Happy New Year

A big welcome to 2013!!  

I am truly looking forward to the year to come ... and am starting out the year with plenty of plans for new projects and some lovely tours on the horizon to look forward to ...  England and Scotland in March; Europe in April - and that will take us through Holland, Germany, Denmark and Luxembourg ; then the US in August/September and another trip back to the UK in November ... Looking good.  

I wish you and yours a wonderful, creative and above all else, peaceful 2013.  

Donegal

We had a lovely couple of days up in Fanad in the north of Co. Donegal in mid August  - solace for the soul and mind .. and I got practicing with the camera:)

Reflections...

Doe Castle

One side of the bridge ...

The other side of the same bridge ....

And looking back at the same bridge ...

....and further up the river .... 

Then round to Ards ... 

I just wanted to jump in ....

Helped the hangover mightily ... lol 

And later in the week a walk down near my home in  Belleek ....

Great sky that night .....

Some curious onlookers ...

Who are you? :)))

 Great getting a couple of days off

Singing Workshops Back for the Autumn

Carlingford Lough Singing Circle & Community Choir

Singing for fun!

Every Monday night, 7.30pm

Warrenpoint Town Hall

Starts back Monday 3^rd September

For all levels of singers

Aged 16+

Easy Repertoire suitable for all singers…

Folk songs from around the world, old pop songs, standards, rounds and simple harmonies.

New voices always welcome

                Pop in for one night or stay for the season               

No audition necessary

By donation – suggested donation £5 per week.

Workshop leader: Fil Campbell
Tel: 028 417 38052/07803 226279
Email: fil@filcampbell.com

Who said you couldn't sing?

I've just come back in from a walk in the mountains - our visitors haven't left yet after the Festival and it sort of feels like I'm on holiday still and it's very hard to sit down and do some constructive work!!  A blog feels a bit half and half - work and holiday:) 


People ask me regularly can they learn to sing cos somebody told them they couldn't sing .... and I thought that would be a good subject for today's blogalong...


Everyone can sing ... if you can talk you can sing!  
And you already know how to do it ... but sometimes we all need a bit of coaxing to trust what we can do...

Who said you couldn't sing?!

Was it a teacher?  or a relation? or a friend? who said that you should keep quiet and stand at the back and just mouth the words? .... what abuse!

I recently had a student who was told when she was very small that she couldn't sing  - she's now retired.  So she kept joining in, wanting to sing, but always felt that people were laughing at her and saying she wasn't brilliant...or so she felt.     After her initial nervousness and doubt about coming to class, we discovered a lovely sweet voice in there... totally in tune and with  a perfect sense of time - not a big voice, but lovely all the same.  What a waste! ... all those years of believing she couldn't do something she loved so much.  

Let me repeat this ....

"Everyone can sing ... if you can talk you can sing!"  

I feel like I need to shout that!

Now the big problem is, if we can't sing like Pavarotti or Streisand or Ella or whomever our ideal voice is, then we think we can't sing at all .... 

Total rubbish!!  

The thing is ... you can never sound like one of them because our voices are totally unique - there can only be one Pavarotti or Streisand or Ella, just like there can only be one you.   But you can still sing!


I believe that we have a physical need to sing - just see how much your spirits lift after singing to yourself in the shower or the car.  

So, if you've always wanted to have a go, just get on with it and practice - sing more in the shower or in the car and perhaps find a community choir or a teacher near you - someone who will encourage you and guide you.  And your voice will get stronger every day.   

Blogalong with Effy Day 2

The BIGsing @Fiddler’s Green – Sat 28 July 2012

The BIGsing @Fiddler’s Green – Sat 28 July 2012 

Calling all singers - or would be singers - or any of you who'd like to exercise your vocal muscles for a day:)

The BIGsing in aid of Amnesty International has been left to my care for the 2012 event at Fiddlers Green Festival on Saturday 28th July.   Laura has handed me the reins and I'm really looking forward to having a splendid day.

This is the 3rd annual event and we'll be tackling simple harmony songs, fun world rounds, some old pop songs, folk music and whatever else takes my fancy between now and then:)  And after a day working at the pieces we'll put on a scratch performance at 6pm that evening in front of an audience:)
Are you up for the challenge?

Here are all the details:

Ticket price: £10 in advance; £13 on the day.  
Registration: 10.30am
Workshop: 11-1 and 2-4
Performance: 6-7pm

To book your advance early bird place please send a cheque before 21st July, payable to AI Mid Down Group, to AI Mid Down Group, 2 Cluinard Heights, Annsborough, Co. Down BT31 9JB


Last year’s event was a great success with lots of positive feedback from the participants and a really good festival atmosphere. We are hoping this year will be even better! 

 

Why not bring a friend and treat yourself to a day singing with the opportunity to perform at the festival? 

Singing - Grace Jones - what stamina

Grace Jones at the Diamond Jubilee concert - hula hooping the whole way through her song ... now that's stamina:)

Grace Jones

SINGING - for Alzheimers

How singing unlocks the brain

By Jane Elliott
BBC News Health reporter 

As Bill Bundock's Alzheimer's progressed he became more and more locked into his own world.

He withdrew into himself and stopped communicating with his wife, Jean.
Jean said Bill lost his motivation, and his desire and ability to hold conversations, but all this changed when the couple started attending a local sing-song group, aimed especially for people with dementia.
Jean said Singing for the Brain had unlocked Bill's communication block.

Personality change


"The first time we went to Singing for the Brain he did not join in. On the second session he was starting to join in and by the third he was thoroughly taking part.

"It was wonderful for us. The singing had started to change something. It really did make a tremendous difference. He started to come out of himself.

“ I would take the song sheets home after the sessions and we would sing them at home ”
Jean Bundock

"His personality started to change and he became much as he was before, and he was able to hold a conversation.

"He is 82 and likes all the old-time songs, but he also started singing some Beatles songs and songs from the Broadway shows and even some modern stuff as well.

"He seemed to be able to slowly learn things again. I would take the song sheets home after the sessions and we would sing them at home. It enlivened him and he really enjoyed doing it."

Bill, from west Berkshire, has been in hospital recently after having a stroke, but Jean kept up the singing and said it has given them both a focus, even helping his slurred speech recover following the stroke.

"I don't know what it is that changes in the brain when people with Alzheimer's sing, but obviously something does change and there is something very beneficial about it. It seems to kick-start something in the brain and has made such a difference to Bill."

Emotional resonance


Chreanne Montgomery-Smith, who founded Singing for the Brain, three years ago, said the weekly sessions had proved so popular they were hoping to expand the project and get more weekly groups.

"We do have quite an avid following in the group that we have. Families believe it has enhanced their lives and in some ways it has kept people well longer.

"People who have constant memory problems are so undermined by this, but somehow the memory for singing is preserved for ever in the brain and it gives people a lift when they can remember things".

“ We choose things to sing for people that have an emotional resonance ”
Chreanne Montgomery-Smith

Chreanne started singing with groups when she was working in a residential home and was so amazed by the positive effect on people with dementia that she decided to include this when she went to work for the Alzheimer's Society West Berkshire branch.

"We choose things to sing for people that have an emotional resonance, things that allow them to express their emotions such as feeling cross or sad as well as happy.

Singing tutor Liz McNaughton, a freelance voice coach with Singing for the Brain, explained the concept had been so popular and successful that she had been asked to run workshops for people with Parkinson's Disease, those who had strokes and head injuries and for people with special needs.

"It would seem, and there is a lot of research about this, that the music has the ability to access words. It is so powerful that people who have lost their ability to speak can access songs and words from the melody."

She said the singing sessions appeared to have positive effects on participants' cognitive powers, their physical ability and their emotions.

Rhythm 'beneficial'

Clive Evers, of the Alzheimer's Society said Singing for the Brain was proving so popular and beneficial that he hoped more groups would soon be established.

"What Chreanne Montgomery-Smith is tapping into is very important. It is not the stream of consciousness, but a level of consciousness, a level of awareness people have with the real world.

"The music allows them to engage. Her project is very important and shows what can be done."

Clive Ballard, director of research at the Alzheimer's Society and Professor of Age Related Diseases at King's College, London, said singing as an activity did seem to help people with dementia.

"People seem to enjoy doing something jointly with other people and there is a lot of evidence that being socially engaged is good for people with dementia."

He said the part of the brain that worked with speech was different to the part that processed music, allowing those who had lost their speech to still enjoy their music.

Mr Ballard said rhythm had also been shown to be beneficial, particularly for those with diseases like Parkinson's where movement was a problem. He said listening to rhythms, even just a metronome, could help.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/health/4448634.stm

Published: 2005/11/20 00:01:11 GMT

© BBC 2012