[The views expressed in this blog are from my personal experiences from almost 30 years of leading non-auditioned community choirs in the UK, as well as adult singing workshops. My focus is on teaching by ear using a repertoire of Songs from traditions ac...

[The views expressed in this blog are from my personal experiences from almost 30 years of leading non-auditioned community choirs in the UK, as well as adult singing workshops. My focus is on teaching by ear using a repertoire of Songs from traditions ac...

[The views expressed in this blog are from my personal experiences from 25 years of leading non-auditioned community choirs in the UK, as well as adult singing workshops. My focus is on teaching by ear using a repertoire of Songs from traditions across th...

[The views expressed in this blog are from my personal experiences from 25 years of leading non-auditioned community choirs in the UK, as well as adult singing workshops. My focus is on teaching by ear using a repertoire of Songs from traditions across th...

Hello everyone,   I wanted to let you know about a book/ cd set that Ive just published. It's a collection of Makwayera style Songs from Zimbabwe and includes 12 transcriptions and an accompanying CD of field recordings (24 tracks). Makwayera singi...

[The views expressed in this blog are from my personal experiences from almost 30 years of leading non-auditioned community choirs in the UK, as well as adult singing workshops. My focus is on teaching by ear using a repertoire of Songs from traditions ac...

"The Singing Place" by Joan Szymko. Text by Lily A. Long. Recorded live on May 15, 2015, at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Performed by the Concert Choir ensemble of the Girl Choir of South Florida. Artistic Dir...  ink" href="javascript:void(0);" onclick="$(this).getParent().getNext().style.display='';$(this).getParent().style.display='none';">more"The Singing Place" by Joan Szymko. Text by Lily A. Long. Recorded live on May 15, 2015, at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Performed by the Concert Choir ensemble of the Girl Choir of South Florida. Artistic Director: Wallis Peterson, Accompanist: Gayle Giese. Cold may lie the day, And bare of grace; At night I slip away To the Singing Place. A border of mist and doubt Before the gate, And the Dancing Stars grow still As hushed I wait. Then faint and far away I catch the beat in broken rhythm and rhyme Of joyous feet,— Lifting waves of sound That will rise and swell (If the prying eyes of thought Break not the spell), Rise and swell and retreat And fall and flee, As over the edge of sleep They beckon me. And I wait as the seaweed waits For the lifting tide; To ask would be to awake,— To be denied. I cloud my eyes in the mist ...    ink" href="javascript:void(0);" onclick="$(this).getParent().getPrevious().style.display='';$(this).getParent().style.display='none';">less

[this is an updated version of a post which first appeared on my blog From the Front of the Choir]   First I need to fess up: I have a low boredom threshold and always try to squeeze in as many Songs as possible. Not always a good idea!  ...

Our last song is an original carol written by the incomparable composer and arranger, Chris Hoban. Chris has written many of Show Of Hands’ big hits including, ‘Lily and the Rose’ which he wrote for Miranda Sykes and The Lost Sound. We’ve performed this t...  ink" href="javascript:void(0);" onclick="$(this).getParent().getNext().style.display='';$(this).getParent().style.display='none';">moreOur last song is an original carol written by the incomparable composer and arranger, Chris Hoban. Chris has written many of Show Of Hands’ big hits including, ‘Lily and the Rose’ which he wrote for Miranda Sykes and The Lost Sound. We’ve performed this together With Show Of Hands, at their 25thAnniversary concert in The Royal Albert Hall in 2017. Chris explains the background of ‘Though We Lie Underground’ for us: I first came across the stories surrounding the curious tradition of West Country miners singing carols underground when listening to a recording of Alan Lomax’s extraordinary live BBC 1957 broadcast “Sing Christmas and the Turn of the Year”, a feat of radio genius involving hundreds of performers and groups all over the country, seamlessly brought together for one scintillating hour. At one point, Lomax described how the miners of Devon and Cornwall would celebrate Christmas underground in an almost pagan fashion: they would select the largest lump of tin ore they could handle, set it up in...    ink" href="javascript:void(0);" onclick="$(this).getParent().getPrevious().style.display='';$(this).getParent().style.display='none';">less

[this is an updated version of a post which first appeared on my blog From the Front of the Choir]   I was in the middle of planning a workshop and was checking through a few Songs to make sure I had the correct lyrics, source, meaning, backgr...