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

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

We are going to lift all our spirits today by singing in harmony together.

Today, we will learn the harmonies to an old favorite.

This Little Light Of Mine.

This Little Light Of Mine is a gospel song of unknown origins.

It first appeared in the 1920s, and there are many versions of it in existence today.

In 1934, John and Alan Lomax made their first recording of this song at the State Penitentiary in Huntsville, Texas sung by Jim Boyd.

Then Sister Rosetta Tharpe, the Godmother of Rock and Roll, recorded it in 1960.

With its simple lyrics and tune, This Little Light Of Mine has been known and sung worldwide and handed down from generation to generation, with new verses being developed to suit any given occasion.

It reflects the concept that every individual has the ability to make the world a better place by simply letting themselves shine.

And of course, before we sing, we must always prepare our voices, our hearts and our minds to do so.

So let's get ready for our warm 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.

Take a deep breath.

We inhale.

(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.

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

Good.

Now let's do the other side.

All right.

Hold on to your chair with the opposite hand.

Take a breath, 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.

And now we'll massage the muscles of the throat.

You start at the Jawbone and slowly bring your fingers down towards your collarbone.

So from bone to bone Bring your fingers down on the opposite side of your trachea, that's where your air goes in.

So you don't want to hurt that one.

So just come on down on the sides of your neck.

All right.

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 stays 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, are you ready to have a little fun with This Little Light Of Mine?

Yes!

Let's first sing it together all the way through The melody is being sung by Bodicea.

You can sing the melody with her or any of the other parts that are comfortable with you.

You can learn all the parts and decide afterwards which one you like the best.

But that's the great thing about singing at home.

You can do it your way.

We're going to really let our lights shine when we sing.

Hide it under a bushel.

We're going to remember how we used to sing it as children and let our voices ring out.

(laughter) Let's show them how it's done, ladies.

(laughter) We want our voices to ring out friends.

If you're on St. Croix, we want to hear you over here on St. John and on St. Thomas and likewise St Thomas, on Saint John and Saint Croix.

(Piano) Low (Piano) Middle (Piano) Melody (Piano introduction) Verse two Verse three Verse four Repeat Yay!

What a workout.

Awesome.

We did it.

Yes.

OK. Let's learn those harmonies now, starting with the low harmony.

We are going to learn the low harmony using verse one.

First, I'll sing a phrase and then you repeat.

I sing.

Then you repeat.

(Piano introduction) Good job.

Now let's sing it through together with a little bit of the piano in the background for fun.

(Piano introduction) OK, it's time to bring back Lucia, Gwen and Bodicea to join us.

We're going to sing through verse one and the low harmony will be the loudest for you.

But then we'll add the background with the middle harmony and the melody so that you can see how it all sounds together with your voice (Piano) Low (Piano) Middle (Piano) Melody (Piano introduction) Very good.

Thank you, ladies for helping me.

(laughter) Now that we have the low harmony, let's learn the middle harmony.

Now we'll learn the middle harmony with Lucia and Gwen.

We're going to sing each phrase and then you repeat.

We sing, you repeat.

All right, now let's sing straight through that verse together (Piano introduction) Awesome!

OK, now we'll highlight Lucia and Gwen singing the middle harmony while Bodicea and I sing our parts.

Bodicea will be singing the high melody and I will sing the low harmony.

We'll be in the background so that you can hear the middle harmony better.

But first we'll get our pitches.

(Piano) Low (Piano) Middle (Piano) Melody (Piano introduction) Great job, Lucia and Gwen, thank you.

So now, middle voices and low voices, you can take a break or you can sing along and learn a new part if you want to The melody will be sung by Bodicea.

I know it may seem silly to teach the melody for This Little Light Of Mine because we all know it.

But it's so well known and it's been handed down for generations through oral tradition.

And it means that, everybody and I mean, everybody knows it the way it has been taught.

But there are many variations, and some of those might not match our harmonies today.

So we're going to teach you the melody our way, using verse one.

OK. Did you find anything different from the way you learned it?

OK, that's fine.

Now let's sing the whole verse straight through with the piano (Piano introduction) Yeah!

Yay!

Oh, this is it, everybody.

We're going to put it all together now, Lucy and Gwen will be joining us and we'll sing the whole song together and all the parts singing full harmony.

So we sing three verses and come back around to repeat the first verse again This little light of mine everywhere I go.

Hide it under a bushel.

No!

You know what?

I think we should practice that No again.

Everybody ready?

Hide it under a bushel.

No!

(laughter) That's excellent.

(laughter) And you know, I think I heard you too, Frederiksted, I did.

Well, we're ready now.

So let's get our notes.

(Piano) Low (Piano) Middle (Piano) Melody (Piano introduction) Verse two Verse three Verse four Repeat Yes!

Awesome sauce!

Yay!

(laughter) Thank you for joining our Senior Singalong.

Keep your light shining out there, everyone, your light does matter.

One day perhaps, we'll sing together at the gate at the airport, even on a plane.

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!