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If you are having difficulty following along, or find yourself getting lost, or just want to improve your music reading skills, check out the Sight-Reading Factory.

https://www.sightreadingfactory.com/

There’s also a basic primer about following a choral score. I’ve noticed some of you occasionally seem lost. Maybe this video can take some of the mystery out of following the music, and staying afloat during rehearsals. Try it!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zn7YJWGsw5Q

Dear Singers,

The Trumansburg Community Chorus lives and will sing again! Many of you have heard by now that we plan to start a new session in January, 2023. Based on the responses we received on our recent survey, we anticipate about 30–40 participants. 

Rehearsals will be on Monday nights! Although our email of October 27 announced we would be moving to Tuesdays, that plan has proved untenable. So, we are back to our traditional time-slot, Monday nights from 7–9 pm. 

The deadline to register for the Spring 2023 session is December 30, 2022. Registration is online; see our registration page for a link to the signup form. Details including important dates and locations as well as a few changes in protocol follow. 

Important Dates

Friday, December 30, 2022 deadline:

• Register online
• Submit proof of vaccination & booster
• Submit registration fee

Monday, January 16, 2023 – first rehearsal

Saturday, May 13 – first performance, 7:30 pm, at the First Presbyterian Church of Ulysses

Sunday, May 14 – second performance, 4:00 pm, same location

Other possible performances TBA

Rehearsal Locations

• Melvin Room, Ulysses Philomathic Library. We can use this as our primary rehearsal space for up to 40 singers. If we have a larger group, we will move to one of the secondary locations below.
• The First Presbyterian Church of Ulysses, both the sanctuary and Fellowship Hall, are secondary locations. All these locations are centrally located and accessible. 

Changes in Protocol

In answer to questions on the survey, we will be requiring participants to be up-to-date on Covid vaccine and boosters including the bivalent booster by December 30, 2022. This will allow time for the booster to take effect before our first rehearsal. 

However, we have decided not to require rapid Covid tests before each rehearsal. We do expect participants to be responsible: stay home if you are not feeling well or if you know you may have been exposed. As noted earlier, rehearsals will be recorded and made available online later, and you will be expected to practice with the recording if you need to miss a live rehearsal. However, participation via online rehearsals only is not an option at this time. 

Registration Fee

The cost of registration for the semester will be $60 ($45 for students). If you opted for the $25 credit at the close of our last session, in March, 2020, that will be deducted from your amount due, leaving a balance of $35 ($20 for students) for this session. This amount includes the cost of a singer’s mask, which will be issued to you at our first rehearsal and will then belong to you. For this first session, we are subsidizing the cost of the masks, and you may continue to use your mask for future sessions. If your mask is lost or damaged, you will need to pay full price for a replacement. 

As always, if cost is a hardship for you, please let us know! We do not want anyone excluded because of inability to pay. Please speak to one of our treasurers, Barbara Melvin or Margo Alexander, or to Alice or anyone on the steering committee (members are listed at the end of this email), to let us know your concerns. You do not need to provide “proof” of hardship, and your request will be kept confidential. 

Review of Protocols

Here is a link to the revised protocols; please review before registering.

Hello Singing Friends,
After much discussion amongst our Steering Committee (Margo, Chris, Sara, Barbara, Suzanne, Evangeline and I), we have made the decision to suspend rehearsals for the next 2 weeks- March 16 and 23. After that 2-week period is up, we will reassess the COVID-19 risk level and make a determination about the rest of the session. 
In the meantime, continue to work on your music as if we will continue, so you’ll be ready for anything. In addition, “Dr.” Ploss says:  sing with your favorite music, dance in your house, seek out new music to listen to or exercise to. Hydrate. Eat cleanly. Take your vitamins. Wash your hands. Get plenty of sleep. Laugh every day.
The safety of our singers and the community that surrounds us all has to be the highest priority right now. Even though Tompkins County Health department has stated that the risk is low here, we really have no way of knowing for sure, since not much testing is going on around us. Social distancing will help to ensure that when the virus enters our area (and the authorities assure us that IT WILL) it won’t have an open door to create mayhem for us all. Around the country hundreds of choral organizations are canceling concerts, trips, contests, workshops, and rehearsals. The Hobart and William Smith College Chorale Tour was canceled just last evening. We aren’t the only ones who are facing these tough decisions, and there is a collective sense of disappointment in the greater choral music community.
I plan on making you a video for Bring Me Little Water Sylvie today. Keep working at it! It’s good for the brain (and soul) to sing and move and to challenge yourself in this way. Plus, it’s kinda fun, don’t you think?
Thank you all for your understanding, good spirit, and dedication to this group. 
I’m sure you know by now what to do to help thwart the spread of this virus, so I’ll leave you with this little gem:
https://www.thepoke.co.uk/2020/03/13/gloria-gaynor-washing-her-hands-to-i-will-survive/
I wish you well, and I’ll miss seeing all your bright shiny faces for the next couple of Monday evenings. Please stay in touch.
Love, Alice

Parts coming soon. This is a pretty good rendition- except they fell flat- (didn’t stay in exactly the key of C)

Tenor High:

Tenor:

Baritone:

Bass:

Hello. In this recording I attempted to turn down the metronome sound and include all parts each time, since these notes are part of a larger chord. Your part will be dominant, but you’ll be able to hear the context- the chord, and hopefully it will help you hear where in the chord you belong.

https://www.jwpepper.com/sheet-music/media-player.jsp?&type=audio&productID=10428815

https://www.jwpepper.com/sheet-music/media-player.jsp?&type=audio&productID=10754542