOLO!!!
So what was the first thing we did for her?
We sang her a healing "hum-bath" of course! This freeing vocal playtime not only sends healing vibes to the listener, but also to the participants!
I simply love these improvs - celebrating the sacredness of each voice, blending with all the others to create an awesome sound. And all without "parts", "beats", lyrics or a conductor! Just letting it go, letting it out, giving voice to our soul. I find it truly inspiring, relaxing, releasing. That's the way we need to sing every song!!
Mayor Parker's previous visit to the choir in August 2008 was when we had only been together for 3 weeks. She was so impressed then that she offered the group a $2000 grant towards choir equipment (which funded our hand-dyed silk sarongs, choir banner and choir mics). We are very grateful for this generosity and encouragement.
This time she was again blown away by the talent in the room and found it hard to believe that about half the choir members had not sung at all or much before joining Freedom Train.
Mayor Parker could really hear the progress made and how far the choir had come in such a short space of time. I totally agree with all she had to say!
I was remembering with Laxmi & Egil afterwards that even a year ago, the group was still in the very early stages of choir-dom and just developing the skills to be able to learn parts and blend them together, harmonically & rhythmically, etc etc.
Learning California Dreamin' took what seemed a long time back then, as did Pachelbel's Canon & Please Mister Postman. I don't mean that as a harsh criticism. We move at the pace that is right for us at the time. We build our skills and our confidence gradually. In forming a new choir, we gave ourselves the gift of being beginners, permission to learn!!
Remember, Freedom Train started from scratch less than 2 years ago - no auditions and no experience necessary. This really is a people's choir!!
But through this ongoing practise, how soon Freedom Train have come to be singing more complex parts & longer songs. How we are learning them more rapidly, really listening & really feeling, singing more freely & strengthening our vocal muscles, creating a more beautiful sound as a group.
And this progress is only going to continue - the sky is the limit! How exciting is this journey!!!
Rehearsal log:
The choir sang our Live & Local Expo concert set for Pam:
Freedom Train (round)
Let It Go (next time I would like to do this starting with a trio or sextet)
Ahakama
All You Need Is Love
which she loved!
Inanay
After Pam's departure, John Rodriquez took a turn at being the choir leader taking us through Inanay, the lovely Indigenous language lullaby we learned last year.
It was a very different experience for John, going from being a choir member singing one part, to being responsible for all the parts coming together in time and in harmony. There's a whole different level of skills involved there. But the choir were kind "guinea pigs" for John and with our support he had the piece sounding fantastic.
(John is filling in a session for me as leader of Mixed Beans choir when I'm away in May, so it was nice for him to have the opportunity to practise on a real live choir and have our help and support through the process.)
California Dreamin'
I asked the group to choose what they'd like to do in the last 20 minutes, and surprisingly there were a number of requests for California Dreamin'.
It's an acappella arrangement, & we hadn't sung it for nearly a year. A number of new members were obviously not with us then. I was pleasantly surprised to find the group picking it up pretty rapidly and what probably took an hour to learn last year, we had up & running in 20 minutes. It's nice to revisit previous repertoire. The piece will improve amazingly with this year's increased skill levels.
Last year we had our lovely friend Mary guest with the choir to sing the lead solo spot.
This time around, I am hoping for a few of our regular Tenors to take the spotlight and sing the lead voice SOLO!!!