I met with Suzanne and Kara, the conductors of the Rotokauri Tuis (childrens' choir) on Tuesday, and we mapped out the concert which will be performed on Friday February 26th. Both choirs will sing together for six songs, and then each choir will perform two sets of songs. The Tuis will do one set of songs with their whole choir and another set with a smaller group of the senior singers, who are working on singing in parts.
Yesterday (Thursday October 22nd) I told the Glee Club about the plans for the concert. I taught them the chorus of the Kiwi Kids' Theme song, I gave them the 'When I'm 64' lyrics to work on rewriting. The Tuis will sing the original version of the song, the Glee Club will sing their version of the song. I gave Glee Club the Tui's new words to the ABBA song Honey Honey, which has turned it into a love of the product, very cleverly.
I sent an email to the Garden's Festival organiser about date, time and venue for the concert. It appears that we will have the venue we want, the Pavilion, an inside venue where the Glee Club will be able to sit for most (for some) or all (for some) of the concert. The organiser had envisaged the concert being held outside on a lawn, and that would have required amplification, chairs, etc. Watch this space, I am still thinking about how we might merge our concepts.
I have put a post on the AIRS project, a request for help about how to record this event in relation to the outcomes for both sets of participants for this process. AIRS stands for Advancing Interdisciplinary Research in Singing. It is an exciting concept, but doesn't appear to be very active as yet. I have also joined an Ethnographic research group here in the School of Education, and will be asking them for their learned opinions as well. Furthermore I will be talking to my colleague Professor Peggy Koopman-Boyden who has been a gerontologist for some decades, and picking her brains.
In the meantime, I go next Tuesday to work vocally with the senior singers at Rotokauri (ages 10 & 11) (a whole new way of using senior!!)and start talking with them about the project. I will continue to work with Glee Club, which now has 31 singers!!!
Friday, October 23, 2009
Thursday, October 1, 2009
October 1st
What a busy four weeks it has been for me, with additional classes to teach, and additional admin to see to. The Celebrating Age group did not happen, due to lack of interest. One person turned up the first time, nobody turned up the second time, and one person turned up the third time. It is either the wrong day, or time of day, or perhaps the wrong time of year.
However the Hilda Ross Glee Club is growing by leaps and bounds. I held a 'come and talk to me' meeting to which all of the villa residents were invited. Five members of Glee Club were at the meeting, and they answered questions, while I gave quotes about the researched benefits of singing. One of the delightful pieces of feedback that has occurred is that some people think that they are not good enough now that the Glee Club sound so good. As a result we had six new people join us, and our roll is now 26, with 6 men!!
Alex and Tui and Brian accompanied me as I went to have an interview on Hamilton Community radio. Initially I was going to have 45 minutes, but then it was just over 20 minutes, so the interview with me turned into an interview about this research and the Hilda Ross Glee Club, and went very well according to those who listened. I will try to get a sound file onto this site for you to listen to the interview, if interested. I could put a link to the radio station, but given that I am the last 20+ minutes of a 2-hr recording, I don't think that is practicable.
There has been an interesting comparison for me the last two weeks. With school holidays, sickness, and grandparent responsibilities, I have had a fairly high absency rate at Hamilton Chorale Rehearsals, such that I have more people at Glee Club than I do at Chorale, for now!
However the Hilda Ross Glee Club is growing by leaps and bounds. I held a 'come and talk to me' meeting to which all of the villa residents were invited. Five members of Glee Club were at the meeting, and they answered questions, while I gave quotes about the researched benefits of singing. One of the delightful pieces of feedback that has occurred is that some people think that they are not good enough now that the Glee Club sound so good. As a result we had six new people join us, and our roll is now 26, with 6 men!!
Alex and Tui and Brian accompanied me as I went to have an interview on Hamilton Community radio. Initially I was going to have 45 minutes, but then it was just over 20 minutes, so the interview with me turned into an interview about this research and the Hilda Ross Glee Club, and went very well according to those who listened. I will try to get a sound file onto this site for you to listen to the interview, if interested. I could put a link to the radio station, but given that I am the last 20+ minutes of a 2-hr recording, I don't think that is practicable.
There has been an interesting comparison for me the last two weeks. With school holidays, sickness, and grandparent responsibilities, I have had a fairly high absency rate at Hamilton Chorale Rehearsals, such that I have more people at Glee Club than I do at Chorale, for now!
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Celebrating Age Singing Group
On September 10th a new singing group will be starting, based at the Celebrating Age Centre on Victoria Street in Hamilton, New Zealand. I cannot tell you what it will be called as the participants will decide that. They will also decide what style of music they will sing, and how they will be accompanied. The only conditions are that they are at least 60 years of age, and that they want to sing, whether they think they can or not. I also hope that the group will take themselves, i.e. leadership will come from within the group. I want to have a mentoring role, and also be able to research the group.
This morning (and yesterday morning) at 7:30 a.m. I met with a group of nearly 30 of our MMP students here at the University (mixed media presentation).(there are 126 in the whole group) They do most of their learning via computer, and are here on campus this week for an arts intensive, with lessons in dance, drama music and visual art for 6 hrs for each Arts discipline. This singing session was added on to an already full programme, but they came!
Last time they were on campus I had some voluntary singing sessions with the whole group, and got the message that some lacked either confidence, or thought that they could not sing. These students, who self-selected, made up this morning group. Do I need to write that of course they can sing, and they did sing, and as a group made a really nice sound. Average age probably late 30s. Two 25-minute sessions will not change decades of lack of self belief in singing ability, but they have started, and they have heard what they can do. It is certain that everybody can sing!! I do not mean singing solos, in the same way that if you can write you don't have to write novels or poems. The new group at Celebrating Age will be founded on that knowledge.
This morning (and yesterday morning) at 7:30 a.m. I met with a group of nearly 30 of our MMP students here at the University (mixed media presentation).(there are 126 in the whole group) They do most of their learning via computer, and are here on campus this week for an arts intensive, with lessons in dance, drama music and visual art for 6 hrs for each Arts discipline. This singing session was added on to an already full programme, but they came!
Last time they were on campus I had some voluntary singing sessions with the whole group, and got the message that some lacked either confidence, or thought that they could not sing. These students, who self-selected, made up this morning group. Do I need to write that of course they can sing, and they did sing, and as a group made a really nice sound. Average age probably late 30s. Two 25-minute sessions will not change decades of lack of self belief in singing ability, but they have started, and they have heard what they can do. It is certain that everybody can sing!! I do not mean singing solos, in the same way that if you can write you don't have to write novels or poems. The new group at Celebrating Age will be founded on that knowledge.
Hilda Ross Glee Club performances
On August 19th the Glee Club presented two performances, one at the Salvation Army Day programme, and one at the University of Waikato, as part of the 12@12 weekly performance programme. Then we took ourselves over to The Station, where we had lunch at reserved tables, a most pleasant and busy day.
The day before (August 18th) I had been to the Hilda Ross complex and talked with a group of about 15 people who were interested in joining the Glee Club. Conversation had occured saying that people thought thay they were not good enough so didn't come and join, so some of the Glee Club people told the visitors how much fun they had, and how much better they felt when they sing, and why they wouldn't miss practise, unless they really had to. This was very encouraging, and it will be interesting to see how many new members there will be at this week's practice.
The day before (August 18th) I had been to the Hilda Ross complex and talked with a group of about 15 people who were interested in joining the Glee Club. Conversation had occured saying that people thought thay they were not good enough so didn't come and join, so some of the Glee Club people told the visitors how much fun they had, and how much better they felt when they sing, and why they wouldn't miss practise, unless they really had to. This was very encouraging, and it will be interesting to see how many new members there will be at this week's practice.
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
A Summary of my current position
Today, during a programme called 'Research Bites' I presented my current position after all of the discoveries and discussion of the past two weeks. I shared the findings out of the Singing and Health report from the Sidney de Haan Centre, which reflected much of my own findings, from open-ended-question surveys that I have been using with my groups up until now.
I now have three sets of data that I will be collecting.
Data 1
I am now in the position of getting 'critical mass' with thirteen groups of people with participants over age 60 filling out the following questionnaire between now and the end of the year, potentially up to 200 people.
I have collected a second set of blood pressure data from the Hilda Ross Glee Club and this will grow into a longditudinal set of data with individual people's data as well as the collective data.
Data 3
I am working in the intergenerational setting with the Glee Club and the Rotokairu Tuis for a concert in the Hamilton Gardens Summer Festival in February 2010. Having made links with the AIRS project I will be looking at research guidance from the intergenerational group there, along with the Sidney de Haan centre faculty. This project starts in mid September.
I now have three sets of data that I will be collecting.
Data 1
I am now in the position of getting 'critical mass' with thirteen groups of people with participants over age 60 filling out the following questionnaire between now and the end of the year, potentially up to 200 people.
- How does singing in *** influence your health?
- How does singing in *** influence your sense of wellbeing?
- How does singing in *** influence your quality of life?
I have collected a second set of blood pressure data from the Hilda Ross Glee Club and this will grow into a longditudinal set of data with individual people's data as well as the collective data.
Data 3
I am working in the intergenerational setting with the Glee Club and the Rotokairu Tuis for a concert in the Hamilton Gardens Summer Festival in February 2010. Having made links with the AIRS project I will be looking at research guidance from the intergenerational group there, along with the Sidney de Haan centre faculty. This project starts in mid September.
Sunday, August 2, 2009
Forward Planning
What a difference a week makes!!
I had a most informative and enjoyable conversation with Professor Stephen Clift on Friday afternoon. He sent me links to many things that they are doing from, and in, the Sidney de Haan Centre. He has agreed to be my mentor, and so my publication record is going to grow greatly in the next two years, since I can now have feedback from someone working in the same field, before I submit for publication.
Stephen put me onto the AIRS project (Advancing Interdisciplinary Research in Singing) and I have applied to join. This is an international consortium of people, who are all working on the same area. As I have said to friends, I have not be so excited in a long time.
The AIRS project
What became clear in talking to Stephen is that we are working on the same things, and that I am potentially at the 'cutting edge' of this big corpus of work. With the Hilda Ross Glee Club working with the Rotokaura Tuis (a choir of 50 girls from Rotokauri School aged 6 - 12) for a concert at the Hamilton Summer Gardens Festive in February 2010, I have an intergenerational prorgamme starting in about two months. The consortium will allow me to ask questions of anyone else who has done such programmes, and how I can collect usefual data on this, to contribute to the field.
The main and overwhelming feeling and sense I have is that I am no longer working alone, that what I am doing is becoming more and more important and valued in a global sense, and that I can be a significant part of that.
I had a most informative and enjoyable conversation with Professor Stephen Clift on Friday afternoon. He sent me links to many things that they are doing from, and in, the Sidney de Haan Centre. He has agreed to be my mentor, and so my publication record is going to grow greatly in the next two years, since I can now have feedback from someone working in the same field, before I submit for publication.
Stephen put me onto the AIRS project (Advancing Interdisciplinary Research in Singing) and I have applied to join. This is an international consortium of people, who are all working on the same area. As I have said to friends, I have not be so excited in a long time.
The AIRS project
What became clear in talking to Stephen is that we are working on the same things, and that I am potentially at the 'cutting edge' of this big corpus of work. With the Hilda Ross Glee Club working with the Rotokaura Tuis (a choir of 50 girls from Rotokauri School aged 6 - 12) for a concert at the Hamilton Summer Gardens Festive in February 2010, I have an intergenerational prorgamme starting in about two months. The consortium will allow me to ask questions of anyone else who has done such programmes, and how I can collect usefual data on this, to contribute to the field.
The main and overwhelming feeling and sense I have is that I am no longer working alone, that what I am doing is becoming more and more important and valued in a global sense, and that I can be a significant part of that.
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