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

My name is Winnie, I'm here today with Lucia, Gwen and Bodicea.

We've been learning songs in three part harmony every week, and it's been a lot of fun.

This week we will sing all of those songs that we've learned over the last three episodes.

Children Go Where I Send Thee, Be Thou My Vision and This Little Light Of Mine.

We're going to begin with a short warm up so that we're well prepared to sing.

As always, before we sing, we prepare our voices 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.

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.

(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.

(laughter) 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.

Let's start with Children Go Where I Send Thee.

Remember when we did that three weeks ago?

First, we'll need to remind ourselves about our parts.

We'll sing through the first verse in each voice part.

Let's begin with low voices.

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.

Now, Lucia and Gwen will join us for the middle harmony review.

At home, you can sing the middle part with Lucia and Gwen and me, or you can sing one of the other parts.

Whatever makes you happy.

Here we go, first verse.

(Piano introduction) Ok, are you ready?

(Piano introduction) You got it.

Good job.

All right.

Let's count back the verses from five for the gospel preachers all the way back down to one for that little bitty baby.

All right.

Here we go.

Great job.

Thank you Lucia.

Thank you Gwen You're welcome.

So now with Bodicea singing the high melody, Lucia and Gwen singing Middle Harmony and myself singing the Low Harmony, we're going to sing through the whole song.

After five verses, I'll remind you to repeat that final line, Born, born, born in Bethlehem.

OK, here we go.

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

Three!

Four!

Five!

Repeat Awesome.

Great job everybody.

Yay!

(clapping, laughter) Well, now I'm feeling energized.

How about you?

But just to make sure you're not too energized before bedtime, we're going to shift gears for a few minutes and sing Be Thou My Vision.

Let's see what we remember from those two episodes ago.

We're going to sing through one verse for each voice part, starting with low harmony.

(Piano introduction) Very good.

Now let's revisit the middle harmony.

So you can sing with Lucia, Gwen and me on the middle harmony part, or you can sing another part.

Whatever you feel like singing.

(Piano introduction) Very good.

That was wonderful, thank you, Lucia and Gwen.

OK, next stop is high melody.

OK, middle and low voices, you can take a rest, or continue to sing along with Bodicea and me.

Remember everyone, this melody is pretty high, so you need to make sure your eyes are open and sparkling and that you're feeling nice and strong around your rib cage and belly so that you won't feel tight in your throat.

(Piano introduction) Good work.

Thank you, Bodicea.

I'm looking forward to singing the entire song.

OK, everybody ready to sing five verses in three part harmony.

Yes!

Stand tall, eyes alert, breathing deep and strong.

Here we go.

(Piano) Low (Piano) Middle (Piano) Melody (Piano introduction) Verse 3 Verse 4 Verse 5 (clapping) Well, we have one more song to sing today.

This Little Light Of Mine.

You know, everyone is here to let their light shine, including you.

So we're all going to sing this song like we mean it.

Amen!

Yes!

Amen.

As we always do, we'll start with reviewing the low harmony.

OK, low voices, let's begin by reviewing the low harmony for the first verse.

(Piano introduction) Yes!

Now we can check off the Low Harmony part on the list and move on to Middle Harmony.

Lucia, Gwen and I will sing through the middle harmony part with you for verse one.

Here we go.

(Piano introduction) Hey, hey, we still got it.

Thank you, Lucia.

Thank you, Gwen.

(laughter) All right, let's check in with the melody now.

So we're almost there, friends.

Sing along to the melody with Bodicea and me for the first verse.

(Piano introduction) Yeah!

Yay!

Thank you, Bodicea.

Okay singers at home before we sing This Little Light Of Mine in three part harmony, remember it does not have to stop with today's episode.

You can sing it all day long and never run out of verses.

While I'm washing the dishes.

I'm gonna let it shine While I'm driving my truck.

I'm gonna let it shine While I'm watching the TV, I'm gonna let it shine Let it shine.

Let it shine.

Let it shine.

While I'm doing my laundry, yeah, I'm gonna let it shine Sisters!

While I'm doing the laundry, I'm gonna let it shine While I'm doing the laundry, I'm gonna let it shine Let it shine.

Let it shine.

Let it shine.

Oh yeah!

(laughter) Even during COVID, we can let our lights shine so that everyone can see it, and we can then inspire others to shine their light as well.

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

(laughter) Thank you!

Lucia, Gwen, Bodicea.

Thank you, friends, for joining our Senior Singalong.

We hope you enjoyed singing with us as much as we enjoyed singing with you, and that these songs will continue to be a source of joy in your life and your day.

And as always, we look forward to one day perhaps singing together with you at the library - quietly - or at Carnival.

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!