Fundamentals Of Vocalisation/ CHRISTMAS PARTY:D

Oh and here is the 'notes' for today's rehearsals

Fundamentals Of Vocalization

Reasons for going flat

-Not breathing enough

-Not lifting the soft pallet

-Not listening/tuning to one another

-Not tuning to the 'DO'

Erm..... Our voices ideally should be Bright,Focused,Light and transparent. Erm but there are also Dark voices and so on....

erm and there are the vowels which i don't know how to type out here :P

To solve airy sound, use nasal.

To solve soft pallet problems, use vowels and consonants.

Consonants.

-voiced(m,n)

-unvoiced(k,s,z)

-plosive(k,b,p)

and a special word we learnt today

zeitgeist= spirit of times

Ave Maria(Rheinberger)

Tenors- tune to other sections more

-stop shouting?

Baritones-for bar 29 we need to come in on time so that we won't rush.

-sing smoother

Basses-need to have the same rhythm and listen to each other more

-need to be consistence

Must have this memorized by the 30th of nov.

CHRISTMAS PARTY :D

ok erm we are planning to have a Christmas party.

so if you have any ideas on what you want to have in the party please tag on the tagboard so that i can include it in the proposal which the teachers need to approve.

-Jeremy

Rehearsal 9/11/2009

Hey!

Erm... Carolling is over.. are u sad or happy? ... anyway hope u all had fun :)

so now it's time to prepare for the workshop :)

ok down to serious work.

for those who did not come for rehearsal today we did lots of things.

firstly erm we completed Ave Maria?

things to take note

- staggering

1. No breathing before a bar line

2. No breathing right after a long held note

3. No Breathing in between words of a phrase

4. No breathing before a high note

5. No breathing after every system

-Basses

erm ... be more serious,focus and you'll do much better. Have MORE confidence in yourself also.

- Baritones

ya erm for the 5th and 6th notes of the score, bring it out more.

erm.. note the different rhythm between the dotted and undotted notes.

and for bar 27 and 28 you must remember to hold the note value for 2 whole beats( you're always cutting off too early)

then for bar 29 erm... dare to enter don't wait .

and just remember to stagger your breaths and not break.

-Tenors

erm i do not know what your problems are so i can't say anything :P

-Whole choir

erm.. learn to recover? and use less attempts to correct the things which we did wrong.

And be fitter?

Part 2

MAGIC songs :D

We shall create MAGIC :D

And heres a long(cutted short) story for you all to read

Magic Songs brings us back to an era whereby people believed that

songs could materialize things into the human world and not just

for the mere sake of pleasure.

In Spirit Culture,everything has it's own unique voice.

The aim of the singer is to unify himself with this "voice"

Anyone who knows or can imitate the special sound of something,

you also take on that object's energy.For example, if you know

the voice of a wolf and can imitate it,according to Spirit Culture,

you take on its energy.

By imitating the sound,the musician(magician) makes himself master of

energies of growth,purification and music without becoming the object itself.

For example,you become "master of music" without you turning into melody.

This art has three different steps:

1)Using sound to locate an object

2)Synchronize himself with the object by trying to hit the right note

3)It must hit the note peculiar(special)to the object concerned

The song's aim with unknown magical text in an unknown language is to

restore aspects of Nature being destroyed or severely neglected by Man

erm this is for the wolf song

Have fun :D

-Jeremy

Just a little nudge. :D

I think most of you might have had seen this before.

In case you didn't know, I will be performing with SYC in this concert. Even if you don't want to come for the sole purpose of supporting your seniorS (yes, another member of our alumni will be performing in the BASS section too), do come because it's gonna be some AMAZING music.

Two pianos and a dummer. In choral music. What more can you ask?

And I think Ms. Tham may be singing. I don't know. :D

Ciao
BenSee

First performance, i think

Hey guys, it's me again. (To those who are new to choir, i'm an alumni)

Anyway, there's probably no chance of you guys seeing this before choir rehearsal, unless you decide to use the pc in the music room without permission from Mrs Leong.

However, i just want you guys to give all your best in this last practice before the performance on Founders' Day.
And a few pointers which the seniors know but chose to ignore.


1. No more chit-chatting among yourselves when Mr Tay/Ms Tham is giving instructions/working with other section.
2. Remember to bring your scores, pencil and waterbottle.
3. Take down notes, even if it's not for your section. Vital information to keep in tune can be found from other sections.
4. Do your breathing exercises properly. It's utterly useless to be singing when you aren't warmed-up properly.

Well, these are the few points i can provide you guys with, and i really hope you can at least remember to do them.

And "An Irish Blessing" isn't really that hard.
It's only a few bars long, 4 pages, and the harmonization are not hard to tune.
The seniors alumni had learnt this song in 2006 with just about 4 rehearsals.
It's all a matter of working hard.

I hope to see a wonderful performance during Founders' Day. =)
All the Best!

A little update.

Do note that all choir posts have to be taken with a pinch of salt. Use your discretionary powers to overthrow the government. (Yes, take that with a pinch of salt as well, or the whole salt flats.)

As stated: exco are allowed to add themselves as writer-contributors but NOT as administrators. That is to be left to the sole original saintschoir account. Kenneth, please redirect the administrator rights and remove yourself as administrator, because only you would be so boh-liao as to do something like that.

Oh my God, it's a giant grasshopper that landed on my window. -stares-

I know this is the choir blog and you think that your political views are humorous but please take a little sensitivity into consideration. Yes, we did say that we will be monitoring the situation regarding the administrator rights and all, and yes, we still do have contact with Ms. Gan.

So please, don't make us bite. :D We're very nice people.

I would like to muse a bit regarding Kenneth's post. I quote:

I reasoned with my mother during Dinner on why we, the choir's Exco, should be paid, using the similar argumentative points below.
- to prevent corruption and motivate us into better serving the choir
- because talent is rare in the choir and we are the few talented ones
- because if we're not serving the choir, we can have a much more carefree life and more time to do what we want, rather than dedicating that time to Exco meetings, etc...

*EDIT FROM KENNETH - Please note that the argumentative points I used were not mine but rather, Lee Kuan Yew's. I was using the same concept of Minister's high salaries and simply changed it to the choir context. I absolutely disagree with LKY and therefore used my mother's counter-argument to his absurd logic of being the highest paid ministers in the world.


Kenneth, you have to realise that Mr. Tay is right about something here. It's not about talent anymore. It's about the 3 A's which he has stressed so much to us regarding being a good chorister.

• Attendance
• Ability
• Attitude
  

In choir, it's not about talent anymore. Sure, it gives you an advantage, but when we consider your positions in EXCO and MUCO we do not consider your so-called "talent", but rather the combination of the three which makes us think you are worthy of leading the choir. EXCO meetings are held because you want to make the choir a better choir. You want to understand what goes wrong so that you can develop each member as a chorister.

If you argue that your should be paid to lead the choir, then I surely think (no, actually, I know) that you are not passionate enough to be worthy of leading the choir in music-making, since it's all about money. Yes, I know, I took it with a lot of salt but I think I should clear the air before someone chokes to death and insists that the EXCO get paid. You'll find a lot of weird people like that in SASS.

And for the nth time, I'm glad you actually listen to your mother. Kenneth, rant more on your livespace, please. :D (For those of you who don't know, Kenneth does have a blog, to which I will link when administrator rights are returned to the appropriate accounts.)

Having fun in rehearsals?

BenSee

BTW Kenneth I know I still owe a blogskin but since you admitted you wanted to make one, when will it be up? Or will it ever be up?

message from the UK

Hey everyone! How's everything in choir? Hope things are going well!

For the Sec 1 '09 guys, I'm the previous-previous choir president.

Anyway, that's not what I want to talk about. I just want to drop by to say a couple of things.

Firstly, whoever who removed the admin rights from the saintschoir account, could you explain why you did it? Personally, I think this account should maintain executive admin rights for moderation purposes. But that's just an opinion. Do let me know why it shouldn't, whoever you are, admin right remover.

Secondly, I just want to echo what Ernest said weeks ago, which is congrats to the '09 graduates: Ben, Ethan, George, Joel, Luke, Reuben and Shaun. You guys have certainly added 'flavour' to the choir. Now that you've 'kicked the choir bucket' as I called it last year, I hope that you guys can focus on your studies and do well in your Prelims and 'O's.

Thirdly, regarding the blog: if you have rights to make any changes to the blog - be it posting stuff, tagging on the tagboard or changing the template - please use your rights responsibly. Don't vandalise, don't post irrelavent / non-edifying stuff, don't spam on the tagboard with nonsense. Rights are given on the basis of trust. If you want to do these things, please post them on your own blogs. You'll still get attention. Maybe less, but at least you had your say, and you don't 'pollute' the choir blog.

K. That's all I had to say.

Btw, in case you haven't read Kenneth's post: Bring $1.50 on Monday (instead of $2).

Of Politics in Singapore and the Saint's Choir

As you all know, you have been asked to pay $2 each for the cost of the cake, present and birthday card that the seniors and Exco paid in advanced for you. Although the total cost is around $70, which means each of you has to pay only $1.50, I joked that you should be paying $2 so the rest of the money can go into the Exco's pockets. Apparently, someone took this seriously and posted that last post. And for that, I apologise, please bring $1.50 on Monday. But what really got me thinking was that the Singapore's ministers are the highest paid in the world and yet they find it acceptable and reasonable.

In case you don't already know, Singapore PM Lee Hsien Loong earns $3.8 million a year, 6 times the salary of US President Barack Obama. MM Lee Kuan Yew gave a few reasons for the high salaries-
- to prevent corruption
- talent is rare in Singapore
- because the ministers can earn a much higher salary should their jobs be something else.

Just for fun, I reasoned with my mother during Dinner on why we, the choir's Exco, should be paid, using the similar argumentative points below.
- to prevent corruption and motivate us into better serving the choir
- because talent is rare in the choir and we are the few talented ones
- because if we're not serving the choir, we can have a much more carefree life and more time to do what we want, rather than dedicating that time to Exco meetings, etc...

And for the first time, she seemed to be very wise and intellectual on this type of topic. She pointed out that by paying ourselves money instead of serving the choir voluntarily, we are already corrupted. If we are paid, our main focus is just for the money and not for serving the choir. We should lead the choir for the sake of serving the choir, and not for the money. Basically, serving the choir is an Honour, not a Privilege. That is why its called Serving, not being served. That is why Jesus washed his Disciples feet(John 3:13-20) out of love, and thus referred to as the Servant King. That is why the most important commandment is to Love thy neighbour as thyself. And the same should be applied to governments in the world, as their duty is to serve, not just for the money, but for the people.

The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the slaves
and recovery of sight for the blind, and
to release the oppressed.

Luke 4:18