Sing St. John welcomes you to our Senior Singalong Episode Ten My name is Winnie.

I'm here with Lucia, Gwen and Bodicea.

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

Today, we will learn harmonies to Be Thou My Vision.

The hymn Be Thou My Vision was originally written in the Middle Irish language by a monk named Dallan Forgaill sometime around 800 A.D..

It was later translated to English as Be Thou My Vision by Mary Elizabeth Byrne.

And then in 1912, Eleanor Hall set the poem as a hymn to the Irish tune, “Slane”.

It was common practice to attribute hymn tune names to the place where they were collected by folk song collectors such as Vaughan Williams, who co-edited the English Hymnal published in 1906.

Slaine is a village in Ireland.

As always, before we sing, we prepare our voices and our hearts and our minds 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.

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.

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.

OK. Are we ready to learn, Be Thou My Vision?

Yes.

Let's first sing it together all the way through.

The melody going to be sung by Bodicea.

The middle harmony will be done by Gwen and Lucia.

And I will sing the low harmony.

Let's first sing it through together all the way with Bodicea.

She sings the high melody.

You can sing the melody with her or any part that feels comfortable to you.

This is the great thing about singing at home.

You can sing it your way.

(Piano) Low (Piano) Middle (Piano) Melody (Piano introduction) Verse 3 Verse 4 Verse 5 (clapping) Thank you.

That was so sweet.

Isn't that a beautiful hymn?

I think this could be our most challenging song we've ever done so far.

But it's going to be worth the work.

So let's dig in and start learning the low harmony.

We're going to learn the low harmony with Verse One lyrics.

First I will sing your phrase.

Then you repeat, I sing.

Then you repeat.

Are you ready?

(Piano introduction) Yes!

Good job.

Now let's sing that whole verse straight through.

(Piano introduction) Very good.

Let's challenge ourselves a little more now by singing with the other voices.

(Piano) Low (Piano) Middle (Piano) Melody (Piano introduction) Very good.

Now it's time to learn the middle harmony for Verse One with Lucia and Gwen.

So we'll sing a phrase and then you repeat.

We sing, you repeat.

(Piano introduction) Very good.

Thank you ladies.

Thank you.

Now lets sing straight through that verse now together.

(Piano introduction) Very good.

It is a challenge to learn this song, but it's going to be all worth it.

Now, Lucy and Gwen will sing the middle harmony for the verse and softly in the background you will hear me singing the low harmony and Bodicea singing the high melody.

See if you can hold your own middle voices.

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

Thank you, Lucia.

Thank you, Gwen.

So you can take a rest middle and low voices if you want or sing along as we teach the melody.

There's no reason why you can't learn more than one part.

I can speak for that.

High voices just in case you have not heard this song before today.

You'll learn the melody with Bodicea and me now.

We'll sing the first verse.

Yes!

Now let's sing that whole verse straight through.

(Piano introduction) Great job, Bodicea!

Yeah, let's put this together now with the middle voices and the lower voices and sing the entire hymn, there's a lot of words here, but we can do it right.

Yes, we can.

(laughter) Here we go.

All five verses.

All three voice parts.

(Piano) Low (Piano) Middle (Piano) Melody (Piano introduction) Verse 3 Verse 4 Verse 5 (clapping) (huge sigh) Thank you.

I just love that hymn.

I love that hymn.

Thank you for joining our Senior Singalong.

One day, perhaps we'll sing together at the beach, in the park or again on TV.

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!