@AweThatSparkle

Hah! I've had to change 3 medical appointments recently as they each wanted me to show up at 09:00am. I explained to the receptionist that in my world since retirement, there's only one 9 o'clock in the day, and it does not occur during their opening hours 🙂

@AweThatSparkle @bytebro my brain never said that. 9 o’clock in the night is some 3-6 hours after going to sleep, so nope. The one in the evening it is for me, too.

I did miss choir appearances in the past because they were so early to fall into my night.

@bytebro @AweThatSparkle that’s 3 hours past your bedtime, grandpa 😛

@ozeng

9am is often 3hrs after bedtime. 9pm, I'm just getting started!

@AweThatSparkle

@ozeng @AweThatSparkle @bytebro this!

@mirabilos

Ooh, a fellow (former, in my case) chorister, yay! Spent 5 or 6 yrs singing 2nd Bass in a fairly large community choir, back in the day.

I still adore good live acapella(sp?), led by a good choirmaster. Last one I got to I think was seeing the Tenebrae, and they were so far beyond 'good' it was ridiculous!

@AweThatSparkle

@bytebro @AweThatSparkle let me make you jealous: I travelled to the UK to learn from The King’s Singers last July, and we had a public concert at the end, the six of them and the 135 participitants.

Saving up for their planned Summer School in UK next year.

(Though I sing anything except bass.)

Wish I could retire and do lots of FOSS and Free Sheet Music; alas, I just got a letter from the pension office today telling me it’s almost 23 years into the future if I don’t want a massively reduced amount, because I had a shaky start into working life.

@mirabilos

Oh my. They were (are?) very very good, and I'm deeply envious of your experience!

When I was with the Gurt Lush Choir[1], I did ask if we might do something 'special' like _Miserere mei_ by Allegri, and choirmaster said "mate, we're nowhere near good enough for that yet"!

@AweThatSparkle

1. Bristol UK based community choir.

@bytebro yeah, I’m also with local amateur choirs. But I have travelled a bit to see Sir John Rutter, whose come-and-sing days are legendary and who enjoys working with amateurs. The KS workshop was… something else. We worked on synchronisation more than anything else. Turns out we kept metrum without needing a conductor, for the pieces we studied.

@mirabilos

Some years ago I did a 'come and sing' day with Bristol Choral Society with orchestra and professional soloists, and we did all of Mozart's Requiem as a public performance later in the evening. Superb experience, as you might imagine.

@bytebro yes!

See if there’s still any for you. If you just entered retirement, you’re in prime choir age, judging from those I’ve been in so far…

@wouter

The more the merrier, normally. What voice part, dear? 😂 🤣

(Actually, how long do you reckon before there is an actual IRL Fedi-choir? It's not impossible; just difficult!)

@AweThatSparkle @mirabilos

@bytebro @wouter (back to semi-public) for two of them, you can have Free (not just gratis) sheet music at https://mbsd.evolvis.org/music/free/; enjoy

@mirabilos

Bookmarked, thanks!

@wouter

@bytebro @wouter lmk if you need any of the infos, meta, etc. translated

@wouter @bytebro you’re low bass bros ;)

As for me, preferably tenor or treble (mezzosoprano, higher than that gets sketchy on a bad day); I’ve been told I can manage a somewhat passable baritone now (though with weak lower end), and I tend to dislike singing alto (filler voice, sits right in my passagio, plus the timbre doesn’t match).

@mirabilos

I kind of enjoy being "down in the engine room", so to speak.

And listening, I can enjoy a melody, but I'll *remember* a bass line!

@wouter

@bytebro @wouter I’m not very good at actively listening to anything other the melody, unfortunately. Makes for some extra going through things sometimes.

I’ll leave the engine room details to my computer work…

@mirabilos

We're all different - from pretty much as soon as I started listening to music, I almost always focused on the bass line first!

@wouter

@wouter @bytebro might be because my childhood cassette recorder/player bad insufficient size for me to even bear a bass line; to date I only get that when using headphones, laptop speakers also are small

@wouter

My 'natural range' was only about C2 to C4 although I could 'push' a bit below or above, albeit without a lot of control, tone, or power!

@mirabilos

@wouter @bytebro that (F4) would be surprising if you otherwise sing bass Ⅱ, yes ;) though as I learnt from a local soloist, if you work on one end, the other end also benefits.

Incidentally, when I began singing in choirs, I just switched to falsetto somewhat early, I kept that working by just singing along to music I listened (e.g. Nightwish), I recently got up to H♭5 (!) during warmup. (H♭2 to G5 always was my goal, as the full range across all voices of my favourite Rutter piece.)

I had to take several lessons and workshops to be able to get mixed voice up to at least A4, so, yes, doing this unprepared may not be good (I tried so for Mendelssohn’s 42. Psalm where it asked for fff and ended up two weeks silenced, which prompted me to go look for some instruction).

@bytebro @wouter C2 is impressive!

@wouter @bytebro and that’s something to avoid, yes.

@wouter @bytebro gecko2 worked himself down to H♭1 before he passed the veil… that was very impressive, too.

@wouter

Mate, that's 'basso profundo' territory!

@mirabilos