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Singing Session 1 October 2016 By Liz

Saturday 1 October – Warming Up

1st of October, and the Erskine Bridge wasn’t there this morning. Ooh. Foggy. Autumn had arrived with its “…and I mean it…” hat on. Silver cobwebs and eerie mist rising off the Forth and Clyde Canal. Even the swans had buried their heads beneath the water; the electricity wires drooping between the pylons singing out their own sweet hiss.

Singing. Right. Better get off to Dynamic Meladies. Remembering how cold the church had been in the Spring, I donned my thickest man’s jumper; others arrived in coats, scarves, shawls, boots. So we were pleased to learn that a new venue had been found, the Unitarian Church in Berkeley Street would apparently welcome us, and allow us a choice of rooms, with loos nearby. Could it be “the nearest thing to heaven that we’d seen?” Taking the line from the song “On Top of the World,” which we were to practise, it being part of our repertoire (feel so proud! part of a group with a repertoire!) for the gig we have coming up on 8 October – ‘Dance For Doctors’ event to raise funds for and awareness of Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors without Borders) at Avant Garde in the Merchant City . Our other songs being: Lean on Me, Caravan of Love and the brilliant a cappella song by Pentatonix, Sing. Guaranteed to lift the heart of anyone, no matter how foggy the day.

But first the warm up. Only a short one as we had to concentrate on the singing. (What a pity!) The usual physical warm up of stretches, complete with various cronks and glunks from necks and knees, and a particularly worrying crack from Karen’s shoulder. And of course the wretched co-ordination exercise which I still can’t do. Everyone else was adding in the feet bit, but I was still doing arms only; with one hand half way up in the air, one hand pointing to the floor and what felt like another three hands wavering somewhere in between. Where my brain was I could not tell you. Then the breathing – breathe in for a count of two, hold for four, breathe out for four, pause for four. Then six; then eight. To tell the truth, sometimes on the holds, my breathing re-starts of its own accord, just little sips. Never mind. Then the voice, scales – mouth two-fingers open, sing “Ah,” not “Hah”. As we went higher and higher, I kept thinking each time, “it’ll be this one, Sheena says, ‘Just one more’”; as always I was ready for that rather sooner than it arrived. But it’s good. I can sing much better (in my opinion) than when I started six months ago, my vocal range has definitely extended. No pain, no gain as they say.

And then down to business. We practised the melodies first, then the harmonies, then split into two groups and sang both together, working on the timing and movement. It sounded wonderful, amazing, fantastic. Sung with feeling – even the Top of The World line, “There’s a pleasing sense of happiness for me.” Which is a really rubbish line in a great song. It’s amazing what you can do if you put your mind to it.

And then the sun came out. As well it might, given our beautiful singing. All set fair then. Except I won’t be going to the gig, as I’ll be away; and I’m gutted. Good luck Ladies, I’ll be thinking of you x