All posts by Chris K

NMM Newsletter

Lins Emails
Good afternoon to you all,

Firstly, here is a message from Chris for next Thursday’s rehearsal
Hi all
I hope you’ve recovered from our last rehearsal!  We achieved a lot going through all the songs in the second half of our concert and some of the trickier pieces from the first half.  With only 4 rehearsals left before our concert we will be try to go through our whole programme each week.  I want it to look good as well as sound good! That means knowing our words and music well so you are watching me for cues of when to come in, when to come off and singing with expression; engaging with the audience and at the same time looking confident and enjoying what you are doing!  Do keep practising to tracks to help achieve this.  Here is a reminder of our running order with notes on the carols.  We will start from the beginning again this week.
RUNNING ORDER

Sing We Now of Christmas.
Step into Christmas.
Midwinter

Carol: See Amid the Winter’s Snow (Sing v1, v2 and v6 in unison.  Chorus is in 4 part harmony using the harmonies on p283 each time).

Mele Kalikimaka
A Muppet Christmas Carol Medley.
Somewhere in my Memory.
I believe in Father Christmas.
Shepherds Farewell.

Carol – We Three Kings (all verses singing the harmonies all the way through as in the book)

Ladies Small Group – Holly Jolly Christmas
That’s Christmas to Me.

(interval).
All I want for Christmas is you
Sussex Carol

Carol –
Afternoon -Away in a Manger (As in the book with harmony on all 3 verses)
Evening – Hark! The Herald Angels Sing (As in the book with v1&2 in 4 part harmony and v3 in unison with soprano descant).
Solo – Afternoon When a Child is Born (Roy Hogben)/ Evening All I Want (for Christmas) (Craig)

(Ladies only) A La Nanita Nana

Carol – God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen (V1 in unison, V2 in harmony and V5 with the descants as written)
The Wexford Carol
Fairytale of New York.
Jingle Bell Rock.

Raffle and Thank Yous

We wish you the Merriest.
Thanks for all your hard work and I look forward to seeing you on Thursday.
Chris
Secondly,  here is a list of the carols that we will be singing when we are out and about, which Jerry has kindly loaded on to the website so that you can listen to them before we go out on Thursday, 27th November at Bishops Waltham’s Christmas Fayre.
Away in a Manger
Deck the Hall – page 72 in 100 carols for choir
God Rest, Ye, Merry Gentlemen
Hark the Herald Angels Sing
Joy to the World – Page 202
0 Come all Ye Faithful – Page 226
O Little Town of Bethlehem – page 234
Once in Royal David’s City – Page 260
See Amid the Winter’s Snow
We Three Kings

If you want some Fish & Chips etc between the concerts, then you will need to put your name down om the lists which will be on the table as you come into the rehearsal.

The Local Vocals will be rehearsing again this Thursday after the normal rehearsal has finished, just to go over the four songs that we will be singing from our library.
 
Well, that’s all for now, so I will either see you at Local Vocals on Tuesday at The Firs, Parkgate, or at rehearsal next Thursday.
Bye for now.
Eric 

NMM Newsletter

Lins Emails
Hi there,
Here is a message from from regarding our rehearsal this week:-

Hi all,
Well done in our last practice! Listening to all of the songs in the first half of our concert, it felt like they are really taking shape.  As always if there were sections you were not sure of do listen and practise along to the tracks.  With only five rehearsals left we want to make the most of our practice time.
Please keep your music in the same order I sent out last week.  This week we will focus on the second half of our programme and then if there is any time left at the end we will go back over trickier songs in the first half.  It will be a normal length rehearsal with a short break in the middle and all of us finishing at 9:30pm.  Thanks for all your hard work!
Chris
Running order
Sing We Now Of Christmas.
Step into Christmas.
Midwinter
Mele Kalikimaka
A Muppet Christmas Carol medley.
Somewhere in my memory.
I believe in Father Christmas.
Shepherds farewell.
That’s Christmas to me.
(interval).
All I want for Christmas is you
Sussex Carol
A La Nanita Nana
The Wexford Carol
Fairytale of New York.
Jingle bell rock.
We wish you the merriest.
I enclose a copy of the programme which includes the carols we will be singing with the audience and where the solos are.
The afternoon concert is now sold out, but there are still tickets left for the evening.
Gen has produced the list for the Fish & chips that we usually have between the concerts, so if you want some, please put your name down.  The selection this year is:-
Fish & Chips
Fish only
Chicken & Chips
Sausage & Chips
You can either pay by cash or through the bank account, with the reference “Fish & Chips”, to help Sharon sort the money out.
Well, that’s all for now so I will either see you at Local Vocals on Tuesday at Snowdrop Place, or on the Thursday at rehearsal.
Speaking of rehearsals, we are planning to have a rehearsal for those of you who come along to the Local Vocals to practise some of the newer Christmas songs we will be singing tis year. We will do this after we finish on Thursday at 9.30, so if you can attend, it would be gratefully appreciated. We will start singing our Christmas songs from the beginning of December, which is not that far away now.
Bye for now.
Eric

NMM Weekly Newsletter

Lins Emails
Hi there,

Firstly, here is a message from Chris regarding next week’s rehearsal:-
Hello all
We now have 6 rehearsals left before our Christmas Concerts and only 3 before our other  Christmas Events (the Bishops Waltham Christmas Fayre on Nov 27th and John Lewes on Saturday 29th Nov- we will only perform songs we are ready and confident with at these!).  For this week’s rehearsal please could you put all of your songs in the following order which is our draft running order for our Christmas concert –
Sing We Now Of Christmas.
Step into Christmas.
Midwinter
Mele Kalikimaka
A Muppet Christmas Carol medley.
Somewhere in my memory.
I believe in Father Christmas.
Shepherds farewell.
That’s Christmas to me.
(interval).
All I want for Christmas is you
Sussex Carol
A La Nanita Nana
The Wexford Carol
Fairytale of New York.
Jingle bell rock.
We wish you the merriest.
At the start of our rehearsal on Thursday I want to run through “That’s Christmas To Me” b97 to the end.  We will then work our way through as much of the program as we can in the order above. The men can leave just after 9pm and we will spend the last bit of the rehearsal rehearsing the ladies with A La Nanita Nana.
When you arrive on Thursday the layout will be different.  We are going to try having the choir in four rows rather than three.  Seats will be labelled with the different parts. Feel free to sit on any seat labelled with the part you sing although over coming weeks I may have to move people based on height/balance of sound as we hear how this works.
Please continue practising with the tracks and if you have any questions do feel free to message me (07860 800277) during the week. This will enable us to use our Thursday evenings together in the best possible way.
Thanks for all your hard work and see you on Thursday.
Chris.
Secondly, it was decided that you the members should decide which charity we should support this year, so I enclose a copy of the list of nominations that we had received with a brief description of the charity.  The way in which you can vote is to bring along a slip of paper next Thursday with the charity you wish to support written on the paper, and during the rehearsal the votes would be counted, and the result will be given at the end of the rehearsal.  there will be some spare slips of paper available on the table as you enter in case you forget to bring one along.
We are still looking for donations towards the raffle prizes, and also if you have not done already, put your name down for the four outings we will be doing at Christmas, starting with Bishops Waltham Christmas Fayre on the 27th November, then John Lewis on the 29th November, and Haskins on the 14th and 21st December.
Well, that’s all for now, so I will either see you at Hamble Heights on Wednesday, at 2.15, for Local Vocals, or at next weeks rehearsal.
Bye for now.
Eric

doc icon NMM-Charity-Nominations-2025.docx

NMM Newsletter

Lins Emails

Hi there,
Firstly, here’s a note from Chris regarding next Thursday’s rehearsal 
Hi all
The plan for this week is first to finish learning “That’s Christmas to Me”.
Just to recap on how we arranged this
– All parts sing their normal lines with the exception of Sop 2s  who sing the alto line with the altos b9-24
– Sop split at b26-29 then sop2s join the altos again in b29-40
– For “solo 1” (b41-60) Emma, Rebecca, Jane, Hilary, Marg, Lizzie, Sarah, Maggie, Sharon, Maureen and Gen sing the solo line; All other parts follow your normal lines (Sop2s follow soprano line here) with a Sop split at b50
-For “solo 2” (b61-76) I will want 2 basses and 3 tenors to take the solo line.  Everyone else will sing their parts as written.
-“Solo 3” (b77-96) is exactly the same as solo 1 with the same group of ladies on the solo line and everyone else singing their normal parts
-b97 to the end we will have all the men and ladies who have sung the solos on the top line (marked “trio”); everyone else sing their normal lines.
Hope this is all clear (if not it will be after Thursday!!)
Once we’ve cracked this we will spend the rest of the rehearsal on the following songs in the following order – 
Sussex Carol
The Shepherd’s Farewell
A Muppet Christmas Carol Medley
Somewhere in My Memory
Mele Kalikimaka
Jingle Bell Rock
Mid Winter
We will run Thursday’s rehearsal without a break in the middle aiming to finish around 9 as we will then audition all of the soloists/small groups for the Christmas concert.
Thanks for all your continued hard work.  Have a good week!
Chris
Secondly, we are looking for help with our concerts if anyone can let me know if they know someone who can help.
Well, that’s all for now, so I will either see you at Alston House, Eastleigh on Tuesday for Local Vocals, or at the rehearsal nex Thursday.
Bye for now.
Eric

NMM Newsletter

Lins Emails

Good morning.
Firstly, here is a message from Chris regarding this week’s rehearsal :-
Hi all
We have one more song to learn in our rehearsal next week – That’s Christmas to Me.  If you don’t know the song, here is a link to a lovely version by the Pentatonix with very similar harmonies to our arrangement 
Do practise with the practise track though rather than this!
Instead of solos at b41, 61 and 77 I would like a small group of sopranos and altos to learn solo 1 and solo 3, and a small group of tenors and basses to learn solo 2.  This will mean that we can still use this song in some of the other events we are doing (John Lewis, Haskins, Bishops Waltham).  For our main concert, performing it like this will give an interesting stereo effect with the melody coming from different places in the choir while others sing the harmonies.  Have a think about whether you want to sing these solo lines and if possible listen to them before Thursday’s rehearsal.
Here is the plan for Thursday.
Warm Ups
Learn – That’s Christmas to me.
We will then run through as much as we can of everything else to get more confident with notes, words and rhythms before we start working more on dynamics from 30th October.
We will run through everything else in the following order – 
Sing We Now of Christmas
Step Into Christmas
Wexford Carol
Sussex Carol
All I Want For Christmas
We Wish You the Merriest
Fairy Tale of New York
Midwinter
A Muppet Christmas Medley
Somewhere in my Memory
Shepherd’s Farewell
Mele Kalikimaka
Jingle Bell Rock
I believe in Father Christmas
(I will work on A La Nanita Nana with the ladies another time)
From 9:30pm we will rehearse everyone who wants to try out for a solo in our Christmas concert.
Have a good week and see you on Thursday.
Chris
If you have already let us know if you want to do a solo, can you let me know asap so that you are able to have a rehearsal on Thursday with Keziah and Chris. 
We are starting to look for help at our concerts with Front of House, the Raffle, and in the kitchen, so if you know anyone who can help, please let me know.
Also, we are looking for donations to go towards the raffle prizes.
The sign up sheets for the four outings we will be doing over the Christmas period will be on the table as you come in, so please make sure you sign up if you are coming to give an idea of how many will be singing so Chris can arrange the programme for each.
Just to let you know that we have a Committee meeting on the 28th October so if there is anything you want the Committee to discuss, please let me know.
Well, that’s all for now, so I will either see you at Local Vocals on Wednesday at Ancaster House, Sarisbury Green, at 2.15pm, or at rehearsal on Thursday.
Bye for now.
Eric 

This Week’s Newsletter

Lins Emails

Hi there,
Firstly, here is a message from Chris regarding this week’s rehearsal:- 
Hi all
We only have two songs left that we haven’t yet been through (The Wessex Carol and That’s Christmas to me.)  This week I want to focus on learning the Wessex Carol and then give time to revising other songs.  Here is what we will cover in our next practise – 
First half
Warm Ups
The Wessex Carol
All I want for Christmas is You
Second half
FairyTale of New York (please listen to the practise track working on rhythms in verses).
Sussex Carol
Step into Christmas
We Wish You the Merriest
We then have our final rehearsal for the small group for the wedding 9:30-10pm.  
Thanks for all your hard work and practise. When you think of all the music we’ve learned we’ve covered a lot in 6 rehearsals!  And the good news….there’s still 9 weeks left before our Christmas concerts to get all those notes, words, rhythms and dynamics spot on!
Have a good week and see you next Thursday.
Chris
Secondly, to remind you that if you what to sing a solo in either of our Christmas concerts you need to let Chris and Keziah know so that they can arrange a rehearsal for you before the auditions on the 30th October.
Thirdly, we are asking for donations to go towards the raffle prizes this year instead of actual prizes, so if you want to donate, you can either give the cash to Sharon, or pay the money into our bank account under the reference “Raffle”.
Lastly, we are looking for nominations for our “Nominated Charity”.  Usually this only applies to our Christmas events, but the Committee has agreed to extend this for the whole year, and also added that any profits made on the raffles for all our events will also go to the Nominated Charity.  If you charity is selected, you will need to be able to provide collecting tins/buckets, leaflets etc so that when we go to Bishops Waltham, John Lewis and Haskins in December, anyone donating money will know where the money is going to.
Well, that’s all for now, so I will either see you at Local Vocals on Tuesday at Snowdrop Place, or at rehearsal on Thursday.
Bye for now.
Eric

This Week’s Newsletter

Lins Emails

Good afternoon,
I hope you haven’t been blown away with these high winds that we have had over the weekend.
Here is a message from Chris concerning this week’s rehearsal:- .
Hi all
Well done in our last practise.  You will be building a picture out of all the songs we have done so far, as to what you know and what you are still unsure of. Please can I encourage you to use the practise tracks to work on parts you are unsure of so that we make the most of our practises together.  There is a lot of new music to learn this year and I really appreciate all the work you are putting in.  This week we will focus more time on fewer songs as we have two to learn that are a  bit more tricky!  Here is the plan for this week – 
First Half
Warm Ups
Sussex Carol p242 of 100 Carols for choir (b32-46 Soprano 2s and Tenor 2s will sing the “choir 1” part (melody) everyone else will be choir 2 (singing the Ah…)
Second Half
Finish Step into Christmas
Revise – 
All I Want For Christmas is You
Fairy Tale of New York
From 9:30-10pm we will rehearse the small group singing at the wedding on Saturday 18th October.
See you Thursday! 
Chris
I am sad to say, that due to the lack of numbers for the Beetle Drive/Quiz Night, we have had to cancel the event next Saturday.
Don’t forget that if you want to audition for a solo spot in our Christmas concerts, please let us know so that we can arrange a rehearsal for you before the auditions on the 30th October.
Well, that’s all for now, so I will either see you at Local Vocals on Tuesday at Rosewood Care Home, Swift Road, Woolston, or on Thursday night.
Bye For now.
Eric