Feb. 23, 2012 Rehearsal Notes

Happy Friday, all! It was an excellent rehearsal last night. Even though I hate having a cold, it was fun to just sit back and listen to all of you. It is sounding wonderful!

So just a couple of reminders: first of all, there is a musical missionary fireside this Sunday at 7:00pm at the Crystal building. There are going to be lots of soloists and musical numbers. It sounds amazing!

I am in need of 4 ushers for the Easter concert, so if you know of anyone who might be willing to help us out, please let me know.

Lastly, I want to encourage everyone to get the word out about our Easter concert. It is going to be so amazing! I am so excited and want to make sure that everyone has a chance to attend. I've even invited the random people at Kinko's because they were curious why I am always there making copies, lol. I did create an event on Facebook, so you can go the MMC page and share it with your friends and family. Thank you all so much for your help with this.

Okay, so during sectionals we covered mm. 170-end and reviewed mm. 38-135 of Cindy. We worked on getting the rhythms correct as well as the weird notes that can sometimes be a little difficult to find. The men went over the Pirate Song, mm. 52-end. The women ran through For the Beauty of the Earth, and we worked on our phrasing.

In SATB we worked on Lamb of God - big surprise, right? So first we sang through #12b, Gloria, and worked on where to stress certain syllables in certain words (ex. JE-sus instead of Je-SUS). The second sopranos need to work on mm. 175 and get that solidified before next week. Then we ran through #13a, Jesus, My Savior, once again working on phrasing and where to stress certain syllables.

Then we went back to the beginning of Lamb of God and started at #1, Thou Hope and Deliverer. In that piece it needs to sound like a Gregorian chant, and Kate McWilliams explained how monks would preach in this chant because you can project your voice more when you're singing than if you were just speaking in plain voice.

I hope everyone has a great week, and please let me know if you have any questions or need anything!
~Laura

Feb. 16, 2012 Rehearsal Notes

Hey everyone, sorry it took me so long to get the update done for last week's rehearsal.  I've been fighting a cold (boo!).

So first of all, just one more reminder that this coming Thursday, Feb. 23, is our first makeup rehearsal at 9:00 to 9:45. If you have missed any rehearsals or think you may end up missing any rehearsals, then you should plan on attending.

The next thing is that we found out that the Temple fireside is going to be held in New Brighton instead of Oakdale, so all three of our concerts this season will be in the New Brighton building.

In our sectionals we worked on the middle chunk (mm. 38-135) of Cindy. We then did a sing-through of A Child's Prayer and reviewed the ending of My Soul's Been Anchored, paying special attention to the rhythm and the feeling of the song. We need attitude!

In our SATB section we worked on the second half of Lamb of God. Erin had Larry and Shauna play the solo parts so we could hear how they sounded in correlation with what we have to sing.

Thanks, and see you all on Thursday!
~Laura

Feb. 2, 2012 Rehearsal Notes

In sectionals we worked on Lamb of God #14a  mm. 32-41 and 14b mm. 60-92. Then we moved on to Cindy and split up into Choir 1 and Choir 2. We worked on mm 1-37 and mm 207-251 with both choirs. It would be wise to go through your score and mark where you are singing so you don't get confused because there are a lot of places that would be easy to lose your place.. We then did a run through of Consider the Lilies. We reviewed mm. 1-47 of My Soul's Been Anchored, paying special attention to the accents and the rhythms, making sure to get them correct. Then we ran through Pilgrim Song mm 30-50. Finally, we started working on the tricky rhythms in It Takes a Village, mm. 85-end.

In SATB we went through Lamb of God #6, Hosanna. We worked on the rhythms and making the phrasing sound fluid. We reviewed #12b, Gloria. And then we worked on #13a, Jesus, My Savior until the end of rehearsal.

Also, just a reminder that next week is our Valentine's party and the Sopranos and Tenors are in charge of treats. Thank you all for a great rehearsal this week!

~Laura