Risca Male Choir blog post #2
It has been a month since my first blog post, and, although we still can’t see each other in person yet, we have been keeping regular contact with each other. It is difficult to stay positive with the current situation, especially as we have members that are in the ‘vulnerable’ category. However, let us focus on the positives that have happened in the past few weeks!
The release of the website was successful, and we enjoyed sharing our history, recordings, and past performances with you. We hope you had the opportunity to browse the website and see what makes the choir tick. Since then, we have updated it with video clips, and we would love for you to explore these further to enjoy watching a live performance – something we all hope happens sooner rather than later!
I have been busy producing arrangements for the choir, which I am hoping to rehearse in the coming months. These arrangements have been a fun release for me, and I hope to keep arranging songs for the choir in the coming years (provided they are good arrangements, that is!!). I am yet to record teach tracks for all my arrangements, but soon, I hope to find a way to rehearse them.
Speaking of rehearsing, we held our first online session on Zoom last night, and it was absolutely chaotic! The guys seemed to have a great catch-up at the beginning, and it was wonderful to see everyone smile and have a laugh again. Then, I lead a warmup, focusing on physical, breathing and singing exercises, followed by some vocal games. I must admit, my rendition of some of the games wasn’t exactly 100% accurate, but at least the guys could laugh with me about my failures! We then proceeded to sing ‘With a Little Help from My Friends’ by The Beatles, and I took the opportunity to scroll through every camera and see what everyone was doing. It was a joy to watch every single person enjoying singing again, and I am looking forward to holding more sessions like this in the future.
Please keep browsing our website and playback our recordings; if you already have and enjoy our music, why not leave a review on our Facebook page stating your experience of the choir? Any form of positivity would be greatly appreciated at this time!
Stay well, stay safe (or alert depending on where you are…), and we will see you soon.
Tomos Gwyn
Music Director
