I had a great afternoon at this trainng event organised by Sound Connections. I want to jot in down quickly so I don’t forget and will have a record of what I learnt. Lee Cornthwaite ran it.

I knew he was going to be good because he immediately kicked off by focusing on the people in the room, asking us our experiences and to share what we wanted to get out of the day. Throughout the training Lee encouraged us to make connections, share and use each others ideas.

 We started with a few clapping/rhythm games. First warm up song we did was Bella Mama. I already knew this song but Lee’s version was “Bella Mama, Bella Mama Yeah” as opposed to the more traditional “O”. This was a big improvement and I shall be doing the same as the sound of yeah really gets you opening your mouth and making a warmer sound.

 We then learnt “Now I walk in Beauty” You can listen to Lee teaching to us here

We then sang it as a round which creates some lovely harmonies – some a bit crunchy!

Next we learnt a funky version of Ms Mack. My KS 1 love the traditional Miss Mary Mack as found in the Voiceworks book so I shall differently be using a version of this along side the trad one.

We then learnt “Whither shall I follow”

This could be a fab performance piece! Next up a months of the year song for kids who arent quite sure!

Then we learnt a fabulous protest song By Pete Seeger. Now it turns out a number of us in the room are actually going to be striking on 10th July so we decided to adopt this our strike anthem!

“Across the Western Ocean” came next

And this is what is sounded like in 3 parts with a backing track

It was a fantastic 3 hours. I am really grateful to sound connections and Lee Cornthwaite. I am now looking at the singing training they are offering for next year. You can see their training courses here.