Singing in isolation, and singing in choirs

Tweeted 23 October: Ben England BEM

Having now received 1000s of recordings from singers there’s a common theme: “Here’s my awful submission, please don’t listen to it. My voice is terrible, you’ll need whisky just to endure it”. Dear friends thank you for your hard work. Please relax, you are all wonderful x Smiling face with smiling eyes

Choirs were banned. Church choirs, community choirs, choral societies, all were banned. We might give ourselves corona virus. 

Indeed we might. I'd been in the local Next Stage Choir only just over a year when a choir member gave me a divil of a cold. She turned up for a performance, standing next to me, with her nose dripping and her tissues dropping as she sang. She had to come she said. Humph. Please don't.

So no choirs since March. But the Self Isolation Choir started rehearsing Messiah on YouTube live, and it was wonderful. The warm ups worked, and the director, Ben England explained to clear your throat in a way I hadn't known, and it works. And he encouraged his choristers even though he couldn't hear them. Instead of a one hour rehearsal shared between sops, altos, tenors and basses, we got an hour each. And he had this lovely group of professional singers to demonstrate each part. It was fun chatting to others across the world in the YouTube chat box. It was glorious music to learn. 

And then he told us to record it.

No. 

Recording is a technical pain, and when you hear your own voice by itself, you notice all the mistakes you made, mistakes that you'd have avoided if singing next to someone else, or that would have blended in the full voice of a choir. I recorded two. I uploaded one. 

Then the SIC ran a summer school with more beautiful music to learn, so I joined that, and recorded and uploaded two pieces. In the meantime, NSC carried on using Zoom three or four times a week so I learned those musicals, pop, and folk as well. When choirs were allowed together again, we met in September all suitably spaced and safe. To the surprise and pleasure of our NSC director, we knew the music and could sing well together. We just have to relearn to watch him conducting.  At the last same space rehearsal, our NSC director commented on choir members' increased confidence. 

Ben England tweeted:

Further to yesterday, it’s amazing how recordings of isolated voices blend together like coats of paint. With 3 or 4 voices, the sound “coverage” is big, with 80+ it’s huge! Everyone can contribute (just like a choir!) & of course this way any happy accidents can be edited out... https://pic.twitter.com/dATu8zdo4V

Lock down SIC training from Ben England has increased confidence, friendships and musical ability. 

Foxes

Last night, both husband and lodger were awakened by a loud bark. A fox must have been in our back garden to wake them. I've heard and seen the foxes in the street; only a couple of weeks ago a couple of them stopped in the road to bark at each other one evening. 

Foxes look pretty. I don't mind them out in the country and they provide some value by keeping the rat population down. But I do wish there weren't foxes in Aylesbury town centre.  They're bold. Last summer I met one in our garden when I went down to open the hen run and found a fox sitting sunning itself a metre away. Foxes trot up the street, on the way into town, even at nine in the morning, only diverting if people get too close to them. They've taken a neighbour's pet rabbit and several of my hens. 

In January, two foxes jumped into our garden, snaffled two of my three hens, leaving the third, Custard, traumatised, sad and lonely. I suspect that a vixen was pregnant last summer and has raised cubs, and that's what's caused the extra movement and barking. Pests.