Sing St John welcomes you to our Senior Singalong, Episode Nine.

My name is Winnie.

Today I'm here with Lucia, Gwen and Bodicea.

We're going to lift all our spirits by singing in harmony together.

Today, we're going to learn the harmonies to Children Go Where I Send Thee The song Children Go Where I Send Thee is a well-known traditional African-American spiritual.

While no one is certain certain of its origin, it has been traced back to the English folk song The Twelve Apostles, which goes back to the mid 1800s.

And long before that, a Yiddish Passover version has been documented from the 16th century.

The Yiddish Passover version has been used during long sessions of the Passover Seder to provide a bit of recess after extremely long formal religious texts of the Seder.

As with many spirituals, the reference to imprisoned biblical figures continues in the Old Negro spiritual version.

Lines two and three allude to the enslavement of the ancestors of African-Americans.

All versions of Children Go Where I Send Thee whether Jewish Passover song, folk song from the British Isles or African-American spiritual, have survived for centuries.

It's important before singing to prepare our voices, our hearts and our minds.

So let's do that with warming up.

All right.

Let's start with posture.

Our backs are tall and straight ready for action.

If you're sitting sit as tall and as straight as you can, place both feet flat on the floor.

Make sure your shoulders are relaxed and sitting right on top of that spine.

Don't lean.

Don't slouch.

Don't pull them up towards your ears.

OK, so let's inhale and raise our shoulders up towards our ears (inhale) and then drop them.

OK, now let's have a nice neck stretch.

If you're sitting, you can grab a hold of this seat with one of your hands.

And this is to make sure that your shoulders stay level and you don't tilt too far in any one direction.

All right.

So take a deep breath.

We inhale.

Exhale and then very slowly tip your head in the opposite direction of the hand you're holding on to.

If you're not holding on to anything, just tilt very gently It's a very small movement.

Keep your shoulders level.

You all level, ladies?

(laughter) Take a deep breath here.

Breathe in, breathe out and then slowly bring your head back to the center.

Good.

Now let's do the other side.

All right.

Hold on to your chair with the opposite hand.

Take a breath, (inhale) exhale and tilt your head in the opposite direction.

Mmm Mmm Breathe here, breathe in, breathe out and then slowly bring your head back to center.

Excellent.

Now, tuck your chin down as if you're trying to put it on your chest.

Sometimes this can hurt, so please be gentle with yourself.

It's just a little stretch.

You're not trying to actually put your chin on your chest.

Breathe in.

(inhale) Breathe out.

OK, now tilt your head back up and keep tilting it higher, as if you're looking to the sky or the ceiling.

Breathe in, breathe out and then slowly bring your head back to center.

Very good.

When you inhale, you allow your lungs to fill from the bottom to the top.

It's like pouring water into a vase or a water balloon or something.

The water starts at the bottom and rises to the top.

So that's how we're filling our lungs to sing.

OK. And then when you empty it again, you use your stomach muscles to push the air from the bottom out.

All right.

Almost like getting toothpaste out of a tube.

(laughter) All right.

That way, your chest, these proud your shoulders straight, your spine erect, and your shoulders are still neutral and resting on top of your spine.

All right, come on.

Let's try that.

Take a deep breath with me and allow your belly to pull it in.

(inhale) Now exhale using your stomach muscles to help push the air out Awesome.

Now let's do it again.

This time as we exhale, we'll make this sound OK, nice and forceful to help get that air out.

OK. three short and one long.

Are you ready?

Here we go.

Full breath in.

Good.

Now let's do it one more time.

A little stronger.

Okay.

(inhale) Awesome.

Now it's time to warm up our middle voice, can you make it sound like almost like an owl without the H?

(laughter) Kind of how it sounds when the wind gusts by your window?

like that?

Yeah, (laughter) OK, when we make this sound, our mouth, the front of our mouth is open in a little "o", but our throat is open wide.

OK?

OK.

So now we're going to sing a short scale using that sound, and it's going to sound like this.

(piano) Are you ready?

Yes.

All right, let's try it.

(piano) Moving up the scale.

Nice and smooth.

Like an owl.

One more time.

Very good.

Now let's warm up the low voice, and we'll do that with the word low.

We use the tip of our tongue and our lips are round and our eyes are open and it's going to sound like this.

(piano) OK. Lips rounded, remember?

All right, let's try it, ladies.

(piano) Going downward.

Throw it open.

Eyes open.

One more time, Very good.

I've got a bunch of low voice singers with me today.

So today's song has a lot of words and they move quickly.

So let's do a little diction exercise.

It's called red leather, yellow leather.

A little bit of a tongue twister Repeat after me.

Right.

Now let's do it a little faster.

Twice in a row, and we'll use our hands to help us remember what we're saying.

OK, so with your right hand.

with your left hand.

OK, are you ready?

Here we go.

A little faster now.

(laughter) You want to go faster?

(laughter) Again?

OK, let's go.

Are you ready?

Yes.

One, two, three.

One more Yay!

(laughter) Good job.

That's always fun.

A lot of fun to practice that.

And remember throughout your day, throughout your week when you're washing dishes or sitting in traffic at your car.

You can do your voice exercises.

It helps to keep your mind and your body active, keep the oxygen flowing, and most importantly, it keeps your heart happy.

Now we're all ready to learn the harmonies to Children Go Where I Send Thee.

Now the song Children Go Where I Send Thee is a counting song.

The verses pile up similar to the twelve days of Christmas and it takes about eight minutes to sing through all twelve verses.

So we're going to sing five because my attention span, I'll probably confuse the numbers anyway.

So we're going to keep it short and sweet, OK?

And we'll repeat the last phrase at the end of the song.

The melody will be sung by Bodicea Lucia and Gwen will sing the Middle Harmony, and I will sing the Low Harmony.

You can sing any part that feels comfortable for you.

And this is the great thing about singing at home.

You can do it your way.

Are you ready?

Yes.

Laughter (Piano) Low (Piano) Middle (Piano) (Piano introduction) Melody (Piano introduction) Verse One (Piano introduction) Verse Two!

Three!

Four!

Five!

Repeat Oh, wasn't that fun?

(laughter) Good job, good job.

(laughter) Ok, high and middle voices, you can take a rest or sing along.

Let's start by learning the low harmony first.

So we're going to start by learning the low harmony to verse one.

First, I sing a phrase and then you repeat.

I sing.

Then you repeat.

Are you ready?

Good job.

Now let's sing the whole verse through together.

Hmm.

Remember?

Are you ready?

Let's go.

(Piano introduction) Good!

Now let's practice the other verses for the low voices.

So when we sing all the verses, the low voices just need to listen for the other parts because we join them on the last word of each verse.

Yes.

Good job.

That's how we need to do it.

And now let's sing the whole low harmony through with verse one and we'll have Bodicea - will join us on the melody.

Lucia and Gwen will sing the middle harmony.

You'll hear them in the background, but mostly you'll hear me on the low part.

This will help you get used to singing the low harmony while you can hear the other voices too.

OK. Are you ready?

Let's go.

(Piano) Low (Piano) Middle (Piano) Melody (Piano introduction) Great job.

Thank you, ladies.

Now, it's time to learn the middle harmony with Lucia & Gwen So Lucia and Gwen and I will sing a phrase and then you repeat.

OK. We sing, you repeat.

Great job.

Now let's sing the whole verse through together.

(Piano introduction) Ok, are you ready?

(Piano introduction) You got it.

Good job.

Now let's sing those five verses one right after the other.

Just so that you can get a feel of how it's going to be OK?

Great job.

Thank you Lucia, thank you, Gwen.

Now let's put the middle harmony together with the other parts and see how we stand up.

You'll mostly hear Lucia and Gwen singing the middle harmony in the background you'll hear me singing the low harmony and Bodicea singing the melody.

We're just going to sing the first verse.

OK, here we go.

(Piano) Low (Piano) Middle (Piano) Melody (Piano introduction) Awesome, sounds great, thank you, ladies.

So now Lucia and Gwen will join us again, and we'll sing the whole song through.

When we get to the last verse, we will repeat the phrase Born, born, born in Bethlehem.

But don't worry, I'll remind you.

(Piano) Low (Piano) Middle (Piano) (Piano introduction) Melody (Piano introduction) Verse One (Piano introduction) Verse Two!

Three!

Four!

Five!

Repeat Yay!

(clapping, laughter) Thank you for joining our senior sing along.

One day, perhaps we'll sing together at Cost-U-Less or at the construction site in front of the Post Office.

Yeah?

But until then, keep singing!

(piano introduction) Good night to you all and sweet be thy sleep May angels around you their silent watch keep Good night, good night, good night, good night Good night to you all and sweet be thy sleep May angels around you their silent watch keep Good night, good night, good night, good night Good night to you all and sweet be thy sleep May angels around you their silent watch keep Good night, good night, good night, good night Good night to you all and sweet be thy sleep May angels around you their silent watch keep Good night, good night, good night, good night Good night to you all and sweet be thy sleep May angels around you their silent watch keep Good night, good night, good night, good night May angels around you their silent watch keep Good night, good night, good night, good night Good night everyone!