Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Kids songs?

Chorus assignment: Watch the following videos and comment to answer my questions below!









Looking on Youtube, I found several examples of "children's songs" sung by high school students. Some parts good, some parts..not so much. What do you like? What don't you like? As you know, we are performing for the LGN students on March 3rd. What can we add to our own performance after watching these videos?

Thursday, January 15, 2009

iTalk


Hi again,
Just thought some of you might be interested in the following recording device.
This is a photo of an iTalk. Those of you in chorus may have noticed me recording your singing on here during rehearsals. Mr. Barth introduced me to the iTalk and it is great for recording podcasts or recording yourself when practicing (or even in concert). All you have to do is plug it into the bottom of your ipod, click on button, and it will begin recording. You can then upload the recordings to itunes and make CDs of yourself if you want, or just keep it on your ipod. Some of you have tried to buy this in stores found that they are really expensive so you didn't buy one. ($50-70) However, I got mine for less than $13 on EBAY (and the Ebay store I bought it from had a lot). Brand new, in the plastic packaging. Not all types of iTalks (they come in iTalk sync, i Talk, iTalk Pro..etc) work with all iPods so do your research first but you should be able to find one that works. Just a thought for those of you who really want to be critical about your own singing.

Epoch of Norton Chorus


Hi everyone,

We are starting our new concert season for the Epoch Chorus. We can always use more high school singers to come with us and rehearse with the senior citizens. Its a pretty fun time usually and we can also give you community service hours. Please take a look to your right where you will find a calendar for all chorus events, which includes Epoch rehearsals/concerts.

Please comment and let me know if you have any ideas of song selections for the Epoch Chorus! :) Good luck on exams everyone!

Thursday, January 8, 2009

A couple things...


Welcome back, I hope everyone had a great vacation!


Just as a reminder, there is a Tri-M meeting on Tuesday, January 13th right after school. Come with some fundraising/other ideas!


SEMSBA registration is due on January 16th. Many of you have decided to audition was great, but we have to make it official! I am available afterschool at NHS on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays for extra help. I am available afterschool at NMS on Wednesdays and Fridays. All recordings are on EdLine. Work hard and it should pay off!


Chorus Midterm: test questions and study guides are due by this Monday! (Which means Friday if you are the class that doesn't have me on Monday.)

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

WINTER CONCERT TONIGHT!!!!


The NHS Winter Concert is tonight at 7 pm. I hope to see everyone there for some good times.

Chorus: Remember to wear all black: pants, dress, shoes, skirt, socks, everything...No spaghetti straps, or if you do, put a sweater on. Classy, please. Be there at 6:15 sharp! Make sure your music is in the right order too!... I think thats it! You've all worked so so hard and you will be great!

I'm so excited!

Thursday, December 4, 2008

Congratulations!

I forgot to add this is my last post but...
Congratulations to all of our new inductees to the Tri-M Music Honor Society:
Sarah T.
Emily J.
Anthony M.
Tim W.
Mike K.
Chrissy I.

Also, thank you to all of our current members who either performed or brought refreshments and decorations (or did all 3!)... Your performances last night at the induction recital were great and we hope you had a good time!

Just a reminder: The induction rehearsal is December 10th afterschool and the induction is December 11th at 7 pm. Please remember white shirts and black pants with black shoes!!

Anddddd...WINTER CONCERT on DECEMBER 10th at 7 PM. woohooooo!!!!!!

Getting in the holiday spirit..

I figured I should update my blog and get it in the holiday spirit, hence the red this month instead of my usual purple.

My question for you is: What is your favorite holiday song and why? Do you have a particular memory associated with the song?

My favorite holiday song is "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" and here's why: I LOVE LOVE LOVE the original Home Alone movies (the ones with Macauley Culkin, not the other goofy kid). They were my absolute favorite when I was a kid and I watched them every Thanksgiving night with my mom, plus of course on DVD. I especially like the first Home Alone because it was very clever and the other 3 Home Alone movies pretty much followed the same premise. I liked the 2nd one because I used to go to NYC with my family every year to see a musical and I liked seeing all of the landmarks I remember as a kid. I even had a poster that my parents got me that had a map of the McAllister house with all of Kevin's traps in each room.

Anyways, back to my point. my favorite scene is when Kevin makes it look like his family is having a party so the burglars don't bother trying to rob them. He does this by rigging up mannequins to ropes which he pulls back and forth, making them dance to "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree." From the street, the two idiot burglars see the silhouettes of adults rocking out so they end up leaving....to return the next night..Every time I hear, "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" I think of my favorite holiday movie! I even had the NMS Chorus sing this song at my first concert in Norton :)

So how about you? What is your favorite holiday song and why?

Sunday, November 30, 2008

Wang Theatre Trip!


Hello,

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving break, I certainly did.

Yesterday, the NHS Chorus took a trip to the Wang Center in Boston to see the musical, How the Grinch Stole Christmas! The chorus also performed before the show as the crowds came in. We sang up on the balcony over-looking the people below and performed mainly holiday selections. We had a good time and got a great reaction from the audiences.


The musical was great and I would recommend it to all ages (its playing at the Wang all month!) I think it was unanimous that everyone on our trip loved the little girl who played Cindy Lou Who; she had a fantastic voice! The person who played the dog, Max, was also great.









I've added some photos if any of you chorus people who like to copy them for yourselves. E-mail me if you want the full resolution versions :) (Thanks to Mrs. Jestus for working my camera!)


A big thank you to all of our chaperones: Mrs. Kitchen, Mrs. Jestus, Mr. Brown, Mrs. Chisholm, and Dr. Ansay! You were all great!

The next big event we have coming up is our winter concert on December 10th, at 7 pm, in the NHS Auditorium. Hope to see you there!!!