28/04/2023
Well what a time we had down in Yeovil last week. We were invited by the head of St Michaels Academy to teach four year groups to sing shanty songs.
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Year 3 had South Australia which has been part of our repertoire for some time now but to these young people, it was as if they had heard the song many times before because they sung it with gusto.
• Year 4 had to deal with Haul Away Joe, proving that anything year 3 could do year 4 would match I and so they did. Following the words on the overhead projector made it easy to take the sound of their voices, wherever they wanted the words to take them.
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Year 5 had a totally different song to sing with Keep Hauling as it has a softer sounding verse and a more powerful chorus that takes the voice higher up in its range. Once again every single member of that year group, showed just how well they could sing.
• So what did year 6 get to tackle? It had to be Wellerman, old song that was only recently brought up to date. They confidently sung it during rehearsals so we decided that they could sing t without us and so they did.
The mornings work done, it was only the afternoon concert to get through and boy! did they all pay us back with their enthusiasm. There were hand claps to the tempo of each song and when it came to Wellerman, the whole school were in unison with overhead clapping to match the song which was followed every couple of verses with an interpretation of a musical interlude with Da-da-da-da-da-da-da Da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da
Two new words the school has learnt from shanty singing and were practiced with as much gusto as all of the songs. (huh) and HEY
The head teacher Mathew Vella was not left out as he was the culprit for organising the whole thing. Kanaka-Naka was his choice so we helped him through it.
What an experience! so well done Colin, Ray and Keith.
