This is it ladies and gents! The final week leading to our annual concert next Friday 20 July.  We are also featuring in en Choir’s concert on Saturday 21 July too! Tickets for both events are available online here and on the door (subject to availability). Come on down for a fun, feel good evening or contact us with any queries – see you all there!

Yes ladles and gentlespoons, it is that time of year again! Our annual concert! Hard copy tickets have officially gone on sale!
If you know a member of the choir, ask them to grab your tickets at a rehearsal or contact the choir administrator, Elli to purchase tickets. They are also available on WeGotTickets.
Have you been thinking of joining enChoir but not sure, or think it is too late for this choir year? Come and have a listen at this year’s concert and see if you enjoy yourself or contact us with any queries.

A concert update this week; with choir leader, Emily Peasgood returned from installing her latest work, Requiem for Crossbones, the choir was buzzing with excitement for our final term of the choir year. To add to the excitement, posters and hard copy tickets have been ordered and are on the way so be sure to keep your eyes peeled – there may be a poster going up near you! Sound like a choir you’d like to try? Pop down for a free trial rehearsal or contacts us with any queries.

Fear not, dear friends, we have not deserted you! We will be back this upcoming week to sing and learn and develop together after our short half term break. This term brings us into the final countdown to our annual concert! Tickets are already available online here and hard copies will be on sale soon – we’ll see you all there!

Hello all! We wanted to update you on some key developments in our concert preparations – just to make you even more excited! We’ve started inviting members of the choir to try out singing solos to see if they’d like to in the concert – these will be decided for certain at the start of June so they can be perfected. We’re cracking on with our set list and getting throught nicely so we are nearly there on the musical side. Finally, tickets and posters are in the process of being designed for this year’s concert; tickets are already for sale online and hard sales will be available from June. All is on the way to completion and we hope to see you all there on Friday 20th July!

This is it! One week and we will be hosting the most festive event of the year! We are all super excited to be part of the BIGMOUTH Chorus Christmas Concert 2017, particularly as this year we are raising money for the Oasis UK charity for victims of domestic abuse. We will be gaily singing our jolly collection of seasonal tunes in addition to showing off some of the hits we have learnt so far this year; so come on down on Tuesday 12th December at 7:30pm to Dreamland, Margate for fun, laughs and musical merriment or contact us with any queries.

…or should we say Singers and Bell Ringers! Some of us are involved in an event in Canterbury. Organised by our wonderful leader and animateur, Emily Peasgood, the event is being run by Free Range who say, “Featuring specially commissioned pieces and interventions from the Seasalter Singers, the Bedford Handbell Ensemble, Henry Dagg’s virtuoso musical sawing and an interactive performance involving sweets from composer Jason Hodgson, this evening promises to be one of Canterbury’s finest Christmas-themed experimental music events. Prepare to be entertained, surprised, regaled and served… and be there with bells on.” So we are packing our bells and hope to see you there on Thursday 14th December at 7:30pm!

No, not until Christmas Day! There’s 34 days until the most festive party of them all! That’s right, we are in full preparation for our Friends and Family Charity Concert in aid of Oasis UK Domestic Abuse Service on 12th December. We like to raise the Christmas spirit with a few festive classics such as ‘Fairytale of New York‘ and ‘Carol of the Bells‘ plus much more at the same time as raising money for a great cause. Sound good? Come down for a free trial rehearsal on Tuesday evenings at 7:30 or contact us with any queries; all we ask is enthusiasm and there are strictly no auditions!

We are really excited to announce that on 12th December we will be hosting a family and friends charity event at Dreamland, Margate! This fundraiser will be in aid of Oasis UK, a charity committed to aiding and improving the lives of those affected by domestic abuse. If you’d like to be part of the choir behind this event, feel free to pop down for a free trial rehearsal or contact us with any queries!

Have you heard? The official photos from the concert we featured in this year are now available for viewing! The awesome photographer, Ren Smith, did a marvellous job of capturing both the final rehearsal and the concert. So if you’d like to see a bit of what we do then please feel free to have a browse! If you’d like to come to a free trial session then you’re welcome to attend on a Tuesday evening at 7:30pm or contact us with any queries.

Summer is definitely on the horizon, and with that comes the heat. While it may be great for relaxing by the beach, the heat can actually throw a spanner in the works when it comes to singing. Heat can dry your throat out, pollen counts are super high and we have plenty of opportunities to shout during the summer months. Of course, there’s plenty you can do to battle the heat and emerge in cooler seasons with your voice intact. Continue reading “Some Like it Hot – Singing in the Summer”

The sun is out again, and for most people that’s a great thing. However, some of us have experiences with hayfever and allergies which can make it more difficult to sing. Allergies can play havoc with your breathing and tone, as swelling in your nose and throat interfere with the systems we usually draw upon to sing. It’s a lot like trying to sing with a cold. Continue reading “Singing during allergy season”

A few weeks ago, we spoke about falsetto and mentioned, in an offhand fashion, the existence of a register above falsetto. The whistle register, or flute register as it is sometimes known, is unique from falsetto in that the sound produced has a unique timbre, akin to that of a whistle. Continue reading “The Whistle Register – How High Can You Go?”

A few weeks ago, we talked about overtone singing in preparation for a workshop with Lunatraktors, but while doing our research, we came across another fascinating extend vocal technique. While overtones are high ethereal notes that dance about an octave above the normal singing voice, undertones are their inverse.

Undertones are low, droning sounds that occur under the singer’s voice. These are normally produced through one of two methods. Firstly, we have the use of strohbass, also known as vocal fry, which you might remember from our article on the death growl. By slowing down the vibration of the vocal cords, the note produced becomes creakier, or fried, and produces the lowest register notes. Continue reading “Undertone singing”

We know all about chest voice and head voice but have you heard of “disconnected head voice”, a higher register with a shrill, thinner tone than your usual head voice. This is falsetto, and it often covers the highest notes a person can reach (outside of whistle register at least).

The falsetto voice uses only the thin, leading edges of the vocal cords to generate sound, and although this means it uses less power, it also uses less breath support and can, in time, anecdotal evidence suggests it may cause damage to the throat. Continue reading “Hitting the high notes – Falsetto”

Last week on this blog, we spoke about beatboxing. In particular, we were really impressed by the ability to make more than one noise at a time. Imagine if singers could do the same…

This practice is called overtone singing and not only is it an amazing skill, it’s becoming more talked about.

A talented singer is able to produce a two notes (or even more): firstly a low base or fundamental note is sung before a second, whistle-like note appears about two octaves above the base note. Continue reading “The wonderful world of overtone singing”

This week, we’re continuing our exploration of extended vocal techniques by looking at one of the most versatile, recognisable and easy to grasp techniques. Beatboxing is the vocal approximation of drum machines and is often tied into the world of hip-hop.

The earliest sounds we may recognise as beatboxing may come from early American rural music, such as eefing, also known as “hillbilly beatboxing”. There are also a collection of sounds in African traditional music that might also be at home in beatboxing, built upon the sounds of loud exhaling. Jazz scat singing also fits in to the forms history, though scat focused more on the approximation of words than the production of percussive sounds.

Vocal percussion appears in popular music such as Paul McCartney’s “That Would Be Something” and Pink Floyd’s “Pow R. Toch H.” Both of these songs were recorded in the late 60s, at a time when hip-hop was just starting to emerge. Continue reading “A rough guide to beatboxing”

Few extended vocal techniques could claim to be as famous as the yodel. Often maligned, the yodel is actually a great demonstration of vocal technique involving the shifting between the low chest-voice and the high head-voice. For most people, there is a gap between these two registers. Yodelling takes advantage of this by making quick changes between the two. Continue reading “A brief history of Yodelling”

As part of Bigmouth Chorus, not only are we all fantastic singers but we also possess another marvellous talent. We are masters of a fantastic musical instrument: the kazoo!
In formal terms, the kazoo is a membranophone, an instrument with a membrane which vibrates producing a distinctive tone. Unlike most instruments, you don’t blow into a kazoo, instead you hum into it and a sheet of wax paper acts like a reed, providing a raspy buzz. Continue reading “The Kazoo – A Choir’s Secret Weapon”

Within the confines of heavy metal music, the iconic growl stands out as one of the genres unique defining traits. However, it’s abrasive sound puts many listeners off, and while we’re unlikely to start trying to bring death metal into our choral practice, it’s still a valid extended vocal technique and it’s execution often requires a high degree of technical singing prowess. Continue reading “The “Death Growl” – An Extended Vocal Technique”

We like to ensure that all our members and audiences alike enjoy their experience with en Choir to no end; this is why we encourage reviews on our Facebook page. We thought it was high time you knew for certain that we do listen: we were given the feedback that more people liked sheet music, if not to read then to at least be able to follow the pattern of the notes. Sheet music is now available for nearly all of the songs we sing. In addition, we were told by several that there were certain pieces of our repertoire that just weren’t that popular; so, to alleviate the possibility of this happening, we set up an online vote so that the choir members could pick which songs they wanted to learn so this year we are singing those songs with the highest votes. It would be impossible to pick an entire repertoire that absolutely everyone like but we’ll try to come as close as we can! In return for us acting upon your feedback, we have had reviews from several past and current members to say “what fun and how joyous singing in a choir is!” and that BIGMOUTH Chorus is a “great group of people who just like to sing with brilliant leadership” where you can have “fun while learning all the time” and even that it is “always uplifting” and “good medicine”. Thank you everyone for your feedback, keep it coming! Does BIGMOUTH Chorus sound like a fun pastime you’d like to try? Come down for a free trial rehearsal Tuesday 17th April or contact us with any queries.

BigMouth Chorus is a friendly and innovative non-audition singing group in Thanet for anyone aged 14 and over who loves to sing.  You don’t need experience to take part and don’t even need to think you can sing!  Our role is to support you in believing you can while having a great time. Get in touch if you or someone you know would like to join a fantastic and fun choir.

A few weeks ago, we spoke about falsetto and mentioned, in an offhand fashion, the existence of a register above falsetto. The whistle register, or flute register as it is sometimes known, is unique from falsetto in that the sound produced has a unique timbre, akin to that of a whistle.

Compared to other registers, we know very little about the whistle register as it’s very tricky to film. When the whistle is used, the epiglottis (the small flap that stops food ending up in your windpipe) covers the vocal cords, and the resonance chamber created is at it’s smallest dimensions, making it highly difficult to observe. What we do know is that whistle register is physiologically distinct from your normal voice.

When singing using your normal modal register, your vocal cords are allowed to vibrate from the back all the way to the front. In whistle register, only the front of the vocal cords are allowed to vibrate together, with a small space left at the back. This allows a small amount of air to pass through, giving a thinner, breathier quality to the notes made.

This is Adam Lopez, he holds the world record for the highest note produced by a man. While it’s more common to hear female singers use whistle notes, it’s actually a skill many people could learn. Most babies and small children are able to reach whistle notes without much conscious effort. In fact, the biggest mistake people make when trying to sing whistle notes is they are too aware of their throat, and in turn, they clamp their vocal cords together, stopping them vibrating and choking their voice. A relaxed throat can make the precise movements needed to find and control whistle tones.

Many singers are able to find their whistle notes but then they become focused on them and they react by trying to push their voice more. This can cause long term damage to a singer’s voice. Instead, whistle register is best developed by going slowly. Being patient allows you to properly understand the way your body makes the sound, instead of pushing yourself too hard. This is just like sports; if someone was to try and copy what athletes do, they’d probably injure themselves.

While there are plenty of songs in the classical world that utilise whistle register, it is perhaps more associated with pop music. Singers like Mariah Carey and Ariana Grande have become famous for use of the technique, though unlike every other register the limits of the whistle register are only just being explored truly. As time goes on, and vocal pedagogy becomes more sophisticated, the limits of the human voice are being pushed further.

Last night’s rehearsal went down a storm continuing with our new new song, Hallelujah by Leonard Cohen. All of us in BIGMOUTH excited about this new addition to our repertoire and we’re looking forward to learning more over the term! If you’d like to try BIGMOUTH then come to a rehearsal or feel free to contact us with any queries.Watch Full Movie Online Streaming Online and Download

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BigMouth Chorus is a friendly and innovative non-audition singing group in Thanet for anyone aged 14 and over who loves to sing.  You don’t need experience to take part and don’t even need to think you can sing!  Our role is to support you in believing you can while having a great time. Get in touch if you or someone you know would like to join a fantastic and fun choir.

We all know that the voice we’re born with isn’t the same at the end of our life. The human voice is a marvellous thing that undergoes radical change throughout the years, most obviously in the case of teenage boys when the voice becomes deeper, taking on a more adult characteristic. However, this isn’t the only change, it’s just the most dramatic. Below are a few more ways the voice can shift. Continue reading “Vocal Changes Throughout Life”

As choir singers, it isn’t often we have to deal with equipment. We’re a big, loud group so amplification isn’t always needed, and if it is, it’s usually the whole ensemble who are miced up rather than the individual singers. However, if there’s one bit of musical gear everyone should be familiar with, it’s the Shure SM58 microphone. Continue reading “What’s in a mic?”

Message from Sue:

Dear Fellow Choir Members, We have come a long way since we started up our choir and have achieved some great music making and good camaraderie, all due to Emily’s leadership, musicianship and zany ways, which have kept us upbeat. So, now she needs some time to pursue the other side to her career and we wish her well, whilst giving her enormous thanks for all of her hard work. We owe it to her to keep the choir vibrant and moving forward. It was fortunate that Andrew came to the choir a year ago ready to take over whilst Emily had her operation. Some of you will know that I have sung in another choir under Andrew’s direction for about 6 years and knew of his vast experience, but more importantly, his skill and ability to develop a choir. It has given us the chance to get used to him and for Andrew to get to know us and our ways. So, the ‘change’ should be seamless and our future will be one that Emily would approve of, making her continuing connection with us a positive one.

I hope that you will put your trust in me to look after the choir and in Andrew to develop us as a group of people who enjoy singing.

Message from Andrew:

Dear Singer,
I am very pleased, and feel honoured to have been invited to lead Bigmouth Chorus. I have enjoyed singing in the choir, and it has been a great pleasure for me to get to know you as a group, through teaching and conducting some pieces, and talking to individual members in breaks in rehearsal. It has been a pleasure, too, to work with Emily, and I would like very much to maintain our connection with her in the future.

I think that two features of the choir are important, and I would like to emphasise my commitment to maintaining both of them. Firstly, the range of music that we perform will remain broadly as it has been: pop songs of different kinds and from different eras, folk songs including world music, songs from shows, and perhaps the occasional light classical piece. Secondly, that every member is valued, and that the approaches to teaching and learning music will continue to support those who like to learn through reading music and those who prefer to learn aurally, using online audio files and word sheets. I will do my best to understand how different members of the group learn, and will try to provide support materials that you find helpful. Please do feel free to tell me what works for you.

Whilst I, like any choir director, will aim for us to achieve the highest standards of which we are capable, I don’t want that to be at the expense of our enjoying the choir as a social group – our music making is the expression of our togetherness. Emily will be a hard act to follow, but I will do my best to make rehearsals both stimulating and fun, and it is good to know that she will return to work with us from time to time.

We all know Bigmouth is different to a normal choir. Instead of covering choral classics, we’re constantly looking for new pop and rock songs to add to our repertoire, but where does “pop” come from? Pop is a nebulous thing to define, and it went through several stages before becoming pop music we would recognise today. Continue reading “The Origin of Pop”

We’ve spent some time before talking about the history of singing. We know it’s been a part of human history since before humans were even recognisable as such, but what about recording? When was the first recording of a human singing?

Recording technology hasn’t been around all that long. Though some people have hypothesised a kind of archaeoacoustics, reading waves of sound etched into clay pots as they spun, though this idea has fallen out of favour. Continue reading “The earliest recordings”

The voice of every individual is as unique as one’s fingerprint. While your Alexa might not be able to tell the difference between two people, the human ear is certainly capable of pointing out differences in voices. So what creates these differences and what do the differences mean for our singing?

Firstly, the biggest factor in shaping your voice is your training. A good singing teacher can near enough get anything from a singer with time, dedication and persistence. There’s very little that will stop most people being able to hit a certain note, though there are outliers and some biological limitations that should be seen as gifts rather than limits. Obviously, if someone has a naturally low voice, there’s not much point learning to sing solely high notes, especially when good bass voices are hard to find. Continue reading “Why do people have different vocal ranges?”

A lot of people thinking singing happens entirely in the throat and mouth, but those in the know recognise singing is a full body activity. Good posture is a vital component in setting up a great singing voice. Without it, it’s like trying to play a guitar with a crooked neck or a piano with the keys stuck down – it just doesn’t work. Continue reading “The Joy of Posture”

Perfect pitch is one of the most enviable talents a musician can possess. It is the ability to identify and recreate a note, though it comes in two forms.

The first is absolute pitch, the ability to recreate notes without using a reference point. Someone with absolute pitch would be able to identify the note produced by everyday sounds such as a car alarm or could recreate a piece of music perfectly. It’s is believed to be a very rare occurrence with estimates suggesting that 1 in every 10,000 people possess the trait.

The second is relative pitch, which is the ability to work out the relation between two notes by using a reference note. For example, someone could play a reference note, like middle C, and then play a second sound which the listener could identify based on the reference note, i.e. “two octaves above middle C”. Unlike absolute pitch, relative pitch is a fairly common skill amongst music students, as it is the same skill we use to sing melodies by ear. Continue reading “What is perfect pitch?”

Probably the biggest hurdle to overcome in singing is the creeping feeling that you’re secretly the worst singer in history; that you might be …TONE DEAF!

When people say “tone deaf” they refer to the supposed phenomena that one cannot tell the difference between two notes. It’s the kind of thing thrown around in casual conversation to dismiss oneself as a singer. In fact, it’s so common a phrase that many people falsely believe they are tone deaf and thus, beyond all hope as a singer. Continue reading “Are you actually “tone deaf”?”

If you’re anything like me, the start of barbecue season also means food with a little kick. Summer just doesn’t seem right without a jalapeño or two, but is spicy food affecting your voice?
I’ve always heard about professional singers avoiding spice but it seems the issue is a little deeper than it might first appear.

It turns out there are pros and cons to spicy food, but hopefully we can break down the complexities for you. Continue reading “Is spicy food affecting your voice?”

Now that term is well and truly underway, we can stop telling you all the reason why you should join BIGMOUTH (you already know how fun it is!). Instead, as the cold weather rushes in, we thought it might be nicer to tell you how to take care of that voice you’re developing. Continue reading “5 tips to take of your voice”

Singing is incredibly vulnerable. We all want to be able to hold a perfect note, and the ability to produce a little melody on command is infinitely cool. However, many of us haven’t yet learned to use our voices effectively and thus we hide them away. We identify with out voices immensely, so when our voice is less than perfect we feel that we are less than perfect. A report in the American Psychology found out that we actually express more emotion with our voice than our face so it’s no wonder we want to guard them a little. Continue reading “Making friends: how choirs build social bonds”

We all know that singing in a choir can make you happier but in recent studies a whole host of other benefits have been unearthed. With the increase in happy hormones within our body, singing lowers blood pressure and stress levels but there is also evidence that suggests that taking part in a choir can alleviate the symptoms of depression, Parkinson’s and lung disease.

Fortunately for us our fearless leader Emily has worked with The Sidney De Haann Research Centre as a research assistant on their groundbreaking exploration of choirs and their benefits. Continue reading “The unexpected side effects of choirs”

Singing is one of those talents that everyone wishes they possessed. There’s something really satisfying about being able to belt out a solid note on command or to drop jaws at a karaoke night.

Unfortunately for many of us, we get taught that we can’t sing and that it’s better for us to politely step aside when the microphone comes our way. We get obsessed with the idea that unless we have a five octave range, we’re not cut out to sing.

However, this is the big secret. Everyone can sing, it just takes practice. Continue reading “Everybody Can Sing!”

If you’d have said the word ‘choir’ a few years ago, you’d expect eye-rolling or a glaze to fog up people’s eyes but in the last decade, choirs have taken on a very different tone (no pun intended). In the last ten years, Choirs have become cool.

Instead of focusing strictly on gospel affair, there’s been a swell of interest in choirs catering to more modern tastes, like Bigmouth Chorus and en Choir in Whitstable, covering rock, pop and soul songs with the power and versatility of a choir. It’s estimated that about 2.8 MILLION Brits have joined a choir, no doubt inspired by the shift in focus from classic music to more accessible genres. In fact, it’s not even unheard of for choir acts to find their way onto TV talent shows such as X Factor or Britain’s Got Talent. Continue reading “Choirs are cool!”

Some weeks ago we looked into how singing in a choir could help us to psychologically feel better within ourselves and improve our sense of wellbeing. This week we are going to delve into the physiological side of the argument; coming hand in hand with mental wellbeing, our physical health can be hugely impacted by singing in a choir, so here are just some of the benefits. Firstly, whilst “Exercise is one of the few activities in life that is indisputably good for us,” Daniel H. Pink tells us in his book, “When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing.” “Choral singing might be the new exercise.” It is thought that the practice of singing can increase your lung capacity, regulate your heart beat and increase the rate of release of endorphins (happy hormones). Research undertaken by Cardiff University even uncovered a secret within singing that could improve symptoms of lung cancer and Parkinson’s. A Music Professor Brenville Hancox “established, Skylarks, a choir aimed at people with Parkinson’s Disease. One of the participants in the choir explained how his voice had been strengthened, despite receiving a diagnosis of Parkinson’s five years earlier. Reasons for the improvement have been suggested as deep breathing and the extended use of the vocal chords.” Add all these impressive health benefits to those psychological benefits we discussed previously and singing in a choir sounds like a fantastic idea! You can give it a try at a free trial rehearsal or contact us with any queries.

Sources: CNBC, CMUSE, The Telegraph 

Background reading: City Academy, BBC iWonder

Did you know that singing in a choir makes you feel better in yourself? Now, we’re biased, of course, but let’s have a look at some research from those who aren’t. Research published by the University of Oxford and the Cambridge University Press has shown that “people feel more positive after actively singing than they do after passively listening to music or after chatting about positive life events.” The researchers have put this down to the release of ‘happy’ hormones such as oxytocin and dopamine as well as reducing stress and decreasing blood pressure. Even a journalist from the Independent, Simmy Richman, who was invited to join Chaps Choir for a time to experience this first hand said that, “seeing the effect everyone’s voices were having left me quite overcome” and went as far as to say that he noticed his, “four-year-old son has been told that he can come and watch me sing and his excitement is contagious. It occurs to me how little our children see of us outside of our role as their parents. When we go out to work, we close the door on them or drop them off at school. They have little or no tangible idea of what it is we do when we get there. The knowledge that my son will see me in an entirely fresh context, taking my part in a public performance, makes me realise, momentarily, what it must feel like for the David Beckhams of this world. Hey kiddo, this is just one of the things your old man can do. Come and watch.” Sound interesting? Why not put the research to the test yourself and come for a free trial rehearsal or contact us with any queries.

Research: University of Oxford, Cambridge University Press, The Independent.

BigMouth Chorus is a friendly and innovative non-audition singing group in Thanet for anyone aged 14 and over who loves to sing.  You don’t need experience to take part and don’t even need to think you can sing!  Our role is to support you in believing you can while having a great time. Get in touch if you or someone you know would like to join a fantastic and fun choir.

BigMouth Chorus is a friendly and innovative non-audition singing group in Thanet for anyone aged 14 and over who loves to sing.  You don’t need experience to take part and don’t even need to think you can sing!  Our role is to support you in believing you can while having a great time. Get in touch if you or someone you know would like to join a fantastic and fun choir.