Gender Issues

Yesterday I taught two of my youngest pupils. A blond haired explosion of an 8 year old boy, and a self contained 7 year old little girl. They are both in the same primary school, and come from the same village. Talk about chalk and cheese!

Young H is as opposite in almost every way to little K as it is possible to be, and still live on planet earth, and my approach to teaching them is as different as if I were teaching a erudite nun from one of the abbeys to which I go, and a lead singer in the coolest rock band of the moment !

H whirls into the music room with all the energy of a newly woken up baby chimp, and K comes in with a slight reticence and much polite decorum! They both have parents and grandparents who are invaluable in helping the learning process, and they are both bright as proverbial buttons.

So what do I do with each child.

One of the things I have learnt over the years is that boys need to be pushed in a sporty and competitive way - which can be something of a challenge within the constraints of a music room and singing lesson, so I have devised lots of 'exercises' which they can perform at the same time as singing their scales - we get out a chair, and he sits and stands to command, sometimes fast sometimes slow, he marches in time (all the while singing a descending scale you understand !) and he performs 'sit ups' until I see the healthy red glow of energy levels dissipating, and only then do we tackle the infinitely more tricky element of standing still and singing actual songs. He becomes very excited the higher we sing, and when his explosive energy is waning he then becomes excited about the more 'thinking' part of the lesson, and the story line of 'Never Smile at a Crocodile' ! Brainwork indeed when you are 8, and raw male liveliness is coursing through you like a faster than usual bullet !

Young K is completely self possessed when she walks rather sedately into the room, we start straight away with songs as her 'small girl' vocal ability does not yet allow for a wide octave scale, boys on the whole have a much greater top range than girls - hence boy choristers - and little K needs no working up to standing still, and no preliminary energy sapping exercises, infact I get the feeling she would think I was quite mad if I suggested it! Completing the song she learnt during last week perfectly in both lyrics and melody is reward enough ! She needs coaxing to take risks, and cajoling to be brave and sing loudly, young H needs shh - ing when the loud gene kicks in, K needs the ff gene positively activated. Little girls want to please, both me and themselves, and right from the word go, perfection is the goal. They have to learn a hard lesson when perfection is clearly not possible in this life! K sings with quiet precision, and with brain engaged from the 1st note. H needs his brain prompting, and his abandoned spontaneity curbed by the exercise regime!

They are both an absolute delight to teach, and so different in all ways, that the expression 'chalk and cheese' falls short by about 3 miles!

The songs they sing are just great, and having not started singing lessons myself until I was 13 years old, I relish with a passion those early songs which I seriously missed out upon. Deprived child you see!

Many thanks to aforementioned parents and grandparent, for allowing me to fulfill my little fantasy world of fantastic junior songs! And you pay me!

Time Management

.....23 minutes left.....


Another day, another dollar! Well, a £ anyway! Somehow over the last year I have managed to whittle my teaching down to around 26 regular pupils each week. I have one or two who come every other week, but in general my numbers are reducing as I get older ! It is so much better, and such a luxury to be able to reduce numbers. I can give more attention to each person, and I am not working on the edge of exhaustion 6 days a week.

The trouble is, as a young teacher, with a mortgage to pay, and equally as important, a reputation to build having pupil numbers in the upper 40's each week is the only way to keep body and soul together!

It has taken me 25 years of gruellingly long days, endless commuting at the top and toe of each day, and a voice of steel to arrive at this wondrous moment of 'my time' teaching. The irony being, that now when I am more easily tired I have that precious time available to give to my pupils ! Such is life !

I can now overrun in a lesson if I want, and even more amazingly, I have short breaks between teaching, and can make a cup of tea!! All my teaching life I have been disciplined by bells or the clock on the wall ! Now the clock does not have such a sinister hold over me, and bells are non existent in this house so I can adjust my time management as and how I choose! What a feeling of personal power that is.

My timetable looks very sparse on paper, but what I can do within the lesson is more flexible, and more importantly for us both, infinitely more relaxed. For the first time I can chat to my student without having a little voice in the back of my head counting down the minutes, and sometimes it is so important to be able to chat and coax from the person why things are not going well, or why one approach is not working etc........without knowing that the lesson time bomb is ticking.

Talking is sometimes as vital as singing. A teenager will often open out to me, or sound off to me when they will not to their parents, and a husband or wife will feel able to let go and talk about matters private. There are times when a music room is just the same as a Doctor's surgery, without the needles. A place of confidence and upset, as well as a place of fun and positive emotion.

Sometimes the chat is a ticking off! Most of my older /ex pupils would undoubtedly tell you that when a sentence opens with ' I think it is time we had a chat ', they need to prepare themselves, but they also know it is ' just because I care ' ! Which, I must say is usually the truth. Spending time on a ' row ' as they say in Paradise is exhausting and does not make me feel good, but if it is warranted or needed, then someone has to do it (musically speaking of course!) and that someone is invariably me!

The sun is shining, and the lawns are being mowed as we speak, and I cannot think of a SINGLE pupil whom I will need to tick off this week - in all honesty it hardly happens these days thank the Lord - so 'On with the Motley ' as we say in Operaland!

What songs are on the timetable today -

Vilia
Si le Bonheur - Faust - Gounod
Never Smile at a Crocodile !
Phoebe in her Petticoat
Weep no More - Handel

and many more...........................

What a nice day!

Singing Together

I did it! I put on the stove, and it is not yet September! Actually I needed to dry a mountain of washing, so it was imperative. There is one of those lovely hanging racks above the stove so any washing dries in a trice. I feel autumn quietly sliding into my life!

I don't know if any of you have read books by Miss Read, but she is one of my favourite authors. She wrote over 50 books many of which are semi autobiographical about her life as a primary school Head Teacher in the 1950's to the 70's. Her writing is so easy, mildly ascerbic about the characters who live in the village, and a little Jane Austen-ish in her way of describing the minutiae of life. Having been a teacher in my life, there is a known world with every turn of the page, but as they are set some 40 - 60 years ago there are also the comfortable and warm resonances of my own schooldays. The school dinners, the chalk board, no smart boards in those days!



In one or two of the books she talks about the music classes which the children have. Bearing in mind that even now in Primary school it is very unusual to have any real 'specialist' teachers, and the good old BBC provided many programmes on the 'wireless' to fill in these gaps. The one she describes, and I remember are the BBC 'Singing Together' programmes. They were wonderful, lots of fun songs like 'Kalinka', 'Yellow Bird', 'Pedro Go Go Pescador' and one of my real top songs 'Quinoro's Pearl', an undoubtedly in this day and age, un politically correct English translation of an Indonesian folk song. I loved it, and later when I taught in school in the 70's and 80's my classes begged to sing it every week, and the blue and red Singing Together books still sit at the ready in my music room in 2010, some things are just timeless, if battered and falling apart after so many eons of loved use.

I used them only last year when I was asked to give two days of choral workshops for the Oxfordshire Education Authority, as their 2009 Primary Music Workshop Days. I chose all of the songs bar one from those books, and the children adored them. They had learned them before the workshop with their teachers, then they all came together and over two (utterly exhausting!) days we worked on them and then gave a concert as the final denoument. The teachers tried in vain to get the music but to no avail, so sadly they all had photocopies from my ancient books. The songs were as alive in 2009 as they were in 1964 when the first programme was aired.

I imagine they went out of print in 1972 and probably cost a small mortage to buy on Amazon, but I would not sell them for all the music in the world. 60 songs in total from all over the world, in keys all children can sing and so much fun combined with plenty of story telling and interesting musical styles.

I think I might start a campaign to bring them back into school as a compulsory text book for all 5 - 13 year olds. Class singing when I was 7 gave me my lifelong love for singing, and my entire future career, thanks with all my heart to Miss Varley, our music teacher, small as a wren and twice as energetic!

Try a Miss Read book, start with Village School - you will not be disappointed, now I must find it on my bookshelf and start them all over again !

Merrie England

Good Queen Bess !


Merrie England ; that improbable musical romp through life in Robin Hood's England! It is a light opera by Edward German written in 1902, which is a kind of aspirant Gilbert and Sullivan show. It has some very funny moments, and some really delightful music, but unlike G&S, it is about 3 hours long, and one has to plough through much mediocre stuff to get to the gems.

I have taught all the 'pot boilers' from it in my career, and some are very very good. 'The Letter Song', is one of those sparkly numbers, and just perfect for a young soprano, and the quartet, 'Love is meant to make us glad' is another, which is a great audience puller with all it's myriad of Hey Nonnies ! Then of course there is Good Queen Bess and her lovely alto solo, 'O Peaceful England' broad and very Last Night of the Proms-ish ! But the gem of gems is Sir Walter Raleigh's tenor aria 'The English Rose'. It is a perfect little moment which has a luscious creamy melody, some very tasteful rubato and sung well, it melts ones heart.



The English Rose

Dan Cupid hath a garden
Where women are the flow'rs,
And lovers' laughs and lovers' tears
The sunshine and the show'rs.
And oh! the sweetest blossom
That in the garden grows,
The fairest queen, it is , I ween,
The perfect English rose,
The fairest queen, it is , I ween,
The perfect, the perfect English rose.

Let others make a garland
Of ev'ry flow'r that blows!
But I will wait till I may pluck
My dainty English rose.
In perfume, grace, and beauty,
The rose doth stand apart,
God grant that I, before I die,
May wear one on my heart!
God grant that I, before I die,
May wear one, may wear one on my heart

I heard it sung last night at an evening of food and song, sung by one of my past, and sometimes present pupils whom I started teaching when he was 13 years old and a choral scholar at the school where I was Head of Music. He is now a man with a partner and baby and we have 'travelled' far together over the years!

What made his singing so telling was the light and soft tone quality which is just perfect for this oh so English style of music. It is tenor music without the 'Italian sob', or the German 'edge'. It is just utterly lyrical, and has much akin to the English style of ballet. Fluid and understated. Not, you understand that I am in anyway knowledgeable about the finer points of ballet! I do love it though, and am aware that there are as many different styles of dance, as there are of singing.

Eastern European voices have bite, brightness and a dark red dramatic quality, and the Italian vocal quality is expansive and generous with lots of rubato, but the British quality is whiter, more lyrical and with a lightness which makes the minds eye see green fields and wild flowers.

Let's not forget Merrie England, the great moments are worth our memory!

A Soft Day Thank God

Well, it is August 25th and I have put the log fire on! The rain is falling and it is beginning to feel like Autumn. I do love it, and can't wait to get the fire and stove going, even though I know it means a lot more work, and relying upon students waiting for lessons to keep adding a log or two so they don't fizzle out, and we freeze ! It is crackling away as I type, and it makes me think of crisp mornings, cold winds and lashing seas - lovely! If, of course you are inside and snuggly warm!

I was reminded how much the autumn days were closing in by the hordes of young birds feeding for all they were worth on the feeder which hangs at my window. They were practising fluffing up their feathers to keep their little bodies warm, and one of my lady pupils commented to me how strange it was to be wearing a couple of fleece layers in August! I love it - if you recall from my somewhat 'moist' posts when I was a Bournemouth Festival in early July - I hate the heat! I am a Northern Hemisphere woman to my toes, who lhas chosen to live on the outer edges of the UK where it can be bitterly cold, blow a stroppy gale straight across to New England, and crash monster sized waves on the resiliant beaches.

I run a Song School here in Paradise each year. The willing victims travel 100's of miles to be put through agony for a week, being masterclassed in a beautifully converted old Barn called oddly enough 'The Old Barn' ! ( but in Gaelic!). It is part of a fantastic institution which is the only Gaelic University in the world. It's halls of residence are shaped like a lighthouse, and the view from the panoramic windows was once described by one of the singers from Germany, as a living film set. We are so lucky to have this resource, and each year they welcome a bunch of classical singers with warm and open arms. How could one not be inspired by this lovely environment. Sometimes I am ashamed to say I think we just take it for granted. It is certainly Paradise when compared with the living accommodation at many of the music courses held in the UK, and now and again we need to remember that! Guilty as charged!




Several of my stalwart pupils have opted to join in the mass torture next year, and the above mentioned pupil is one of those brave souls. We were attempting to make a start at sorting out some repertoire for the individual days, each of which cover a different genre of vocal style. We concentrated on Art Song today.

I have a fairly workable filing system for all my music, scores and compilation books, and as you can imagine, after all these years I have mountains of the stuff! When I pass on to that great choral society in the sky my daughter and a number of other old pupils who are now teachers will definitely have a re run of the Battle of Britain in an effort to win about £5000 worth of printed music, much of which is now out of print, or needs a small mortgage to buy.

Anyhow, no matter how many songs I looked at, I was pulled back to a delicious little song by Stanford called 'A Soft Day'. Maybe the weather was the trigger ? The poem is so redolent of autumn days, and soft, clean raindrops, gently dripping and slipping off the tips of the leaves. The melody is slow and stately, and the end of each phrase allows the notes to drop away over and over, repeating the word 'drips'............... painting the picture so skilfully.

And there we were, watching it happen on the otherside of the window. Crystal rain, clear teardrops, glistening and eventually landing on the white marble gravel path. Magic.


A Soft Day

Music - Stanford
Words - Letts

A soft day, thank God!
A wind from the south
With a honey'd mouth;
A scent of drenching leaves,
Briar and beech and lime,
White elderflower and thyme,
And the soaking grass smells sweet,
Crushed by my two bare feet,
While the rain drips,
Drips, drips, drips from the eaves.

A soft day, thank God!
The hills wear a shroud
Of silver cloud;
The web the spider weaves
Is a glittering net;
The woodland path is wet,
And the soaking earth smells sweet
Under my two bare feet,
And the rain drips,
Drips, drips, drips from the leaves.

The fire is still crackling, the room is a cocoon of warmth, and my 'toffee coloured' mug of tea stands at the ready!

Bye!

Tough Choices

Cleopatra seduces Julius Caesar


'Teaching Tuesdays' are full of youngsters. Those who will aspire to a career, those who are not sure if they want to aspire, and those for whom the moment of truth is perilously close!

To get through the all important audition trauma, one needs to find something so unique in ones performance, that it leaves the audition panel quietly stunned. Within 16 bars of the first piece they already have the measure of the candidate, and in their necessarily stony and ruthless hearts, they already know if they will offer a place or not. So you see the first magical moments are the key to the future. This seems harsh, but I know it to be the truth, having spent 16 years sitting behind that frightening table, listening to scared young talent giving their all.

One young lady is so close to her auditions that she can even now, feel it's hot breath fuelling her excitement. She is singing an aria she has sung many times as her first piece. It is never a good idea to go into that tense and frightening situation with the added pressure of an aria which is on it's first outing, we want an element of 'auto pilot' to click in when, and if, the nerve 'freeze' sets in!

She is singing a most beautiful Handel aria from Julius Caesar, called Va'doro Pupille - or in modern parlance ' Boy do I love your eyes' ! It is a glorious seduction aria sung by Queen Cleopatra to Julius Caesar, which has the poor man powerless and incapcitated by the eroticism of the moment. Even in the 1724 sex was a potent element of operatic melody, and Handel was a master!

My young soprano has sung it since she was 16, and now 5 years later it has grown, progressed and 'bigged up', from the junior sized aria it was when she first began it's journey. It is a typical Baroque aria in as much as it has a part A then a Part B and then a decorated return to Part A, a Da Capo Aria to give it it's Sunday name!

In parallel with her vocal growth it has developed from that junior aria to a substantial and mature performance which is both vocally beautiful and intellectually sparkling. The wall she now must climb is the toughest. She needs to find that element of 'unique', she must add more of herself and her reality, she must sing the aria on her terms, and take a blind step off the edge of the performing cliff into the musical unknown. I know that it is all there, but accessing that deep and vulnerable part of oneself is a big ask, and requires guts.

Guts, this young lady has in abundant profusion. She is feisty and made of strong stuff.

Sometimes the 'strong' acts as a mask for the underlying depth of feeling!

The other problem we all encounter having sung a piece for many years - far more than my delightful young soprano ! - is to find something new to say, to keep it fresh for oneself, and in doing that we keep it fresh for the audience. Thinking of another angle or another scenario allows the synapses to fire off on different musical tangents, all of which let the music move further forward on the never ending road to perfection. There is no Sat Nav to help negotiate the zigs and zags of performing!

Not reverting to habits of years ago can be very painful, 'it worked that way before', = 'it's a safe nook in which to nestle'. Safe, undoubtedly, stagnant, most certainly, satisfying, almost never............

I make it sound as if it is all soul searching and hard graft - Yup, that does go a long way in describing the career long, ever stretching path of a singer, but believe me, it all pales into insignificance when compared with the emotional and physical joy and deep satisfaction one experiences, by being utterly submerged in the consummate beauty of the music.

I know this with absolute conviction.

I know this because for me, it is now gone.

So grab it girl.

New Term, New Start

My new term began today, so the shock to the system is just kicking in, and I am feeling healthily tired! I shudder when I think back 20 years, to those idiotic days when I would teach from 8.30am until 8.30pm, run a rehearsal, then have a complicated and exhausting conversation with a tricky 17 year old. This I did, for six days a week. Why, I wonder, am I so tired now in my late 50's! I think in 25 years of teaching, I actually worked 35 years in teaching time.

Nowadays, after a day like today with a measly 7 pupils, I am ready to turn up my proverbial toes, retire to my incredibly comfortable memory foam mattress and sleep the sleep of the dead !

Today was a very good day for all sorts of reasons, but mostly because an especially talented young teenage girl, whom I have taught from the age of 7, returned to lessons after a difficult break. Many 'newly crowned' teenagers go through a lean and dark patch but mostly they clamber through it and still manage to come each week. Sometimes, if I am really lucky, they even raise a reluctant smile, although that is not a requirement when the mega grump hormones are on the zoom!


This particular young lady has had a horrid time over the last 2 years and simply collapsed and caved in with pressure and burn out. I truly did not know if she would return. Thank the Lord, over the summer holidays she began to miss her singing, which had been so much a part of her life, and instead of feeling embarrassed, or awkward, in her own true and brave style she got in touch with me and asked to return!!

It was a great joy to have her once again in the music room, looking happy and well and as if she were ready to take on the world. She is a true performer, and I hope that the 8 month 'blip' is well and truly behind her, and that she can regain the joy she always felt about her singing.

More often than not, the more bolshie a teenager is, the more I love the challenge, and the more I feel that if I work hard enough, I can get through all that bluster and angst.

In my many many many years of being a willing victim of the 3 T's, that is 'teenage teaching torture', I steel myself, and experience the trail of furious destruction left behind the explosive anger. Then, as quickly as it came it is gone, the lion becomes the lamb, calm is restored and the aforementioned disaster trail leaves all innocent adults within hailing distance, electronically shredded.

The youthful perpetrator picks up the threads of a mature, normal, polite and happy life as if absolutely nothing has happened. Indeed with a certain amount of incredulity if one is crass enough to mention they might ever have been less than model offspring/students ! Battle over, battle won, breathe again.

I look forward to picking up those musical threads and seeing young C recover, progress and fulfil her potential. She has won a number of prizes in Music Festivals over the years, and one particular class sticks in my mind. She was singing a rather lovely, but slightly 'wandering' Scottish folksong, which, at the best of times was a tricky melodic line to hold, especially unaccompanied. By verse 2 the tune had completely evaded her, and so, like a real pro, she just improvised and made it up on the spot. It was an odd moment of genius. She sang with total conviction, kept the key and brought the song home with aplomb and gravitas. Not a soul, except myself and the adjudicator (who had the music!) knew there was anything amiss, so convincing and heartfelt was the solo!

Welcome back C, let's go!

Safety in Numbers

The Gendarme Duet from Orpheus and the Underworld


Feeling much better !

I walked into the music room this morning and the first box file upon which my eyes alighted was 'General Duets 1'. I loved duet singing as a youngster, and I have found all my teaching career that it is one of the most enjoyable moments for pupils, and a much less stressed style of singing. There is definitely 'safety in numbers!' It is the synchronised swimming of the vocal world, only we don't wear the nose grippers, and boys at least try not sparkle with such gay abandon!

The other startling thing about the careful giving of a duet is that one can sometimes give a pupil, otherwise too afraid to sing a solo, the pleasure of a small moment of glory, which they would otherwise never feel. I taught a young girl for 6 or 7 years whom I could never cajole into singing a solo, she was most competent, very musical, and with much to offer. Then one day I realised that the answer lay in doubling up, and given her ability to hold complicated parts, duet singing would do the trick.




She never looked back, and together with one of my now late teen pupils and aspirant professional, they made a dream team. They entertained at concerts from Paradise Village Hall to Vienna, via festivals in York and Inverness and always did brilliantly. She had found her comfort zone, and a mighty good comfort zone it was. Really good 2nd part duet singers are like melodic gold dust.

Some of the best duettists I have had are the 'lads teams'. Little boys, big boys and men, make a fine art of 'funny'. The classic funny duets such as 'The Gendarme Duet' by Offenbach, and the 'Cock and Bull' duet from Yeoman of the Guard are the carbohydrate of the male duet diet, and it has never ceased to amaze me how in the early days of choreographed rehearsal they are full of humour, but by the time they reach the stage they have morphed into a routine worthy of Morcambe and Wise, or Blackadder. There is something so spontaneous about the way the male mind works when they have to bounce off each other. That competitive streak which normally manifests itself on the rugby field, suddenly burst forth and the audience witness moments of sheer genius, which, I have to say, always gives the pianist/teacher a small cardiac arrest !

The classic lovey dovey duets also have their moments, and the ever present old faithful 'La ci Darem la mano' from Don Giovanni can be beautiful and excruciating, and all stages in between. I have taught it a million times over, and I have heard it a million times over whilst adjudicating, and still the glorious music of Mozart manages somehow to shine through - well mostly!

My favourite duet of my musical life however, has got to be Purcell's 'Lost is my Quiet'. Once again, I have taught it a number of times, and I sang it myself as a young singer, and I find it's dissonant beauty absolutely heartrending. The parts weave so closely at moments it is difficult to tell which part is which, then they break away from each other to the outer regions of the voices only to return for the final phrase

'I'll show by a patient enduring
My love is unmov'd as her hate.'

The text is by that majestically famous author 'anonymous', so sadly we have nobody to thank for the words which inspired Purcell to such heights. It is, by general vocal music standards, small yet perfectly formed, always my preferred size of song!

Purcell, the word painting genius. You're the man.

Aagh

Am feeling distinctly fragile today, rich cuisine overload more like, too much of too good food ! Anyhow, will be back tomorrow when I am more compos mentis.

Sofa calling....................

The Watermill

I have just read another beautiful blog by Rhonda at Down to Earth. She makes such sense, and writes with such affection I love reading her thoughts and daily doings. Today she was talking about slow cooking, and I am just in awe of all the baking and magnificent meals from scratch that she does, and how wonderfully heartwarming her photos are. I wish I could do that.

At the moment my only contribution to the eating world is my laden damson tree which is full to busting of delicious and juicy fruits. However I have done nothing clever with them, just gobbled them down fresh, given some away or put some small bags of them in my freezer. Which means I will HAVE to cook them when I want to use them - any suggestions gratefully received so long as they are nothing complicated al la the great chefs, or Delia. Can't cook, and hate mess!

I have no songs which revolve around food, that I can think of, but I am sure something will pop into my over stuffed musical brain ....Ah yes, the wonderful 'The Watermill' by Vaughan Williams which has the lines,





The Miller's wife and his eldest girl clean and cook while the mill wheel whirls,
The children take their meat to school........

The supper stands on the clean scrubbed board,
And the miller drinks like a thirsty lord ;
The young men come for his daughter's sake,
But she never knows which one to take:
She drives her needle, and pins her stuff,
While the moon shines gold, and the lamp shines buff.


This is only part of the poem, and once again VW composes a fantastically evocative musical painting of the Mill House, the miller, his wife and children and the daily events in their lives. It is bustling and peaceful at the same time, and an absolute swine to sing - the entries are devilish !

It is meant as a huge compliment to Rhonda Jean when I say that much of the sentiment and poetry of this song reminds me of her lifestyle. Rural and real, slow and steady, like the swish of the watermill turning, and so utterly grounded.

I look back on my posts and see much by Vaughan Williams.........does this say something about my real love? I am passionately fond of the 20th Century English Art Song, and VW wins most of the prizes here! I have noticed a trend/theme happening which surprises me and, if I am honest, delights me! Apropos of my post about Middy, whom I hope you all feel like you know by now, I think my love of that style comes directly from her. If I close my eyes I can time warp back to her music room and hear her telling a then 16 year old 'blaster' to 'shhh and be tender dear, the words are more important than you are !'

Never a truer word.

Youtube 'The Watermill' by Vaughan Williams and give yourselves a treat, but make sure it is a really good recording!
Don't worry, I have found it for you - the singer is not named, but it is superb, and sounds remarkably like Anthony Rolfe Johnson whom I had the privilege of singing with a number of times in my 30's. It sounds just like his floating tone and extraordinary care over the words. Enjoy! Music and photos.

Mundane and Magic

When we were visiting the Abbey in Yorkshire, one of the sisters was very keen to invite me to give workshops for the Panel of Monastic Musicians at the end of September. The course is in Llandudno, so travelling so far will be a juggle to fit it in around my teaching, and not be worn to a frazzle. As I said in an earlier post many of my students are taking exams this term!

When I do this sort of Masterclassing I always go back to basics. There will be monks and nuns from all over the UK, but all of them engaged in the musical life of their order so I know they will be musical and very competent which is great.

I teach them in exactly the way I teach any pupils, scales from the top down - yes you read correctly - top down. This is because it is much easier to produce a good head voice tone which then drops naturally as it descends, and so we do not kept caught up in the upwards drive towards using the chest register too high, thus it is a much more relaxed way of singing.

I use the English vowels OO EE AW OW, as it is much more likely that the native tongue sounds can be made consistent before venturing into Italian, German and French vowels. So we spend 5 or 10 minutes at the beginning of each lesson singing downward scales - with me vamping cheeky little accompaniments - on the aforementioned 4 vowels.....then we alternate vowels....then we do it faster or slower according to need, and just as the pupil is passing out with exhaustion we move on to songs!

I always keep in the pupil's 'comfort zone' for the first 5 mins, to remind them of the tone quality and where they are resonating it (or not!), and then move to the nether regions of their personal range as we go along.



It sounds very boring when written down, but it is the most valuable time in the lesson for me, it tells me everything I need to know about that voice, today. Is it well, is it happy, is it progressing etc. and believe me, with teenaged voices especially, it is my personal gauge of where technique is at. I have one or two under 25's who I now have to turn in a diagonal direction so they are not directing their full blown vocal attack head on to my ears! Painful but altogether very pleasing in terms of vocal growth.

It is not just decibels however, it means that they sing from the centre of their voices, and the smallest voice can knock me over with focus and ring if it is a jolly good vowel. I think temporary tinnitus must come as a 'get one free' with this job. The ring in my ears has dwindled by the weekend, only to return by monday evening.

Teaching is such a mixture of mundane and magic. I love the mundane, and I love the magic, but I can tell you, the magic NEVER happens without it's alter ego, just like life!

Middy

I was so honoured to be one of the 3 guests when my first and most influential singing teacher, Betty Middleton received her MBE from the Queen at Buckingham Palace. I am sitting at my desk and can see one of the official photographs taken on that wonderful day.

She was a complete inspiration, second Mum, tough disciplinarian and friend. If my pupils could say even a quarter of that about me I would be a lucky woman indeed. It is tricky to know where to begin when speaking about her. She was about 5 feet tall, quite round, and with piercing eyes behind her half moon glasses. She had no children and so we were all her children, although she tragically lost a baby boy as a young mother.

Her husband was called 'my Harry' - note the 'my' - whenever she spoke about him it was always in that affectionate and inclusive way. Infact without Harry she could never have had the life she did! He was a Bank Manager of the old school, rather like Captain Mainwaring in Dad's Army, and I imagine asking for a loan in his office was as terrifying as facing a rather cross firing squad!

He indulged her, and taxied her to every concert we did, and each festival we entered, once he was retired. The music room was in her warm and cosy Victorian house called White Cottage, in Windsor Road, Saltburn, and was just over the hall from the living room, where Harry spent much time. Now, I wonder how he put up with all the racket ! The decibels from some of us aspirant soloists must have driven him mad, although he may have worn earplugs I suppose!

Middy, as she was known to the world, was the finest teacher, and now at my age I realise how much sense she spoke, how gifted she was at 'making it happen', and how much she loved us.

She gave us all such love for the words and the poetry of the song, and she made it all so vibrant and exciting. She also made us sweat and worked us very hard. Never any harder than she worked herself. She fed us; her cooking skills were legendary, Toffee Tootle, home made potted beef for sandwiches, sponge cakes and gingerbread, all baked from 6am in the morning before she even started her teaching day - how can any of us follow that?!

Middy's mother was a well known singing teacher in Hull called Madame Constance Hall, which has a marvelous ring to it ~ do you think I could get away with it ? Nah, I'd be accused of 'building my part up'. You simply cannot beat a heritage like that, sitting in with a fine teacher from birth is the most complete apprenticeship for any job. She had the beginnings of a great singing career, and performed with eminent musicians such as the violinist Campoli, but this glittering career was cut short at 28 years old when her mother died, and without hesitation she took on all her pupils and choirs. In an instant she was a teacher and choral conductor. A job which she relished and made her own until she was over 90!

Often when I teach I hear her on my shoulder (along with Sr. Margaret ~ boy I must have strong shoulders!) saying 'those words are not clear enough my dear', 'that jaw is not dropped', or 'come on Ann they are not working hard enough...........' so next time any of you hear me say that, you will know it is actually Mid and not me!!!

Don't shoot the messanger!

Be grateful for the much missed and much loved tyrant on my shoulder ~ it is all because of her.

Exam Stress

I was thinking about the coming term and how many things will be happening, lots of brave folk taking singing exams, Christmas Concerts, Music College Auditions for two singers, and anything else that happens to troll along between September and December!

I know that some folk are not very exam orientated, and find the angst and sometimes agony of that moment of truth, simply not worth it. Adults really do have that choice ! Well, sometimes I push very hard for them to take these 'devices of the devil', but if someone has a positive 'allergy' to them I would never force. Gentle arm twisting, and the knowledge that I would never let them enter if there was any real doubt about the outcome, usually wins through!

There is nothing like a 'deadline' - is'nt that a song from South Pacific!? Deadlines are almost an essential for a benchmark of progress. I can tell my students until I am blue in the face where they stand in the great scheme of things, but a tastefully printed and carefully signed scrap of paper says more than I could in 10 years of lessons. Young and old alike benefit from the confidence boost of that one moment of confirmation, and I can hold it against them when they tell me post exam that the song I have given them is 'just too hard' ! But ...insert pupil's name... remember you passed your Grade 6 with flying colours, this is a walk in the park by comparison. Devious or what!

For youngsters, it is often the best tool for motivation, and gives them a real self worth as they see for themselves that if they put the work in, they will get the result! ' Simples tch'

This term I think I will have about 15 exam candidates, from Grade 1 through to Grade 8, and 4 Concert Certificates (which is a new exam on the Trinity College of Music Syllabus, whereby the nastiness of Aural and Sight Reading is replaced by more actual songs! Hurrah!!! However they can only take this after they have completed their Grade 8 - Cruel me.................

Some songs have been on all the Exam Syllabi for eons, and thus I have taught what feels like about 7452 times over the years.

My absolute favourite of those old timers is 'The Path to the Moon' by Eric Thiman. It is such a beautiful little song usually set for Grades 3 or 4. It is always a sign of greatness when a song can be sung by adults and children alike and the nature of the flowing 6/8 melody, and simple but eloquent lyrics are appreciated at all ages. The final moment of each verse is an extended phrase based on the words ' To carry , to carry, to carry me over the sea...'

There are few songs of which I never tire but this is one.

Now the tune will be whirling around my synapses for the next 24 hours!

Please feel free to comment if you wish, or just introduce yourselves. I would love to know why people are interested in a singing teacher in the middle of Paradise nowhere !

Goodnight

I arrived home this evening after a gloriously sunny drive, and the most exquisite sunsets by the time I got to within 50 miles of the magic bridge.

Radio 4 is my aural pastime on long journeys, or the radio shared with silence, that wonderful ear healer! Today however, I am rested and stress free after a lovely holiday, so I could quite easily take a massive dose of Gardeners Question Time, and Pick of the Week!

We hit Glencoe just as The Archers was beginning so I missed the further doings of Ambridge! Ah well there is always the repeat at 2pm tomorrow!

I now have another week before I begin my term, to prepare and get myself back into gear. Here in Scotland the school term begins a good 2 weeks earlier than in England and Wales, but then as they broke up for summer at the end of June/beginning of July it all evens itself out in the end.

I need to do some filing in the music room and begin to rethink music for the coming few months, for exam candidates, concerts and fun.

At some point in the week the music room will begin to draw me, and I will spend a few minutes being engrossed in 'new' music, and each day the minutes will grow until I feel ready to take up the sword again, and ready myself for the Battle of the New Term!

Once again,
Onwards and Upwards....well after a few more days of lazy nothingness.

Goodnight!

Treats

During the last 15 years I have had many privileges as a by product of my job as a singing teacher. Non more delightfully unique than being invited to teach enclosed sisters in Abbeys and Convents all over the UK.

Initially I had a dilemma with this invitation, since I felt that what I teach is 'performing', and what nuns do is quite definitely NOT performing. How could I marry up the two and make it of value to this as yet unknown vocal area ? I need not have had such wobbles about it. In the first few moments of speaking with some of the sisters I was greatly relieved to hear from them that 'if we sing better, we worship better', and I have never looked back!

It has, and still is, such a joy and honour for me to be 'let in' to these closed and sacred spaces, which have beauty, peace, tranquility combined with an everlasting hum of work, humour and honesty. The sisters attack the business of learning to sing, and I only ever tackle the practicalities of technique and voice preservation, never Liturgy, with such zest and commitment to improving, they have become, without a doubt, my most diligent pupils.

And they can cook!

Actually they turn their hands to most things, printing, iconography, tending goats, knitting and sewing, editing erudite religious papers, and writing books! They are women who multi task like fast living octupi, juggling 8 balls and still managing to fit in 5 services per day, 365 days per year.

Yesterday J and I visited one of the Abbeys I have worked at for over 12 years. They have recently relocated to a fine site in North Yorkshire, where the views are indescribable in their beauty, but the weather is equally indescribable in winter!



Moving In

We arrived laden with goodies - the sort of eatables which a generally frugal approach to living does not always allow! Quite by chance we got it right! It was the day they began their retreat, and it seems, two of the sisters had been bemoaning the fact that there were no 'treats' to be seen for 'retreat consumption' ! Our boxes and bags full of melons, nectarines, grapes, chocolate cakes, weird and wonderful cheeses etc, just hit the spot, and they were clearly pleased with our choices.

We spent such a lovely couple of hours over tea and some of aforesaid chocolate cakes, laughing, giggling and generally having a good time. Don't, for one moment, think that ladies who dedicate their lives to God, do not know how to party - they do, and with relish and much merriment.

I have learnt so much about the chant, and psalm singing from these ladies, and I hope I have given them some tools for preserving their voices and using a good tone. Many enter the religious life for 'the religious life', and not to be what amounts to a professional singer, starting at 6am and finishing at 8.20pm, with no N/A days (not available!) and no fee. It is, I know, sometimes a nightmare for those for whom singing does not come naturally, yet it is a vital ingredient in daily life, both as choir or soloist. Vows need much solo work, and I take my hat off to those for whom it is the 'Great Vocal Wall of China' to climb over. Brave women indeed.

Indeed in my teaching of religious I have learnt many things - not least of all that time can always be used, even 10 minutes can be enough to do some small job, or not wasted. I am intrinsically lazy and often think about certain of my sister 'friends' if I am about to idle away those 10 minutes waiting for the next thing to happen! Sister M is always on my shoulder doing, something, so I am shamed into making good use of each minute we have. In truth, I am sure that if they read this they would say I am exaggerating about their industry, but you are wrong ladies - I stand in awe and wonder at your time management!



Sister M, World authority on Gregorian Chant, and my friend!

The sound of the Office singing is glorious some of the time, and less than glorious when colds and flu hit, or chantresses are away, but the tools of singing, I hope, give them something to rely on.

I simply melt when I hear the chant, pure and unified, soaring and ebbing with the sentence structure, timeless and sacred at the great feasts or religious ceremonies.

Best of all though I love it when it is ordinary. When the beauty is in the daily doing of it. Compline on a chilly November evening wraps me up for a safe night, with no glitz or frills, and sends me calmly to my bed.

What a lucky woman am I.

Faster then Fairies

'All through the meadows the horses and cattle.........'


'Faster than Fairies,
Faster than Witches,
Bridges and Houses,
Hedges and Ditches,'

We traversed the dales, through winding lanes up and down hills and valleys more steep than those on Paradise, and we saw the twirling steam from the 'champing at the bit' Esk Valley Steam train stationary at Glaisdale station, where it seemed as if it was pawing the ground to get going again!

'And charging along like troops in a battle
All through the meadows the horses and cattle:'

We spent a nostalgic couple of hours at Danby Country Show, where the sheep were being herded by lean and eager collies, and the tiny little Thelwell pony riders were competing for trophies as if their lives depended on it, then, just on cue we sheltered under the bandstand tent when the heavens opened - Oh the rich memories of childhood, the smells of being a 10 year old on the Swinging Boats.



'All of the sights of the hill and the plain
Fly as thick as driving rain;
And ever again, in the wink of an eye,
Painted stations whistle by.

Robert Louis Stevenson's famous poem 'From a Railway Carriage' kept leaping into my head at every hour of the day. It is set to music by Alec Rowley, and is in the Grade 5 syllabus. I often use use it with a young singer who can spit words out like machine gun bullets. It is marked Presto and the whole song lasts about 1 minute or less! It is redolent of the majestic days of steam, and the rhythm of the train is caught perfectly in the wheel turning piano accompaniment.

'Here is a child who clambers and scrambles,
All by himself and gathering brambles;
Here is a tramp who stands and gazes;
And here is the green for stringing the daisies!
Here is a cart runaway in the road
Lumping along with man and load;


The heavy horses were greatly in evidence, but most incongruous at the country show were the rows of sparklingly clean and docile Highland Cattle! I was back in my own garden in a second, where my neighbour's HC eat my hedge with a slow and satisfying relish, mooing at a pace which would be marked Lento!




We arrived back home which is an old mill house, just in time to finish this perfect poem with,

'And here is a mill, and there is a river:
Each a glimpse and gone forever!'

The river I hear from my open bedroom window, the mill is all around us, now peacefully still.

What a perfect day.

Thanks to the double act that is:
Stevenson and Rowley!

Ya Bom

Feel that Beat!



Another lovely day in the North East of England, and still the sun shines. Actually. today has been more of a 'civilization' day, with a trip to a large shopping outlet where I was able to buy all those things which it is impossible to buy in Paradise ! Some new bedding, kitchenware, a pair of mildly sophisticated lamps and numerous other dainties for house and garden!

Tea with J's sister, who, quite apart from singing in our ladies choir of 3 decades ago, also made many of mine and J's evening gowns for concerts. A cleverer seamstress it would be hard to find on a days' march!

Then it was my 'payment for stay' evening. We arrived at the church hall where the vocal ensemble rehearse and straight way got stuck in to a beautiful SSAA choral piece by a Czech composer whom I had the priviledge of knowing quite well, called Antonin Tucapsky. Such a gracious and vibrant piece - I can't remember the title now, as we dissected and then reassembled quite a number of songs this evening, and my short term memory allows me to quickly forget what has gone before!

Being Czech, Tony's music is a wonderful mix of East and West, some luscious harmonies, combined with pingy and edgy rhythmical quirks. We worked hard on each individual line being independent, yet part of the whole.

After travelling through the vocal diversions of romanticism via modern psalm settings we arrived at a jolly and very lively quasi Jewish dancelike song, called something along the lines of Ya Bom - which gives you an idea of the style!

Bearing in mind that all the singers are very old friends/singing colleagues of mine from 'before time as we know it', they manfully take anything I throw at them. They danced, they clapped, they stamped, they looked at me as though I was less than 2 hours from being an inmate at Broadmoor Phsychiatric Unit for Deranged Musicians, but I took no prisoners and by the end they were actually singing like they were enjoying themselves! Hurrah!

The stand-in pianist whom I do not know, was, without doubt, a little sniffy, to say the least about my slightly unothodox approach to choral masterclassing, and, I felt that if she met me on a darkish night, may well cross the road in the hopes that I did not ask her to give us a twirl on the pavement.

The choir sound great, they sing with such a gorgeous, juicy and unified tone.

Now ladies, shake a leg and let go!

Dracula in Whitby

Beautiful Whitby Abbey

Sorry to my readers, but the internet service in ‘sopranoland’ has been down for the last wee while! Apart from that, it is so lovely to be here and not dashing around at the local festival, or being like ships that pass in the night, on my way to masterclass or teach elsewhere in the UK. J and I can actually sit down and catch up over copious cups of strong Yorkshire tea.
We had a great day in Whitby being undercover tourists. We even spent a glorious 90 minutes on an open topped tour bus being told about the many and various attractions of Whitby, the religious history of the Abbey, and the not to reverent facts about Bram Stoker’s stay here and his setting of the first 3 chapters of his most famous tome – Dracula.......................

Now I can, at this point, make some small and rather tenuous references to singing, which is quite a feat of circuitous thought! As a class teacher in the 1980’s I used much fun children’s music by composers such as the late Michael Hurd who wrote ‘The Daniel Jazz’ and ‘Swinging Samson’, ‘Jonah Man Jazz’ and ‘Hip Hip Horatio’. Well, there is another of those admirable and most accessibly clever children’s ‘cantatas’ which is entitled ‘Dracula’, and was written by another of the great children’s composers of the second half of the 20th Century, Carey Blyton, who was the nephew of Enid Blyton, so came from a fantastic heritage in terms of entertaining children on wet afternoons, obviously with lashings of ginger beer at hand on his piano! The piece is very funny, with witty lyrics and the main melody has a circus music swing using the words ;

‘I’m a very friendly vampire
On your neck I’ll leave my mark,
But I never seem to say things right
‘Cos my bite is worse than my bark.’ (this is a memory of 25 years ago, so it may not be exact!)



So there you go – it is possible to relate anything to almost anything else if you think laterally and have a brain stuffed like an overripe baked potato full of a mixture of musical fillings.

Back on the Bus.

We saw views of the bay, the magnificent cliffsides, and the fantastically endless sandy shoreline, which shimmered with the retreating tide. A small copy of the tall ship Endeavour, Captain Cook’s ship, was entering the harbour, full of tourists relishing the sea breeze and the blinding sunshine, and we slowly wound our way around the narrow curling maze of lanes with wonderful and descriptive names such as Khyber Pass, The Ropery, Spitalfield and Haggs Lane .................

We ate fresh, and almost wriggling haddock and scampi in Trenchers, simply one of the finest Fish and Chip establishments in North Yorkshire, then wended our weary way home after a short stop off at the Co op for some comestibles to keep us through the coming, and possibly gruelling week of holiday, rest and pastoral pleasures.

It’s a tough life, but someone has to do it.

Menelaus

'Stretch out your Hand'



It is so sunny today, and with a glorious breeze which keeps the midgies away. The washing is hanging on the line and so far all is well with the world. That, of course could change before I have even finished writing this blog.

When I stand in the garden and see the damson tree so heavily laden, and the strawberries beginning to go red at last, I drink in the atmosphere and think there can be no better place to live in the world than Paradise Island.

I used to sing a sizable, and little known song by Vaughan Williams called 'Menelaus'. It is the last of his cycle 'The Four Last Songs', and obviously, given the title it is about the legendary King of the Mycenaeans, whose wife was the beautiful Helen of Troy. The words of the poem by his wife Ursula.

Vaughan Williams and his wife Ursula enjoyed reading aloud. One day, after they had been reading from T. E. Lawrence’s translation of Homer’s The Odyssey, Ursula felt compelled to write some verse. The resulting poem and song became the fourth song of the cycle “Menelaus.”

It is such a wandering song in terms of melody and rhythm but fits perfectly the sentiment of Menelaus traveling the known world trying to find Helen who was taken from him by Paris of Troy. The song is so bound up in ways of coming home, even at 18 I found the text and the repeating phrase 'You shall come home' very moving. Now I am older and live in this wonderful place I know even more, the value and pleasure of arriving home. There is a simple and elegant bridge joining the island to the mainland which you spot about 8 miles before reaching it, and when the weather is clear and I see it in the distance, I think of the climax line of the song when the music rises and swells like waves until Menelaus cries out in desperation 'Stretch out your Hand!', and I feel the bridge stretching out to the traveller, very weary from 700 miles of driving.



'You shall come home'

VW certainly knew how to catch the breath.

The Elephant

Happie Chappie



I spent much of today buying, setting up and coaching my elderly father on his new laptop. At almost 90, he is doing so well even trying to use a computer, never mind a laptop with Windows 7!

It will take sometime for him to learn. The process is slower than an under 75, and that includes me, but he will get there! My mother, who has Alzheimers was pleasingly thrilled when I cleared all the debris from the old ' size of a mammoth with a compulsive eating disorder' computer, and saw the clear and polished desktop which she had not witnessed for some time! The old style house proud lady is definitely still in there!

Some of my pupils are just a tad older than 21, as I have said before, and I admire them so much for all the time they give to practising, and learning words, be it German, Italian or French, and how they do it with such a will. I have brow beaten them to take exams, and many have achieved great things - passing all Grades up to 8 and beyond. They bring another dimension into my teaching, and the aforesaid dimension gives me a great deal of pleasure, and insight into much of the music I teach.

Each of them (and it is about 10 in all!) has such definite favourite styles and types of music. I have a delightful lady who is academic, bookish and highly intelligent who can perform Flanders and Swann funny songs with such wonderful timing and humour. She sang the well known 'The Elephant' not too long ago in a concert and brought the house down withher sardonic and understated rendition of lines like....

"I'm an introverted, elephocentric hypochondriac,
And I'll stick in the elephant's nursing home,
Til I get me memory back !'

and the crowning glory in the lyrics.....

'I suffer from Schizophrenia
It comes on me in spells
Sometimes I'm King of Armenia
At others I'm Orson Welles.
I tell them I'm Napoleon
and all that sort of bunk
They never guess that all the time
I'm laughing up me trunk!'

The lady in question, took her time, paced it to perfection, and kept the audience waiting for every punchline - it was a triumph of wit, worthy of one of the better moments in a Fry and Laurie skit.

Those lessons when we were working up to that concert were hysterical, and not that 'technical', but they served to show just how much is hidden under unexpected bushels!

I wish these moments were recorded for later appreciation, but often the magic in the ether does not bear a repeat lest it loses it's initial flash of genius.

Ages, Wages, and Stages, music is for every man and his dog - and thanks be to God for that!

Sing Together

I was making a short recording yesterday for a tiny pupil of around 7 years old. I promised I would give her some new repertoire to keep her going over the loooong Summer holidays ! Each song was about 50 seconds long, and taken from a book called
'Sing Together'.

Here in the UK it is a widely used little childrens song book, and it is BRILLIANT! Many of the little songs are on the Examination Board syllabuses, and lots are simply, but beautifully arranged folk songs from all over the world.

I have about 4 books which live on the side of my piano, and the small 'purple' one is always top of the pile. It can be very difficult to find songs for under 12's - well any that are not requiring a chest voice the size of Manchester, and a scream factor of 60 ! There are other stalwart collections that I use, but 'Sing Together' is my teaching 'breakfast, lunch and dinner'. Sadly I do not have any shares in the publishing company, so I am not 'selling' the book, but if you want a great set of songs for teaching, or indeed teaching in school, this is your man!

I recorded a simple version of Bobby Shafto, and little folksong called The Miller. Songs for children need to be in an easy and managable range, preferably between D above Middle C and the D above that, then they can span the range effortlessly, and strainfree. Blimey, I am getting technical!

The other reason why it is a great book is because it is full of FUN songs, and make us laugh in lessons, a vital component of teaching for me, and the little mites who leap into my music room for their weekly 20 minutes!

There is a lovely arrangement of 'Michael Finnigan', which my aforementioned chappie who sang a brilliant 'Kangaroo', performed in the last concert we gave. He brought the house down with his hilarious rendition of this unfortunate who had a number of tragic events in his life, which are, incongruously, set to the cheeriest of melodies.

The tiny girl for whom I recorded songs yesterday stands around a metre in height, and has a voice as large as a baby elephant on steroids, and sings with real gusto. I know she will learn the songs - with Grannie's all important imput - in 6 minutes flat and will then need more!

Hang in there Granny........................!

Day Off

Having a day off today. Will resume tomorrow.

Going out for a lovely Indian Meal.

Yum Yum

Another Day

So what does a singing teacher do when she is on holiday?

Today I transported a large pile of large logs from outside into the barn to fully dry out for the winter time woodstove and living room fire.



I organized almost overdue House Insurance and almost fainted at the rise in cost from last year, and that was trawling around for the best deal. I hoovered and 'Sprung' cleaned upstairs.



Then I sat down and watched a slightly trash film on daytime TV......she said, knowingly damning herself to the lowest rung on the blog reader culture counter !

Clearing my head of crotchets, quavers, and chords is having the hoped for rest cure, and the days are now largely 'harmony free'. I love it - because that means in the not too distant future I will begin to crave those very harmonies, thus beginning the long clamber out of the valley of melodic hush and up onto the mountain peak of glorious, although sometimes imperfect song !

I am going away for a few days next week to stay with my youthful soprano duet partner (of the psychedelic twin dresses!), and will spend an evening with her choral group giving them a swift 'going over' in respect of some highly complex partsongs they are using in a competition in November. In return for the peace, calm and quietitude of their beautiful and sequestered Yorkshire estate, I will burst into action for an evening of hard graft, hard singing and hopefully, some pointers for their performance.

No rest for the wicked !

Am I bovvered?

Coo...... to Carmen

Coo...ooo...ooo to

I was visiting a pupil this afternoon. She has just had a baby boy 8 weeksish ago, and he is a real poppet. Bearing in mind his father was a chorister, then music college student and then professional singer, and Mum has sung since she was old enough to talk, as well as in many shows, concerts, competitions etc, one would hope that Baby H will have so many singing genes he will burst forth into the Faure 'Pie Jesu' by the time he is about 2 and a half.

When dandling a baby on your knee it is so fascinating to watch it's little mouth already trying to shape sounds. In my teaching, and in the way I was taught, pure vowel shapes are the first discipline one instills in a newbie singer. I think we were probably born to have highly malleable lips and mouth cavity, and with each of my grandchildren, and now with this new little infant chorister, one can see how much natural movement there is, and therefore realise how much of this facility is lost as we grow up if it is not capitalised upon in childhood.

In normal conversation I notice many adults, as well as children talking as if there was an 'open mouth tax', enforced by every government since 1245, and the guillotine for those who open further than the size of a grotto for an malnourished ladybird ! Hence it is often difficult to understand what they say, or the level of sound would not penetrate further than the end of the nose!

I use 4 vowels, as did my teacher, and hers before that. OO, EE, AW, OW (as in Show). The sounds can be applied to many words in the English language, as well as many other languages, and gives a very strong focus to the tone quality. So scales are given, using only those simple sounds for a long....... time. Of course, my pupils and I would be bored witless if that is all we did in lessons, but you would be amazed how many words they fit, so even when singing songs the purity of the vowel is always focusing the tone.

Young Master H at 2 months old, can make a glorious OO shape, probably better than his dear fathers', whom I have taught for far too many years to count! But don't tell him I said so.

Sing to your babies, make them copy your mouth shapes, and RRRRRRR (roll your RR's) to them.

You may look like an idiot, but think about the tears of pride when they are starring in Carmen at the Met !


Carmen................

Homework:
Match one of the aforesaid vowels to the each word -

You - OO
Saw -
Free -
Flow -
Beach -
Lord -

etc....................................................................

Holiday.......

Holiday is such a decadance in this world of work work work. I have worked and lived at such a fast pace for most of my earning life, it is easy to forget that doing nothing, or 'time to stand and stare' is in itself of the highest value. It is how we recharge our batteries, work out what the next life step is, and let the old brain detox.

It takes more and more time for me to reach that stage of relaxed, contented and fully operational brainwaves: up til now they have been like a slowly subsiding tsunami! I used to be up and running after 2 or 3 days at the end of a term/show/competition etc. now it is more like a week. I awoke today feeling mildly alert, and with some eager anticipation for the day!

The turning point in the whole recovery process is when I start to consider the possibility that it would be quite nice to see, and chat with my cast ! Sorry guys ! That is meant as a fat compliment - after all I have known many producers who let it be known in no uncertain manner that if they saw their singers, even at a distance of 25 laps of the stadium, within the next millenium, it would be too soon ! So you see - a week is a teeny weeny drop in the ocean in terms of 'time to next sighting'!

I have begun to hum tunes which have nothing to do with Pinafore - now there's a thing! I am looking forward to watching the DVD, which I am told is very good, (although that was by one of the principals !) and I can eagerly waltz down to my local supermarket, where I know I will meet lots of smiley folk, and half my cast!

What tunes have I been humming?

Silent Worship - Handel
Waly Waly - folk song (every county and country has a version!)
Theme tune from 'Chariots of Fire (OK it must be the athletics Da Da Da Di Daaaaa Daa )

Did I say I had brainwaves working ?

Ooops.