"Can you be more Scottish? Ee bah gum?"

Yes, we're back to Jamieisms :-)

(We have no idea where he got the idea that Scottish people say 'ee bah gum'...)

Great ladies' sectional last night. I feel a bit guilty that I didn't do a blog post when I got home, but by the time I'd done all my school stuff it was the middle of the night and I couldn't stay awake. Hence me writing this in a huge rush before going to tonight's rehearsal - if I had two lots to write tonight, that'd be even worse!

A very hot and sticky evening in the WHGS upper hall, aka "the hottest place in the world". The windows were open, but it made no difference. Jamie apologised for using the phrase "warming up"... but he made us do it anyway :p

We met the Hungarian language coach, Béni Csillag. He was there to teach us the words to Kodaly's Psalmus Hungaricus, which we started last night. We also met Jessica, our new (permanent) choral administrator, who seemed very nice. (We were due to rehearse Beethoven 9 as well, but didn't. Jamie did confirm that we will be doing it from memory though - I told you!) The Kodaly surprised us all by being really, really lovely, with some gorgeous tunes and beautiful harmonies. I think we'd all expected an atonal mess, but that's not at all what we got. Really looking forward to hearing it properly - must get a recording ASAP. We got through the whole piece, I think (it's not that long) and it was sounding pretty confident by the end.

Jamie took the opportunity of it being just ladies to ask, on behalf of those members of the choir who are sick of this, that people stop talking unnecessarily in rehearsals. This was much appreciated by many people, but unfortunately several of the worst talkers were absent! Oh well. Maybe if no-one responds when they start talking, they'll get the message :-)

He also asked for comments and ideas about his idea for expanding the choir, but I won't write about that now because (a) he won't have explained it to the men yet, and (b) I need to be out of the house in 5 minutes! So I'll finish with a list of Jamieisms:

"Now make your Australian pirate face! (that's the same as your pirate face but on the other side)"

"Now can you be a very small, very excited dog?"

(re first note) "If you get it wrong I will kill you. Slowly, personally... with a teaspoon."

"You're not often gonna be asked to do scat. So when you are, I'd grab it with both horns!" (he asked us to do some scat singing, and we were TERRIBLE at it)

"Please don't hum. I'm sure if you were in any other choir they'd kick you in the ribs." (this was when he was trying to rehearse a part on its own, and people from other parts were humming their own part after being asked to be silent - VERY annoying)

"I'd love to let you go on - but I can't bear it!" (this was when the whole 1st alto section very confidently sang a whole line a semitone too low - they all had a blind spot about a D#....)

My favourite part, though, was when he asked us to say a line of Hungarian words (page 17-18) but miss out the consonants. This was the funniest thing EVER - but you probably had to be there! :-)