Welcome back to the next edition of ‘Dancing about…’, a new monthly blog by our Programmes Coordinator Kenyah Johnson featuring interviews with many of those who participate in NYJO. The intention of this blog is to be solely based on their gigs outside of NYJO, as Kenyah discovers and explores their original music, how they choose to express themselves when not in Woolwich Works and find out who and what they truly want as emerging musicians.
The title of this blog is based on the quote by Thelonious Monk, ‘Writing about music is like dancing about architecture’ which is ironic as that’s what this blog is trying to do. I feel there are rarely any right words that encapsulate what music is, on both an individual and communal level; but I still believe there’s value in trying to peg down and formulate a word or a thought or a sentence to be able to share that intrinsic feeling.
Every month the title of the blog changes to reflect the venue at which the person I’ve interviewed has performed at. For our next edition I had the opportunity to sit down with Becca Kent, the newest addition to our Community Choir leaders and Myra Brownbridge, one of our long-standing community choir leaders for the Sherard Road Songbirds.
When interviewing Becca and Myra, we were able to sit down and talk about how they selected songs would be sung, how they felt the performance went and how they came to have choir member, Noel accompany the group on guitar:
Kenyah: What was it like preparing for the performance?
Becca: We started preparing for Christmas at the start of November to help everyone get familiar with the music. We usually feed in one or two new songs each week to focus on and spend some time solidifying songs we’ve had a look at in previous weeks too. By the time we got to the performance, I think everyone felt quite secure with our set, and we made it clear we were all there to have fun and to get the audience into the Christmas spirit, even if it wasn’t note perfect!
K: How did you pick the songs you ended up performing?
B: The choir has a lot of input into the songs we choose, but we (the choir leaders) also bring some of our own to teach from scratch. It’s fun to have a mixture of singing and improving songs they already know and learning completely new songs by ear altogether. Leading up to Christmas was no different, the choir requested some songs they particularly liked, and we brought songs such as ‘It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas’, which doubled up as a warm up to work on diction… we found it was quite a tongue twister! It’s great to find a balance between fun songs and more challenging ones. We worked together to find a balanced programme and order for the songs, and the choir suggested ending with a fun rendition of Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer for the audience to join in with.
Myra: We played ‘House of the Rising Sun’ and found out that there used to be a pub in Eltham called the Rising Sun. So we changed the words to, ‘There is a pub in Eltham called the Rising Sun.’ And everyone thought it was quite funny so we kept that in. We also did a song called ‘Harbour’ which is just a simple melody.
Some people feel it’s a trademark for the choir. It’s not very Christmassy, but Rebecca and I made an executive decision to keep it in. If it brings some people joy or if people are happy to hear it, then why not keep it in? But yeah, most of the songs were chosen by the choir.
K: Is there anything you worked on specifically that you felt was difficult in the lead up to the performance, but the choir members were able to overcome it?
B: For the first time we brought in some sheet music to follow for a couple of songs, rather than just lyric sheets, with two or three different harmony lines to follow. We went through the songs line by line and became familiar with following the lines of music, and even if the choir members had never read music before; they found it helpful to follow, and interesting to visually see where the lines were the same and where they changed to do something different.
K: How did you feel about the performance? Are there any specific highlights that come to mind?
M: I really enjoyed the performance on the day. A specific highlight would be Harry dressing up as an elf, everyone was very jolly and laughing. It was nice that the audience sang along and that some people that hadn’t heard of Age UK, came along from the library. There was a little baby dancing along; It’s just really nice to be together with everyone and to share with their friends in the audience and get dressed up. It was lovely, it sounded really good. It’s really nice to see how people sing out when they’re performing in a way that you don’t so much see when you’re rehearsing.
B: I thought the performance went really well, everyone had a smile on their face and just had a great time, which bounced off everyone in the room. Noel accompanying ‘House of the Rising Sun’ on his guitar was a really special moment and it was lovely to be able to use his talents to support our singing.
K: How did it come about that Noel would play the guitar for your performance?
M: Noel likes to sing and play when he’s at home so, some weeks, when I bring a guitar, Noel would have a go and play some of the tunes that we’ve been working on. We suggested that he also perform on guitar if he would like to, and he was really keen and sounding great. It was very much his own initiative.
B: When we brought along ‘House of the Rising Sun’ to a rehearsal one week, and Noel humbly mentioned that he could play the chords on his guitar, and we asked whether he would like to bring it along one week. We thought that was a wonderful idea and he absolutely blew us away! After that he was always up for a new challenge of learning more songs that we were singing, and now makes a note of which key we sing each song in so he can go home and try learning the chords on his guitar. He is a fantastic addition to the Songbirds.
K: What has it been like teaching choir last term, especially in the lead up to this performance?
M: Yeah, it’s been really nice; last term especially. I guess it’s just nice that when you’re more familiar with everyone, it really feels like a community and in the breaks you can ask them questions about how they’re doing.
Over time, we’ve definitely learnt their musical tastes, what they like and things that they like to explore. But, you know, there’s occasional surprises. Earlier we looked at some folk songs that was suggested by one of the members, Pam, from when she used to teach.
It’s been really nice exploring lots of different songs with them and getting to know everyone individually. And it’s always lovely when new people join and you can see how welcome everyone makes them feel. It’s a really nice space. I’m really glad to be involved and teach the choir. I feel like it’s very much a collective effort and it’s a really good time. I’m excited to make some music again with them soon.
B: Last term was my first term with the Songbirds! Cal and Myra, the other choir leaders, have been so helpful in showing me the ropes and it’s been great to work together to organise and plan our session, we’re always bouncing ideas off each other. I’m very excited to get stuck into our spring term and see what we’ll come up with!
Stay tuned for more editions of ‘Dancing about…’ with Kenyah. All updates will be featured in NYJO’s monthly newsletter: sign up below.