"Why WAIT to do that? When you've got THAT in your arsenal?"

This seemed much funnier at the time, mainly because people started to giggle before Jamie got to the end of the word 'arsenal' :p

Ladies' sectional tonight. The quote above referred to the sopranos finally singing the last line of the Bach to Jamie's satisfaction. They fared rather better than us poor 2nd altos, who he compared to "bombers coming over the South Downs" when we did our humming in the Rachmaninov, and a "pneumatic drill" when we got the tune in the Bach! The cheek! (Mind you, I must admitted I was continually irritated by a few people behind me who seem totally unable to maintain the correct German pronunciation despite COUNTLESS reminders. My cheekbones are still aching due to me trying to compensate for them.) (Yes, I know I shouldn't try to compensate, but it's really hard not to!)

We did a bit of Syvati tonight, and a bit of Rachmaninov, and a bit of Bach. And at some point (I think during the Tavener, when he was trying to explain how the E and the F are closer together than a normal semitone), Jamie wanted to know how many of us were string players. It transpired that almost everyone present could play an orchestral instrument (although the brass section was rather under-represented, with only Abi), and Jamie got quite excited at the idea of us forming an orchestra at our weekend course in the summer!

What else was there? Oh, also during the Tavener: "Look at the hieroglyphics above it! ... I know it's not hieroglyphics. I know. That would be little pictures of animals and things." During the Rachmaninov, while explaining how to pronounce the Russian 'd': "Not like Brett Lee - like Shane Warne." (If I'd had Wikipedia to refer to during the rehearsal, that comment would have made a lot more sense!) And finally, during the Bach (probably while explaining how to pronounce 'schöpfer'): "Could you just look at my lips? Just briefly? ... I don't want you staring at them!"

Not much else to say about tonight, other than that (as usual with a sectional) we got lots done and had fun doing it, despite a LOT of people being missing. So, to finish, let's see... I'm sure you've been wondering what our top search terms have been lately, since I haven't mentioned them in ages. Well, there is still a trickle of people looking for the Honda choir advert, but the number one search (that leads to this blog) for ages has been for the Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink Song. Although, in the last couple of weeks there have been a surprising number of people looking for Fall on your knees and hear the angel voices (no, I have no idea why), and also an increasing number in search of the lovely Jeremy Holland-Smith (and I can't say I blame them!)

I'll finish with two funny things I discovered yesterday: some musical jokes (some old, some new), and a 5 minute video clip of Eddie Izzard being amusing about physics and cats. Enjoy!