Choir Crashing

My flux capacitor has been working overtime of late. Visits to the Surrey University campus in Guildford for late night jams in the practice rooms with Tay have been taking my mind back in time to my student years. Tight deadlines for spoken assignments have kept Tay too busy to play piano this week but if possible she wouldn't miss out on choir practice. So neither did I!

Heavy rains fell all morning drenching the entire chorus of students on their way to Studio 1. So wide had the heavens opened that the regular conductor Russell Keable spent his time stuck on the M40 behind an accident. A shame for Choir Crashers like me as his eccentric warm-up routines are apparently great fun; 1... takita 1 2... takita 1 2 3... takita 1 2 3 4... takita tah! (All complete with stretching exercises and loose-limb movements!)

Once inside I did my best to blend in with the educational crowd. In true student style I too had forgotten my sheet music. Standing with the Bass register I marked myself at a B+ for picking up the bottom line of I'm Getting Married In The Morning followed by I Could Have Danced All Night. Choir Maths Level 1: Basses + Baritones + Tenors 1 & 2 + Altos 1 & 2 + Sopranos 1 & 2 = 8 lines of harmony. When all our voices came together the sound in the studio was awesome. A shorter than usual session unfortunately meant cutting Auf-fer-stehn out of the reportoire. Damn, I could have done with the German lesson so close to our trip to Berlin on Monday.

Coming back to the future we travelled via the scenic route and stopped to take a gander at the rainbow-coloured views over the Albury Downs at Newlands Corner. Fantastic.