- Concerts & Competitions!
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Date Posted: Wed, 5 Mar 2025
Concerts & Competitions!
What an action-packed start to 2025 it's been! We've hit the ground running and we're already sensing big things ahead in this, our fifteenth anniversary year (keep your eyes peeled for celebrations happening later in the year - and for your chance to join in the fun!).
As always, we kicked off January with our AGM, at which our members get to put forward their ideas for the year ahead and vote on our annual "Barbershopper of The Year" award. This year, the lucky recipient was bass superstar Alice! As you can see, both she and MD Lesley were delighted with the result! The winner of the Pauline Gobbitt Award for Musicality for 2025 was AMD/Lead section leader Emma, who was incredibly honoured to receive an award given in memory of our fabulous and much-missed founding member.
Our AGM is always a great chance for everyone to sit with a cuppa (and a biscuit or two!) and make plans. It's really important to us that we're a member-led chorus, as it means that our singers have a say in how the group is run, what songs we sing and the direction we take. As mentioned, this year is our fifteenth anniversary, so plans were put forward for a celebratory concert to mark the occasion!
One of our missions is to grow the chorus in 2025. Whilst we think there's a lot to be said for being a small, tight-knit group, we are keen to boost our sound and welcome some new singers to the mix. With that in mind, some members have been kind enough to change sections to ensure we keep things in balance - one of our baris is now a bass and our tenor is now a bari! A huge thank you to Sue P and Alison for making the moves and to MD Lesley for stepping back into the chorus to sing tenor for us - you are all sounding phenomenal in your new sections! We've also been delighted to welcome a brand new member: Maddy is now officially a member of our bass section and has not only shown incredible dedication - learning songs in record-breaking time - but has already completed her first performance with us and is now about to enter her first competition! Maddy, you're a superstar and we're so thrilled to have you on board.
Wadebridge Festival of Music & Speech celebrates their centenary in 2025 and this year's festival both opens and closes with a concert. We were thrilled to be asked to take part in the opening concert and performed our version of Everyday by Buddy Holly at the event. This week (tomorrow night, at time of writing - eek!), we'll also be entering the small women's choir category with two more songs that we've been polishing over the last few weeks. There's even some choreo involved, so hold onto your hats and wish us luck!
Our performance at the festival's opening concert was also a chance to show off our new navy trousers and blouses! Whilst we love our casual look, wearing indigo jeans and tops in our chorus colours, several of our members requested a more formal look for special events (remember what we said about being member-run?!), so we sought out a costume grant and set about making ourselves look even snazzier than before! A huge thank you to our treasurer Sue P, who has worked tirelessly to source sustainable costume for us, in line with our environmentally-conscious ethos.
So, as you can see it's been all go here at More Harmony HQ and we've got lots still to look forward to as the year progresses! The best part? You can join in! If you're a woman aged 16 or over (we've not got an upper age limit!) and you love to sing, why not come along to Wadebridge Ambulance Hall on a Thursday night (we start at 7:15pm, doors open at 7) and give a cappella a try?! You might think you need the safety net of a backing track, but our members range from performers who've sung at national competitions, to total novices who've only ever sung in the bath! Both ends of the spectrum are equally valued at More Harmony. We firmly believe that anyone can sing, given the right support - and with the enthusiasm to learn. So, whether you're an experienced choir-goer or a complete newbie, we can guarantee the warmest of welcomes and the opportunity to truly let your voice shine! Drop us a line at contact@moreharmony.co.uk to find out more.
We hope to welcome you soon!
- 12 Reasons To Join More Harmony In 2025!
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Date Posted: Thu, 9 Jan 2025
12 Reasons to join more harmony in 2025!
Happy New Year! We hope you had a wonderful festive season, filled with fun, laughter and lots of tasty treats!
For many people, January is a time to reset. The start of a new year is the perfect time to think about what you'd like to achieve over the next twelve months and what you want to leave behind. With that in mind, we thought it would be the ideal time to bring you twelve reasons - one for each month of the year - why you should consider singing with us in 2025...
1. Challenge Yourself!This time of year is great for setting goals. It might be to lose weight, find the job of your dreams or give up a bad habit. Whatever you choose, the purpose is to provide yourself with a challenge. Well, that's where we come in!
Singing in harmony is an incredibly rewarding, joyous experience, but it doesn't happen by magic. Learning the words, practising between rehearsals and working up the nerve to perform in front of an audience are all personal challenges and we support one another to reach them. Whether you're a total novice or a singer who needs to get back into the swing of things, taking up a hobby like singing a cappella could be just the challenge you need to kick your 2025 into action!2. Get Healthy!
A lot of the goals people set at the start of a new year involve improving their overall health. Well, you may not realise it, but singing can do wonders for that!
From improving your posture to increasing your lung capacity, singing has a whole range of both physical and mental health benefits. The actual act of singing works out a variety of muscles and promotes better breathing, so if you're looking to get healthy in 2025, joining a choir might be the ideal first step!
3. Get Rid Of Your Post-Christmas Blues!
Singing has been scientifically proven to reduce stress and the actual act of belting out a song releases endorphins and gives you a big hit of dopamine - all of which basically means that singing makes you happy! Research has shown that people in choirs view singing as a wonderful way to take their minds off their troubles. So, if you're feeling a bit down now that the festivities are over, come and immerse yourself in the music and sing your blues away!
4. Give Your Memory A Boost!
One of the many benefits of singing is that it can improve your memory. When you sing, you engage several areas of the brain at once. The act of singing involves focusing on multiple things (posture, breathing, remembering the words etc) and so has been proven to improve mental alertness, memory and concentration. Of course, hearing songs can also trigger memories and remind you of happy times - what's not to love?!
5. Make New Friends!
Singing in a choir is a team sport! You'll get to know lots of like-minded people, all supporting one another to be the best they can be. The feeling of camaraderie that comes from performing together is second to none and friendships inevitably form, with regular social nights being held and members finding additional common interests. Plus, since we're a small, welcoming group, you won't ever have that "outsider" feeling - from the moment you walk through our doors, we'll make you feel like one of the gang!6. No Financial Risk!
Lots of choirs offer a free session to new singers, so they can "try before they buy," to see if singing is for them. Here at More Harmony, whilst we believe one session is all it takes for people to fall in love with a cappella, we offer three free sessions to newcomers, so they can really find their feet before they start paying to attend. From the fourth visit, a weekly sub of £6.50 is payable until a singer decides to become a full member. They then pay a one-off £20 joining fee and switch to a monthly Direct Debit payment of £25. We never want there to be a financial barrier to entry, so we try to keep our fees as low as we can. We're also not run for profit, so all of the money we receive from monthly subscriptions goes towards renting our rehearsal venue, paying for music & costume and providing educational opportunities and coaching for our members. Unlike some organisations, we also never chase members who leave, demanding that they pay to the end of a term, or worse, to the end of the year (trust us, we've read some horror stories!). Subs are paid on the 3rd of each month, so if someone chooses to move on from More Harmony, they simply cancel their Direct Debit and don't pay anymore.7. Develop Your Skills!
Joining a choir will obviously teach you how to sing correctly, with the right posture and breathing in place, ehancing your vocal skills in the process. But it doesn't stop there! You'll learn valuable life skills, such as teamwork, active listening and self-confidence. More Harmony are also member-led, with a committee of volunteers keeping everything ticking over. You'll have the opportunity to take on a role if you'd like to, which could lead to you organising fundraising events, writing press articles or even liaising with venues to arrange our performances - all of which looks great on a CV and will be a huge boost to your skill-set!
8. Give Something Back To Your Community!
As a not-for-profit organisation, More Harmony's primary focus is giving back to our members and beyond. Each year, we choose a charity to support and we raise money at a variety of events, from quizzes to concerts and everything in between! We also love being a part of our local community and show our support for various causes, whether by having a stall at a town fair or performing in care homes and hospices. If your goal for 2025 is to do a bit of good for your community, why not come along with us and have some fun at the same time?!
9. Unleash Your Inner Diva!
It might seem a little mad to have not mentioned this one yet, but we wanted to make it crystal clear how much you can get out of singing with us beyond performance opportunities! Of course, getting up in front of an audience and showing off what we can do is a big part of being a member of More Harmony. Over the years, we've sung at all kinds of events, both big and small. From brightening up an afternoon at the local care home, to competing at Wadebridge Festival of Speech & Music - and even travelling to Germany to sing in front of hundreds of people - our members have all kinds of opportunities to strut their stuff!10. Give Yourself Something Just For YOU!
Our choir is full of women with busy lives. Day jobs, children, grandchildren, other responsibilities... We've all got plenty on our plates! Thursday nights are a chance for us to let our hair down and do something just for ourselves. We have a laugh, work hard on polishing the songs we sing and feel like we've achieved something we can be really proud of. As one of our members once put it: "For a couple of hours a week, I'm not 'Mum' or 'Wife.' I'm a singer in an amazing group - and that feels so special!"
As a group of all ages and experiences, we try to ensure our repertoire has something for everyone. This year, we've got everything from 1950s rock and roll, to modern-day floor-fillers! To put that into context, our song list for 2025 features artists such as Buddy Holly, Billy Joel, Queen, ABBA, Whitney Houston and Jessie J, to name but a few! It's not unheard of for our members to fall in love with a song (or even an artist!) they'd never heard of before. It's equally common for us to bond over a new song that everyone knows - sung in a way that's totally fresh and exciting!
11. Broaden Your Musical Tastes!12. It's FUN!
We could go on all day about the many ways that singing is good for you, but if we had to boil it down to just ONE reason to join More Harmony, it would be this one! Yes, it can be tricky to to learn a brand new song and yes, getting up on stage in front of an audience can be rather nerve-wracking, but there is a reason that we all keep doing it and that's because it's positively joyous. The thrill we get when a song comes together, the laughter we share when we're doing funny warm-ups, the friendships we've made and the support we give to each other make rehearsals something we look forward to every week. In the seven years I've been at More Harmony, I've never attended a rehearsal that hasn't featured a lot of giggling and fun in amongst the singing!
We do it because we love it. Why not come along and see if you do, too?!
More Harmony rehearse on Thursday nights, 7:15-9:30pm at Wadebridge Ambulance Hall. There is no need to book in advance, just come along and give it a go! If you've got any questions you'd like to ask, please feel free to get in touch by emailing contact@moreharmony.co.uk and we'll be happy to help!
- All We Want For Christmas is YOU!
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Date Posted: Wed, 11 Dec 2024
All we want for christmas is...
YOU!
Well, here we are at the end of another year - and what a year it's been!! We've had a change of Chairperson, a re-shuffle of the committee and a whole lot of new songs to have fun with. We've also won a trophy at Wadebridge Festival of Speech & Music and we've performed in places as varied as school halls, Christmas markets and care homes! We've welcomed some fantastic new singers to our ranks and we've shown our phenomenal team spirit, with members temporarily switching sections when needed, to ensure we always make the best sound possible. We are so proud of our singing family and we can't wait to see what 2025 brings! And that's where YOU come in...
Wadebridge is incredibly fortunate to have all kinds of wonderful music groups on offer. Whether you're looking to play an instrument or sing your heart out, there are a great many options to choose from. We're proud to belong to such a wide-ranging musical community and we do our bit to give back - whether that's through our annual fundraising activities, or by singing in local care homes and hospices. It's really important for us to be a part of our local music scene and to foster fantastic relationships with the groups around us. That's why we're incredibly excited to be sharing the stage with Wadebridge Town Band on Friday 13th at Wadebridge Town Hall (7:30pm) and why one of the absolute highlights of this year's music festival was gathering in the pub with other local choirs afterwards and swapping stories! All of these local music groups are joined by a common love, after all!
We also know that, with the wide range of musical options on offer, we have to be competitive. That's why we keep our membership prices lower than many national singing organisations and why we continue to offer as much as we can in return - for example, we try to provide as much of our performance uniform as possible, rather than making our members buy it themselves, and we offer coaching and educational opportunities to our singers, so they can learn how to get the most out of their voices! We are also entirely member-led. That means that, whilst we do belong to a parent organisation (the Ladies Association of British Barbershop Singers, or "LABBS"), we are not run by a parent company. Everything - from our music choices and costumes to our performance opportunities and how we perform the songs we sing - is chosen by our MD, committee and our wider membership. We relish the freedom that gives us. We are a team, proud to be doing things our way.
Another thing that marks us as different to some other choirs is our size. There aren't a huge number of us - but that doesn't mean we don't make a big sound! More Harmony are a close-knit group of women who pride ourselves on the warm, friendly atmosphere we foster at rehearsals. We have members who openly admit to being shy away from the stage, but who've found their musical home with us and have absolutely blossomed in confidence as a result! We don't see being a small singing group as a negative - far from it! We see it as a wonderful positive. Every single one of our members is valued, everyone feels like they're contributing towards the wonderful sound we produce and everyone knows one another and has a chance to make friends - you only have to look at how many social evenings we have during the year to see that we don't just love to sing together! We've long said that whilst we'd like to grow the chorus, we want to keep numbers below 30, so we never lose that sense of familiarity amongst everyone - and nobody ever has to do that scary thing of walking through our doors to be confronted by a vast sea of strangers. The welcome you get when you walk into Wadebridge Ambulance Hall has been described by our newest singers as "so incredibly warm" and "like walking into a room full of friends." That's something we're deeply proud of and we never want it to change. Again, we know there are bigger choirs around, where novice singers may well be happy to blend in until they feel a bit more confident. That's fine! However, rest assured that our small size never means you'll stick out like a sore thumb. We sing together.
Another thing we're proud of is the dedication of our members. In a small group, as we mentioned, every voice counts and all of our singers know how important they are to our overall sound. That makes our members feel valued, but it also offers them a challenge! Singing a cappella - without a backing track to hide behind - means that it's vital we've learned our words and we're singing all the right notes (in the right order!). We're firm believers that anyone can do what we do, but you have to throw yourself into it wholeheartedly. Many of our members had no real singing experience before joining us and have become the absolute superstars they are through practise, enthusiasm and the nurturing support of our music team. If you're up for the challenge, we've got the tools to take your singing to the next level!
So, with a new year just around the corner and with lots of goals being set and resolutions made, we're glad to be a part of a community with a whole range of musical options to suit wannabe singers. If you're looking to join a choir in 2025, whether it's just for fun or to really push yourself and find out just what you're capable of, you're not going to have to look too far find the perfect fit! We just hope that you might consider trying us on for size...
If what you're searching for is a warm, friendly group where your voice can make a big difference - and where you'll be able to challenge yourself to hit musical heights you never imaged - why not fill your 2025 with More Harmony?!
More Harmony return to rehearsals on Thursday January 2nd 2025 with a "soft reopening" and an evening of brushing up on the basics and finding where our voices fit best - ideal for new singers! From Thursday January 9th we'll start working on our brand new repertoire. To join us, simply turn up on the night, or email us for more info.
