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Welcome to the Friends of Sing! email list

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Dear friends
We're tidying up our Sing! mailing lists to ensure that everyone gets the right amount of information at the start of the new term. 
Our records show that this email address did not register for the Spring/Summer 2024 term with Sing!, so you have been moved to the Friends of Sing! mailing list. 
If this is in error, please fill in this form ASAP:
https://forms.gle/wJoDtAwz69G7szgB8
If you registered with a different email address to the one that is receiving this message, no action is needed.
Otherwise, you'll receive occasional updates on Sing! concerts and events, but will no longer get spammed with the day-to-day information about rehearsals.
Much Sing! love to you all,
The Sing! Team x

[Sing! Rehearsals] Subs due this week!

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Dear Sing!ers, 

We are looking forward to seeing you again this Thursday 30th January at Hills Rd 6th Form College from 7:30 – 9:15. This week we will be recapping Joy, followed by learning some more Bare Necessities and we will also be starting Never Gonna Not Dance Again – again! This week it will be Sopranos' turn to bring snacks please. 
Subs
Subs for this term are now due – £35 for the term or £17.50 for concessions. Please pay whichever you can afford, concessions are self-declared with no questions asked.

Please pay by bank transfer using the details below by Friday 31 January. Prompt payment to help with planning would be greatly appreciated, and please remember to add your name as a reference! Thank you!!

Any issues please catch Claire (Treasurer) or a member of the committee at rehearsal or send us an email.

Bank: The Co-operative Bank

Account name: Sing! Community Choir (leave the exclamation mark out if needed)
Sort Code: 08 / 92 / 99
Account Number: 65694684

Reference: <Your Name!>


Catching up on music

Now that we have all our new members for the term, we'd like to remind everyone of what we hope for from you in terms of learning music for the term. As we are a choir with a relaxed attendance policy (come when you can, but don't worry if you miss some weeks!), and a choir that learns by ear rather than from sheet music, we've learnt over the years that it can be a challenge to make progress with songs in our rehearsals. For those who've missed rehearsals it can be difficult to catch up, and for those who are there every week it can be frustrating to continually have to go over things again from the beginning!

We really want to make Sing! as enjoyable as possible for everyone. So, in each weekly email, we tell you which songs we'll be singing at the coming Thursday's rehearsal. If you're going to miss the rehearsal, we'd like to ask that you have a listen and practise the songs at home instead, using the resources on our Google drive here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1oWnyICGvNOpoPQ671RJtWrKU5anoZnxX

This link is included at the bottom of every weekly email we send (If you can’t find it straight away, it might be in an attachment).

We aim to share as much as we can in this folder. Due to permissions, we're not able to share full scores of all the songs, but we will share lyrics and audio recordings for everything where possible. Getting all these resources up takes a lot of time on our part, so please do use them! We're working our way through the songs for this term, so keep checking back 🙂


That's all for today, see you on Thursday!

Love, the Sing! Team. x


[Sing! Rehearsals] A brand new song!

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Dear Sing!ers, 

We are looking forward to seeing you again at Hills Rd 6th Form College, this Thursday 23rd January from 7:30-9:15. 
This week we will start by recapping the Bare Necessities from week 1. After that, we will be starting a brand new song called Closer to Fine, taken from the Barbie movie. Finally, we will practise Living on a Prayer. 
This week, it is Altos' turn to bring snacks, please. 
Equipment Helpers please!
Every week we have a small amount of equipment which needs to be taken home and stored, then brought back the following week. If you are likely to come in a car 2 weeks running then we'd love you to sign up to help with that here please.
Registration form and part teachers/conductors/instrument players still needed!
We also still need teachers, conductors and instrument players, so please sign up here if you might be interested. 
That's all for this week! 
Love, the Sing! Team. 

[Sing! Rehearsals] It’s Sign Up Time!

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Dear Sing!ers, 

We hope you are looking forward to our second week back this term! We will be meeting this Thursday at Hills Rd 6th Form college in the Recital room from 7:30 – 9:15. This week we will be revisiting Livin' on a Prayer, then learning some more of our new song, Joy. It is the Tenors and Basses turn to bring treats this week. 
Registering for the New Term
If you plan to come to any rehearsals this term (between now and the Summer Holidays) you will need to register for the new term by filling in the short form here: https://forms.gle/KD3UD3XDkKReiRis5 by the end of Friday 31st Jan. Please note: for this term, you will only be able to access the new music by signing up first. TOP TIP: After submitting the form, you will see a link which will take you to the new term's folder. Please click through and bookmark this link for future reference.
 If you do not complete this registration form, you will be removed from this mailing list and instead added to our “Friends of Sing! list” to keep you updated about upcoming public events. You will also lose access to the part teaching tacks and other learning resources.
Do ask if you have any questions or need any assistance with this.
Calling all Future Part Teachers, Conductors and Instrument Players!
Please sign up using this link if you would like to help at all with the running of Sing! Community Choir this term. Also use the link if you would like to take your name off the sheet from last term.
We need:
  • Part Teachers
  • Conductors
  • Instrument Players
Charity Donation from the concert
Finally, our treasurer Claire is thrilled to let you know that we raised £1025.97 for 'It Takes a City' from our Christmas concert. So well done everyone, it was a team effort and that was amazing work!

All the best, the Sing! Team. 

[Sing! Rehearsals] Happy New Year from Sing!

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Dear Sing!ers, 

Happy New Year
Welcome back to our new term which is starting on Thursday 9th January from 7:30-9:15 in the usual place in the Recital room at Hills Rd 6th Form college. We can't wait to see you all back again for some new songs and lots of fun. There will be some newcomers trialing our choir so please do your best to make them feel welcome as you always do! We will be learning 2 new songs: Joy and Bare Necessities and it will be Sopranos' turn to bring snacks this week. 
Shout out for Part teachers, conductors and instrument players!

As we start the new term, we would love to hear from you if:
  • You're interested in conducting a song in our summer concert
  • You play an instrument (especially piano, but we are very keen to hear from all instrumentalists) and can help out by playing in the Sing! band
  • You would like to help out in rehearsals by teaching a part

If this sounds like you, please add your details to this spreadsheet.

(If you've volunteered in the past for part teaching, your name should already be on there – no problem if you've changed your mind, please just strike-through your name as per the instructions in the spreadsheet.)

Unfortunately we can't guarantee to be able to offer opportunities to everyone who volunteers on this occasion, but we will do our best! At this point, there is no firm commitment – so if there's a good chance you'd be interested, please do sign up.
That's all for now – we can't wait to see you on Thursday for some more singing adventures together!
Love, the Sing! team.


[Sing! Rehearsals] Sing! Music suggestions for next term

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Dear Sing! members,
A huge thank you and congratulations to you all again for a fantastic Christmas concert! While you are hopefully enjoying the winter break, we are busy planning for the next term, which will begin on Thursday 9th January. We look forward to seeing you then!
We would love to invite you to suggest a song which you think we should consider for our next concert in summer 2025. If you have an idea to share, please fill in this spreadsheet by Tuesday 31st December at the latest.

Here are a few pointers on how you can best help us out:
  • We know you'll have lots of great ideas – but please submit only one suggestion per person (so be selective!) to avoid us being overwhelmed with too many ideas.
  • It's really helpful if you can do as much of your own research as possible. If you can find a suitable arrangement, somewhere to buy it, and a video or recording of the arrangement being sung, this makes the music team's job much easier. Equally, if you have written your own arrangement that's great!
  • This is a summer concert so summery suggestions are particularly welcome, and don't feel you have to limit yourself to SATB arrangements – we do often do split arrangements for TB / SA so these will also be considered.
Looking forward to another fabulous year of music-making together 🙂
Love,
The Sing! Music Team

[Sing! Rehearsals] Social this week – no rehearsal

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Dear Sing!ers, 

What a fantastic concert that was! We raised lots of money for It Takes a City – the final amount is still being counted and we'll let you know in the new year. 
This week will be our social on Thursday. Please see below for all the information from Jon:
Hi Sing!ers,
What a fantastic concert! We hope you had a great time… and we’re not done! A reminder that this Thursday we have our end-of-term / Christmas social 🥳
We have the Cass Centre booked from 7pm but they are happy for us to arrive from 6:30pm to lay out the food, set up equipment and so on. So feel free to turn up before 7pm if that works for you.
ACTION REQUIRED

👉 Add your food contribution to the spreadsheet below
👉 If you offered to perform and you haven’t heard from me separately by Tuesday evening… please get in touch!

WHEN AND WHERE

🗓️ Thursday December 19th

📍 The Cass Centre, Shaftesbury Rd, Cambridge, CB2 8BS https://maps.app.goo.gl/6hRHB3XPU125YSGw9
⏰ Start arriving from 6:30pm for 7pm start, until 10pm
🚗 There is plenty of car parking space at the venue.
TALENT ACTS
🎤 Thank you to the brave and brilliant folk who have volunteered to perform! We have a full roster! The plan is to finish the talent show by around 9pm so we have time to socialise afterwards.
FOOD AND DRINK

🍕 Please update the spreadsheet below with what you’re bringing (and whether it’s gluten-free, veggie and/or vegan). See what others have put and use your common sense so we get a good selection. We probably want more savoury/mains than sweets/desserts, and having some duplicates is fine!

🍽️ We will provide disposable plates, cutlery and napkins.
✅ There are limited options for heating food, so either stick with cold food, or bring it straight from the oven.
✅ Avoid liquid/sloppy food and bring whatever utensils are needed to serve / cut it up.
✅ If it’s home cooked, please label it with your name so those with allergies/intolerances can ask. If it’s bought, please bring the packaging with it so people can check ingredients.
✅ With everyone bringing something you don’t need to bring huge portions! Feel free to bring something a bit bigger between two or more.
🍹 Please buy your drinks from the staffed bar (prices are reasonable).

Any questions please contact Jon at hello@jonwilson.coach or WhatsApp 07950 434645.
Cheers,
Jon

[Sing! Rehearsals] Huge thank you from Bethany!

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Dear Singers,

A  HUGE and heartfelt THANK YOU for the most incredibly generous gift which you put together for me and baby Sebastian. I was utterly overwhelmed and humbled to receive it (tears were shed!) and continue to be bowled over every time I think of the amazing generosity of your donations. It will be a MASSIVE help for us. Thank you too for all the lovely messages in the cards and online, which made me smile so much! ♥️
As a solo mum, I always knew how important it would be to have supportive communities around us, and this has just reiterated to me how wonderfully warm and kind-spirited the Sing! community is and how happy I am to bring my son into it ☺️
Good luck for the concert tonight – we aim to be there to cheer you on!
So much love,
Bethany xxxx

[Sing! Rehearsals] Last Rehearsal – with Band

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Dear Sing! choir, 

The concert is now imminent (this Saturday 14th!) and our final rehearsal is this Thursday 12th December.
Final Rehearsal
We will be meeting for a longer rehearsal this Thursday 12th December from 7-9:30 at Hills Rd 6th Form College in the Recital room. This time it is Altos' turn to bring snacks. We will be rehearsing together with the band and we will be practising the following songs:
Barbara Ann, Don't Stop Me Now, Never Gonna Not Dance Again, Hallelujah for Today, Livin' on a Prayer and Let It Snow. 
Please make sure you practise these songs before the rehearsal and note there will be no lyrics sheets allowed again for this one. 

More Volunteers Needed
Please check the sign up sheet as there are still some areas where we need volunteers. The most urgent is for setting up the staging and we think that some people offered in the last rehearsal but didn't add their names to the sheet. So if this is you, please check the Concert Sign Up Sheet here and add your name. See below for all the areas where we need more help:

  • Making/bringing cakes/biscuits
  • Bringing cans of drinks
  • Unloading the staging on Friday
  • Setting up the staging at the new time of 1pm on Saturday
  • Serving refreshments and clearing the mess away after interval – non-choir members. We currently only have 1 helper for this so please ask family and friends if they can help to set up refreshments and to tidy up after the interval. 
  • Loading the staging into the van on Monday at 4pm. 

All the best, and we look forward to seeing your smiling faces on Thursday!
Love, the Sing! team.