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At just over halfway through my year as one of the National Youth Choir Fellows, the last few weeks have been the busiest so far, and I thought I’d give you a taste of what I’ve been up to.

My summer kicked off with a weekend in Newcastle as part of the SING! programme, which I think is one of the most important parts of what National Youth Choir does. These programmes cover different parts of the country and aim to get young people singing and having fun together. This workshop in Newcastle was the second out of three, in which we began to introduce a little more detail to the music and led sessions on songwriting and beatboxing.

I find these workshops so inspiring. It amazes me that the day starts with a little bit of nerves (not just from the children!) and somehow ends with friendships and polished performances. As a freelance musician, the opportunity to work with an experienced team is so valuable and I learnt so much from the staff that I will be able to use in the future. 

Next stop: Framlingham!

After some train delays from Newcastle and traffic driving from London to Suffolk, I arrived at the staff day for the National Youth Choir (9-15 Years) - female and non-binary course. It was my first time as a Section Coach, and I was asked to step in at the last minute. Luckily, I was relieved the moment that I arrived by the warmest of welcomes from the team. Most important thing first - we went for lunch! Afterwards, we ran through the whole plan for the course, discussed job roles and got to know everyone. The next day, it was time for drop-offs to begin!

As the Section Coach for the Junior Altos, my role was to teach the music in sectional rehearsals so that once we all came together as a choir we could work on the interpretation of the music. Part of this included using a version of the Solfa system developed by Zoltán Kodály to help teach musical scales and intervals. If you’ve heard the phrase ‘magic pattern’ but you’re not too sure what it actually means, this is where it comes from. When I first saw what it consisted of (going up and down the degrees of a scale in a certain way), I wasn’t too sure what was so ‘magic’ about it. But let me tell you, I have well and truly been converted. 

With help from the musicianship expert for the course, Charlotte Galloway, I gave it a go in my sectionals and it saved so much time! If you’ve sung before, you might remember a feeling of confusion when changing pieces or the difficulty of sight-reading new pieces in different keys. The magic pattern helps this by rooting everyone in the key, meaning that they feel a really strong connection to the first note of the scale (Do). From there, it’s easy to find the rest of the notes using hand signs to reinforce where each note belongs and feels.

With this new skill in my toolbox, I was able to spot-fix mistakes and make quick progress with the repertoire, meaning we could get to the fun stuff and talk about the meaning of the pieces and how we should interpret them. Another benefit is that members might have different levels of musical reading skills and this system is accessible to everyone.

Four days later, it was time for the performance. And I couldn’t be more proud of my altos! Next up, straight back in the car to the 18-25s course in Uppingham!

And what an impressive few days. I made it just in time for dinner and then observed the recording session of Joanna Marsh’s new commission, Word. The next day, I was off to Ely Cathedral (my first time visiting!), where I helped set up audio equipment and asked Josh Quinlan far too many questions about recording.

I suppose the easiest way to sum these last few weeks up is simply that if my year continues as it has, this is going to be one of the most exciting years of my life. 

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