songs to warm up a song circle

Subject: songs to warm up a song circle
From: Dani
Date: 29 Jan 03 - 09:17 PM

OK, so last month was a maiden voyage for the song circle at Lueg's, and we meet again tomorrow night. Now that we've graduated from my kitchen, there's a very different feeling. People are accustomed to having performers at the restaurant, and the people who come may not be the cozy crowd that used to meet in people's homes.

So what songs should we start with that just about everyone will know, or will be able to belt a chorus on? I HATE using RUS just to leaf through for ideas in front of people, but frankly, by that time of night I'm exhausted myself and have a hard time mustering up the energy to lead stuff myself.

Ideas?

Dani

Subject: RE: songs to warm up a song circle
From:
Date: 29 Jan 03 - 09:26 PM

Will The Circle Be Unbroken

I'll Fly Away

On the Wings of a Dove

Nelson's Blood

Rolling Down to Maui

Mary Ellen Carter

Barrett's Privateers

Farewell to Nova Scotia

Santiano

Subject: RE: songs to warm up a song circle
From: open mike
Date: 29 Jan 03 - 09:27 PM

Dpon't know how you could hate R.U.S.
Rise Up singing is a great ice breaker...
if you hve a couple of copies, you can
ask a shy person to find a song to ask
others to sing and play...it helps give
non musicians something to do...and
assures that the song is one they want,
so will draw them in...we refer to RUS as
our bible...and then ask folks to turn to
such and such chapter and verse....you have
to have good enough light to see, though.
maybe this is just a california thing,
but Kate Wolf's Give Yourself to Love
is usually well known around here and folks
can join in on the chorus.
You might suggest a theme..we often have
love songs for feb. , irish for march,
songs with flowers in them for april or
may, etc. them people can plan ;ahead to
search for tunes that will fit the scheme.
if you can get people to do any planning
about it..we fo c arrolling around the
neighborhood at christmas time. Laurel

Subject: RE: songs to warm up a song circle
From: Joe Offer
Date: 29 Jan 03 - 09:29 PM

Well, Dani, have you seen me do "Singing in the Rain"? Adults take to it quite well - as long as you don't make them do it more than once a year.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: songs to warm up a song circle
From: Don Firth
Date: 29 Jan 03 - 09:44 PM

Toss RUS. Using that (or any other "ordained" songbook) is like sitting around singing out of The Federal Old Line Song Book. Set the instruments aside and learn a bunch of genuine sea chanteys. They're easy to learn and choruses are easy to pick up and fun for a group to sing. Just rear back and let 'er rip! That's how the Seattle Song Circle got started in June of 1977, and by August, the SSC (by then, about seventy of us) had got so good at chantey-singing that we were asked to do honors at the Northwest Seaport Sail and Chantey Festival (NW Seaport is dedicated to preserving hisorical vessels, such as the schooner Wawona). Hell of a blast. We bellowed our lungs out on the deck of the Wawona, and later in the day wound up having a chance to sing fo'c'sle chanteys in a real fo'c'sle! And we performed in a concert that evening.

A couple good chanteys to start off the evening and blow the soot out of everybodies pipes, and the rest is ducksoup.

Subject: RE: songs to warm up a song circle
From: Jeri
Date: 29 Jan 03 - 10:18 PM

AAACK! Not another RUS argument. Not when Dani only said she hated using it to leaf through looking for ideas in front of people. Pretty please?

Sea shanties are very easy to learn, both the leader's part AND the chorus. People are likely to have a lot of kids' songs in common, if the folks have a high tolerance for silliness. There are plenty of songs lots of people know (Wild Mountain Thyme and Amazing Grace for example), but it shouldn't be too hard to find new-to-them songs with choruses that are short and easy to pick up.

Subject: RE: songs to warm up a song circle
From:
Date: 29 Jan 03 - 10:44 PM

You can always throw in some show tunes.

Edelweiss

I'm Singing in the Rain

Subject: RE: songs to warm up a song circle
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 29 Jan 03 - 11:05 PM

Don,

I thought you are supposed to keep that Blue Book around so you can ritually shred a copy when another member of the group passes. Jean Smith assured me that this was fully sanctioned by the Song Circle (and they shredded one when Dad died, as I recall). I have Dad's copy of it right here. He even wrote his name in it! (The book he loved to hate?)

Maggie

Subject: RE: songs to warm up a song circle
From: Genie
Date: 29 Jan 03 - 11:15 PM

One thing I like to do for sing-alongs is songs that have enough times between lines for you to call out the next line.

WHAT THE HECK DO YOU CALL THAT KIND OF SONG, ANYWAY????

Examples are:
Just A Closer Walk With Thee
Singin' In Tne Rain
On Top Of Old Smoky
Ripple (3 out of 4 verses)
When The Saints Go Marching In


(Drawing a blank on others, but they're out there.)

Genie

Subject: RE: songs to warm up a song circle
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 29 Jan 03 - 11:20 PM

I've heard them referred to as line songs, or lining (as is described in To Kill a Mockingbird when the children go to church with Calpurnia). Only a few members of the church could read, so they read the song line by line and sang it that way.

SRS

Subject: RE: songs to warm up a song circle
From: GUEST,Mary ......
Date: 29 Jan 03 - 11:50 PM

I love to start with
Down by the Riverside...
its a wonderful ice breaker..
I usually use....
I wanna sing you a pretty song..
down by the riverside.
Down by the Riverside.
I wanna pick up my old guitar
down by the riverside
Down by the riverside.
Another really fun one...is
Mamma don't allow no guitar pickers around here
My email is [e-mail]
If you would like me send you several
songs we always do just send me your
email. I would be happy to send them your way.

Subject: RE: songs to warm up a song circle
From: Little Robyn
Date: 30 Jan 03 - 04:51 AM

Clementine sung to the tune Cwym Rhondda works well.
Also, Ilkley Moor baht 'at.
Robyn

Subject: RE: songs to warm up a song circle
From: Dave Bryant
Date: 30 Jan 03 - 06:43 AM

Campfire's Burning ?
Fire down Below ?
Steam Heat ?
Tim Maguire ?

Subject: RE: songs to warm up a song circle
From: Mr Happy
Date: 30 Jan 03 - 07:30 AM

in the sessions i attend [including my own one] if the others are a bit sluggish getting started, i find a 'train song' is good for raising a ready head of steam.

currently, a good one is 'Fulsom Prison Blues', gets everyone joining in & there's opportunity for a couple or more instrumental breaks in it too.

others are, 'fright train' & 'the man who never returned'

Subject: RE: songs to warm up a song circle
From: Dani
Date: 30 Jan 03 - 08:00 AM

Thank you all! I know a lot of these songs, and this helps. This is just a wierd dynamic, and I so much want it to be right, and don't have much confidence in my energy level or repertoire.

Joe, I think that version of "Singing" should only be done with either A) plenty of small children, or B) plenty of whiskey. We'll see.... it is blowing cold rain here today.

Blowing the dust out of the pipes is EXACTLY what needs to happen, and I'm grateful for all your help! With the power of the world's most incredible VIRTUAL song circle behind me, it'll be terrific fun.

Dani

Subject: RE: songs to warm up a song circle
From: Snuffy
Date: 30 Jan 03 - 09:09 AM

Everybody seems to know "What shall we do with the Drunken Sailor": start off with two or three verses then offer it round the room to anyone else who wants to add (or make up!) a verse. Great ice-breaker.

Subject: RE: songs to warm up a song circle
From: GUEST,Frank Hamilton
Date: 30 Jan 03 - 02:07 PM

We call RUS Rise Up Squinting. :)

ASAP commit to memory. Simple songs that everyone if they don't know can learn fast.

Frank

Subject: RE: songs to warm up a song circle
From: Don Firth
Date: 30 Jan 03 - 02:50 PM

Ten thousand years ago I found and purchased a copy of Song Fest: 300 Songs—Words and Music edited by Dick and Beth Best. Originally published around 1937, I wore out three or four copies of the thing because it was a great resource for folk songs, college songs, camp songs, you name it. My present copy (still in reasonable good shape) was purchased in 1962. Paperback with a bright yellow cover. If you run across it in a used bookstore or St. Vinnie's or the Salvation Army store, grab it!!

Anyway, browsing the prefaces to the various editions, it becomes clear that the intent of the compilers of this collection was that people use the book to learn the songs. Commit them to memory. Do not sit around in a group with everybody's nose in it as if it were a hymnal!! In fact, the preface to the first edition concludes with the following:

A reward of one left-handed dungaree patch, guaranteed not to rip, run, rust, tear, split, melt, break, etc., is hereby offered for the pelt of the first bohunk caught surreptitiously using this book at a songfest.

Methinks the same reward, or the equivalent, should be offered as a bounty on anyone caught using RUV, The Folk Singer's Wordbook, or any other such inhibitor of the folk process at a song circle or other songfest. Learn the bleedin' songs!

The procedure the Seattle Song Circle used when it began in June of 1977 was to start out with a few sea chanteys to get things warmed up. Then we'd go around, literally, in a circle (the chairs were set up that way). When your turn came up, you had three options: 1) you could sing; 2) you could pass; 3) you could request a song from someone else in the circle. If you chose to sing, you could do a solo, lead a song, or teach a song to the group. This way, there was a nice variety of solo and group songs, and at the end of the evening, lots of people would be talking to each other and exchanging words to songs. It was a real cross-fertilization process, and like Mudcat (if the group is large enough), if you were looking for a particular song, you would often find someone who knew it or could tell you where to find it. It was great! My wife and I went every Sunday evening for several years.

Because of other demands on our time, Barbara and I had to drop out for awhile. When we returned, we found that the group had changed. Many of the same people were there, but there were a lot of new people. People still went round in a circle, but rather than the previous procedure, we spent a lot of time suffering along with someone who had come in carrying a huge armload of books, and when their tune came along, they would say, "I just discovered this song this afternoon, and I don't know the words yet and I'm not sure how the tune goes, but I wanna sing it anyway—." Then we'd all have to sit there for the next ten or fifteen minutes and try to be kind and supportive while the person sat there trying to sing with his or her face buried in some songbook, groping, struggling, flubbing, and restarting verses when they goofed. This sort of thing happened several times an evening, interspersed with people who wanted everybody to take out their copy of RUS and all sing the same song together. Frankly, to us, it had lost all its appeal. We stopped coming.

A song circle can be a great resource for learning songs, and encountering songs you've not heard before and might want to learn. It's a great opportunity to try your performing skills before a sympathetic audience. It's also a great opportunity to encourage other people to learn songs (i.e., memorize them) and sing them. To me, sitting around group-singing out of a songbook locks the folk process, confining you to the songbook version, it kills any attempt at individual handling of a song, it stifles creativity, and is, all in all, a crushing bore. Don't know how song circle is now. Maybe we should give it another try.

Learn a song, then put the bloody book aside, and stand there with your bare face hanging out, and sing it.

Don Firth

Subject: RE: songs to warm up a song circle
From: Don Firth
Date: 30 Jan 03 - 03:02 PM

Yeah, Maggie, RUS is a good resource and I'm not surprised your Dad had a copy. But he did it right. He left it home and carried the songs in his head. Were I to host a song circle, my inclination would be to keep a shredder handy and frisk everybody coming through the door.

Don Firth

Subject: RE: songs to warm up a song circle
From: mg
Date: 30 Jan 03 - 03:08 PM

I think it depends on the level of expertise of the group. Start where they are..with songs you mostly know..Working on the railroad, swing low sweet chariot, drunken sailor. Go from there. Frankly some of the songs mentioned above would have me running for the door. I hate cutesypie stuff frankly and especially anything with hand motions. I hate being told what page to turn to in a book. If someone wants to use it fine, let them find the song and call out the page and start the damn song. Don't wait one second. DOn;t impose the book or sheet music. HGave coies of sheet music handy if someone wants to take it home and learn it. Don't have these awful flourescent lights on so people can easily read the books (especially late at night, especially at music camps I frequent). They can bring flashlights if they need extra lights. Spell it out ahead of time. If you truly hate singing songs like "today while the blossoms still cling to the vine (sort of a canary in the mine song) " tell the people so right up front. If you don't care, say so. But don't say you can sing anything you like and then freeze them out if they do (this happens sometiomes).

mg

Subject: RE: songs to warm up a song circle
From: Don Firth
Date: 30 Jan 03 - 03:40 PM

Speaking of Mary Garvey. . . .

One of the big things that Barbara and I missed when we went back to song circle after our hiatus were some of the outstanding individual performances by people like John Dwyer, Merritt Herring, John and Sally Ashford, and Mary Garvey. There were a number of strong singers for beginners to emulate if they so chose. But it was in no way intimidating or elitist. Nobody looked down on anybody else. People taking their first tentative steps were nurtured and encouraged. It was an opportunity to hear some really fine singers close up, to learn, and to try things in a relaxed, warm, supportive atmosphere.

Don Firth

Subject: RE: songs to warm up a song circle
From: wilco
Date: 30 Jan 03 - 04:41 PM

You are my sunshine
swing low sweet Chariot
Moma Don't allow
When you live in the country
I'll Fly Away
Uncloudy Day
Long Black Veil
Good Night Irene, Goodnight
Will the Circle be Unbroken
Mountain Dew
Amazing Grace
In the Pines
Wabash Cannonball
Tennessee Waltz

Southeast USA list from tennessee

Subject: RE: songs to warm up a song circle
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 30 Jan 03 - 04:46 PM

One of the best songs for the purpose is an absolutely dreadful number called The Goldfish (in the DT as Round and Round). I've found it a great means of getting people to sing--loudly and in harmony.

Subject: RE: songs to warm up a song circle
From: Stewart
Date: 30 Jan 03 - 05:09 PM

Mary - I agree with you completely.

Don - I agree also. I wish I was in Seattle in the early days of the Song Circle that you refer to. I'm afraid it hasn't changed much from the time you stopped going. However, every once in a while, mostly old-timers show up and some of the magic comes back. And I'm looking forward to Rainy Camp to meet again some other people from out of town. A couple if months ago I visited the Bellingham (WA) Song Circle and found it very enjoyable. I think they call it a "music circle" and people might also play an instrumental when their turn came. What impressed me was that people actually had been working on their song(s) to present, and even though they were not the best singers or instrumental players, there was evidence that they were seriously working at it and will improve with time. And there was quite a range of abilities, with Flip enthusiastically encouraging everyone.

I think any song with an easy singable chorus (even though it might be new, or particularly because it is new) goes over well. I also like a mixture of sing-along songs and individual solo performances that are well done.

Cheers, S. in Seattle

Subject: RE: songs to warm up a song circle
From: mg
Date: 30 Jan 03 - 05:57 PM

I think it also depends on who you want to have come. If it is a social event with shared music, it is quite different in nature than a musical event. It is like if we got together to play baseball for fun or were actually quite serious about it..if that were the case you would want to be with people more or less on your level. We found in the early days of Seattle SS that we just couldn't have instrumentals...they are basically not compatible with the singers in our situation..others might be different...it changes the flow for one thing...and there is nothing you can do but listen to it...and we were the sorts that wanted to sing along....

there were some great days in Seattle...I don't live there now and can't say what it is like now...the few times I went it was pretty good. There always was some hypocracy..they would never admit the7y didn't start till 8:30 or so and would always tell people 7:30. They would never say by and large we are a group that hates today while the flowers...that's not fair to the new people....one thing I think Jon Bartlett of BC told us right away is to have it every week..if you have it every other week or every third Tuesday no one remembers when it is.....

thanks Don...Barb was someone's favorite singer there you know. I am not at liberty to say who's. (Besides yourself of course.) Tell her she had a musical admirer.

mg

Subject: RE: songs to warm up a song circle
From: Strupag
Date: 30 Jan 03 - 07:55 PM

I would go to some of the songs of the early folk revival.
We shall overcome would not be a bad one!
Failing that, try "The Bonne banks of Loch Lomand", "Skye Boat Song",
"Rowan Tree","Amazing Grace","Flower of Scotland", "Caledonia" etc

Guess where I from!

Subject: RE: songs to warm up a song circle
From: phinque
Date: 30 Jan 03 - 07:58 PM

You Are My Sunshine
Clementine
I've Been Working on the RR
MTA
5 or ten verses of Give Me That Old Time Religion. If they don't join in by the 5th chorus, maybe they shouldn't be at a Song Circle.

Subject: RE: songs to warm up a song circle
From: Ebbie
Date: 30 Jan 03 - 08:59 PM

Nor do I like cutesy, audience-participation, hand-flippin' songs. At my weekly song circle, there are usually only 10-15 people who routinely attend, although on occasion it swells to 20 or so. Some of us have old standards that we associate with those people, others of us have a large repertoire of songs written by certain artists (Goodman, Newman, Prine, Silverstein or Staines, for instance) that we urge them to sing, some of us write songs we want to share, others of us sing long ballads with long involved stories, others do a duet they've been practicing, others teach a new shanty or group sing we all get into or sometimes we get into a theme like violence and death and grief in which case I sometimes say, OK, in this next round each of us has to sing the happiest song we know! From time to time we do a couple of fiddle tunes and burn off some of the energy. It's always different and always satisfying.

RUS to me is very limiting, its main value that of reminding one of an almost forgotten song, then is to be laid down again. I was- briefly- in a group that, each in turn, flipped through its pages, said, Oh, here is one! They would sing it, with no regard for effect then the next flippin' person would say, Oh, here's one! etc and etc and etc, as the man said.

Subject: RE: songs to warm up a song circle
From: Dani
Date: 30 Jan 03 - 11:09 PM

Go Ebbie! Where be that song circle? Can I come?

Ours turned out small but lovely. Didn't get to do my lusty shanty, but there were some nice favorites and some tasty new songs. And hopefully, we'll meet again soon.

Thanks, guys. As long as we keep some perspective, there's plenty of music to go around!

Dani

Subject: RE: songs to warm up a song circle
From: Ebbie
Date: 31 Jan 03 - 01:50 AM

You'd be welcome, Dani! Wear rain gear- the snow is mostly gone now and we've gone back to the wet stuff for the moment.

Someone earlier said that it's a good rule to have a weekly gather so that people get the date solidly into their heads, and I agree. Friday nights around here is fairly sacrosanct.

Subject: RE: songs to warm up a song circle
From: Nevada
Date: 31 Jan 03 - 03:17 AM

Mornin Mudcatters!
Speakin earlier of 'Mary Ellen Carter', does anyone know chords/lyrics? It would be great if you could copy/paste or tell me where to get them from.
                  Thanks. Luv AAA x

Subject: RE: songs to warm up a song circle
From: open mike
Date: 31 Jan 03 - 05:05 AM

people seem to like and join in on
City of New Orleans-most know the
chorus-I remember once being in a
yogurt shop when it came on the muzak and
at once several customers chimed in...
years ago..
Bill Staines' All God's Critters Got a Place in the Choir
often is enjoyed by all-esp,. the hooting, clapping, and
howling...
One favorite in our group is Home Grown Tomatoes, too.
By Guy and Susanna Clark..

Subject: RE: songs to warm up a song circle
From: open mike
Date: 31 Jan 03 - 05:14 AM

as for Mary Ellen Carter, it is always best to check the digital tradition data base-most questions can be answered there...
I presume you are new here, so i will describe it to you--
it is that box that says lyric and knowledge search.
yu can either look for the song posted in the alphabetical list,
or for any conversation about it in the threads. Mary Elln Carter
will be found in both: thread

Subject: RE: songs to warm up a song circle
From: open mike
Date: 31 Jan 03 - 05:17 AM

M.E.C. in the D.T.

Subject: RE: songs to warm up a song circle
From: Dave Bryant
Date: 31 Jan 03 - 07:10 AM

Whe it's a regular session, it's quite a good idea to have a couple of songs with "floating" verses sung round the room - eg:

Martin said to his man.
John's gone away on board a man 'o war.

with any luck people will start chucking in new topical verses as well as the standard ones.

I used to go to a club which aways finished with "Wild Mountain Thyme" sung around. I would try and concoct a new verse every week, so that I wouldn't be stuck when it came to my turn. I would often find that my previous "additions" would have been noted and trotted out by someone else before it got to me. One which I can remember (we had a couple of welshmen in the group) was

If my true-love chucks me out,
Then her love she can keep.
I'll just pull on my wellies,
And find myself a sheep.

Subject: RE: songs to warm up a song circle
From: Genie
Date: 01 Feb 03 - 02:50 AM

Dave, just about every time someone does a folksong (or other genre) "standard" (e.g., "Roll On, Columbia") at Seattle Song Circle, someone (usually Jean Smith) breaks into a parody version (e.g., "Roll-On Deodorant"). These always liven up the group.

One other type song -- similar to the "line song" mentioned above -- that works well in song circles is "call and response" songs.

I mentioned "When The Saints Go Marching In" above as a "line song." It's really not, but the chorus is a good "call and response."


Genie

PS

Gotta share an observation re books like "THE BLUE HYMNAL." Yeah, it's a useful reference and can be helpful as a memory jogger or to learn new songs, but it's too often a crutch that folks depend on unnecessarily. A week or so ago, I was at a Portland song circle that uses their own songbooks, and someone requested "Drunken Sailor." I kid you not, nearly everyone was staring at the lyric page as they sang the CHORUS: "What shall we do with a drunken sailor?"
[Hmmm... I can't remember the next line. Better read them off the page!] Amazing!

Subject: RE: songs to warm up a song circle
From: GUEST,sing.out/Penny
Date: 01 Feb 03 - 02:53 PM

How many of you know "Play a Simple Melody"? I introduced it to our group and it has become a standard. It's a duet (two different parts). We used to divide the group in half, now we sing it once through then it becomes a "free for all."

Subject: RE: songs to warm up a song circle
From: TonyK
Date: 01 Feb 03 - 04:37 PM

Our monthly open-sing usually starts with "This Land is Your Land" and Bill Stains' "River" before going around the circle and each one present takes a turn picking the next, be it a song or a story. Sometimes we throw in "Camptown Races" or "City of New Orleans" as additional warm-ups if the group isn't too large.

RUS is a crutch some in our circle use and I would'nt take a crutch from someone who needed it. It is funny, though a bit sad, to watch so many people with their heads buried in a book when we could be looking at each other.

TonyK

Subject: RE: songs to warm up a song circle
From: Mudlark
Date: 01 Feb 03 - 04:38 PM

Don...I too have a copy of "the yellow book," from the late 50's, the spine now so broken I'm afraid to open it up in a high wind.

Genie...I have been to song circles like that, nose in book for Comin' Round the Mountain...I find even the need for a music stand in such cases to be a hassle.

A few more with easy tunes/verses/choruses

Banks of the Ohio
I Am a Lonely and a Lonesome Traveler
Roll On, Buddy
Rollin' in My Sweet Baby's Arms
I'll Pawn My Gold Watch and Chain
Satisfied Mind
Hello, Stranger

Subject: RE: songs to warm up a song circle
From: GUEST,Sing.out/Penny
Date: 01 Feb 03 - 05:05 PM

And don't forget "Happy Wanderer."

Subject: RE: songs to warm up a song circle
From: Ebbie
Date: 02 Feb 03 - 02:10 AM

Let's see if I can remember some of the songs and tunes we did last night...

Opened with a 5string banjo leading Lonesome Road Blues. Then, in no particular order, Wild Colonial Boy; Texas River Song; Summer Wages; My Sweet Wyoming Home; instrumental Red Wing; sung Snow Deer; Four Strong Winds; Bil Staines' The Miner's Song; Angel Band; instrumental Soldier's Joy segueing into Arkansas Traveler; John O' Dreams; Don't This Road Look Rough and Rocky; instrumental Back up and Push; instrumental Whiskey Before Breakfast; sung Zebra Dun; Hard Times Come Again No More; lots and lots more.

At the end when there were only half a dozen or so people left, a mando player and I did 'Letter from Lilac Acres' (Thanks, Jed Marum! I love it.) and then finished with just the chorus of 'When We Gather Once More' (Thanks, Rick Fielding!)

"Be well, be safe, be kind, be strong
For the times will test us sore
And to gladden our hearts, our bodies, our souls
Be here when we gather once more
Oh, be here when we gather once more..."

Subject: RE: songs to warm up a song circle
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 21 Mar 04 - 11:53 AM

Where's the rest of Rick's song? I can't find it in the DT.

Subject: RE: songs to warm up a song circle
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 21 Mar 04 - 12:15 PM

Choruses and even songs where people are liable to join in all the way through are ok in their place, and can give a great sound sometimes with people sticking in their favourite notes and counter melodies.

But if I'm in a room, singing round it, I'd much sooner that much of the times it's people singing songs without choruses, or songs I haven't heard before, or recently, or in that particular variant, which isn't the same as the one someone famous recorded.   

Maybe there's a distinction to be made, on the one hand, between "song circles", mostly choruses and singalong songs, which are primarily about joining in songs, and on the other hand "singing circles", which are more about sharing songs.

Subject: RE: songs to warm up a song circle
From: joanna
Date: 21 Mar 04 - 02:34 PM

we sometimes use simple choruses sang in unison then in rounds sometimes up to 6 part rounds its a fun ice breaker

try
          Steely waters
          Lets have a peel for a song of peace

Subject: RE: songs to warm up a song circle
From: steve in ottawa
Date: 22 Mar 04 - 05:40 PM

I heard Dick Gaughan recall his early days in performing. He asked a very successful musician for advise and was told: "Start with a couple of songs you know."

Good advise for song circles too.

Knowing exactly what songs would work well is as impossible to predict as predicting what the overall composition and mood of your group will be at the beginning of the song circle. If you feel strong that evening, you can try to lead the group where you want to go. If you're tired, you might chose to start with songs that you know, and that you know some other strong singers will support you on. If you're really tired, try requesting another strong singer to start everyone off.

If a group isn't quiet enough, I prefer to start with boisterous songs. Otherwise, almost anything will work. After many meetings, your group will develop some favorites; then that tricky decision comes: do I use one of the favorites right at the start, or wait for the perfect mood later on.

Good luck with the song circle.

Subject: RE: songs to warm up a song circle
From: GUEST,Anne Croucher
Date: 22 Mar 04 - 07:27 PM

Try 'Braes of Balquhither' to the tune of Come to the Bower with 'Let us go lassie go to the Braes of Balquhither' as the chorus.

the original words by Robert Tannahill make a change from Wild Mountain Thyme, and the tune is good.

Don't do it too late in the evening or you'll have half the audience trying to force you into WMT

Anne Croucher

Subject: RE: songs to warm up a song circle
From: Ebbie
Date: 22 Mar 04 - 10:43 PM

Stilly River Sage, I got Rick's When We Gather Once More from the Mudcat CD 'Violet'. Good song.

I'm not home in Alaska at the moment so I don't have access to the song's lyrics.

Subject: RE: songs to warm up a song circle
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 22 Mar 04 - 10:54 PM

Okay--I have that CD. I'll give it a listen again. I didn't remember the title (and I need to print out the liner notes). Thanks so much!

SRS