Our first online singing workshop series took place on five Sundays in May and June 7:30pm UK time via Zoom.

Led by Jane Harris, Director of Songways

An amazing 75 singers took part in the series, meeting each Sunday on Zoom at 7:30pm UK time, culminating in an online Big Sing on 14 June. Singers joined from Cornwall, Sussex, Wiltshire, London, Birmingham and Gloucestershire to North Wales, Perth, Dunbar and Fort William, from California, Vermont, Georgia, Florida, Massachusetts, New York, Toronto and Amsterdam. Warmest thanks to everyone.

Excellent! … looking forward to more sessions
Thanks for your amazing organisation and preparation – it has been wonderful
Rewarding and enjoyable
A beautiful series
Such a fabulous choice of songs
Absolutely wonderful!

Our second online singing workshop series begins Sunday 21 June 7:30pm UK time. Join us wherever you are…

Please join our mailing list to ensure you receive details.

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Jane explains how the series worked:

We started each workshop with vocal exercises to open up our voices. In the course of the workshops, I taught a set of six songs, embracing different harmony singing styles and sound worlds.

  • Mnogaya lyeta – the rich Russian Orthodox acclamation – May you have many years
  • Sumer is icumen in – one of the earliest English examples of polyphony, light and vibrant
  • Sing John Ball – with its inspiring words All shall be ruled by fellowship I say, when we are ruled by the love of one another
  • In the beauty of the world – which takes us to a beautiful collective sense of stillness – this song was my response to Wendell Berry’s The Peace of Wild Things
  • Be Free – my own song which led on from In the beauty of the world
  • Thula sizwe – a glorious South African song full of strength and hope.

I rounded off each session with a fiddle tune for everyone to enjoy. After the session, there was the chance to stay and chat with other singers in smaller groups using the Zoom break-out rooms – a lovely opportunity to connect with singing friends old and new.

I use a mix of my own voice and violin live, my own harmony recordings and other source recordings to give us as rewarding a singing experience as possible. Several people have described the experience as “the closest you can find to the real thing.”