"Sit on your hands until you feel something hard."

(Was it just me that thought this was rather rude? :p It was actually Jamie describing how to find your "sitting bones"...)

It's been a long week. I had a big Pleiades gig at my school last Thursday, and then on Sunday we were singing again at my best friend's wedding. (Which went very well, but was very draining, vocally AND emotionally.) And then yesterday was my last day in the job I've been in for the last ten years. And then choir! Two rehearsals in two days. I didn't post after the first one because I was dying from exhaustion AND heat exhaustion (bear in mind that I've been too hot EVERY SINGLE TIME we've rehearsed at WHGS, including the occasions when everyone else has been trying to decide whether to wear one coat or two - so imagine how hot I felt this week!). But in any case I hadn't got much to say yesterday. We did most of the Psalmus Hungaricus (of which more in a moment). The only Jamieism of note was at the end: "If you sing sharp here, I will be so... mesmerised!"

Tonight was back to Ravel. Very low attendance - when we shuffled forward to fill the gaps, the whole choir didn't even fill the front two rows. But we did get a lot of useful work done. (Frustrating to know that we'll have to do most of it again, because although I'd love to believe that all the absentees will ask about markings they've missed, somehow I doubt it!) Actually the most useful thing I learned tonight was how to breathe in quietly. That's something I'm really bad at, and if I've ever been told before in exactly the way Jamie told us tonight, I've forgotten. So, for those who missed it: The cause of noisy intake of breath is unretracted vocal cords, i.e. throat not open enough. So anything that will retract the vocal cords and open the throat will help silent breathing. Three easy ways to do this:

1. Yawn.
2. Laugh quietly.
3. Look surprised!

(Note: you don't have to do all three!)

(Further note: misspelling of "vocal cords" is one of my biggest pet hates. Whenever I see "vocal CHORDS" I want to scream and throw things. Not good for the voice!)

Anyway. We also did an exercise in which we had to hum like a Belisha beacon - this was notable for the fact that Jamie hadn't previously known the term "Belisha beacon". Bless! Oh, and at some point (possibly the start of page 9 of the Ravel) we spent quite a while acquainting people with how a diminished 7th chord works. For those who missed it, the point was that a diminished 7th chord is made up of minor thirds stacked on top of each other, so that if every part moves up or down by a minor third, you still have the same chord. There are only three DIFFERENT diminished chords, and they sound the same whatever order the notes are in:

1. C - Eb - F# - A
2. C# - E - G - Bb
3. D - F - Ab - B

As you will see, every note in the chromatic scale is in one of those three chords. (And those tenors who were confused at being asked to sing Eb in the first bar of page 9, just for the exercise - hopefully now you can see why!)

Sorry to go on, you know I love stuff like this :-)

Couple more Jamieisms. One that made everyone giggle, although I'm still not sure whether or not we were all thinking of the same thing (!), was "Never push - pull! It's much more fun!" Then there was "Don't be soubrettish. More horn!" which confused some people, who may wish to know what a soubrette is! And finally, Jamie was amused that someone heard him playing the piano before the rehearsal, and asked him "Was that you playing the jazz?" to which he was delighted to be able to reply "No, it was just Ravel!"

And finally: some more (hopefully useful) downloads for you. Firstly, mp3 clips of Psalmus Hungaricus.

Beginning, up to figure 4
Figure 4, to 8th bar of figure 7
8th bar of figure 7, up to figure 11
Figure 11 to figure 16
Figure 16 to figure 20
Figure 20 to figure 25
Figure 25 to figure 31
Figure 31, to 4 before figure 40
4 before figure 40, to the end

And another sheet of extra cues, like the one I did for Daphnis. (Not quite as vital as for Daphnis, but if you're like me and want to know what's going on in the gaps, you might find it useful.) The full-size one is here, and the small version is here. As I said last time, the small version will fit on your screen whatever settings you have, but it's very fuzzy. Your best bet is to save the large version (by right-clicking the link, as if you were saving an mp3), and then open the saved version. Most printers should be set up to automatically shrink it to fit on one page, while keeping the quality.

After quite a few people asked for paper copies of the Daphnis cues, I photocopied a pile of them and asked Jessica if I could put them out for people to take, last week. She said it'd be fine and that she'd mention it to Jamie when he arrived (he wasn't there yet). By half-time the pile had vanished, and I assumed they must have all been taken, but then Jessica told me that Jamie wanted to check them before they were distributed, and would put them out this week if they were OK. But they haven't reappeared, so I don't know whether there's a mistake (which would be good to know, given how many people already have one!), or whether he's just forgotten, or whether he's actually decided this is information he doesn't want the choir to have for some reason... Who knows? Maybe I'll pluck up the courage to ask him at some point. Or maybe he'll produce the pile next week. Let's see.