After making sure we are breathing correctly, and having warmed up our singing mechanisms, it’s time to tune the voice. Here we are going to begin to use the Kodaly Method, developed by Zoltan Kodaly. Remember the Sound of Music? The exercise below should be sung using the Solfege notes: “Soh, Me, Soh, Me, Soh, Me, La,… Continue reading Singing Exercises 3: “Tuning” The Voice
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Singing Exercises 2: Warming Up The Voice
After making sure we are breathing optimally in order to sing well, we need to make sure our vocal chords are working well, and that our voice is resonating across a comfortably wide range. To begin with let’s quickly look at the basic mechanisms of singing, to give us an idea of why we might… Continue reading Singing Exercises 2: Warming Up The Voice
Singing Exercises: Breathing
Here is the first of a series of singing exercises. To begin with, we need to breathe correctly. Below is a video that describes the diaphragmatic breathing that singers need to utilise. An additional tip when practising the exercises described in the video is to put your thumbs just below where your ribs meet in… Continue reading Singing Exercises: Breathing
Share Our Country: Jacobs Ladder
Gerri Wood’s lyrics to an old hymn tune, pleading for compassion and understanding towards asylum seekers and refugees. Download Sheet Music and Lyrics The cropped files give a bigger printout, but you might need to find a printer setting that say “Fit” or “Fit to printer margins”. If that doesn’t work, print the regular file!… Continue reading Share Our Country: Jacobs Ladder
Time Is A Tempest
An arrangement in of John Broomhall’s simple masterpiece. The arrangement is for 3 voices or parts. The melody is marked alto, to be sung by sopranos and altos. The other two parts are tenor and bass. Download the sheet music here. Practice Tracks On Windows, Right Mouse Click Title to Download In Chrome on Android, Hold… Continue reading Time Is A Tempest
Last Night I Had the Strangest Dream
Image by Jorgen Carlberg Ed McCurdy‘s simple, evocative and widely covered anti-war song, “Last Night I Had the Strangest Dream”, has been recorded in seventy-six languages (including covers by The Weavers in 1960, the Chad Mitchell Trio in 1962, Simon & Garfunkel in 1964,Cornelis Vreeswijk in 1964 (in Swedish), Hannes Wader in 1979 (in German), Johnny… Continue reading Last Night I Had the Strangest Dream
Bella Ciao
An arrangement, by Doug McPherson, of the song “Bella Ciao“, an Italian partisan song which originated during the Italian civil war, in which the Italian Resistance and the Italian Co-Belligerent Army fought together and defeated the forces of the Fascist Italian Social Republic. It is used worldwide as a hymn of freedom and resistance. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bella_ciao Scroll Down for… Continue reading Bella Ciao
Windy Gully
-A song by Wendy Richardson, remembering the Mount Kembla Mining disaster of July 1902. Arranged by Doug McPherson, from a previous arrangement by Florence Rankin. “She’s gone up!!” The shout could be heard across the mountain as the peaceful hamlets of Mt. Kembla were shattered by a loud explosion. http://www.mtkembla.org.au/#!the-disaster/p99e1 “Mount Kembla from Mount Nebo” by… Continue reading Windy Gully
“Let’s Pretend” -A Song by Peter Hicks & Geoff Francis
“Ladies and Gentlemen, take your partners for the climate denier’s waltz…” Scroll down for practice tracks and sheet music. Click here for sheet music. Practice Tracks A suggested practice strategy is to practice your part on it’s own, and then against an “all parts” track. Right click on the titles to download the tracks. Upper… Continue reading “Let’s Pretend” -A Song by Peter Hicks & Geoff Francis
Blackleg Miner: Arranged In Two Parts
Blackleg Miner is a 19th-century English folk song, originally from Northumberland (as can be deduced from the dialect in the song and the references in it to the villages of Seghill and Seaton Delaval). Louis Killen writes, “At the height of the miners’ union struggles of the 1880’s and ’90’s, labourers were brought in from… Continue reading Blackleg Miner: Arranged In Two Parts