A new year, and much to report.

I have just received an email from Jeanne Kelly of the Encore Chorale organisation, asking for my six songs, and offering to send a cheque straight away. How exciting is that!! Now to check them all very carefully, and make sure that they are good publishable state, and then send them off. The titles are:
1. No more meetings
2. We're SKI-ing (spending the kid's inheritance)
3. Shh it's a secret
4. Grey Nomads
5. The revenge of the grandchildren
6. The Bucket list

I have decided to sell them at $1 per copy and $5 for the set of six. The theory is: if the price is good, then it does not pay to 'not' pay :-)

The local Home School Choir has asked me to work with them during the first term on singing technique, so I will be starting that on February 7th and will enjoy working with those interesting young people.

My advertising in Facebook has been incredible. I would highly recommend it to anyone who wants to reach a wide audience. I am advertising for people to learn singing via Skype. My advert has appeared on Facebook pages in New Zealand an Australia over 100,000 times, but I do not pay unless someone clicks on the link, and the charge for that is between 20c and 35c. Since mid November, when the adverts first went up I have paid less than 1 hrs tuition fee, and it has resulted in one student thus far. I need to work more on what they see when they get to my website.

Backing tracks for the 12 songs for the 8 - 80 concert (that is happening on February 24th at the Hamilton Gardens Arts Festival) are my main project for the next few weeks. It is the most challenging use of Garageband that I have done so far, but each one will get easier, as I get better at selecting and editing the samples.

I am excited about the year and what it is going to bring.

Tuesday November 8th

My days are filling up.
On Thursday October 27th I started a 7-week singing workshop, through Continuing Education at The University of Waikato, using my old classroom. It is the first workshop I have run since 2005, prior to which I ran them annually. The demand disappeared, but this workshop series came because of requests to work with me, which is pleasing. Now a workshop is being planned for Tauranga, at the beginning of 2012

At the second workshop last week, I had one of those events which I value greatly, because of its effect. One of the women hardly sang. At the end of session, I asked her to stay, she said it wasn't important, I told her it was why I was here, and because she had enrolled in the w'shop it WAS important. Once again, a thoughtless teacher, decades ago told her that she couldn't sing. I showed her what she could do, and gave her the exercise to 'exorcize' that strong memory. The exercise is to sing 'you were wrong, you stole my voice, and now I am taking it back', to any made-up tune. I did this with her, and she sang more and more strongly back to me.

The Hamilton Chorale are enjoying the songs that I have composed which they are singing. Unsolicited comments in Facebook include: "I really like your compositions for our Hamilton Chorale to sing in these upcoming concerts. I am enjoying practising them at home.", "I am enjoying them too - the tunes keep going round and round in my head when I am not thinking about them!" I played them to my 32-yr-old son and he laughed, said he was surprised at the content, but loved it. Tomorrow night I will ask the choir for permission to video the Sunday performance of the pieces, so that I can post them on Youtube, and then sent the site to my USA contacts.

I have a contact who is going to take my skype singing proposal to the national managers meeting for REAP. Barry was a co-teacher with me at Tauhara College (1985 - 1992), so he can also speak personally about me, and my teaching and musicality.

This week I will finalise all of the music for the 8 - 80 concert for the Hamilton Gardens Arts Festival 2012. I have auditioned, and had the first rehearsal with the children. Today I will finish recording the songs for the '80' singers to have on c.d. to practice, and tomorrow I should receive the disc for the children's songs, and will do the same for them. Today and also tomorrow I want also to sort out who sings what in the combined songs and get that into a score for both of the groups.

When I want a break from that, I will record some backing tracks for my skype students (from last night's teaching) to practice along to :-)

Great Resolution to the problem

Having prayed about it, I let God guide my mind and actions, and felt at peace completely during last Thursday's regular rehearsal time with the Hilda Ross Glee Club

Because some of the singers arrive late, for many reason I though it unwise to discuss at the beginning, and so we sang for about 15 minutes, which by the very nature of singing put every one in a positive place.

I then told them that I accepted their decision, but the consequence was that the Hilda Ross Glee Club would not be the '80' choir. However any of those in the Glee Club who wanted could join the choir that I would be putting together to sing the songs. The general response was that they thought that might be the case, so it was not unexpected.

However the next part of the discussion went far better than I thought it would. The question was "does that mean the end of Glee Club?" and the response was that everyone wanted to continue. Furthermore the Festival choir will rehearse outside of Glee Club time, so it is business as usual, and I left with three songs that they have selected to add to their repertoire.

On Friday (the next day) I saw the Vision Forest Lake Singers and told them that they would be invited to join the '80' choir, and I may well have enough singers from these two village choirs to make up the festival choir. I am praising God for good resolution to what was a very vexing situation.

October 12th

The choir has received my letter, and the feedback is that their decision has not changed. I am looking for the wisdom of Solomon on this one.
Options, as I see it:

1. Find a new theme for the concert and risk them rejecting that repertoire as well, now that they have been empowered to.
   
2. Give all future selection of repertoire over to Glee Club, to source for themselves.
   
3. Invite those who will sing the repertoire to join singers from the other two choirs with whom I work, to form the 80 choir (of the 8 - 80 ensemble)
   
4. Pass on the whole task to one of the other choirs.

The contract is to be signed today for the concert, and it is 4 1/2 months away, so there is time to do any of the above.

I audition the children of the '8' choir during the first week back on the Tuesday and Wednesday, and have the first rehearsal with them on the Friday of that week.

On a much brighter note, I have completed four of the compositions that I plan to write, and they are in the hands of the Hamilton Chorale to be sung at the concerts the weekend of Nov 12/13. They are reasonably simple songs, written for people aged 70 plus to be able to sing in parts. I will get feedback from the Chorale on how they enjoy (or don't) singing them, and send that along with the final editing of the compositions.

Lots going on: a singing student via skype in Melbourne has just joined my studio, and I am running singing workshops for 8 weeks for Waikato University Continuing Education also during the fourth term.

8 - 80 Concert is on for 2012!!

It is now a fixture for the Hamilton Gardens Summer Arts festival. For the third year in a row, the 8 - 80 choirs will be performing. I have just sent a proposal to the Rotokauri School. Given my new status as self-employed, costs will need to be covered, so it will be interesting to see how they respond.

I intend to audition singers, and give them CDs and music to learn songs independently, before rehearsing every two weeks during the 4th term for 1 hr after school.

The Hilda Ross Glee Club are not yet aware of the approval for the concert, I will talk with them about that this coming week.

It is very exciting and also quite daunting as it involves a lot of work, but it is what I love doing, and showcases the amazing outcomes that are possible for both the children and the seniors

8 - 80 Showstoppers Concert videos now on Youtube!!

After quite a process, I have posted the songs to Youtube, and you can access them by clicking on this link

8 - 80 Videos

If your internet connection is slow, then let the clip download before you play it. I recommend the first song, and 'I'd do anything' sung to each other by the children and the women of the Glee Club.

Few of the songs are complete, I edited out the people who walked in front of the camera, and the section where a child at the feet of the person videoing, became voluble :-)

8 - 80 Showstoppers Concert a great success!

The concert yesterday afternoon was highly successful on so many levels!!
Both choirs sang well, particularly the Glee Club, who were down to 17 members, with one having to leave before the concert as his wife needed him at home. The sound system make it so much better as well, and the feedback from the audience was astounding!! I had people asking if they could join the Glee Club. The members of the Glee Club had already considered that, and they are very certain that it is their choir, for those who live at the Hilda Ross Village, not for outsiders.

I was in Christchurch with a father in ill-health, and then experienced the earthquake for the 24 hours from Tuesday to Wednesday, until I returned to Hamilton. It did not stop, and probably still has not stopped. The concert completely lifted my spirits for that hour and still is doing so, the power of music. Photos and video are on their way.