WOMEN’S CHOIR HITS FUNDRAISING HIGH NOTE

Women’s choir Decibellas has hit a high note with its fundraising over the past 12 months and has also awarded grants to several local mental health charities to support their work with children.

A 75-strong choir for upper voices based in Tarporley, Cheshire, Decibellas raised £3150 over two concerts in 2023, the most recent being their annual Christmas concert at St Boniface Church in Bunbury.  The choir, a charity in its own right, also awarded grants of £4,500 to children’s mental health charities over the past 12 months. These charities include Platform for Life, a Chester-based charity offering free local counselling and play therapy for families, Visyon, supporting the mental health of children, young people and their families, Motherwell, a dedicated women’s health and wellbeing charity, Chapter Mental Health from Ellesmere Port, and Chester International School’s mental health provision.

At each concert, there is also a cash bucket collection, and at the latest Christmas concert local charity Visyon collected £1200.  Said Linda de Sá, Visyon's Fundraising and Marketing Manager: “COVID has had a huge impact on the mental health of local young people and their families which has seen demand for our service increase. Our early intervention approach gives young people the tools to lead happy and fulfilling independent futures as young adults. We want to thank Decibellas and all their supporters for helping us to continue being here for young people and their families when they need us the most.”

Commenting on the choir’s fundraising achievements, Decibellas’ Chair Jo Mason said: “We are absolutely thrilled to have held two such successful events during 2023, particularly selling out our Christmas concert. It is a privilege to be able to support the work of small, local charities which are doing such important work with children’s mental welfare whilst having such a wonderful time, bringing the joy of singing to so many and being part of such a great group of singers.”

ENDS

Further information from:

Helen Arnold

Marketing for Decibellas

Notes:

Platform for Life: www.platformforlife.org.uk

Visyon: www.visyon.org.uk

Motherwell: www.motherwellcheshirecio.com

Chapter Mental Health: www.chaptermentalhealth.org

Decibellas raises Over £2000 for Pete McCleave’s #10000 Donors and DKMS

December 7th 2019 saw Decibellas Women’s Choir of Tarporley host their annual Christmas concert at St Boniface church in Bunbury, Cheshire. The event was in aid of local father of two, Pete McCleave (42), who has been given seven years to live having been diagnosed with an incurable blood cancer, Myeloma. The evening raised in excess of £2000 for the stem cell donor register, DKMS, as well as helping to encourage more people to become donors.

Myeloma leaves sufferers with a compromised immune system and stem cells can be used to fix this. Pete’s aim in 2018 was to find 10,000 new donors, a target he smashed in a matter of months. Now approaching 40,000 registered donors, he has increased the target to 100,000 and so far, there have been 12 confirmed matches, raising the hopes of life-saving treatment. Pete and local musician Lee Gordon have released a single, “The Tide for 10000 DONORS” to raise awareness of the campaign.

Useful links:

https://www.10000donors.com/

https://www.dkms.org.uk/en

Thank you to Discount Displays!

We’d like to say a huge thank you to Discount Displays for producing our reusable charity cheque.

The cheque will be used in photographs to promote the funds we raise for local charity.

Budapest Concert Tour - Friday 13th April 2018

Travelling home! We were all very subdued this morning, definitely to do with the early start, nothing to do with the booze!

We battled the slow queues at duty free and found our seats on the plane. We all made the flight, but once we got back to Manchester discovered we had lost one of our suitcases! It's currently winging it's way back from Budapest!

It was a fantastic break, very well organised, with wonderful audiences at amazing venues. We would like to send a huge thank you to Rayburn Tours who made it such a pleasure! 

So roll on 2020! Where will we go next?!

Budapest Concert Tour - Thursday 12th April 2018

Our last full day and last concert. It was another beautiful morning with over 25 degrees forecast. Most of the party headed off for a tour of the Parliament building, and what a magnificent building! The ornate mouldings and gold leaf were spectacular as was the history! One particularly interesting story was that of the smoking corridor, which was used so often that visibility was very poor. It was therefore where politicians had secret rendez-vous. but what they forgot about was that everyone could tell where they had been because they smelt of cigarette smoke!

After the tour, it was back to the hotel for a quick change and off to Buda Castle for our final concert. At 28 degrees, it was quite warm in our concert dresses, so most of the choir resorted to flip flops!  The venue was wonderful, like one section of an amphitheatre and the acoustics were fabulous. We had another great audience that included some young Russian ladies who were huge fans of Marcus! It wasn't surprising , really, as he gave everyone a masterclass in how to truly perform, reducing everyone to tears during Bring Him Home! 

After another encore, we then headed back to the hotel to get ready for our dinner cruise down the Danube. Wow! The food was delicious, the food was stunning, but the company was the best! The husbands and partners, were itching to perform, having watched the choir all week and gave us a rendition of Santa Lucia! Much fun was had with the selfie stick, once everyone had received proper training! It was a wonderful way to spend the last night!

Sadly we all needed to pack before bed as it was an early start the next day for home!

Tips for new (and established!) choir members

We recently found a couple of fantastic articles written by Chris Rowbury a choir and singing workshop leader, who wanted to reassure new choir members that everyone is in the same boat and none of the members are really as confident as they make out!

I remember how long it took me to pluck up the courage to join Decibellas and just how terrified I was on the first day. I didn't read music, I knew none of the repertoire, felt like the weak link and really didn't want to let anyone down! I can honestly say that I am so glad I joined and persevered in those first weeks, picking out the notes on a keyboard, listening and practising as much as I could, so that I could keep up in rehearsal. I soon realised that everyone was in the same boat, doubting themselves at first until the new repertoire was more familiar. We stick it out because singing in a choir is AWESOME! Making music brings so many benefits to mind body and soul - it's magic!

Chris offers some excellent tips and tricks for new choir members and stresses that everyone is important in a choir. 

Here they are: Ten tips to help you make the most of being in a choir.

Everyone is in the same boat – looking around, you might assume that everyone else is comfortable, confident and knows what they’re doing, but you’re wrong! You’d be surprised how many other people feel the same as you: they can’t sing, they don’t know what they’re doing, everyone else is better than them, it’s hard, etc. etc.
 
Be patient – if you’re new to singing you might think that ‘proper’ singers can pick up a song by hearing it just once. They don’t. Even for a professional singer, it might take up to six months for a new song to really settle in. So after the first stab at learning a new song and when you get home you can’t remember a single word or even how the main tune goes, don’t panic. Slowly, slowly over the coming weeks and months that part of your brain where songs live will absorb the song until it feels like you’ve known it forever. (see also, The importance of being confused) 
 
You are vitally important – lots of new singers, especially those in large choirs, don’t think they count. “They won’t miss me if I don’t turn up”, “I’ll just stand at the back and mime, nobody will notice.” Wrong! If everyone thought that, there would be no choir at all. Everyone is a vital part of the greater whole. Everyone is equally responsible for creating that amazing sound. (see also, How to be a good choir member) 
 
Sing loud and proud – and don’t care what anybody else thinks. If you’re going to make a mistake, make a BIG mistake then you can fix it later. If you always sing hesitantly, you will never know if you’re singing your part correctly or not. And if you don’t like your voice at this stage, you still need to sing out loud and proud so it will develop over the coming weeks. If you sing quietly every week, you’ll never get any better. 
 
Stand at the front – it’s natural, as a beginner, to want to hide at the back. You’re nervous, don’t think much of your voice, and you’re not sure you’ve got the part right yet. But if you’re at the back you can’t hear the others in your part very well, won’t hear what your director is saying and maybe not even be able to see their hand gestures. Scary as it is, if you stand at the front, you have the whole of your section backing you up and reinforcing your part by singing into your ear. The director will also be able to see if you’re struggling with anything and be able to help you. (see also Hey, you at the back!) 
 
Behave as if you know what you’re doing – it’s amazing, but if you just behave AS IF you are a wonderful singer and know your part inside out, then it WILL HAPPEN! Just go for it. 
 
Smile! – to help even more with looking like you know what you’re doing. It will improve the resonance of your voice and your diction; even if you’re feeling miserable it will cheer you up; and it will cheer up those around you and inspire them to sing better. 
 
Mind the gap! – there are two main gaps to avoid. One is the gap between you and the other people in your part. Stick close to them and work as a team. You’ll be amazed at how supportive that will feel. 

The other gap is the one between different parts. If you’re not comfortable (yet) with harmony singing, then standing right next to another part may well put you off at this stage. Make sure you’re embedded well in the middle of your own part until you feel confident enough to enjoy the way harmonies work. Then you can head for the gaps between parts and enjoy the singing even more! 
 
If it’s not working, change something – anything: where you stand within your part; how you stand (are you in a balanced, easy position or do you slump to one side with your hands in your pockets?); change parts – the one you’re in may be too high or low for you (although maybe just for this one song); your attitude – if at first hearing you don’t ‘like’ a song, imagine it will become your favourite and give it even more attention than normal; become someone else (pretend you’re Italian/ African/ a diva/ famous) as it helps to liberate you. The ultimate change is to change choirs if this one is not working for you. 
 
Don’t switch off – when the focus has moved on from your own part and others are learning theirs, it’s all too easy to switch off and start daydreaming or (worse!) chatting. But this is a wonderful opportunity to stay focused (it’s less tiring than switching off) and hear the words one more time, check that you’ve got the rhythm right, sing your part in your head at the same time (to feel how the harmonies work), and if you’re getting pretty good at this choir lark, you can even learn another part. 
 
So stick with it and you’ll soon find the joys of singing in a group. Check out The pleasures of being a choir member to see what other singers get out of being in a choir.

Read the original blog from Chris Rowbury and other great articles

Decibellas Concert Music on my Mind

Just a little post event precis!