A Capella Adventure
A small group with a big sound came together at Battleford United Church to learn about singing A Capella from Jo Carter.
We decided to have an educational event about singing A Capella, without actually connecting it with Battlefords Blend. Six people attended, five of whom had never intentionally sung without accompaniment.
A Capella Adventure was a big hit for the 16 people who came out to learn more.
The eventing started out with physical warmups led by Annette Duhaine. As she went through the movements, she explained how each one helped our instruments – our voices. It was a fun and educational time.
Following that, Jo Carter took over with some vocal warmups, explaining different ways to use our bodies to help our voices. Things like, “stepping on giants” and “hauling a child out of water” helped to show how many muscles can be involved in singing.
Carter continued to teach as she demonstrated how “bubbling” helps to stretch our range and get us through those “breaks” in our voices. It was amazing to have people be able to bubble two or three notes higher or lower than they could sing at first.
Once we learned that we were challenged to sing a round, in a foreign language with beautiful harmonies. Everyone was impressed with the sound that we produced. Then Carter put us through more paces, asking us to sing like opera singers, or five year olds, letting us sing and hear the difference in the sounds.
From there Carter led us into learning a four part version of “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” that she had arranged. By this time each of us had a chance to determine which part we should sing – bass, baritone, lead or tenor and it turned out there were enough voices in each part, although there was only one tenor.
“Flowers” was our next mission, starting with the chorus. By the time we were done with it, we were singing the whole piece beautifully.
We were given a short break with lemonade, cookies and chocolate which loosened us up for a little karaoke. Everyone had fun as a number of us dared to take the mic and sing one of our favourite songs. To end the evening, Battlefords Blend president, Andrea Stewart encouraged everyone to consider coming out to rehearsals for Battlefords Blend. They could come with the intent of joining the chorus or to come to join in singing our Christmas music.
Battlefords Blend will continue to meet at Battleford United Church on Tuesday evenings at 6:45 pm. Anyone interested in A Capella singing or joining the chorus is welcome.