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

My name is Winnie and I'm here today with Lucia and Bodicea, and we're going to all lift our spirits and sing in harmony together, Today, we will learn and sing together.

"My hope is built on nothing less" My hope is built on nothing less by Edward Moat.

Edward Moat wrote 100 hymns in his lifetime, of which My hope is built on nothing less became his best known hymn.

It was originally written in 1834 under the name "The immutable basis for a Sinners Hope" The same week he wrote it, it was sung for the first time.

Moat visited a young couple to bring comfort as the wife was on her deathbed.

There was no hymnal for them to sing together from.

So he pulled from his pocket a folded piece of paper with this hymn, and together they sang.

My hope is built on nothing less This hymn is about finding strength in one's faith rather than on the things that slip away.

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.

And now let's have a nice neck stretch.

So if you're sitting down, you can take hold of the seat of the chair with your right hand.

Make sure your shoulders, stay level and down and take in a deep breath.

And as we exhale, gently lean our heads in the opposite direction.

Take a breath here in and out.

And as we inhale again, let's move to the other side.

And so you'll hold this seat with your left hand.

Inhale.

And as you exhale, lean your head to the left and give that nice stretch.

Remember to keep your shoulders level.

Don't tilt them.

Just keep them nice and level.

And now you breathe in and exhale there and then gently raise your head back to the center part.

Very gently.

Very good.

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.

And now if you can raise your arms up over your head, if you can, if you have any restrictions, just raise them as high as you can get them.

Raise them up and bring them down in a nice, happy sigh.

(Sigh) Just like that.

That sounds fun.

Let's do it again.

Raise your arms up and down.

(Sigh) Good job.

(Laughter) 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.

Now, are you ready to learn and sing "My hope is built on nothing less"?

Yes!

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

But this year will lead us with the melody and you can sing the melody at home or any part that's comfortable for you, because that's the great thing about singing at home.

You can do it your way.

(Piano) Low (Piano) Middle (Piano) Melody (Piano introduction) Chorus Verse two Chorus Verse three Chorus Verse four Chorus Repeat chorus We're going to start by learning the low harmony with verse one's lyrics.

Then when we do the sing through at the end, that's when we'll sing all of the verses.

first I sing a phrase.

Then you repeat it.

I sing.

Then you repeat.

OK, let's get started.

(Piano introduction) Good.

Now let's sing the whole verse together.

(Piano introduction) OK, now it's time to learn the chorus for the low harmony.

Are you ready?

(Piano introduction) Very good.

Now let's sing through the chorus together.

Here we go.

(Piano introduction) Very good.

And now let's sing through both the first verse and the chorus together.

Bodicea and Lucia will join us.

Bodicea will sing the melody and Lucia will join us with the middle harmony.

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

This will help us get used to singing with the harmonies around us, but focusing on our low harmony part.

We'll get our notes again.

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

Now it's time to learn the middle harmony of the verse with Lucia.

So Lucia and I will sing a phrase and then you repeat, We sing, you repeat.

(Piano introduction) Good job.

Now let's sing that through together.

(Piano introduction) Good job.

We're not there yet.

We've got to learn the chorus, and so we'll sing a phrase and then you repeat, OK. (Piano introduction) Great job!

Now let's put the Middle Harmony Chorus together.

(Piano introduction) Great job.

Thank you Lucia.

Now we're going to sing all of the middle harmony for verse one and chorus together.

While Bodicea sings the melody in the background with us.

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

Thank you, Lucia.

For high voices.

Just in case you have not heard this song before today.

We will guide you through phrase by phrase, the melody for this song.

We'll start with the first verse.

(Piano introduction) Good job.

Now let's sing through the verse together.

(Piano introduction) Now for the chorus.

(Piano introduction) Great job I heard you up there, high voices.

Let's sing the whole chorus straight through together.

(Piano introduction) Great job.

Well, we've learned the low and the middle harmonies, as well as the melody.

So it's time to sing the whole hymn.

We are going to sing all four verses and repeat the chorus at the end.

I'll remind you when we get there.

First, we'll all be reminded of our pitches.

(Piano) Low (Piano) Middle (Piano) Melody (Piano introduction) Chorus Verse two Chorus Verse three Chorus Verse four Chorus Repeat chorus Yay, we did it!

(laughter) Thank you for joining our Senior Singalong Episode Six.

One day perhaps we'll sing together at church while waiting for the car ferry or on the boat 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!