Summer 2014
Every summer we sing at the lovely Summer Garden Party in Meersbrook Park Walled Garden.  We have sung here in sunshine, showers and heavy, heavy rain. It’s always a brilliant atmosphere with cake and music.

This year it was on the 1st June 2014. The weather was beautiful and the atmosphere unbeatable – do come along next time. As well as cake there were really good felafels and you could make your own mini-well-dressing in the top garden.

Spring 2014
On April 6th we sang out in our local parks – Meersbrook Park and Heeley Millennium Park. We are so lucky to have beautiful green spaces like this on our doorstep.

On March 22nd we sang to support Liam Garcia on the Long Well Walk. He is walking from Sheffield to Cape Town to raise money for clean water projects in Africa.

We had two great performances in Summer 2013. First of all on June 30th we sang in Meersbrook Park’s slightly secret Walled Garden; and then four days later we hosted a concert in aid of the St Wilfrid’s centre for vulnerable adults.

We prepared several songs to sing in both venues and it’s interesting what challenges this throws up. For a start, one was outside and one was inside. When you’re performing in the open air the main thing is to make sure people can hear you.  We had not thought about being sandwiched between two amplified performers on the programme but it meant the audience weren’t tuned in to our level of volume.  Add in the gentle hubbub of people buying plants, drinking tea and running after small children, and many people could not hear us very well at all.  For the second set we made an announcement over the PA at the beginning and got a bit closer to the audience which was more effective.

At the indoor concert we had lovely acoustics and an audience who were actually listening to us and not trying to do anything else simultaneously so we could explore a wider range of dynamics and expression.  I think everyone who performed in both concerts felt that doing two quite close together helped them to feel competent and confident.

We also persuaded most of the audience to sing along with us for a couple of numbers at the beginning and end of the evening, which was  – our aim as a choir is not to show off how incredibly skilful we are, because we’re not, but to show people what fun it is to sing and that with a bit of practice everyone can be part of vocal music-making.

This was Meersbrook on Saturday

We have been practising hard for our Spring concert to raise money for the new residential project at St Wilfrid’s.   I have to admit there are often last rehearsals where I feel slightly doubtful if we’ll pull it off – although the choir always rise to the occasion. However, at the end of Tuesday’s rehearsal I was buzzing because it felt like all the songs were ready and we were going to enjoy singing them. On Thursday night it started snowing. On Friday one of the other performers rang to see if we were going ahead. Of course, I said, it’s the spirit of the blitz, we’ll carry on regardless.  We’re not the kind of wimps who call things off because of a bit of snow. Think of all those Canadians laughing at us.

But when Saturday dawned and the blanket of snow had become a 15-tog duvet (9 inches deep on our picnic table) I started thinking again.  The director of St Wilfrid’s had already said he was unlikely to make it and at least one of the other performers could not manage the trip across Sheffield.

I am certain that almost all the choir members who had committed themselves would have made it to the church come what may. I would not have wanted anyone risking a fall or pneumonia for the sake of a concert. We would have got very few in the audience and had little to show for our effort.  It would have been very hard work  – we would have had a good time singing together but we would not feel like tackling it again. It was sad deciding to cancel but I hope that the sense of disappointment will turn into enthusiasm about running the event in a few weeks’ time and making it even better.

Our spring concert this year is in aid of St Wilfrid’s, an organisation which helps vulnerable and excluded people in Sheffield. For many years they have offered practical help, like a cafe and showers, a clothes shop and training in skills for life and work.  They have now secured land and planning permission to build a residential unit next to their current premises so that they can add overnight accommodation to the range of services they offer. Sing for St Wilf’s on March 23rd will be raising money towards this residential project.

So what kind of do is it? It is a celebration of music, particularly singing, and sharing it with others.  It’s a mixture of songs old and new from around the world.  The choir will be joined by other amateur music makers and there will be songs everyone can join in with – though participation is not compulsory.  At the end of the evening there will be tea, coffee and soft drinks available and cakes for sale. The entrance fee of £5 includes a drink and children can come for free.

We are holding the event at the Church of the Nazarene in Heeley – it’s not a church event and we have always found this to be a warm and welcoming, un-churchy church.  The choir did not want to exclude people who feel uncomfortable coming to a church – but the other venues we looked at would have charged quite a lot, and we didn’t want all the proceeds to go in rent.

Come along if you can … it will be a fun evening and we hope to raise a decent amount for the St Wilfrid’s appeal.

This is my first post of the year, so Happy 2013 to everyone. Our rehearsal of 21st January  was snowed off – due to the venue being unavailable, not through lack of loyalty or perseverance.  In fact I considered offering my house as an alternative venue but thought too many people to be comfortable might arrive.

One of the things we are doing this week – because we can do it electronically – is voting to find out which of the songs we’ve learnt choir members would like to revisit and polish up. It’s not just about performing – we all get a kick out of doing something we enjoy really well. What a choir chooses to sing is very much part of its identity and although in an open-access choir like ours people come and go, there are members and songs that have been there since the beginning.  There are SO many songs out there, so many great songs, that one lifetime isn’t long enough to learn them.  So how to choose?

Our choir is more of a benign dictatorship than a democracy – if I, as musical director,  don’t like a song, it doesn’t get a look in.  Songs have to be challenging enough to be interesting, but simple enough to be doable. There should be some nice harmonies and everybody should get a tune at some stage.  The lyrics are ideally something we can all sing with feeling – even if it requires us to adopt a persona that is not our everyday selves.  Lyrics are often a dividing point, a reason why someone just doesn’t like a song, although sometimes this happens with a specific sort of harmony too. Some people take against songs with a drone, but is this because they don’t like the aural effect or because it’s dull to sing?

Finally, of course, you have to have variety as well. However much the choir loved singing X, the next thing you sing can’t be X mark 2.  How much variety there is in your repertoire defines your choir too. We don’t really have any rules.  We didn’t do any contemporary pop but then a few of us loved* “Rolling in the Deep” so much I had to have a bash at an arrangement which really works.

*In this context, “love” has to include a conviction that it will work a cappella.

A very merry Christmas and happy new year!

We have a last minute gig at Weston Park Museum, Sheffield, on Sunday 23rd December at 1pm, which will be lovely.  It’s an old-fashioned stately museum with parkland and a bandstand but has been modernised sympathetically.

I don’t know how many people will go to the museum two days before Christmas but we will sing for the staff anyway – our Sheffield museums and galleries are fabulous and are struggling with massive funding cuts.  They also have excellent gift shops for those last-minute presents, or stocking up on nice cards for future birthdays.

We have sung in various settings over Christmas, mostly within walking distance of our base in Meersbrook, and consistently had a performance group of 15+.  The quality of sound has been very good – partly because of the strength of numbers, but also because I feel there is more individual confidence, more people feeling they can do it and not wait for someone else to start off.  When you’re feeling confident about singing, you want to perform – and when it goes well, you want to do it again. So more choir members come and sing, and we make a great sound.

Oh no, it’s not! you cry, it’s still November.  But everyone’s calendar gets full at this time of year and events creep earlier.  Our first Christmas performance this year takes place on 24th November, at Carfield Primary School for their Festive Fair.

The Fair runs from 12 till 3 at the school in Argyle Close, Meersbrook, Sheffield S8, and has loads of craft stalls, tea and mince pies on offer. The choir is singing around 2pm in the tea-room.

Other events at which we are appearing this Christmas are:

9th December 6pm –     Heeley Church of the Nazarene Christmas Concert

16th December 6.30pm – St Paul’s Norton Lees Carol Service

On 17th December we will be singing in the streets around Meersbrook and ending up in the Meersbrook Bowling Club on Shirebrook Road.

Apple Day in Meersbrook Park 7th Oct 2012

Although we’ve had lovely sunshine this weekend there’s a nip in the air and the evenings are getting short.  Apple Day at the walled garden today was perfect – it was lovely to see so many people of all ages there.  Sunshine, freshly pressed apple juice, cake and  company, and singing of course.

The choir was sounding really good – strong and focused.  It’s amazing what a difference a bit of “performance attitude” makes.  Things like standing tall, looking at the audience with your shoulders wide and owning the performing space really do improve the sound you make.

We have no performances now until our Christmas season, so if anyone has been dithering about coming along, October is a good time to start.  One of the ways in which we are inclusive is that members don’t have to start at the beginning of term, don’t have to commit to coming every week, and nobody ever has to perform if they don’t want to.  We will be doing some Christmas songs but also other repertoire in the next couple of months.

We premiered our Wassailing song – Wassail the Silver Apple, by Mike O’Connor – at Apple Day. It’s a fantastic belter of a song, with a strong slow chorus and quick tongue-twistery verses.  Wassailing took place at apple-harvest and also Christmas and New Year in different places so I think we can sing it at any event between late September and January 6th.  And we will.

September’s here, the nights are getting chilly, and for some of us school uniform and homework once again feature in our lives.  Yes, the autumn term is under way.   The beginning of the school year always feels like a good time to make a fresh start – get a nice  new pencil-case and re-organise your Cambridge Maths set, label your stationery and vow that this time you will do things properly…

We’ve had two rehearsals so far this term and there’s definitely been an improvement in punctuality.  I hope it lasts – it makes a real difference to the focus of the session.

Our first gig this term is at the Meersbrook Park Walled Garden, where Apple Day will be celebrated on 7th October.  This is always a great event – bring your own apples to be identified or turned into juice, and taste lots of appley treats.  We are putting together a suitably fruity programme for the event.

If anyone is thinking they might start coming to choir, don’t be put off by the closeness of the performance date.  Nobody has to perform if they don’t want to, and rehearsals are not just about preparing for gigs. Our rehearsals are about singing together and having a good time.

Three performances in a weekend! This is definitely a record for us.  We performed two sets at Heeley Festival on Saturday 23rd, in Heeley Parish Church.  It was the first time the festival had put on “acoustic” (the inverted commas refer to the other artists) music in a designated area – a good idea, offering something different from the main stage, under cover and next to the cafe.

Once we had moved from behind the biggest pillar in the church, the acoustics were great and we attracted a good audience.  “All My Trials” got a particularly warm response from those I spoke to, and “Rolling in the Deep” wowed them again.  “Brown Eyes Blue” – the most complicated arrangement we’ve ever done, was really strong.

On Sunday we performed at the annual Meersbrook Park Walled Garden Party.  This is our fourth year (?) performing there – and the best weather I can remember. We opened our set, based on previous experience, with “Singing in the Rain”. The dooby doos made the sun go behind the clouds and as we got to “Come on with the rain” it seemed inevitable – but never quite arrived.  We had to follow the wonderful “Son Para Todos” which made us nervous, but the set went really well.

Two things I’m thinking:

1. What makes Carfield Community Choir?  The three sets of the same songs were sung by different sets of people.  I am reminded of Trigger from Only Fools and Horses, who had had the same broom for 20 years, but it had had 17 new heads and 14 new handles…

Some people with strong voices (people others rely on) were missing from each set. A year ago this would have led to a wobbly sound, particularly at the start.  But this weekend that didn’t happen. The choir has a growing sense of identity and competence.  We could only perform well with different line-ups because each individual feels that they know what they are doing and they are an important part of the choir, but also that they are supported by the others. To all our singers I say – your bit matters, you are important, and what you bring contributes to the quality of the choir.  Carfield Community Choir will be a slightly different choir if you can’t be there, but we will go on.  So on the second performance when somebody realised everyone who had sung a particular part had gone home, except her, she roped in her own reinforcement.

2. We groaned a bit when we realised the Festival and the Garden Party were on the same weekend this year – they are both fixtures in our calendar and usually they are a week or a fortnight apart.  But the confidence and polish of the performances grew from doing the same set several times in quick succession and I would definitely agree to a similar timetable again.  However much we try in rehearsal, you cannot replicate the feeling of being on stage, on show, and three performances in 26 hours gave us a good level of “match-fitness”.  Nobody has to perform with our choir – but those who perform reluctantly to start with do find that they enjoy it and sing better as a result.

Huge kudos to the other musicians at the walled garden – I really had to tear myself away to look round the plants since they were so good. Son Para Todos, fantastic Cuban salsa band – I love a good Latin trumpet – did two sets. So did Out to Lunch, who play great chilled jazz standards with mellow saxophones and sometimes Myrtle’s ace vocals.* The whole experience was enhanced by spontaneous stylish dancing from various audience members.

* Tell me if I’ve got it right- do the two versions of the band have different names?