This Blog

Great being back after our half-term break.

First, a quick note about this Saturday Synopsis. I try and publish something at the end of every week of term. So, if we’ve not rehearsed that week, unless anything particularly spectacular has happened, the blog post you’ll see will be the one relating to the previous week.

It’s always worth glancing up to the top of this page to check the date of the blog in case I’ve opened with some something like, “No choir this week as it’s half term!”

As always, the Calendar is the source of truth so go there to check dates if it's not clear.

Rehearsal Song votes

I’ve been enjoyed following your “requests” for rehearsals. You should see a little box when you log on to the members’ area asking you to vote for up to three songs that you’d like to sing through at rehearsal.

So, I've taken a quick break from working on the Pop Club Choir App and switched my attention back to this website for a moment. At the excellent suggestion of Lindsay from our Ipswich Choir (and others), you can now see the top five rehearsal requests, as voted for by you, plus the number of votes cast so far. This should update in real time in the Calendar.

Voting opens a week before the rehearsal – if you’re stuck for something to do in the break you can log on and vote for next week’s songs – and closes at midnight the day before the reharsal. The aim is to give you an idea of what songs we’ll be singing at the end of the rehearsal before the day. So if there are any you need to brush up on, you know which ones to look at beforehand.

I’m hoping that this will be especially useful for those who’ve joined more recently.

I also try and publish exactly what we’ll be covering at rehearsals in the same place. Granted, my cryptic warm up titles probably won’t help you, but hopefully everything else will be clear.

Finally, if you are new to Pop Club Choir, remember that I’m trying to keep the Set List for gigs the same for the whole term. So, if you’re wondering which songs you should concentrate on getting to grips with, the set list for an upcoming gig is a great place to start.

Warm Ups and Hot Hopefuls

On the subject of warm ups, I’m going to start putting some resources up for these too, starting with this week’s Go Pachelbel warm up, a mash up of Pachelbel’s Canon in D and Go West by The Pet Shop Boys.

You’ll find all things warm-up-related in a new folder called (wait for it), Warm Ups, right here in the members’ area. Videos (such as the Rehearsal Video for Go Pachelbel) will only be in the Player section and PDFs (lyrics and scores) will only be in the Resources section. Audio files will be in both sections, though there aren’t any yet. So, don’t panic that you don’t see them.

Gigs

Sadly we had to cancel the gig on Saturday 5th June – just not enough people signed up. Apologies to everyone who was up for it.

I’ve been wondering if I can work out a plan for gigs that suits most of the people most of the time. There are some among you who do them all, some who almost never do any, and everything in between.

All of that is absolutely fine. Gigs are optional and whilst I’m keen that when we do perform, it’s a proper, enjoyable performance to watch, it is at the end of the day, just as much for the pleasure of you lovely people.

We’re due another questionnaire so I’ve been thinking about how best to tease out your views. If you have any thoughts about gigs, or anything else for that matter, do feel free to share them.

I don’t want to cut down the number of gigs because that penalises those who want to do as many as possible but equally, I don’t want us to go out and put on anything less than a fantastic performance. However, we obviously do a lot more gigs that other choirs and I wonder if I’ve gone a bit mad booking so many in.

I have a bit of form in this area, as many of you know!

If you have any questions then do get in touch. You can email me at ed@popclubchoir.uk, or WhatsApp, call or text on 07973 110075.

Ed