André's Rehearsal Notes for November 12th, 2025

Sing out Choral Evolution!

There is a physical element to singing that can’t be imagined or explained, it has to be experienced. When you sing higher pitches, the vocal chords tighten in order to vibrate faster. Your breathing system has to respond with more breath pressure in order to overcome this tightening. When singers and teachers talk about supporting the tone, this is what they are often referring to. You must blow more air with more force in order to get the high notes to speak. Conversely, your vocal chords must be strong enough to resist that higher breath pressure.

Once you get the hang of this, it becomes second nature and the 2 systems, vocal chords and breath work together in harmony. But you must try to sing out regularly to develop that coordination. Imagining or singing quietly in your car will not do, you must experience and practice the skill. You must find a big room and sing those rising phrases repeatedly, even if you fail. Eventually, the systems will balance themselves and you will develop strong high notes.

Sing regularly in a large room. Sing high passages on “OO” at first, it will be easier, then move to an “AH” and then add the words without losing the feeling.
Don’t worry about cracking or sounding bad, that is part of the process. Over time, strength and coordination will build and you will gain confidence when attempting higher passages.
Sing those higher passages multiple times and return to them regularly. Sing a comfortable Mezzo Forte at first, then get softer for passages marked Piano, but keep the breath moving.
Use Locus Iste as a practice piece, there is lots of variety.

O Canada harmony is recorded on our rehearsal tracks opening page. Gabe plays it perfectly!

Anthem Singers will meet at the entrance to Save-on-foods centre at 3:20 pm.

We’re at a point where we’ll be running more tunes and hopefully rehearsing less. I will touch on all these tunes this week:

7:00 Warm up and Locus Iste – Warm up before rehearsal because you care about the sound.

7:20 Field behind the Plow – review

7:40 Make and Break Harbour – review

7:55 Carol of the Bells – review

8:10 Break

8:20 Solstice Carol – review

8: 40 Un Canadien Errant – ending and review

8:55 Christmas Trilogy – Get those eyeballs moving, we’ll run this as much as we can

I will see you all at Sooke Community Hall at 7 pm Wednesday November 12^th.

André ♪

musictheory.net is a free resource that will teach you all about how written music works. There are theory lessons and ear training for every level of musician. Click on the word “lessons” at the top left and do at least one lesson a day. Each lesson takes just a few minutes to complete and they are fun!. Click on the sentences at the bottom of the page to advance through the lesson. Spending a few minutes a day here will help you become more comfortable with written music.

Reminders:

✓ Sing out loud in a big room as often as you can. As you learn a tune practice singing as you would in a show. This will strengthen your voice and our choral sound.

✓ Please bring a pencil to rehearsal ✓ Mark your parts, make lots of notes – the score is a road map to beautiful music but we have to all agree on how we will perform it.

✓ We have Excellent New music, mark lightly with pencils only. You will have to erase it all at the end of the session when you return your music.

✓ In long passages, decide where you will breathe, mark it down and practice it. For instance, the opening phrases of “Away from the roll of the Sea” should be sung in 9 bar blocks and you need to be sure where you will sneak a breath

✓ Practice – know your parts – use the practice tracks. While it’s great to listen to the tracks, it’s even better to follow them with the music in front of you. We will be stopping and starting a lot at rehearsals, and you’ll be able to follow better if you have been looking at the score as you sing.

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News

30 Nov 2025 CE News

By Sherry Walters • December 1, 2025

Two more sleeps until the dress rehearsal (at Sooke Community Hall at 6 pm) and then the show starts on Friday!!! Please make sure you are on stage, ready to sing at 6 pm. The Hall will be open at 5:30 to get the risers in place. You could come early and lend a hand! What an exciting time when all our hard work gets shown to the community. Have you people coming? Did you find 2 new people to ask to the show? It is always better to sing to a full house, so spread the word, email or phone call. The look of the choir on stage was great on Wednesday.... with a few exceptions. We want to look like the flag, so please make your red (sop and alto) or white (tenor and bass) a solid colour . Black on the bottom (pants, skirt). If you need help, please reach out. If you offered to bring "Canadiana" items for the show, please bring them with you on Friday and we will set up a vignette of Canada. I haven't heard of what is being brought, other than at the long rehearsal, but please remember to be sensitive about the items as to how the item's presence might land on someone else. Keep reviewing your music this week to solidify it in your head. If you haven't yet put it in concert order, check out Andre's blog to see the order it should be placed in. For those new to us, the elastics in the centre of your binder hold the middle of a piece of music; just slip the papers under one of the elastics and you are set. The new music tracks are up on the website; have a listen and we'll see you in January! Lots of cool music. See you TUESDAY! Sherry

22 Nov 2025 CE News

By Sherry Walters • November 23, 2025

If you are counting, you will know we have one more rehearsal, the dress rehearsal and then the shows! It is so close! I hope you are getting excited to present our show to friends, family and the community. During rehearsal, Andre makes comments/notes about some of the trickier spots. Make sure you document those and refer to them when rehearsing so it comes easily during rehearsal. My music is full of notes: tricky spots, when to breathe and when not to, HALL instead of HALLS, and things like that. If you are unsure, reach out to a fellow section member or your section lead to get the scoop. I am requesting that we all wear our colours this Wednesday at our Sooke rehearsal. Reminders: tenor and bass wear white shirt (button down or dressier shirt), black pants, socks, shoes. The alto and soprano will be in red dressier shirts (please stay as close to the colour red as you can, so no burgundy, wine or orange), black pants, socks, shoes. If you want to wear jewelry, keep it to gold and silver so colours don't clash. The idea is that we will look like the Canadian flag. As mentioned last Wednesday, our set will have Canadian memorabilia. We hope to put the items around the choir. If you have something to share, I would request that you send me an email and I will advise if it will work or not. I would request that those with cherished items be responsible for them. I will send out a list of what I have so far. As suggested last week, I'd like to continue to capture the names of our marvelous volunteers. Linda will once again look after our book lights, Mary M, Jacqueline and Emily will be setting up our pre-concert lawn signs, the riser team headed by John and Tony: Thibault, Sebastien, Caleb, Mary W and Jan, Sebastien is helping Andre with the lights and sound, Mary W, Maureen, Nicole, Joy and Gwen are helping with the set, Jan is overseeing the volunteers for front of house, and our front of house will be previous members: Mike, Sheila, Naseem, Christiana and Amanda. Anne and Evangelina will also be helping! And the list goes on! Everyone can also help by getting more people into the audience. If you haven't convinced 2 new people to come, get out there and start selling this show. We want to ensure we have a full house at each venue. An email will be shared soon with details about the show: when to be there, where to be, etc, so be watching for it. Thank you all for being such an amazing part of this organization. And we get to have fun singing, too! See you Wednesday in Sooke!

Director Notes

André's Rehearsal Notes for December 18th, 2025

By Andre Clouthier • December 18, 2025

Happy Holidays Choral Evolution! I would like to express my sincere gratitude to each of you in the wake of our busy and successful concert season. Everyone worked on their on their music, attendance was almost 100% at rehearsals and you sang the performances with confidence and conviction. Without your efforts there would have been no joyous music. Thank you to all the volunteers and concert workers. These concerts are a big undertaking for a small group like ours and many members gave generously of their time and effort to make it happen. Decorating, lighting, risers, advertising, posters, sponsors, chairs, food, organizing volunteers. All the planning and thinking it through that are so important to a successful endeavour. Thank you to our readers and soloists who rose to the challenge and stepped out of their comfort zones to fill their roles. We should all be proud of our “Made in Canada” theme, the music we chose, the poetry, format and execution. We brought to fruition a difficult challenge and made it a memorable success. I can honestly say that I have never attended a more enjoyable choir concert. I’m sure many in our audience felt the same way because many of them told me so afterwards. Our Christmas Sing-A-Long was poorly attended. There are just too many such events in a town that can’t support them all. I will work with the Board to reach out to other musical organizations in town to join forces next year so as to put on a show that is more rewarding for all. After all, any $$ raised goes to the same good cause. Over the holidays please familiarize yourselves with our spring repertoire. I am just starting to work on a rehearsal plan. I’ll let you know in this space next week what tunes we will work on at our first rehearsal. Take every opportunity to sing and keep your voices in shape. Learning your parts before we begin will make the journey to our May show much more rewarding. Enjoy your Holidays and I will see you all in Sooke on January 7 th , 2026! André ♪ Here's an easy to keep New Year's resolution! Visit musictheory.net and expand your musical knowledge. You'll be happy you did. musictheory.net is a free resource that will teach you all about music rudiments. There are theory lessons and ear training for every level of musician. Click on the word “lessons” at the top left and do at least one lesson a day. Each lesson takes just a few minutes to complete and they are fun!. Click on the sentences at the bottom of the page to advance through the lesson. Spending a few minutes a day here will help you become more comfortable with written music.

André's Rehearsal Notes for November 26th, 2025

By Andre Clouthier • November 24, 2025

Concert time Choral Evolution! This week, we will practice with the choir risers. We’ll practice entering, starting a few tunes, looking at some tricky moments and exiting. Here is what might happen: 7:00 Warm up and Locus Iste – Practice Enter Sing the Winter Away Indian Summer - Letter F to end Solstice Carol - a Capella Away from the roll of the Sea - Exit choir Thank you - Places for small group. Exit 8:10 Break Enter Un Canadien Errant Christmas Trilogy – Exit to sing: Carol of the Bells I will see you all at Sooke Community Hall dining room at 6:45 pm, Wednesday November 26 th . André ♪ About singing “high notes” There is a physical element to singing that can’t be imagined or explained, it has to be experienced. When you sing higher pitches, the vocal chords tighten in order to vibrate faster. Your breathing system has to respond with more breath pressure in order to overcome this tightening. When singers and teachers talk about supporting the tone, this is what they are often referring to. You must blow more air with more force in order to get the high notes to speak. Conversely, your vocal chords must be strong enough to resist that higher breath pressure. Practicing and trying are the only way to learn this balancing act. Once you get the hang of this, it becomes second nature and the 2 systems, vocal chords and breath work together in harmony. But you must try to sing out regularly to develop that coordination. Imagining or singing quietly in your car will not do, you must experience and practice the skill. You must find a big room and sing those rising phrases repeatedly, even if you fail. Eventually, the systems will balance themselves and you will develop strong high notes. · Sing regularly in a large room. Sing high passages on “OO” at first, it will be easier, then move to an “AH” and then add the words without losing the feeling. · Don’t worry about cracking or sounding bad, that is part of the process. Over time, strength and coordination will build and you will gain confidence when attempting higher passages. · Sing those higher passages multiple times and return to them regularly. Sing a comfortable Mezzo Forte at first, then get softer for passages marked Piano. · Use Locus Iste as a practice piece, there is lots of variety.