Silent Night, Holy Night

Last night was most definitely one of my favorite Young Midlothian Singers experiences ever. We had the great honor of singing at St. Mary's Hospital in their Pediatric unit. Thank you so much to Lily Arevalo's mom who works in the unit and Abby's mom who coordinated the visit for us.
It truly felt like a "silent night" -- stepping out from the hustle and bustle and noise for a moment to focus on what really matters in a quiet hospital wing. A "holy night" where people were uplifted and spirits brightened and I felt like angels were all around in the form of your sweet children and the children we visited.
I wish that everyone could have joined us as we walked down the halls to see the tremendous service the kids rendered to the patients there (this I expected) but also to the parents and hospital nurses and staff. Due to privacy factors, we were not able to take any pictures but if we had, you would have seen teary mothers' faces holding their toddlers, smiling kids with tentative waves from their beds and several patients clinging to the jingle bell ornaments we were able to hand out. My favorite moment was outside the door of a sweet girl perhaps 9 or 10. As we sang the last verse of "Silent Night", tears ran down her face but she quickly worked to wipe them away as she smiled at us and her mom took her hand.
What a blessing it is to sing -- to bring joy and hopefully some measure of comfort, especially at Christmas time. What a blessing it is to work with your precious and bright children and watch them learn to share that brightness with others.
Best quote of the night...." We have totally got to do that again next year".
I whole heartedly agree.

GardenFest of Lights!

It was a real treat to sing at the Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens "GardenFest of Lights" on Monday, November 26th. The evening was beautiful with thousands of lights on trees and bushes, and even brighter on the kids' faces! For many of the singers, it was their first time visiting the gardens. We love the opportunity to be out in the community, sharing talents and spreading holiday cheer but it is also a great way to experience some of the wonderful places in Richmond!

It was opening night for the GardenFest this season and many visitors were able to step in from the cold and tour the beautiful Bloemendaal house and watch the Singers perform our holiday program, "Simple Gifts". We were able to perform a slightly shortened version of the program three times back to back! It was a great experience in stamina and really learning"the show must go on"! It was amazing to see the progress with each performance and the confidence and enthusiasm build.

With this being our first performance of the season, it was fun to see how excited they were when all their hard work for the past several months paid off!

Putting it Together

This week, rehearsal was very fast paced. We are trying to clean-up our songs to get them ready for next week's "dress rehearsal". Being required to sing and dance through a whole number independently is the best way to practice at home! Mom or Dad, siblings and even the dog make for great audiences. It is then clear where practice is needed. Often, confidence is built as each child realizes just how much they DO know! Look at some of the fun stuff we've done over the past few weeks.

 

Some of us really get into warm-ups!

Staging is an important part of putting together our "show". "Clumps", 4 lines, 2 lines, 4 line windows, rainbow...lots of fun!

Choreography is always exciting, as long as we can remember to SING too!

Take a Deep Breath

We are cruising right along ... learning notes, choreography, staging, lyrics AND trying to incorporate proper vocal technique at the same time. I felt like we needed to take a deep breath during rehearsal as the kids were up and down today -- one minute doing the Charleston in "Sleigh Ride", the next working on proper vowel placement in "On Christmas Night". They definitely have to keep their wits about them to get it all straight and they are doing just that!
One interesting fact about "Sleigh Ride" and "On Christmas Night" however, is that they both require a tremendous amount of breath control in order to sing well. We really do need to "take a deep breath"! Today we learned how to stagger our breathing when holding a note for a long time (check out the end of "Christmas Sing-Along"). We also re-emphasized deep breathing from the diaphragm as opposed to more shallow breathing with the shoulders and chest. Breathing correctly helps with singing while dancing, sustaining long notes, producing louder, clearer sound and even staying on pitch. It is important in choral singing and very important for the soloists -- a good first breath can make all the difference in sounding bright and confident.
With some simple practices we reviewed today in rehearsal, each singer can learn to better control their breath, using it as the power behind each note....or to hold their breath longer under water... or to have more volume when public speaking!

Why Do We Memorize?

Some children's choirs perform while holding their music.  While there can be some short term benefits from this (being able to perform after just a few rehearsals), we feel very strongly about our singers performing without their music.  We believe that the best performances come when the music (and choreography) are memorized and the music has really become "part of" the singer.  In order to accomplish this, we utilize four different types of memory:  kinesthetic, aural, visual and harmonic.

You can learn more about these four "memories" in this great article!

In addition, there are HUGE benefits that come from developing strong memory skills (math facts, anyone?).  We will address those in a future post!
  

3rd Week's a Charm

It is always amazing to see how quickly the kids pick up new songs, melodies, harmonies, vocal techniques, choreography...you get the idea.
This week we were able to do some review and learn a lot of new things.

One of the most important aspects of singing is the breath. It helps to power and maintain the sound. To help the kids understand the proper way to deep breathe while singing, we had them focus on their breath lying down. We then had them begin some breathing exercises standing up. A great way to start each warm-up session!

We all had a lot of fun as we began our choreography for "I Believe in Music" and reviewed choreography from "Sleigh Ride". It is tricky to dance stay in brand new formations AND sing at the same time, but they are getting the hang of it!

We were impressed today with how familiar everyone seems with the songs and lyrics. Keep listening to those Cds!

A New "Singers" Year

Much like the school calendar, we think of September as the starting of a new year at Young Midlothian Singers! We are excited about our three sessions this year, in the fall, winter and a shorter "Patriotic" session in the Spring before school gets out. We know there will be a lot of growth in vocal ability, performance technique and overall confidence. We look forward to sharing again with the community the joy we find in music.

We hope everyone enjoyed a fun and relaxing summer. We were anxious to see everyone today for our first fall rehearsal, especially as we welcomed some new faces! 

Our rehearsals are typically divided into 3 segments. Warm-ups, Lesson/Technique, and Music Rehearsal. Our warm-ups today included "Lip Trills" which help to loosen up the tongue, jaw and face prior to singing. We sounded like a bunch of motor boats and all got really itchy noses...just try it!

The excitement always builds as we start looking through the notebooks and the kids realize what song they will be singing this session! Though our program will include a lot of holiday songs, we started today on many of our songs more universal in theme. "I Believe in Music" seemed a quick favorite.


Throw your CDs in the car and get the songs stuck in your head! Can't wait 'till next week!

Spring Session Starts!

We had a lot of fun at our first rehearsal for the Spring session! We are looking forward to all of our patriotic songs and the performance opportunities we have lined up. The kids were especially excited about singing at the Richmond "Kickers" soccer game and the  "Flying Squirrels" baseball game later on this summer.

Speaking of performances, we wanted to share some photographs from our Winter performance at the Southerland Place assisted living center in March.

These types of performances are what make all the hard work for the kids really pay off. The residents were so appreciative and loved watching each Singer really shine! 

We were impressed with the kids' willingness to meet and greet our audience before we left. One of our singers said to me as we were leaving, "I think we made their day". I think so too!

YMS video!

Check out our video with the awesome singers from our first 2 sessions!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tql4oGFjsQ

Bring a Friend

  We had a fun time on "Friend Day" last Thursday afternoon.

We played some vocal games, shared songs together and the Singers even got to perform a bit for their friend audience!

It was especially fun to see the kids sharing their notebooks, excited to show their friends the work they've been doing. 

It was also rewarding for them to see how much they've learned over just a few short weeks!

                 

Moving and Shaking!

It is fun to be in full-force with our new season! As always, it is such a great group of kids to work with. They love to sing and are eager to learn.

 

 

Lately the most fun part of rehearsal has been our new choreography. We like to throw in movement and some blocking to lots of different songs but this season we have two numbers in particular -- "We're All in This Together" and "Accentuate the Positive" that have some pretty serious moves going on!

Don't worry, we aren't practicing our Kung-Fu Fighting! These are the beginnings of what will be our black canes (think Fred Astaire) in "Accentuate the Positive". The kids are really thrilled about them. So far they are picking it up so fast -- especially the throw and catch in the first line of the song!