Sing St John welcomes you to our Senior Singalong Episode Seven.

My name is Winnie and I'm here today with Lucia and Bodicea, and we're going to all lift our spirits by singing in harmony together, Today we will learn the harmonies for "I ain't gonna study war no more" "I ain't going to study war no more" an African-American spiritual is also known as "Down by the riverside" and "Gonna to lay down my burden."

This song is known to have existed before the American Civil War.

The Fisk University Jubilee Quartet made the first known recording of it in 1920 with Columbia Records.

There are well over a dozen gospel recordings that were made before World War II "I ain't gonna study war no more has been used as a protest song by labor movements and during the Vietnam War era.

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

So let's start with our posture.

Our backs are tall and are ready for action.

If you are sitting, sit as tall as you can and place both feet flat on the floor, make sure your shoulders are relaxed and sitting right on top of your spine.

To do that, let's raise our shoulders high, high, high, high and relax.

There you go.

Now let's get ready to breathe.

Take a deep breath with me.

(inhales) And exhale.

(exhale) Very good.

And now we'll take another deep breath, and when we exhale, we'll make this sound.

Shh, shh, shh.

OK. Just like this.

OK, now let's do it together.

Deep breath in.

(inhales) Exhale.

So we're going to gently warm up the middle voice first.

Can you make this sound "oo".

Similar to now.

But just When we make this sound, the front of our mouth isn't open very much, but our throat is So using the "oo" sound, we are going to sing a short scale and it's going to sound like this.

(Piano introduction) ready ready (piano) Up Keep it nice and smooth Almost like an owl.

One more.

Awesome!

That was very good.

And now we'll do that with the word "LO".

(Piano) Gently going down.

Relax your throat.

But stay alert.

One more.

Awesome.

Are you ready to learn I ain't going to study war no more?

Yes!

(Laughter) Let's sing it through together first, all the way through Bodicea will sing the melody, that's the high part.

Luccia will sing the middle harmony and I'll be singing the Lower Harmony.

And you can sing any part that's comfortable for you, because when you're at home, you can sing it any way you want to.

As we often do, we're going to repeat the chorus at the end but I'll remind you.

(Piano) Low (Piano) Middle (Piano) Melody (Piano introduction) Chorus Repeat (Laughter) Yay!

(clapping) We're going to begin with learning the low harmony with verse one's lyrics.

Once you've learned all of the parts we'll sing through the entire song at the end.

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

I sing.

You repeat.

Ready.

Good.

Now let's sing through the whole verse together.

Good job.

Now it's time to learn the chorus for the low part.

Are you ready?

OK?

That was a lot of work, wasn't it?

Awesome job.

Let's sing the chorus through together.

Here we go.

Great job.

And now we're ready to sing through both the first verse and the chorus together.

Bodicea will join us on the melody and Lucia will join us on the middle harmony.

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

This will help us get used to singing with the harmonies going on around us, yet still hearing our part out loud All right, we're all starting to get our notes now.

(Piano) Low (Piano) Middle (Piano) Melody Now low harmony we start the song together So stay with me we go Gonna lay down my burden And then the others join us.

Okay?

(Piano) Verse one (Piano) Yeah.

Good job.

Yeah.

(Laughter) (Clapping) Now it's time to learn the middle harmony for verse one with Lucia.

There's one tricky thing, though the low voices sing that first line, Gonna lay down my burdens.

And then the next few verses there will be different words, but you'll see the pattern.

But as usual, Lucia and I will sing our phrases and then you repeat.

We sing.

Then you repeat.

Good job.

Now let's sing through that verse together.

Very good.

I know it's a little tricky, but you're hanging in there.

Good job.

Thank you, Lucia.

And now we learn the chorus will demonstrate.

You repeat.

We sing.

You repeat.

Woo, that was a lot of work.

Yes, was.

Now we'll sing the chorus all the way through together.

Very good.

And now we'll sing all of the middle harmony for the first verse, and the chorus and Bodicea will join us with the melody (Piano) Low (Piano) Middle (Piano) Melody (Piano introduction) Excellent.

(Laughter) Good job, thank you, ladies.

Thank you, Lucia.

And now the low and the middle voices can rest for a little while as we teach the melody with Bodicea.

And now we're going to remind you or refresh your memory on what the melody sounds like after all of that practice, so that you can sing with us in the high voice or the melody.

But remember, I introduced the song I sing or the low voices sing the first line Gonna lay down my burden.

And then the melody begins.

Ok?

Now that we've learned all three parts, we're ready to sing the entire song through with all the harmony.

As we often do.

We're going to repeat the chorus at the end, but I'll remind you.

(Piano) Low (Piano) Middle (Piano) Melody (Piano introduction) Chorus Repeat We did it, you did it us.

(Laughter) Awesome!

Yes, you did it!

(Laughter) (Clapping) We got it.

Thank you for joining our Senior Singalong.

One day, perhaps we'll sing together in traffic at Mandela Circle or at the Cost-U-Less intersection.

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!

Good night everyone!