So how do you learn songs if lots of members can’t read music?
We learn songs by ear. Here's an example, a song in four parts called This Day is Past written by Maddy Taylor and arranged for choir by Graham Pratt
So how do you learn songs if lots of members can’t read music?
We learn songs by ear. Here's an example, a song in four parts called This Day is Past written by Maddy Taylor and arranged for choir by Graham Pratt
1
Members download the song lyrics from the password-protected MEMBERS ONLY area of this website.
2
At rehearsals, the music is taught to us line by line by our Music Director. If you like singing you will enjoy doing this, even though we often get it wrong at first! There is safety in numbers and no one is forced to sing solo.
3
Return to the song the next week and repeat. And often it's as simple as that. But if you are having trouble with a song (a few of them are trickily counter intuitive), and you are not sure what you are doing you can practice at home using sound files downloaded or streamed from the MEMBERS area of this website. Here are the sound files for This Day is Past.
4
About one-third of our singers read music. We make scores available for a small charge, to cover the cost of licening copyright material.
5
After a term's rehearsal most pieces are good enough for performance at one of our public concerts. Here's the first verse and chorus of This Day is Past performed at our summer concert in 2019...
What do you call the sections of a choir?
Not a pub quiz question but something to help you understand what we've said about this song. Our choir is made up of...
TUNES - as the name suggests this section usually sings the tune! Other choirs may call this section the Sopranos, or the Airs
TOPS/TENORS - high voices (mainly female in our choir).
ALTOs - lower female voices
BASSES - the men
MUSIC DIRECTOR - Zack Stephens