Huntingdonshire Music School Association - Tv

Following the tradition of BBC’s Play It Again, and The Choir, the BBC have set up a series of events aimed at providing opportunities for the public to find their voice:

In Over The Rainbow, BBC1 is searching for a new Dorothy for The Wizard of Oz. To accompany the series, we’re holding free singing events to give you the chance to find your voice with a little help from I’d Do Anything winner Jodie Prenger, the BBC Singers, and some of the ex Dorothys.

Whether you’re an enthusiastic amateur or an absolute beginner, this is your chance to be part of a special musical masterclass. It doesn’t matter if you’ve never sung in a group or in public before - the events are aimed at beginners and open to everyone. We’ll give you all the help you need to find your voice and sing along as part of a mass chorus.

Come on your own or bring a friend - no previous singing experience is necessary and all ages are welcome. No one will be judged or have to sing on their own.

So if you’re feeling inspired to have a go at singing, sign-up for your chance to be part of the Over The Rainbow live events…

• Date: Saturday 1 May 2010 Venue: Leeds Town Hall, Leeds
• Date: Sunday 2 May 2010 Venue: Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow
• Date: Monday 3 May 2010 Venue: Shaftesbury Theatre, London
• Date: Tuesday 4 May 2010 Venue: Shaftesbury Theatre, London
• Date: Sunday 9 May 2010 Venue: St David’s Hall, Cardiff

Due to the popularity of the show we are operating a random draw. To apply for a place, click here and complete the registration form. When you’ve submitted your form you’ll receive an email acknowledgement. If you are successful you will be sent a confirmation e-ticket after the closing date you’ll need to bring this e-ticket with you to the venue. You can apply for a maximum of two tickets per household. The closing date for registering is 4pm on the 19 April.

For more information and to download the free Over the Rainbow Step-by-Step Guide to Singing go to www.bbc.co.uk/dorothy

Good luck with your application.

Please note that tickets to the live events do not give entry to the recording of the live BBC1 television programme.

Some of you might have watched the BBC Play It Again TV series on BBC1 on Sunday nights. In this series every week an adult celebrity personality is given the challenge of learning a musical instrument and culminates in a major public performance with professional musicians. The series featured the following:-

• Jo Brand - organ
• Frank Skinner - banjo
• Aled Jones - drums
• Robert Winston - saxophone
• Diane Abbott - piano
• Bill Oddie - electric guitar

As part of the campaign to encourage adult learners the BBC laid on a series of events around the country where anyone could turn up with their instrument of choice and have a go with a professional BBC orchestra at rehearsing and then performing a well known piece.

We were asked to provide a stand at the Cambridge event. We also got a brief listing on the BBC website. Myself and some very good folk spent all day taking to very enthused adults and children during the breaks between rehearsals. Some others from the music school took part in the event itself and learnt ‘Tonight’ from Bernstein’s West Side Story. The final performance involved something like 250 people (see below).

What a day! We had quite a lot of ‘bites’ and a lot of promises to turn up and see things on Saturday mornings. There were something like 600 people there. I think I managed to turn round one lady who wanted someone to coach for singing near her in Newmarket to coming to see us if there’s a possibility to join in with a sing with swing event. I have a definite taker who is coming purely for the theory lesson (but once inside I’m sure she’ll succumb!).

The Oud and Hurdy Gurdy attracted a lot of interest and did their job well - thought we had quite an eye-catching stall (but I would, wouldn’t I!). The soundtracks from the Sing with Swing and Big 4-0 were pretty good (although we did have some stiff competition on the noise front in the afternoon).

There were some strange instruments - concert ukalele, mandela (octave mandolin). Everyone taking part seemed to enjoy themselves and the BBC and the orchestra seemed to do a fantastic job at including and encouraging everyone. It concluded with a performance of ‘Tonight’ from the West Side Story - sounded pretty good from the balcony - see below. It’d be interesting to hear from the performers and also those that took pictures or video or captured sound on their phones.

In fact everyone seemed to be having such a good time that myself and my daughter decided to attend the event at the Watford Colliseum 2 weeks later (and recorded the same for the HUMS Aloud podcast…

External Links

• Play It Again on Wikipedia
• Play It Again with the BBC (Official Website)

Well done to the BBC - well worth the license fee for this one event alone. It was really good to see people so enthusiastic about learning to play an instrument.