25. Growing Singing Childless & Whole 24th sessions (Sunday 14th November/Monday 15th November)

This week (Sunday and Monday were slightly but not very different):

Songs we sang and reminders where possible:

The Little Things in Life by Mary Denn

Breathe in, breathe out
The little things in life
The little things in life are what it's all about

Autumn Round by Faith Watson

One by one the leaves are falling on the ground
It is autumn and autumn leaves fall

The Wisdom of Trees by Frances Bernstein

This has 6 parts. So simple, so gorgeous. Here’s a link to my little reminder video of the song with all the parts.

The Wisdom of Trees video.

 Follow the ways of the wise old tree
 Borrow the ways of the wise old tree                
 x 2
  
 Stand tall and proud x 4
  
 Be content with your natural beauty x 4
  
 Stay connected to your roots x 4
  
 Stand quite still enjoy the view x 2
  
 Now and then . . go out on a limb x 2
   

Bloom Where You’re Planted by Ros Thomas

Bloom where you're planted
Flourish in that land
Hear, hear how your heart sings and
Shine just where you stand
(Shine where you . . )

Here We Are (by Clare) A song to celebrate Jody Day and 10 years of Gateway Women

Here on this link is a little video of me reminding you of all three parts. On verse one (the Jody Day verse) the middle part is alone, on verse two (the “I” verse), the top part joins the middle part, and on verse three (the “we” verse) the low part joins the other two. Then on verse 4 (the male verse) Ian sings in that low part again in his own voice and lastly on verse 5 (the “we” verse again) a low version of the top part comes in – that just involves singing the top part in a lower voice (a different octave if that makes any sense to you – but you don’t have to know that term). That’s the patter of the song in video of it with the Mandala picture in the background all the time.

 Here she wrote, felt alone
 Here she stayed to welcome you
 Here she bloomed where she was planted
 Sharing courage with her peers
  
 Here I am, not alone
 Here I’ll stay to welcome you
 Here I’ll bloom where I am planted
 Sharing courage with our peers
  
 Here we are, not alone
 Here we’ll stay to welcome you
 Here we’ll bloom where we are planted
 Sharing courage with our peers
  
 Here he his, not alone
 Here he’ll stay to welcome you
 Here he’ll bloom where he is planted
 Sharing courage with our peers
  
 Here we are, not alone
 Here we’ll stay to welcome you
 Here we’ll bloom where we are planted
 Sharing courage with our peers
  
 Here we are 

And click here for a link to it on YouTube then you’ll be able to see all the blurb I wrote about it on YouTube. Thank you for liking it!

Be The Light by Val Regan (written for Holocaust Memorial Day)

Val did record a lovely video of it with all 5 parts coming in but I think she must have removed it from YouTube. As we’ve learnt few parts now I’ve made a little reminder video for you instead and if I ever come across Val’s again I’ll show you that. Click here to link to my reminder video.

Be the light
Be the light
Be the light
In the darkness be the light

Simply There by Jenny Goy (lyric) and Paul Marks Joffe (music)

It came out of a songwriting project by Levow an Bys, a Cornish choir run by Pip Wright. If you’re ever in Penzance then look Pip up and have a go at her morning group called the Dawn Chorus – a drop in singing session. She’s a treasure! and I modelled my own Dawn Chorus in Kendal on hers.

Here’s a link to a reminder video of Simply There

Simply there
Simply there
Stay a while
Stay a while 
And be simply there

Hold you in our circle by Emily Roblyn

We hold you in our circle
Hold you in our love
Hold you in our circle
Hold you in our love

And click here to see my teaching video of that one

You gotta start somewhere by Penny Stone

You gotta start somewhere if you wanna get anywhere x 3
Take a step, take a shuffle, we're all just muddling through just me and you 

A link to a video on YouTube of Penny Stone teaching that song (You gotta start somewhere) and then, at 8 mins 20 secs singing it in full with all the parts.

24. Growing Singing Childless & Whole 23rd sessions (Sunday 7th November/Monday 8th November)

This week (Sunday and Monday were slightly but not very different):

Songs we sang and reminders where possible:

Slow Down (little mantra of Clare’s)

Slow down, lower your standards and when you are in doubt, sing!

Ain’t Got No Worries by Victoria Hopkins

Ain't got no worries
When I'm with you
Ain't go no worries
We'll see this through
We'll leave all our cares at the door when we sing
We'll stand up and smile and forget everything
Ain't got no worries 
When I'm with you

Light (a Tweet by Lemn Sissay set to music by Anni Tracy)

“How do you do it?” said Night
“How do you wake up and shine?”
“I take it easy” said Light
“One day at a time”

All Good Things Await You by Polly Bolton (dedicated to Marion Rees)

All good things await you
All good things my friend
All good things await you
As you journey my friend

Ubuntu (by Kate Thomas). Here’s a link to a gorgeous video of it.

Ubuntu, I am because we are
Ubuntu, I am because we are
There is no way in earth or heaven we can make it on our own
Ubuntu, I am because we are
Ubuntu, I am because we are

This is Home (by Sophia Ephthimiou). Here’s a link to a new virtual choir video of it. Be warned that there’s a potentially triggering moment right at the end when a child sings the whole song alone.

This is home where I belong
In this breath, in this heart
This is home where I belong
In this voice, in this song

Be Still and Know by Joachim Meikle

Be still and know that day and night
Be still and know that dark and light
Are one
Holy circle


Here’s a link to my teaching video of Be Still and Know

The Wisdom of Trees by Frances Bernstein

This has 6 parts. So simple, so gorgeous. Here’s a link to my little reminder video of the song with all the parts.

The Wisdom of Trees video.

 Follow the ways of the wise old tree
 Borrow the ways of the wise old tree                
 x 2
  
 Stand tall and proud x 4
  
 Be content with your natural beauty x 4
  
 Stay connected to your roots x 4
  
 Stand quite still enjoy the view x 2
  
 Now and then . . go out on a limb x 2
   

23. Growing Singing Childless & Whole 22nd sessions (Sunday 31st October/Monday 1st November)

This week (Sunday and Monday were slightly but not very different):

Songs we sang:

Zing zing a ring warm up

12345 warm up (12345 54321 15453525 15453525 13531353151)

Simply There

Autumn Round

Light (Tweet by Lemn Sissay, set by Anni Tracy)

All Good Things Await You by Polly Bolton

Bloom where you’re planted

Sow Seeds of Hope

Wisdom of Trees

As I start to think about simplifying I am trying to work out a better way of having reminders of the songs on the website. All of those above I’ve mentioned in other blog posts. My process up to now has been very repetitive and involved copying the details from other blog posts to this one – that seems a little daft. I’ll work on better ways of doing it as I begin to come to terms with stopping this way! Love to you and thanks once again for all the lovely helpful feedback recently.

22. Growing Singing Childless & Whole 21st sessions (Sunday 24th October/Monday 25th October)

Phew!

Both those sessions were fab as usual AND really helpful to me as you all had such useful (and loving!) feedback about possible new ways of moving forward with Growing Singing Childless & Whole. Some things have got to change. In so many ways I’ve set up something quite wonderful and in so many others I’ve set up a MONSTER that needs feeding and I don’t want it to be that way.

And . . . . . . . I don’t know what I do want it to be. THANK YOU! for all your help thinking about it. Something will emerge.

Starting with shortening the process of putting up this Blog post . . . . which might disappear over time . . . . but the songs on the website are useful to people . . . . . . . hmmmmm. We’ll see.

This week (Sunday and Monday were slightly but not very different):

Songs we sang:

Val Regan’s Vocal Circuit Training

Make New Friends

Light (Tweet by Lemn Sissay, set by Anni Tracy)

All Good Things Await You by Polly Bolton

Simply There

We Hold You In Our Circle

Reminders of words and/or tunes below

Make New Friends (I’ve never yet found out where this originates exactly)

Make new friends and keep the old
One is silver and the other gold

Light (a Tweet by Lemn Sissay set to music by Anni Tracy)

“How do you do it?” said Night
“How do you wake up and shine?”
“I take it easy” said Light
“One day at a time”

All Good Things Await You by Polly Bolton (dedicated to Marion Rees)

All good things await you
All good things my friend
All good things await you
As you journey my friend

Hold you in our circle by Emily Roblyn

We hold you in our circle
Hold you in our love
Hold you in our circle
Hold you in our love

And click here to see my teaching video of that one

Simply There by Jenny Goy (lyric) and Paul Marks Joffe (music)

It came out of a songwriting project by Levow an Bys, a Cornish choir run by Pip Wright. If you’re ever in Penzance then look Pip up and have a go at her morning group called the Dawn Chorus – a drop in singing session. She’s a treasure! and I modelled my own Dawn Chorus in Kendal on hers.

Here’s a link to a reminder video of Simply There

Simply there
Simply there
Stay a while
Stay a while 
And be simply there

21. Growing Singing Childless & Whole 20th sessions (Sunday 17th October/Monday 18th October)

A day later than usual I’m putting up some song reminders and just a note of the songs we touched on in our Sunday/Monday sessions. Thank you for joining me if you could!

We sang Slow Down to warm up and then moved on to several familiar songs (if you’ve been coming a while) – the Autumn Round by Faith Watson and Be Still and Know by Joachim Meikle and also Make New Friends which I’ve known most of my life but don’t know where it originates. We worked pretty hard on Be The Light by Val Regan and I’ve just recorded a little video as a reminder to you of the parts of that one. After the hard-ish work we went back to familiar and sang through We Hold You In Our Circle by Emily Roblyn and The Wisdom of Trees by Frances Bernstein.

They were both lovely sessions. Thank you!

Reminders of words and/or tunes below.

Slow Down (by Clare Elleray) – a really quick warm up song to remind me of a mantra of my own

Slow down, lower your standards and when you are in doubt, sing
Slow down, lower your standards and when you are in doubt, sing (then rises up a note to sing again)

Autumn Round by Faith Watson

One by one the leaves are falling on the ground
It is autumn and autumn leaves fall

Make New Friends (I’ve never yet found out where this originates exactly)

Make new friends and keep the old
One is silver and the other gold

Be Still and Know by Joachim Meikle

Be still and know that day and night
Be still and know that dark and light
Are one
Holy circle


Here’s a link to my teaching video of Be Still and Know

Be The Light by Val Regan (written for Holocaust Memorial Day)

Val did record a lovely video of it with all 5 parts coming in but I think she must have removed it from YouTube. As we’ve learnt few parts now I’ve made a little reminder video for you instead and if I ever come across Val’s again I’ll show you that. Click here to link to my reminder video.

Be the light
Be the light
Be the light
In the darkness be the light

Hold you in our circle by Emily Roblyn

We hold you in our circle
Hold you in our love
Hold you in our circle
Hold you in our love

And click here to see my teaching video of that one

The Wisdom of Trees by Frances Bernstein

This has 6 parts. So simple, so gorgeous. The words are below. We’ve introduced all 6 parts but DON’T give yourself a hard time if you can’t remember them all! We’ll be repeating and repeating which is what’s so lovely about using singing. Here’s a link to my little reminder video of the song with all the parts.

The Wisdom of Trees video.

 Follow the ways of the wise old tree
 Borrow the ways of the wise old tree                
 x 2
  
 Stand tall and proud x 4
  
 Be content with your natural beauty x 4
  
 Stay connected to your roots x 4
  
 Stand quite still enjoy the view x 2
  
 Now and then . . go out on a limb x 2
   

20. Growing Singing Childless & Whole 19th sessions (Sunday 10th October/Monday 11th October)

So this is a summary of Sunday evening rather than Monday morning when Elspeth and I couldn’t sing as she was at the airport returning from her travels. Lovely to see all those of you that I did in any case and sorry to miss the others.

On Sunday we sang Ain’t Got No Worries just because we could and then moved on into 2 other “rounds” (that’s the type of song where we all sing the same thing but the second, and other parts, start later than the first and its flips into lovely harmony). We visited Make New Friends and Be Still and Know. We moved on to adding some more parts to Val Regan’s Be The Light – we’ve had a go at two of a possible 5 parts and will add others over the coming weeks. Lastly, partly to welcome Nancy and partly just because we can and love it, we sang We Hold You In Our Circle.

They were both lovely sessions. Thank you!

Reminders of words and/or tunes below.

Ain’t Got No Worries by Victoria Hopkins

Ain't got no worries when I'm with you
Ain't got no worries we'll see this through
We'll leave all our cares at the door when we sing
We'll stand up and smile and forget everything
Ain't got no worries when I'm with you

Make New Friends (I’ve never yet found out where this originates exactly)

Make new friends and keep the old
One is silver and the other gold

Be Still and Know by Joachim Meikle

Be still and know that day and night
Be still and know that dark and light
Are one
Holy circle


Here’s a link to my teaching video of Be Still and Know

Be The Light by Val Regan (written for Holocaust Memorial Day)

Val did record a lovely video of it with all 5 parts coming in but I think she must have removed it from YouTube. As we learn a few more parts ourselves I’ll make one for you. We’ve only done two so far and we’ll have a go at 4 of them I think.

Be the light
Be the light
Be the light
In the darkness be the light

Hold you in our circle by Emily Roblyn

We hold you in our circle
Hold you in our love
Hold you in our circle
Hold you in our love

And click here to see my teaching video of that one

19. Growing Singing Childless & Whole 18th sessions (Sunday 3rd October/Monday 4th October)

Once again, what we did varies slightly from Sunday night to Monday morning sometimes.

We started with the The Little Things in Life and Ain’t Got No Worries to warm us up. We moved on singing Force of Love which we had only started last week. Then we got into the early stages of learning a new song completely by Val Regan called Be The Light. With some lovely sing-anything-you-can time we had a go at Simply There and also Wisdom of Trees.

They were both lovely sessions. Thank you!

Reminders of words and/or tunes below.

Ain’t Got No Worries by Victoria Hopkins

Ain't got no worries when I'm with you
Ain't got no worries we'll see this through
We'll leave all our cares at the door when we sing
We'll stand up and smile and forget everything
Ain't got no worries when I'm with you

The Little Things In Life by Mary Denn

Breathe in, breathe out
The little things in life
The little things in life are what it's all about

Force of Love by Penny Stone (using words by Julian of Norwich from 1300s)

A super video of Penny singing this is linked to here.

All shall be well and all shall be well and all manner of things shall be well
For there is a force of love moving through the universe
That holds us fast and will never let us go

Be The Light by Val Regan (written for Holocaust Memorial Day)

Val did record a lovely video of it with all 5 parts coming in but I think she must have removed it from YouTube. As we learn a few more parts ourselves I’ll make one for you. We’ve only done one so far and we’ll have a go at least 3 of them.

Be the light
Be the light
Be the light
In the darkness be the light

Simply There by Jenny Goy (lyric) and Paul Marks Joffe (music)

It came out of a songwriting project by Levow an Bys, a Cornish choir run by Pip Wright. If you’re ever in Penzance then look Pip up and have a go at her morning group called the Dawn Chorus – a drop in singing session. She’s a treasure! and I modelled my own Dawn Chorus in Kendal on hers.

Here’s a link to a reminder video of Simply There

Simply there
Simply there
Stay a while
Stay a while 
And be simply there

The Wisdom of Trees by Frances Bernstein

This has 6 parts. So simple, so gorgeous. The words are below. We’ve introduced all 6 parts but DON’T give yourself a hard time if you can’t remember them all! We’ll be repeating and repeating which is what’s so lovely about using singing. Here’s a link to my little reminder video of the song with all the parts.

The Wisdom of Trees video.

 Follow the ways of the wise old tree
 Borrow the ways of the wise old tree                
 x 2
  
 Stand tall and proud x 4
  
 Be content with your natural beauty x 4
  
 Stay connected to your roots x 4
  
 Stand quite still enjoy the view x 2
  
 Now and then . . go out on a limb x 2
   

18. Growing Singing Childless & Whole 17th sessions (Sunday 26th September/Monday 27th September)

Here we go again! I’m so very delighted to be back at the singing sessions with you. It will be just lovely to welcome back each one of you as and when you get the chance to join us.

Here’s a summary of this week’s sessions with some reminders of words – and sometimes the melodies and harmonies. Never hesitate to ask me if you’d like more – like where there is a video missing I can add it – I may not get around to it as quickly as you would like it and I LOVE being prompted.

What we did varies very slightly from Sunday night to Monday morning sometimes.

We started with the super simple Slow Down (my own mantra which almost never fails to work for me – when I remember!) and moved into another warm up song by Val Regan the Vocal Circuit Training. Using then a super familiar song (if you’ve been coming regularly recently) we sang The Wisdom of Trees by Frances Bernstein. Having started with trees I re-introduced the lovely Autumn Round by Faith Watson (it’s become time for that one as we’re now into late September). Our completely new song for the session was Force of Love by Penny Stone. Remember this is just the beginning of learning that one and you won’t necessarily have picked it up and be able to carry it into the following week. If you “had it” in the session then you were doing very well. The really getting it under your skin so that it can pop out at any time might take a little longer. Having done the “hard” stuff of learning something new we did a lovely Sow Seeds of Hope to finish off.

Slow Down (by Clare Elleray) – a really quick warm up song to remind me of a mantra of my own

Slow down, lower your standards and when you are in doubt, sing
Slow down, lower your standards and when you are in doubt, sing (then rises up a note to sing again)

Vocal Circuit Training by Val Regan

I wanna be a bass / and I’m a tenor / Alto’s where it’s at / I’m a soprano

And here’s a link to the video of that.

The Wisdom of Trees by Frances Bernstein

This has 6 parts. So simple, so gorgeous. The words are below. We’ve introduced all 6 parts but DON’T give yourself a hard time if you can’t remember them all! We’ll be repeating and repeating which is what’s so lovely about using singing. Here’s a link to my little reminder video of the song with all the parts.

The Wisdom of Trees video.

 Follow the ways of the wise old tree
 Borrow the ways of the wise old tree                
 x 2
  
 Stand tall and proud x 4
  
 Be content with your natural beauty x 4
  
 Stay connected to your roots x 4
  
 Stand quite still enjoy the view x 2
  
 Now and then . . go out on a limb x 2
   

Autumn Round by Faith Watson

One by one the leaves are falling on the ground
It is autumn and autumn leaves fall

Force of Love by Penny Stone (using words by Julian of Norwich from 1300s)

A super video of Penny singing this is linked to here.

All shall be well and all shall be well and all manner of things shall be well
For there is a force of love moving through the universe
That holds us fast and will never let us go

Sow Seeds of Hope by Penny Stone

A lovely, lovely video of Penny singing this is linked to here.

Sow seeds of hope wherever you go
Though some may fall on the thorny ground
Sow seeds of hope wherever you go
Some of the seed's bound to grow taller than you ever could know

Middle and lower part words:
Sow seeds of hope (long!)
Wherever you go
Sow seeds of hope (short!)
Some of the seed's bound to grow taller than you ever could know

17. Growing Singing Childless & Whole 16th sessions (Sunday 29th August/Monday 30th August)

The last little blog-ette before a break. We are starting singing again on Sunday 26th and Monday 27th September. Then the sessions will be weekly for a good long while till mid December.

Here’s a summary of this week’s sessions with some reminders of words – and sometimes the melodies and harmonies.

What we did varies very slightly from Sunday night to Monday morning sometimes.

We started with the lovely super simple The Little Things In Life by Mary Denn and moved into singing the gorgeous, simple Sunflower Round by Penny Stone and got it into 3 and 4 parts. I even managed to get the video working on Monday! We had a go at the higher part of Faith Watson’s Gotta Move On/Slow Down and have now introduced 2 of the 3 parts. We also sang Sow Seeds of Hope and The Wisdom of Trees (on Monday) and Bloom Where You’re Planted (on Sunday).

The Little Things In Life by Mary Denn

Breathe in, breathe out
The little things in life
The little things in life are what it's all about

Sunflower Round by Penny Stone

Simple gorgeous little 4 part round. I think it sounds best in 2 or 3 parts but you can fit in 4 as Penny’s done on the recording below.

Sunflower so tall
You tower over all the other flowers

Here’s a link to a lovely YouTube of Penny teaching and then singing it with pictures of her 2021 crop of sunflowers and how tall they are!

Bloom Where You’re Planted (by Ros Thomas)

Bloom where you're planted
Flourish in that land
Hear, hear how your heart sings
And shine just where you stand,
(Shine where you . . .) 

The Wisdom of Trees by Frances Bernstein

This has 6 parts. So simple, so gorgeous. The words are below. We’ve introduced all 6 parts but DON’T give yourself a hard time if you can’t remember them all! We’ll be repeating and repeating which is what’s so lovely about using singing. Here’s a link to my little reminder video of the song with all the parts.

The Wisdom of Trees video.

 Follow the ways of the wise old tree
 Borrow the ways of the wise old tree                
 x 2
  
 Stand tall and proud x 4
  
 Be content with your natural beauty x 4
  
 Stay connected to your roots x 4
  
 Stand quite still enjoy the view x 2
  
 Now and then . . go out on a limb x 2
   

Gotta Move On/Slow Down by Faith Watson

This has 3 parts in each section (the hurry section and the slow down section) and then each of those parts fits with each of the others so it can all be sung at the same time should we ever want to!

Gotta move on, gotta hurry
I gotta get somewhere and I can't stop
Gotta move on, gotta hurry
I gotta get somewhere, in a hurry

Slow down, take a break relax
Slow down and breathe

16. Growing Singing Childless & Whole 15th sessions (Sunday 22nd August/Monday 23rd August)

A mixed bag of the 15th sessions! Sunday evening was just lovely and connecting and full of song. Monday morning didn’t really happen – well, I was there singing my head off learning a new song and nobody could come join me. If I hadn’t messed up then Yvonne would have been with me and I owe Yvonne a drink and have already apologised. Sometimes the fiddly admin for the group gets the better of me. Hopefully I won’t make a mistake like that again – ever!

Remember that we have one more session next week and then (again!) I am taking a break and hoping to get away in my campervan. When we restart in late September the sessions will be weekly and not have all these breaks in between! That will feel good to me too.

Here’s a summary of the session with some reminders of words – and sometimes the melodies and harmonies below. What we did varies very slightly from Sunday night to Monday morning sometimes.

We started with the gorgeous, simple Sunflower Round by Penny Stone and got it into 3 and 4 parts. I think it starts sounding a bit “tangled sunflowers” with all the parts and am loving bursting into song (even if only silently) whenever I see sunflowers now. A new song is coming along with the theme of the tension between trying to do as much as possible as fast as possible and slowing down and managing to take time to breathe – the song is called Gotta Move On/Slow Down by Faith Watson and we’ll introduce more parts in weeks to come. We also sang This Is Home and reminded ourselves of the two parts we’ve focussed on so far. A favourite of many, we also sang We Hold You In Our Circle and The Wisdom of Trees.

Sunflower Round by Penny Stone

Simple gorgeous little 4 part round. I think it sounds best in 2 or 3 parts but you can fit in 4 as Penny’s done on the recording below.

Sunflower so tall
You tower over all the other flowers

Here’s a link to a lovely YouTube of Penny teaching and then singing it with pictures of her 2021 crop of sunflowers and how tall they are!

The Wisdom of Trees by Frances Bernstein

This has 6 parts. So simple, so gorgeous. The words are below. We’ve introduced all 6 parts but DON’T give yourself a hard time if you can’t remember them all! We’ll be repeating and repeating which is what’s so lovely about using singing. Here’s a link to my little reminder video of the song with all the parts.

The Wisdom of Trees video.

 Follow the ways of the wise old tree
 Borrow the ways of the wise old tree                
 x 2
  
 Stand tall and proud x 4
  
 Be content with your natural beauty x 4
  
 Stay connected to your roots x 4
  
 Stand quite still enjoy the view x 2
  
 Now and then . . go out on a limb x 2
   

Gotta Move On/Slow Down by Faith Watson

This has 4 parts in each section (the hurry section and the slow down section) and then each of those parts fits with each of the others so it can all be sung at the same time should we ever want to!

Gotta move on, gotta hurry
I gotta get somewhere and I can't stop
Gotta move on, gotta hurry
I gotta get somewhere, in a hurry

Slow down, take a break relax
Slow down and breathe