The Children's Choir is currently on break for the school holidays, and will resume practices on the 17th of June, 2006.
Important notice to members and parents: we have only two practices left before singing during the Children's Mass on the 24th of June. The venue will likely be moved to the Church (and not the Children's Liturgy/RCIA Room) for these practices, and in such a case a notice will be placed at the original venue.
The proposed dress code for the 24th of June is all white for the girls and white shirt/black pants for the boys.
My apologies for not being able to add on any new mp3s as the cantor's group has been busy lately - myself included. Here's hoping everyone enjoys the holidays, and looking forward to seeing you all again on the 17th!
Monday, May 29, 2006
Sunday, May 21, 2006
Fourth Session
This was an important session, because we will be missing many sessions due to the school holidays. We covered some additional choir skills, and quite a number of songs.
In the past two sessions, we worked on approaching the text - specifically:
How to Read and Memorize Lyrics
Reading lyrics in a choir is quite different from the regular reading we do in school and at home every day. This is mainly because we have to keep the position of our head the same so that our singing will go in a steady direction. We also cannot block the singing with the song-book. So, we do the following:
1. When looking at the song-book, move only your eyes, not your head.
2. When reading lyrics, read a whole sentence or phrase in your head, and then sing it from memory.
3. To memorize a short passage, try to remember just the first two words of every line. When we sing it through many times, these two words will help us to sing the rest of each line.
Also important is to use the song-books and not the screens in the Church, so that the choir can watch the directions of the conductor.
Learning to memorize lyrics
Also today, we covered the remaining hymns, though some were done only briefly due to time contraints. The focus was on pronunciation again. The first selection was the chorus from City of God, for which the lyrics and download can be found in the archives of this blog - on the sidebar to the left. The lyrics to the other two are listed below - I hope to have downloads in later weeks.
CHRIST BE OUR LIGHT (Chorus only)
(Strong voice) Christ be our light,
Shine in our hearts, shine through the darkness (get softer at the end of the line)
(Strong voice) Christ be our light
Shine in your Church gathered today. (get softer at the end of the line)
THE CANTICLE OF THE SUN
CHORUS:
The heavens are telling the glory of God,
and all creation is shouting for joy
Come, dance in the forest, come, play in the field,
and sing, sing to the glory of the Lord
1. Praise for the sun, the bringer of day,
He carries the light of the Lord in his rays;
The moon and the stars who light up the way
Unto your throne
2. Praise for the wind that blows through the trees,the sea's mighty storms,
the gentlest breeze;
They blow where they will, they blow where they please
To please the Lord
3. Praise for the rain that waters our fields,
And blesses our crops so all the earth yields;
From death unto life her myst'ry revealed
Springs forth in joy
Enjoy your holidays, and see you when classes resume next month!
Special thanks to the early arrivals who helped by setting up the chairs and the books, on their own intiative!
In the past two sessions, we worked on approaching the text - specifically:
How to Read and Memorize Lyrics
Reading lyrics in a choir is quite different from the regular reading we do in school and at home every day. This is mainly because we have to keep the position of our head the same so that our singing will go in a steady direction. We also cannot block the singing with the song-book. So, we do the following:
1. When looking at the song-book, move only your eyes, not your head.
2. When reading lyrics, read a whole sentence or phrase in your head, and then sing it from memory.
3. To memorize a short passage, try to remember just the first two words of every line. When we sing it through many times, these two words will help us to sing the rest of each line.
Also important is to use the song-books and not the screens in the Church, so that the choir can watch the directions of the conductor.
Learning to memorize lyrics
Also today, we covered the remaining hymns, though some were done only briefly due to time contraints. The focus was on pronunciation again. The first selection was the chorus from City of God, for which the lyrics and download can be found in the archives of this blog - on the sidebar to the left. The lyrics to the other two are listed below - I hope to have downloads in later weeks.
CHRIST BE OUR LIGHT (Chorus only)
(Strong voice) Christ be our light,
Shine in our hearts, shine through the darkness (get softer at the end of the line)
(Strong voice) Christ be our light
Shine in your Church gathered today. (get softer at the end of the line)
THE CANTICLE OF THE SUN
CHORUS:
The heavens are telling the glory of God,
and all creation is shouting for joy
Come, dance in the forest, come, play in the field,
and sing, sing to the glory of the Lord
1. Praise for the sun, the bringer of day,
He carries the light of the Lord in his rays;
The moon and the stars who light up the way
Unto your throne
2. Praise for the wind that blows through the trees,the sea's mighty storms,
the gentlest breeze;
They blow where they will, they blow where they please
To please the Lord
3. Praise for the rain that waters our fields,
And blesses our crops so all the earth yields;
From death unto life her myst'ry revealed
Springs forth in joy
Enjoy your holidays, and see you when classes resume next month!
Special thanks to the early arrivals who helped by setting up the chairs and the books, on their own intiative!
Monday, May 15, 2006
Sorry, no post this week
There seems to be a problem with the file hosting site that I've been using to upload materials for this blog. I hope there it is just a problem with the site management and not a complication with my accounts as I am managing a separate account on behalf of the Church, but which may be misconstrued as a violation of some part of the user agreement. Anyway, for this reason, this week there will be no posting, and I hope to get back to it come next week with problems resolved.
Post-Script: To avoid confusion, all the materials on this blog have been consolidated into one account, and the other account closed.
Post-Script: To avoid confusion, all the materials on this blog have been consolidated into one account, and the other account closed.
Saturday, May 06, 2006
Third Session: Posture
In this session, we reviewed some of the basics of singing in a choir, using last week's Here I Am Lord. We also tried out the beginning of "Glory and Praise to Our God", of which lyrics will be printed in a future posting with a download link, when we have studied it in more detail.
SINGING POSTURE
1. When sitting, sit in the front half of your chair so you don't have the tendency to lean back in the chair. (Extra note: you could sit regularly so long one sits upright).
2. So, sitting forward in one's chair helps to ensure that the back is straight.
This picture was taken from this link, which explains the reasons behind good posture, though personally I don't put any stock in the idea of specialized chairs for the purpose.
3. Have the shoulders back as well, and not slumped down or forward.
4. Breathe all the way into the belly, not into the chest.
5. When reading the lyrics, glance down with the eyes only - try not to move the whole head. Also, try to remember a whole phrase or sentence, and not read and sing word-by-word.
6. Remember the letters that end words - like the "d" in "Lord" and the "t" and "Christ".
SINGING POSTURE
1. When sitting, sit in the front half of your chair so you don't have the tendency to lean back in the chair. (Extra note: you could sit regularly so long one sits upright).
2. So, sitting forward in one's chair helps to ensure that the back is straight.
This picture was taken from this link, which explains the reasons behind good posture, though personally I don't put any stock in the idea of specialized chairs for the purpose.
3. Have the shoulders back as well, and not slumped down or forward.
4. Breathe all the way into the belly, not into the chest.
5. When reading the lyrics, glance down with the eyes only - try not to move the whole head. Also, try to remember a whole phrase or sentence, and not read and sing word-by-word.
6. Remember the letters that end words - like the "d" in "Lord" and the "t" and "Christ".
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