there is a sence of glumness this year in the office.
budget cuts being so marked that the traditional ‘christmas doo’ has been replaced with a secreet team building excersize. The only clue we have so far been given is to meet up in the centre of leeds on the date and dress up warm. (ascide: the same clues i used to get before being shipped out to an illlegal rave somwhere in the countryside back in the day).
It is my oppinion that they intend to make us sing chaorls and competitivally raise money for charity.
as a twice graduate student of music working in an office which couldent have less to do with music or creativity in general this is a fantastic oppertunity for me to get festivally over-competitive for a good cause, i hope you agree and provde me with some help to CRUSH THE FEEBLE NON-MUSICAL FOOLS!
so here are the things/advice i need:
a freesource where i can download the 4 part vocal scors and chords to popular chaorls.
advice on how best to trick them into sight reeding a score and other hints for high-pressure teaching.
suggestions for cheep instruments; Ill bring a whistle for tuning and maby some interludes, maby a few pairs of ‘shakey eggs’ to amuse the tone deaf, and im thinking of calling in a gituar for rhythm.
suggestions for any tunes (irish or otherwise) i can knock out inbetween caorls on a whislte for continuity…
any other advice on how i can OBLITERATE THE COMPETITION ENTIRLEY in the name of charity.
I was at a singing workshop last weekend. It was run by Abbie Lathe and Claud(ia) Gibson. It was mostly singing rounds and harmonies. It was enormous fun.
We did not have so much as a page of sheet music. It was ALL done by ear.
If you are going to teach your office to sing carols in harmony, you may need the sheet music to refer to, but don’t go giving it out to people. If they aren’t trained to read music it will only confuse.
There were twenty-five people in our workshop. We wouldn’t have got a quarter done of what we did if we had been reading it. Abbie or Claudia sang us a line, and after two or three goes, we were in there.
Once people get the notion of a harmony, they don’t have a problem with it. And there is every reason why you should make up your own.
How many people are you talking about? …I wish I get get my Office to sing… …no I don’t…
Edited to say - unless you’ve got some super-good instrumentalists, keep it a capella.
If you had a few people who could sing, they could lead their “parts”. All the others have to do is imitate in short phrases.
Could you gather a core of, say, 3 or 4 people who do sing? They could be “part leaders” (“section leaders”, e.g. soprano, alto, etc).
Alternatively, if you are the only singer, you could time-share: get a small group going on the basic melody, then slide over to another group, and add bass, etc.
Is there time for any preparation? i.e. to gather a core and practice?
I’m guessing there are some carols that people have been hearing from childhood… ya’know, the “old standards”. I’d stick with them.
The trick would be to come up with a process by which to parse the well known carols into a call+response arrangement.
Just a thought. I’m sure this overlaps with IB’s idea, but I was in a hurry and just dove into typing.
I sang in an employer group once, long before I had taken up music. I had a ball !
well i can sight sing the tenor part- but if im the only alto in the group it may suck, so i can hope for another psudo-competant singer to be present. Even then it mat not work.
what i really need is the 4 part SATB for the standards - everyone will know the suprano, and i know tenor to a few of them, but im hoping that i / a few other musical-dark-horses can fill us out a bit.
We want video!
Here’s my two cents. Stick with the standards. Rely on a few talented people. Have FIRE! I don’t care how you get fire, even if it’s fake fire, get fire. You will win with fire. Everyone loves fire. Mwa-ha-ha.
fortunatly; it will be during office hours, and for normal pay, also, as were owned in part by the government i would like to thank all the UK tax payers on C+F for giving me an opertunity to get payed while making music.
it may not be choir duty, but i live in fear, aditionally, what are peoples opinions on shakey-eggs?
