Haybergill Centre, Warcop, Cumbria 3-5 March 2008. Facilitated by Jilly Jarman
This was the culmination of Phase One of the Vocal Force programme in Eden and enabled people who had taken part to meet together and share experiences and skills. As the advertising was very effective (thanks SingUpCumbria and Sarah Wall for your help) we also had many new people from around the NorthWest.
We invited guest leaders to lead sessions - thank you Sue Nicholls and Em Whitfield-Brooks!
In-house we had sessions from Jilly Jarman, Alison Scott and Sarah Wall
and from participants Les Ord and Stephen Harrison - thanks!
Here are some notes from the sessions.
(For more songs, warm-ups etc go to the Vocal Force Resources
webpages on the Gateshead asap.live site.
Click on this link and Adam will send you a password.)
Jilly Jarman
Songwriting from Scratch
This session looked at how to make great songs from the simplest starting points - juggling with a riff, fragment of melody, word, rhythm pattern and seeing how they land. Then taking the pieces of the puzzle and fashioning a musical jigsaw where everything fits together.
We can do this without a deep knowledge of music theory if we use our organisational skills to give us an insight into song construction and learn what to listen out for. Ola, Ole
Sarah Wall
Safe singing for young voices
Sarah led a series of short and incredibly useful sessions introducing the basic principles that are behind good practice for all types of singing for all voices, demonstrating this through simple warm-ups, focussing exercises and games.
Here she provides articles outlining her approach and loads of exercises and songs - thanks! Sarah.
Warm-up exercises: Ah-ee-ah-ee-ah..... Oo-ee-oo-ee-oo .....Nya, Quack, Miaow ...
Brrr - Walking the voice.....Whee, Ping, Cheese, Huh
Warm-up songs: Pumpkin Pumpkin.....Silly Sally Saucer.....The Little Green Frog.....
Penguin Song
Dona Nobis - we tried to do this as a round - this is how it goes!
Hear Trio con Brio sing it! Now look at the score
My Dame has a Lame Tame Crane - score
Here are ecopies of Sarah's articles that she passed round:
Voice Box 1 ......Voice Box 2 .......
Here are vocal health tips from the voice foundation website:
Voice Care .....Voice care worksheet
Em Whitfield
Soul, gospel and more - leading a choir
I asked Em to come in and deliver a feelgood session and she did this with her usual energy and enthusiasm. We raised the roof - quite a few singers from choirs in the community had come just for this session and were able to experience the buzz of creating an immediate and vital group sound. Thanks Em!
Em led a session with warm-up ideas: listen to clips: huh, ah, whee! and call and response
We sang We are the Ones by Venice Manley
We sang some of Em's own compositions: Lift me up and I walk alone
Jilly Jarman
Accompaniment skills
We worked out how to play the simplest accompaniments to songs and still keep the feel and the groove. one finger jobs!
See scores of the songs written out traditionally, which give all the information but are hard to read. See also charts that are easier to follow and give enough information as a guide or reminder, once you have heard the piece and know how it goes.
Introduction
Canta score.....chart
You're Mean! score.....chart
Made in India see introduction
Jilly Jarman
Warm-up exercises
We looked at warm-ups in a practical way, concentrating on how they are led. Everyone in the group introduced a warm-up and we worked out what it was designed to do, how well it worked and how the way the person delivering it could adapt it to their own style and signature.
What was interesting was that it was obvious that when we are comfortable in ourselves and doing our own thing we model much better
than when we are trying to fit ourselves into a 'should' way of doing things. As Sarah stressed in her sessions, finding places of tension and allowing them to relax is the first thing to look at before anything else can happen.
I found this session really inspiring. it was encouraging that people who had never led a warm-up before found things to do from their other interests (eg martial arts) and incorporated them brilliantly.
Leading a choir - conducting
Everyone took a turn conducting the group working intuitively and feeling their way in. As the session progressed we learned what works through experiencing what it was like to follow each person's way. This was probably a scary session but there was lots of laughter and everyone was successful in getting a good sound from the choir.
Hopefully we avoided the 'freeze', where all of a sudden even the most natural movement becomes forced and self-conscious.
Music & movement - Morris dancing
I asked Les if he would lead this session and off the top of his head he gave us a great start to the last day of the residential, with a simple Morris dance and explanation about how he would introduce it in a primary setting.
Notes.........Not for Joe - Morris dance score .......mp3 with Les on melodeon
Sue Nicholls Songs as Springboards
Sue packed a whole day's worth of songs, approaches and insights into this 2 hour session. It was a brilliant example of how a well-prepared and resourced session can deliver so much activity in an exciting and memorable way. I know people who are already taking ideas from this session and using it in their schools. Thanks Sue!
Full video of the session available - email BlueJam for a CD. Article
Alison Scott
Introduction to Early Years and playground songs
Included by popular demand this was a session which people had been looking forward to and Alison covered loads of stuff in an easy and accessible way.
Here are her notes for an early years session.
Jilly Jarman
Using voice and percussion - Africa
This session looked at different ways to teach drumming patterns and especially how to teach more than a pattern, but an understanding of the context it sits in and how it combines with other rhythms. This obviously means that we as leaders need to understand this first, and this session aimed to find an easy way in to this using different hands for on and off beats.
Jilly Jarman
Rhythm & Song - Working with Samba
This was the last session of the residential and some samba drummers came along from BlueJam to re-energise us! We worked out some patterns and did a wonderful vocalisation of a samba batukada. it is so satisfying taking a loud, energetic, outdoor sound and making it small and intimate with precise, focussed vocal sounds while keeping that percussive buzz.
Sambajam batukata (La Conga)
Samba reggae (with cheeky donkey agogo pattern)
Sweet potato
Let it out, Let it in - from Airto Moreira - a fantastic groove to sing with Key stage 2,3 and any age.
At the end of the residential a few of us stayed over and traded operatic and jazz performances - Richard Strivens sang Wagner and we learned Jilly's new song for UCC choir, The Living is Easy....... mp3......... score
A relaxing and cathartic end to a really inspiring few days. A big thank you to everyone who came and added their voices.