Last Choir Standing, 26th / 27th July July 27, 2008
Posted by Ria Keen in performing, singing stuff.Tags: hereford police choir, last choir standing
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Hereford Police Male Choir - they wuz robbed!
I caught up with the choirs for only the second time, this weekend, and once again enjoyed watching. However, I couldn’t help but feel that the programme is slightly odd in its construction – it feels somewhat disjointed and lacking any real warmth, which is a shame, as at its heart it’s a real celebration of music and camaraderie.
The decision to put through last night’s winning choir (Revelation) was proven to be absolutely correct, when tonight they rocked their version of ‘Amazing Grace’ with some beautiful chord substitutions at the end (all praise to the musical director)!
However, I was very disappointed to see the Hereford Police Choir go, for two reasons: first of all, I thought they were better than Only Men Aloud, even though the latter were pretty good, and secondly because they were bound to be drawing an older audience, which I think is important. Pop music may well be perceived to be the province of the young (notwithstanding Mick Jagger and the other brilliant rock dinosaurs!), but choral music certainly doesn’t have to be. There are plenty of young choirs in this competition, and I don’t think it would have killed the judges to make a (slightly) political decision and put the older chaps through. After all, it’s clear that all of these reality-TV shows are hugely political, so one more decision of that nature wouldn’t have hurt, eh?
Also, it was truly a joy to watch this ‘band of brothers’ as Nick Knowles refered to them, singing their hearts out in genuinely beautiful manner, with all of the dynamics and nuances of a really good choir. I think what let them down was their final choice of song, which really didn’t do them justice. If they’d sung something a bit more ‘emotional’, I think we would have been looking at a different result tonight.
It was nice to see some of the members of Only Men Aloud looking genuinely humbled and surprised when the Hereford gents went out. I can carry on liking them, then 
Sorry, but I really didn’t enjoy Last Minute and I wasn’t sorry to see them go. I’m sure they’re very nice chaps and all that, but I just didn’t get their message…….
Oh, but the real stars of tonight’s show? Libera, the young boys who did ‘Orinoko Flow’. They were quite simply superb – and I don’t say that lightly, as they were singing a song that I’ve hated since its release in 1980-frozen-to-death
I look forward to seeing what pans out in the coming weeks. But am I the only one really not enjoying Russell Watson? Loving Sharon D. Clarke though!
The Amateurs are Revolting…….. July 27, 2008
Posted by Ria Keen in performing, rants, singing stuff.Tags: am dram, hobbies
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The good, the bad, the happy and the sad of am dram!
In my work as a vocal coach, I teach a lot of amateur dramatics enthusiasts and practitioners. I find that they have something in common other than their love for musical theatre, and that is their dislike for the politics that seems to be an inevitable part of that world.
I’ve never been involved in am dram, other than as an educator, but it does seem to be over-burdened with such nonsense as ‘Oh well we must give the lead to Polly because her daughter goes to school with the Committee President’s son’.
I recently heard tell of a production that requires a young, very hot female chorus. The director suggested that, as these characters were supposed to be in their early twenties, he didn’t want to cast women of 40+ in those roles. He was replaced.
Similarly, you hear of elderly gents being cast as raffish young men because there’s always such a shortage of men in amdram. And don’t get me started on the politics of the committees!
Now, I have no problem with amdram per se………………..
(Oh alright then, yes I do! Or rather, I have a problem with amateurs who believe with all their poor deluded hearts that they could have been professionals. No, they couldn’t. If they were going to be professional, they would have done it, and no amount of blaming it on ‘circumstance’ is going to change that fact. These people are the same ones who get snitty with gifted folks who come up through the am dram ranks and then have the ‘goddamn nerve’ to go and work professionally, when what they should be doing is celebrating the success of their former colleagues! However, I have no problem at all with people who realise that they are doing it as a hobby, and that they couldn’t compete in the professional world if their lives depended on it, no matter how big their fins might be in their local ponds. ).
…………and we’re back in the room
As I was saying, I have no problem with am dram per se – I have many good friends and professional colleagues who started out in that world, and many a lovely student who participates – but there’s no doubt that it’s a tricky world. Take the case of the director whom I mentioned earlier - I mean, on paper, he was right, wasn’t he? If a character is supposed to be a 21-year old hottie, no amount of make-up is going to disguise a 45-year old, even if she’s really good looking and well preserved. There just IS a difference between 20-something and 40-something. On the other hand, if the majority of your members are slightly older (if not a lot older), then what to do? Choose different shows, is my immediate thought, but there’s a limit to how many pieces of musical theatre are written for predominently older women.
There’s a huge conflict between wanting to produce a good piece of theatre, and having to work within the limitations or confines of the company. So, whilst I have every sympathy with the director who expressed an unpopular opinion, I can also understand the point of view of the committe members who wanted to give every chance to their society members. Either way up, something is compromised: either the integrity of the play or the needs of the society. It’s an impossible problem to balance.
Yet another of my students has fallen victim to similar problems in recent weeks, and it has caused a great deal of distress. I asked her why she stayed in the society if it caused her so much unhappiness, and she responded that it was an integral part of her social life. I have heard this many times before, from others, but I can’t help wondering if the positives really outweigh the negatives? I see the distress that is caused to society members so very often………… sometimes simply because they don’t land a role that they coveted (which seems to hit harder in the amateur world than it does in the professional one – pros are used to being told no!), but more often because of some apparently political decision that’s been made. I can’t get my brain round why people continue to do something that causes so much unhappiness and resentment – even though some of the time, those feelings are self-inflicted. I can only assume that their love of being on the stage is greater than their unhappiness. Fair enough? Probably. But I wonder if there are any societies out there who have managed to strike a happy balance between ‘professional’ theatre production sensibilities and office politics? I’d be interested to know!
Graduation Show – Coram Boy July 20, 2008
Posted by Ria Keen in singing stuff, teaching stuff.Tags: coram boy, graduation, john paul cherrington, singing
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It has been my pleasure to be sorting out the vocals on a production of ‘Coram Boy’ in recent times. The production was brilliantly directed by John Paul Cherrington (Horrible Histories), who made the whole process run (more or less!) like clockwork.
From the singing perspective, this was an interesting one: the cast comprised a body of graduating students age roughly 20 – 25, plus those from the year below them, and then a raft of young BTec ND students who were being given the chance to gain invaluable experience working the main stage in a ‘proper’ theatre. This added up to roughly 100 students, many of whom are unconfident or very inexperienced singers, who somehow needed to be able to belt out the Hallelujah Chorus at the end of the production.
The other difficulty was that most of the singing in the play is supposed to be done by young boys (8 – 15), singing various works from Handel’s Messiah in their best choirboy falsetto. Given that the cast was largely female, and what ‘boys’ there were, were clearly above the age of 15, it was going to be tricky! So we had a lot of girls playing boys, and a lot of boys singing in falsetto throughout the play, in order to produce the right sound.
Furthermore, these are theatre students who are not training for musical theatre, and who do study singing as part of their curriculum, but never from a classical perspective. Overall, it felt like a mountain to climb, and in the case of the Hallelujah Chorus, it certainly was! There were times, early on in the learning process, when I thought that my brain was going to leak out of both ears before they ‘got it’. But get it they did, and by the time we got to the run, it sounded astonishingly good – never mind the fact that half of them can’t really sing! It was a huge achievement for all concerned.
Best of luck to those who have just graduated. They are about to find out that the world of work (or lack thereof) in theatre is far tougher than anything that’s been thrown at them in college (and there’s been a lot of stuff thrown) :-) Now all we’ve got to do is the same thing all over again for next year. But please, no more Handel!
Last Choir Standing July 13, 2008
Posted by Ria Keen in singing stuff.Tags: last choir standing, singing, vocal arrangements, vocals
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see the BBC's 'Last Choir Standing' website
I quite like the concept of choirs. They bring people together in a social setting, allowing them to share a common interest. Also – singing is good for you! (see articles). In short, I can think of far worse ways in which to spend an evening.
Thus it was with some interest that I caught up with the new BBC1 series ‘Last Choir Standing’. Last night’s episode was all about getting the entrants whittled down to the last fifteen.
There was some really lovely singing to be heard (and some not-so-lovely!) and more importantly, some great arrangements. I say ‘more importantly’ because a choir actually stands or falls on the strength of its musical director. Take the case of the all-girl choir from Birmingham (Dreemz, may they be forgiven the spelling!), who didn’t have an M.D. until 7 days before the call-backs: without the lady in question they were alright - really just a bunch of girls with good voices – but with her they were transformed. This lady M.D. was clever, you see – she knew where to place each individual voice in order that the collective made the best possible sound. That is the secret of a good choir.
Sounds obvious? Well, you’d think!
Certainly, there are choir masters and mistresses up and down the country who could learn a thing or two from watching this programme. I often – very, very often – take on singing students who come from a choral background and who find that, when they want to sing outside of their normal environment, they have inadequate tools for the job.
Most often, this is because the choir director scores everyone well inside their comfort zone when singing. Thus, they end up with tenors and sopranos peaking (roughly speaking) on a top G, and the basses and contraltos not dipping much below the G below middle C.
Result? Instant mediocrity!
Over a period of time, the singers become more and more comfortable within that very safe range, and find themselves less and less able to sing effectively outside of it. They end up with badly ‘contained’ voices that are good for…. well, singing in the choir! No problem if that’s what they want to do. The problem I have is that everything ends up sounding so bland, so sweet, and so cloyinging ‘choral’! I know that choir directors do this because they are aware that choirs are all about blending, but playing it that safe is just dull.
The choirs that got through last night, most of whom sounded great, (the Hereford Male Police Choir were a stand-out, but there were others) were those who were scored in vibrant vocal parts – parts that required them to sing, not just turn up.
Thus, I would implore all of the choir masters and mistresses country-wide to do three things:
a) watch ‘Last Choir Standing’ on a saturday night (I’m sure that’s a given)!
b) stop scoring in boring old SATB form and start utilising vocal registers more effectively and
c) for goodness sake, switch off the ’safety’ button and give your choir something to really sing!
Meanwhile, best of luck to all of the choirs who are through to the last fifteen.
I have a message for yourself……. July 8, 2008
Posted by Ria Keen in life issues, rants.Tags: english language
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Easy-to-digest book on basic grammar
I am becoming more and more irritated with the use of the words ‘yourself’ and ‘myself’ instead of ‘you’ and ‘me’. For example: “I have just sent out a letter to yourself” or “Please fax that to myself” instead of “I have just sent out a letter to you” or “Please fax that to me”.
So to those who man the telephones in busy offices all over the country, please note that it’s not only irritating but also incorrect. Please stop. You succeed only in making yourselves sound ill educated and slightly daft. Buy a dictionary. You’ll find the word ‘yourself’ described as a pronoun. Then, if necessary, look up the word ‘pronoun’ and proceed from there.
I have similar issues with the use of ‘text speak’ in formal documents (students beware!) and people who use the word ‘like’ as if it’s sentence confetti (“So I, like, said to him, like, you’re going the wrong way”). Oh yes, and the use of the expression ‘innit’ at the end of every sentence: “I’m having my hair done, innit”. What? WHAT? What does that mean? Is it even English? So I implore yourselves to, like, try to get at least a basic grip on the English langauge, innit. I don’t expect (or indeed deliver) anything approaching perfection, but surely we can do better than this?
Working from Home July 8, 2008
Posted by Ria Keen in life issues.Tags: work
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Along with many other people in this modern world, I do a great deal of work from home. This has huge advantages: no-one breathing down your neck, no traffic, travel or parking fees, you choose your own hours (sort of!) and you can take a break whenever you want. All good. You’d think.
There are some disadvantages to this apparent ‘freedom’, most of which are not immediately obvious, and the worst of which is that other people assume that you can be ‘available’ at the drop of a hat. For example, if the telephone rings - a common enough occurence - this is dealt with by people who go out to work very simply by setting the answerphone to ‘on’. However, if you work from home and don’t pick your ‘phone up, you are somehow deemed to be committing a crime against the gods of communication. Never mind that you, too, have a perfectly good answerphone. Never mind that you might be with a client, or a student. Or at lunch! No, you work from home, therefore you MUST pick up.
In another scenario, people knock at the door, often knowing that you are home, and failing to grasp the fact that you are working, not off on some slackers’ holiday, and quite simply unable to spare the time to socialise, discuss politics or religion, or politely decline to have your windows re-done.
The thing is this: I am an extremely busy, self-employed person. I do not own a blue suit with a big ‘S‘ on the front and, despite being a woman, I can multi-task only to an impressive level, not to an impossible one. In short: my office may be in my home, but it is still my office, and when I am working, I am working.
Older woman, younger man July 8, 2008
Posted by Ria Keen in life issues, rants.2 comments
My Mother (age 29 and three quarters) remarked to me recently that, once past the age of seventy, a person becomes ‘invisible’. I found this difficult to comprehend, what with seventy being the new fifty, and all that. It is a view that I’ve heard before though, and always from people whose opinion I would respect.
People are odd about age. Take me, for example: my partner is younger than me – considerably younger. Now, this is not a situation that I actively sought out – it just happened. He himself has a rather unusual grasp of age, as his father was well into his sixties when my partner was born. In fact, his parents are older than mine. Strange but true.
Does the age gap matter? Well, at first, I thought it might. It took quite some time to convince me that we were headed for anything except disaster! As it transpired, I was quite wrong. As people, we get on brilliantly. We’re very comfortable in each other’s company. My friends like him, and his friends like me. The age gap is there, and we don’t try to hide it, either from each other, or from the outside world.
I know that it’s not considered ‘normal’, and that the vast majority of people have partners quite close to their own age. However, it’s not such an unusual thing to see age-gap partnerships, and quite frankly, it’s none of anyone else’s business. We get on. I’m not having a mid-life crisis and he’s not after my money (just as well, as I don’t have any), or suffering from some kind of older-woman fixation. We choose to be together, and therefore I suppose, have to put up with some people not quite ‘getting it’. Some are jealous, some are disapproving. Yeah. Whatever. We agree to disagree.
Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher, who took a lot of stick from the media at the beginning of their relationship.
But should I really have to put up with people I don’t know from Adam asking me if my partner is my son? Firstly, how ancient do I look? ! And secondly, with the standard 2.4 kids / nuclear family etc becoming a thing of the past (sadly), you really can’t – shouldn’t – make assumptions about anyone.
My very closest friends are 16, 13 and 12 years younger than me. Nobody blinks. Ever. No-one has ever asked if my friend Alex (16 years my junior and young-looking), is my son. In fact, when we were working together, people often assumed that we were romantically linked. I have friends considerably older than me, too. They have not been asked if I am their offspring.
I therefore assume that there must be something about me, in particular, that makes people think that it’s OK to ask stupid, intrusive questions. If my partner and I even looked slightly alike they might be more forgiven. But we don’t. Not remotely. Clearly, I need to grow a thicker skin! Perhaps I’ll give Demi a call and ask her what she did
It’s just plain bad manners…… July 6, 2008
Posted by Ria Keen in rants, teaching stuff.Tags: education, manners
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Drama school students, Birmingham 2003
One of the things I do in life is lecture on a freelance basis, and one of the places where I do that is in a large F.E. college in Birmingham. Mostly, I teach HND theatre students and mostly, they’re a good bunch. However, at certain times of the year I work on the large productions, which involve not only the HND students but also the BTec ND students, who are 16 – 17 years old.
The first major production of the academic year occurs in December, when the students have only been at college for one term, and every single year I am alarmed and dismayed at how completely lacking they are in discipline and manners. Not all of them, you understand, but a goodly enough number. So, being of somewhat old-fashioned outlook when it comes to such things, I do battle with them until they realise that a certain degree of good behaviour and discipline is not optional, but an absolute requirement.
I then don’t see them again until the summer term, when another major production is mounted. By this time, I pretty much expect them to have learned some manners and grown up a bit. Mostly, they have. But there are always a few who think that, somehow, the rules don’t apply to them. I wonder how on earth they’re ever going to survive in the world of work? I can’t imagine, for example, that many employers are going to be very happy with them when they drift into work 15 – 20 (or more) minutes late on a regular basis. Or show absolutely no sign at all of being the least bit interested in what they’re doing. Or simply don’t show up. Or spend forever fiddling with their mobile phones, making not-so-surreptitious calls and texts. Or walk off in the middle of an activity in order to take an incoming call. I could go on but you’d be reading forever. All of these things and more seem to be considered perfectly acceptable by these ’students’. Students of what? How to be a rude, ineffectual layabout for the rest of your days?
And what can the teaching staff do about it? Well basically, bugger all. You give ‘em a warning. They do it again. You send ‘em to the principal. They really, really don’t care. You write to their parents. The parents come back with a worse attitude than the kids (‘My Kylie is a good girl who wouldn’t behave in that way, innit’). You theaten to throw them off the course. Ah! Now we’re getting somewhere. This sinks in, because if they get thrown off the course, then they don’t get their precious EMA payments (£30 per week to attend college. It’s that or get a job, and that would mean actually having to do something).
What would have happened in the good old days? They’d have been shown the door, and felt the underside of the principal’s boot on their way through it. But these days, if you throw a student off a course, the college doesn’t get its funding for that student. If too many students get thrown off the course, then the college / department is accused of having poor retention rates, and the course is closed down.
If it were down to me I wouldn’t let them through the door in the first place, as I am an evil old harridan. But if we really HAVE to educate these recalcitrant sloths, then it should be on the understanding that by the time they’ve reached school-leaving age, they are required to have learned some goddamn manners!
Certainly, when I was at school, I never EVER saw the behaviour that teachers now have to deal with on a daily basis. This is because anyone who transgressed at school was severely punished, no questions asked, and then punished again by the parents, for misbehaving at school! We didn’t die. We didn’t end up with persecution complexes or other psychological disorders. We learned that, in life, you can’t have everything your own way even if you really, really want it. And we learned not to behave like spoilt brats whenever something happened that we didn’t like. Spot the difference.
From Bacharach to Broadway July 6, 2008
Posted by Ria Keen in performing, singing stuff.Tags: arranging, performing
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Bat out of hell (how apt)!
I’d like to thank everyone who came to see the show (which was a complete sell out) and everyone who performed in it, or teched it.
The show was an immense undertaking, involving a cast of 35 - many professional, some semi pro, some gifted amateurs and some doing it for the very first time!
Writing the arrangements for a show of that size is a massive task, and one that I won’t undertake lightly again, but to hear the arrangements come to life off the page was quite amazing. The singers and actors in the cast (many taking days off from filming or touring in order to perform in the show) made a roof-raising noise that did full justice to the many hours (weeks) spent in crafting the parts.
60s-tastic!
No show works without a great cast, and they have all received praise aplenty from every quarter, but there were others without whom………. etc! The show’s production manager, my old friend Dan Reeve (he of the endless touring and Formula 1 pedigree) managed to get together the best tech team I have EVER worked with – and given that I’ve been singing for just over 143 years, that’s saying something! There was a team of six brilliant techies, all working for free alongside the cast, who ran the show like a military operation. They were superb, and they deserve far more than the heartfelt thanks of the entire cast.
Over the run of the shows, we managed to raise thousands of pounds for three charities. Additionally (and happily!), new friendships were made and old ones reinforced. It was an exhausting experience, as these things always are….. but even as I type those words, I remember what Joe Pasquale – the squeaky-voiced comedian – once said to me: he was talking (squeaking?) about people in our industry who do nothing but moan. Actually, he was having a good old rant about a certain American superstar diva with whom he’d had the ill fortune to share a stage in the previous week. She’d felt she couldn’t go on and give her performance because they’d put the wrong vintage of Cristal champagne in her dressing room, poor love. Does your heart bleed? Mine does. Anyway, Joe’s point was that what we do is – and I quote – ‘a bloody holiday camp’ way to make a living, compared with people who do really difficult things, like nursing, or putting out fires, or mining. So perhaps I shouldn’t say that doing the show was exhausting (even though it was!) because what we were really doing was having loads of fun. OK, this time we weren’t being paid for it, but usually we are, and that’s really a bit of a blessing, eh?
I’d Do Anything July 6, 2008
Posted by Ria Keen in rants, singing stuff.Tags: musical theatre, talent, tv
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Charlotte Holland - my student who did brilliantly to get so far
I’m watching the BBC series of “I’d do Anything” with interest, especially as one of my students was in it (she made it through to the last 18, which was brilliant).
Thus far, I don’t understand why they sent home the blonde East End girl who was actually called Nancy – I assume that things happened off screen that we weren’t party to, but based on what I saw of her, I think she deserved a place in the last twelve far more than some of the girls who sang this weekend. It’s so difficult to judge, because TV editors can make things look absolutely any way they want to.
The curly-haired Irish girl is clearly a contender, as is the annoying Blackpool Blonde. It’ll be interesting to see what pans out. Just as with the Marias and the Josephs, I can’t quite see why they insist on making them sing pop songs when the job is in musical theatre – you might as well ask Paul Potts to do Nickelback covers! I suppose it shows range and versatility, but it also disguises what they’re going to be like in a theatre situation. Did you see the Girls Aloud programme with the one who wanted to be in a West End show? She did it, but the solo number left her cruelly exposed. Horses for courses, y’see – these Nancy girls need to be singing theatre repertoire so that we can hear what they’ll do in context.
It’s deeply annoying for all of those folks who’ve bothered to go through years of training and auditions in musical theatre, to have to watch these folks appear to just rock up and leap into the limelight. On the other hand, these programmes have breathed a new lease of life into musical theatre, raising awareness in the same way that the football did for opera So in that sense, I can’t knock it. It’s interesting that the last two winners (Connie Fisher and Lee Mead) were both experienced performers. I wonder if experience will out this time?
