COMMUNITY CHOIRS TEACHER TRAINING

Sat. 14^th Jan: Sat. 21^st Jan: Sat. 4^th Feb: 4^th date tba

9.30 – 5.30

South Stoke, nr Bath

If you are interested in leading singing groups and choirs, or seeking to build your confidence in this area, this series of workshops will cover all the basics and much more.

It will give you skills for a wide variety of community settings and several previous participants have gone on to make this their profession.  It is a hands-on, practical course, though with philosophy, theory and lively discussion where appropriate.  There are no entry requirements and you don’t need to be able to read music, though it is helpful.  The course includes:

Philosophy and principles

Warm Ups

Teaching a song

Teaching in parts

How to develop a song

Ways to improve the quality of the singing

Building dynamics of the group

Improvisation

How to support individuals

Candy will be drawing on over 30 years’ experience of teaching in a wide range of settings:  directing a set of five ‘Singing in the Round’ community choirs, work in schools, Early Years, Steiner education, nursing homes and work in the corporate world.

"These seminars have introduced me to an inspirational, absorbing and rewarding approach to teaching that enables people to enjoy an extraordinary depth and richness of experience in singing together." JH

"Really varied and useful content. The first session about sound, vibration and how everything has its own vibration was fascinating, especially in terms of healing and retuning the ear."

 if you are interested

SINGING WORKSHOPS

Candy runs regular singing workshops around UK and abroad. She is a talented teacher, bringing quality and rich musical meaning to participants. If you’d like her to come and lead a workshop with your choir, or in your area, please do get in touch.

Several themes interweave in her work:

Carolling Workshops

We have a wonderfully rich and interesting carols tradition in UK. There are hundreds of carols that rarely get sung, and on a Carolling Day workshop, we explore riches from this treasure chest of songs: from medieval to contemporary, including those from folk tradition around Britain - songs such as Harky Harky and Hail Smiling Morn. We learn some of them, also play around with them, harmonising, improvising, drawing out the song’s riches and deepening our connection with this wonderful seam of music.

Singing and Nature

Developing out of her close connection with the natural world, Candy runs workshops that explore patterns in nature, vibration and sound in different acoustic spaces, deepening singers’ connection both to the natural world and to each other, with a lot of fun along the way. 

Sing, play, invent, explore to world music songs

Guaranteed to put a spring in your step and fun in your heart. Drones, heterophony, rounds, games and more. 

Stay connected! Sing into the Season

Feast on songs appropriate to the season we are in. How do you make music sound ‘cold’? Deepen a connection to the natural world by singing the season, from songs drawn from a world music repertoire.

Testimonials: 

"I appreciate very much Candy’s ability to teach with high professionalism in a light and humorous way.  We learned a huge variety of songs without ever being under pressure.  I was astonished to experience that from the ‘no singer’ to experienced choir singers everybody was able to join in and to learn the songs by heart while our feeling of togetherness grew and our joy increased."

SOUL SOUNDINGS

Soul Soundings take place in some of the world’s most ancient and sacred buildings- Wells Cathedral and Bath Abbey for example. Candy invites participants to explore the resonance, connecting us to those who have worshipped and sung there of hundreds of years. We move around the building, experiment with different tones, use echoes, drones and free singing to deeply experience the resonance within the fabric of the building.

Music is learnt by ear and the events are open to all, from experienced musicians to beginners.

Testimonial from Wells Cathedral Soul Soundings April 2011:

"What an amazing experience you provided us with. I have studied music for years and taught music in schools and in theatre environments. I also sing with a small chamber choir and have sung several times in Wells Cathedral, but the experience you gave me last Wednesday was unique and magical and very moving. I loved the opportunity to be able to be free and create alongside others and to experiment with the human voice, unaccompanied and straight from the heart. I was also particularly warmed to hear of your philosophy of singing and its power of healing as I find this to be true in my day to day experiences too. Thank you for touching my life in a small but very significant way."

Testimonials from Bath Abbey Soul Soundings June 2009:

“Both for me and two other people who are completely new to this type of singing it was a revelation of the power and beauty of music, the human voice and singing.  It was a perfect event which we will not forget.”  

Song and Landscape - Dillington & beyond

Fri. 24th Feb - Sun. 26th Feb 2012

A singing weekend to introduce you to the rich tradition of British folksong, with particular reference to Somerset. We will play around with the music to get more deeply into the nature of the songs and how they relate to the landscapes from which they come. This course is for everybody, from beginners to the experienced, who wants to join in the fun of singing together, through the mix of learning songs, improvisation and experimentation by ear.

More details/booking:  Dillington House

http://www.dillington.com/residential_details/display/1054/0

We Will A-Maying Go - Singing May Carols

Dillington House

Saturday, 28th April 2012

Maypoles, hobby horses, Morris men and young girls rising at dawn to wet their face with morning dew, not forgetting rambling all night, May boughs, with a bit of St George thrown in. These are all part of May Day British folk traditions, including songs where early Beltane festivals are overlaid with Christian propriety. We will learn some festive May carols from around the UK, including those from Padstow and Helston, Holywell in Wales, and will also dip our toes in other May traditions in Europe and USA. All songs are taught by ear. All-comers welcome from experienced to beginners.

All details/booking:

www.dillington.com/day_details/display/943/0