Your first rehearsal

Hello,

Here is important information for singers booked into your first free session with Winchester Community Choir.

We meet at The United Church, Jewry Street, Winchester SO23 8SB and the rehearsal will start at 7:30pm. Doors open at 7:15pm. If you can, would you come along at 7:20pm on your first visit. Stewards on the door will be expecting you and will ask you to wait in the café area. One of our committee members will meet you there to explain how rehearsals are run.

info

for new singers

If you travel to rehearsal by car, see the information below about car parking.

I put new singers on the choir mailing list, and you will receive a weekly email during term time, while you're giving the choir a try.

You can find out what we'll be doing at next rehearsal by visiting our NEWS page (see the main menu above). Quick comms for singers at the top of the NEWS page is updated each Thursday before the next Tuesday rehearsal.

While you're giving the choir a try, you can visit the password-protected MEMBERS area of our website (again, see the main menu above). You'll find sound files, lyrics and music scores for our current repertoire there. See how to access these resources in the article below.

And finally, a word about standards. We don't audition singers on entry to the choir, but we do expect each choir member to to hold a tune and blend their voice with the rest of the choir. The vast majority of people manage that nicely and it's great fun along the way, preparing for the best possible concert performance we can give. For more about standards read Rehearsal and Performance Standards.

I look forward to meeting you and I hope you enjoy singing with us.

Denis Gibson
Membership Secretary
membership@winchestercommunitychoir.com

Car parking

If you travel to rehearsal by car, here are some notes about car parking:

The nearest free car parks are Cattle Market (J on the map below), Coach Park (K), Worthy Lane (L), River Park (M). Parking is free after 7:00pm. You will have an 8 minute walk from these car parks to The United Church.
Car parks closer to the venue charge for parking. The nearest are Tower Street (B on the map) and Jewry Street (C on the map). Jewry Street car park is small and unlikely to have spaces, but who knows, you might be lucky. If you arrive at these car parks between 6:00pm and 7:00pm, pay for an hour’s parking and you will not have to pay the (higher) overnight fee. If you arrive at these carparks after 7:00pm you will have to pay the overnight rate..

You'll find a bigger version of this map and more info about parking at www.winchester.gov.uk/parking/parking-and-car-parks

MEMBERS area

You don't need to do any homework before your first rehearsal. Our Music Director, Zack Stephens, will teach song parts in the rehearsal. But you may wish to look at the practice resources on our website before and/or after your first rehearsal.

Practice resources are in the password-protected MEMBERS area of the website (see the main menu above). We have given you access while you're trying the choir.

To log-in to the MEMBERS area for the first time:

Click on the Members Log In link (see above on right-hand side of the website header). The Log In form will appear;
On the Log In form, click the Forgot password? link and follow the instructions to set your password.

NOTE: On the Log In form, DO NOT click the Sign Up link to the right of New to this site? We have already signed you up as a new site member. All you have to do is set your password by clicking the Forgot password? link.

Here's the choir's Membersip Secretary logged in to the MEMBERS area.

Members Log In link changes to this hello message when you're logged in.

Ignore this. I happen to have some purchases from the STORE in my basket.

Here's the drop-down menu that appears when you click on MEMBERS.

Here are some of the things you'll find in the MEMBERS area:

Sound files for each part, lyric sheets and scores are on the Songs page. If you need help using the Songs page, take a look at the video at https://www.winchestercommunitychoir.com/how.
Most songs will have an additional learning resource on the Soundslices page. Soundslice is an application that links sound files to the score, and a cursor pans through the music notation and lyrics in time with the audio. These linked features are called Slices.

When you've set up your password for the members area, check out these pages.