I do love a Beach Boys hit! I love their harmonies and their sentiments and I’ve been dying to try one of their songs for about 5 years now!

When I run my community choir, I have a large number of people, some are hard core attendees and some are more transient, so the way I teach has to reflect this and accommodate everyone. Sessions need to be fast paced and moving forwards gaining momentum all the time. But with a workshop, it’s different. We start with a more detailed warm up which will become evident later in the session. For example, I’ll work on creating close harmonies with the group for this session because that’s what we are up against later. I often start with sections near the end or the middle of the song so that when we reach that point, we have a sense of achievement – not that every time we finish a section it’s more hard slog to get to the next bit. Recording bits throughout also allows us to hear our progress and celebrate what we have sung. Spending two and a half hours on just one song is something different too. We get to really immerse ourselves in the track, understand how and why it works. Usually workshop numbers are more manageable (around 50) and so I can stagger tea breaks and work with smaller groups who make be finding bits tricky.
The aim is always the same. To have fun singing. Yes, it’s harder work but at the same time not HARD work and so when we get it right (and we do!) the sense of satisfaction is greater. We end the session with a final recording and leave with a smile eon our faces and a song in our hearts.
These workshops are open to anyone. It’s a great introduction to how I work and how the joy of singing with other people works too. Please get in touch if you’re interested to come along!