Party Tomorrow NIght FRIDAY at Elaines 6 p

 Anyone have any food requests?  I'm ready  to party but not feeling the cooking groove very strongly.

So far I think we have 

Susan Clay:  quiche

Someone else- a different kind of quiche?

Elaine:   wine  and  ???  Debating making a shrimp  thing.   Having trouble chewing    and getting really tired of soup---  so whatever I do will be soft!

I'm going to bring the  new mic home and we can play with the recording ability.  

Will call  Mountain Music at 10 am and try to borrow better bongos.  ( BBB?)

Re: a side convo from rehearsal on 2/18, and a fun image anyway

We're doing an excerpt from Le Petit Nicolas in my 202s so I was looking for Sempé images to show them...

Jewelsong weekend

Please note times for workshop and concert which were nailed down last night. They are already in the gcal too if you have it in your calendar list.

• Saturday, 3/9 - Jewelsong master class for She Sings and friends - 9:30am-12:30pm
• Saturday, 3/9 - Jewelsong concert - 7pm
• Sunday, 3/9 - note that Jewelsong is doing all the music for our Sunday morning service that day
• Sunday, 3/9 - Installation - 5:30pm - She Sings and friends will do music (I Am Willing: SS + Jeff Christmas and Nate Chenette; Althouse Alleluia)

Top things to work on in our Jewelsong workshop based on the poll:

• how we attune to our music and to each other
• performing
• rehearsing
• teachings and practices of their voice coach
• learning one of more of their songs

Please add other ideas that come to you here or in comments...

• (under voice coach part) - advice they may have for becoming more adept at changing registers back and forth in the same song and/or getting one's voice to sound the same in both registers...

Jewelsong  ( Farrunissa)  wrote:

We are very excited about coming to Clemson and about being of service in a workshop!  All these ideas sound great...

We are thinking about a 3-hour workshop Saturday morning starting at 9:30am, called Singing from the Heart.  We will leave it up to you whether it is a workshop just for She Sings, or whether to open it up to the community.  If it's just a workshop for She Sings, then we can just co-create the whole thing based on what you'd like for your group.  Our fee is $250.

I decided it  will not be open to the public.  

Here are the ideas she is referring to
Please help me rank order them.  We can do this Monday very quickly 

Ideas for warm ups

Tips for  blend and balance

Sometimes the most work is finding music we love enough to put  our energy into so , 

 lists of Favorite quick songs to learn  or  Favorite " challenge " songs would be great

We are singing at the installation- so we  could sing 1 or 2 of the songs for you, for feedback.

Physical movements to promote better tone  or increase breath control

If you are familiar with UU hymns,  are there any you have  arranged for Jewelsong?

Sherri probably not singing

Sat Feb 16 2013

Last night when I asked Jay,  he though Sherri would not be singing with us tomorrow.  So we need  someone to do her solo.  S Clay  isn' t sure  her range is right  for this but is at the library and can't really break out in song and try it to be sure. .  Sara--   if she decides not-- can you do this?

GOOD NEWS:

We  now own  an amazing microphone and mixer we can use to record us during rehearsals and in concert.   Last night Catherine and I sang a little bit and listened to  how ' LIVE"  it sounded when we played it back.  The down side is that I don't know  how to do this myself.  I'll get with Jay and  get trained.  Who else is interested in learning this?  I'm thinking SUSAN CLAY  is  quite teckkie--- since we both have macs, it would be nice to both learn the set up for the garageband program with this mic.

It's really amazing-- and  delicate--  easily destroyed- so I'm keeping it locked up -- not for general use unless someone else is trained and wants the responsibility of caring for it.    You will be amazed!!

SEE  you at 10 am tomorrow

What Song, by Victoria Safford

Peter Mayer referenced this call to worship during his concert at the Gwinnett UU Saturday night. It blew me away. In case it will add some beauty/pondering to your lives as well:

What Song

---

by Victoria Safford

What if there were a universe, a cosmos, that began in shining blackness, out of nothing, out of fire, out of a single, silent breath, and into it came billions and billions of stars, stars beyond imagining, and near one of them a world, a blue-green world so beautiful that learned clergymen could not even speak about it cogently, and brilliant scientists in trying to describe it began to sound like poets, with their physics, with their mathematics, their empirical, impressionistic musing?

Also in Reflections: First Families, a Ki Hynniew Trep myth,What Matters Now by Richard Taylor andMathematical Theologyby Sarah Voss

What if there were a universe in which a world was born out of a smallish star, and into that world (at some point) flew red-winged blackbirds, and into it swam sperm whales, and into it came crocuses, and wind to lift the tiniest hairs on naked arms in spring when you run out to the mailbox, and into it at some point came onions, out of soil, and came Mount Everest, and also the coyote we've been seeing in the woods about a mile from here, just after sunrise in these mornings when the moon is full? (The very scent of him makes his brother, our dog, insane with fear and joy and ancient inbred memory.) Into that world came animals and elements and plants, and imagination, the mind, and the mind's eye.

If such a universe existed and you noticed it, what would you do? What song would come out of your mouth, what prayer, what praises, what sacred offering, what whirling dance, what religion, and what reverential gesture would you make to greet that world, every single day that you were in it?

Source: http://www.uuworld.org/2003/03/calltoworship.html

She Sings and She's Anal-retentive

(Sorry if you get a repeat notification of this one - it had reverted to draft status I just noticed.)

:)

 Here are approx.-but-pretty-close start times for all the songs on the YouTube audio of WSSR in case you'd like to play stuff over again or go to specific pieces.

wssr youtube 12/2012

times for where songs start on YouTube audio 

Round & Round  2:33

Keep the Fire 7:10

We are a circle   11:35

Benedicta Es   15:13

deep deep deep A   18:40

deep deep deep B.   20:41

deep deep deep C.    22:50

though my soul... 24:42

wandering...    28:50

deep in the dark   31:20

Kore 35:00

this little light  44:44

imani   46:50

we got the power.   50:56

carry it home 53:35

let the spirit.    58:37

when we are gone.      1:01:23

WSSR link!!!

WSSR link is in sidebar of the blog for quick reference :)

Here it is embedded, too!

Bobby McFerrin concert link/info

4/11
7:30pm
Peace Ctr

meet at UUFC to carpool
departure 6:30pm

http://www.peacecenter.org/shows/2013/ferr

News and Ear Training Site from Paula H

THis is good information so to keep it available,  I'm posting Paula's  email

 Dear She Sings,
      Congratulations on your obviously successful performance.  I miss
you all.  We are in Xalapa now, in the home of our Mexican "mom".
There is a cold spell here, so for now we are back into a bit of
wintry weather (well, that means sunny and in the low 50s).  But we
are surely enjoying visiting with dear friends.
      I have discovered an amazing website for musical ear training.  It
is teoria.com      There is FREE ear training on intervals, major
and minor chords, diminished chords, and on and on.  I am still
exploring the site, but it is entertaining and educational.  In
fact, I suspect that it is addictive.  I was working on triads
today, where they show you a musical staff with the root note of a
triad, then you hear a major or minor chord, and you click on the
notes that will complete the triad.  There are lots of sharps and
flats in there, so it can get tricky.
I highly recommend this site.  www/teoria.com
  Hugs from Paula and Jorge

Wanting Memories II

After listening and singing to this in the car about 3 gazillion times, I'm still struck by the beauty of the text. I think it bears its own post.

Addendum: there are a few mistakes in these lyrics, or differences at least when compared to online recordings or our lead sheets (which are pending at the time of this note: 4apr13); please stand by for the lead sheets for the wording we will use as our master version. Tks, SC

Wanting Memories

(from CROSSINGS by Y.M. Barnwell c.1992)

I am sitting here wanting memories to teach me
to see the beauty in the world through my own eyes.
I am sitting here wanting memories to teach me
To see the beauty in the world through my own eyes.

You said you'd rock me in the cradle of your arms.
You said you'd hold me ‘til the storms of life were gone.
You said you'd comfort me in times like these and now I need you.
Now I need you...
And you are -
gone.

So, I am sitting here wanting memories to teach me
to see the beauty in the world through my own eyes.
Since you've gone and left me, there's been so little beauty,
but I know I saw it clearly through your eyes.
Now the world outside is such a cold and bitter place.
Here inside I have few things that will console.
And when I try to hear your voice above the storms of life,
then I remember all the things that I was told.

Well, I am sitting here wanting memories to teach me
to see the beauty in the world through my own eyes.
Yes, I am sitting here wanting memories to teach me
To see the beauty in the world through my own eyes.
I think on the things that made me feel so wonderful when I was young.
I think on the things that made me laugh, made me dance, made me sing.
I think on the things that made me grow into a being full of pride.
I think on these things, for they are true.

I am sitting here wanting memories to teach me
to see the beauty in the world through my own eyes.
I thought that you were gone, but now I know you're with me.
You are the voice that whispers all I need to hear.
I know a "Please," a "Thank you," and a smile will take me far.
I know that I am you and you are me, and we are one.
I know that who I am is numbered in each grain of sand.
I know that I am blessed,
again, and again, and again, and again,
and, again.

I am sitting here wanting memories to teach me
to see the beauty in the world through my own eyes.
I am sitting here wanting memories to teach me
To see the beauty in the world through my own eyes.

Wanting Memories

Here are IMHO the best versions of Wanting Memories from YouTube. Of course one by Sweet Honey in the Rock. The Yale version gives some interesting ideas of additional parts we could incorporate or get inspiration from. If my ears aren't wrong I think they have 6 or 7 different parts by the end. The Auburn (War Eagle!) version has an alto line that sounds different than the others - to me anyway - more ideas.

Other versions I found I agree with Elaine - really slow or sometimes just not good.

If anyone is interested I have the MP3 of the Cantus version, too, if we want to listen for more voice lines/ideas to mix in. I think the Yale one has the most different/varied parts tho.