Friday.
After booking in at Bablake School my mate and I took the short walk to the hotel -very comfortable and most acceptable. After a quick shower and change of clothes we were back to Bablake for introductions and a fascinating hour of watching and listening to Royce Ferguson. We then met our coaches in the novice stream, and were ordered to the bar at 10.15 where we met some old friends, and made several new ones in the process.

Saturday.
Sessions with our coaches included our trying directing patterns 2/4, 3/4 and 4/4 to various pieces of music, discussion about "feeling the mood", and expressive attitude etc. The time just flew by.
A session with Mike Taylor and Cherry Hartshorne gave an insight into planning in the long term and some club rehearsal planning.

Back to our coaches for more Directing technique - all done with a sense of fun. Ah! A welcome cup of tea arrives. Thanks.

Royce Ferguson then dealt with critical listening and analysis - very interesting. I'm not sure I got it, but the DVD will be a useful tool for the future. It's then back to coaching.

After it had been decided which song the delegates were to be given for Sunday's video session, we finally had a turn at directing. I wish we could have spent more time on this session to adequately prepare me for the video of me directing the octet. Off to Dinner.

Well fed and rather tired, it's back to the Drama Studio where Royce Ferguson was coaching Rhiannon whilst she was directing the college chorus. Being part of that big sound - the octet, the chorus ladies, the men's chorus and the delegates, was a truly uplifting experience.
Then off to the bar. Oh dear!

Sunday.
Nerves, nerves and more nerves! The parallel session video with Derek was interesting but always I had one eye on my 9 minutes of directing the octet. Wow! Adrenalin all over the place! Peter, my coach was very supportive and I found his comments constructive. The resulting video will be of great help in the future as a point of reference.

Even though I was very nervous about the session, I would love to have done it again. Then it's back to Royce for more of his expert demonstration of vocal production, and so by now, I am kind of getting it! It was a fantastic weekend and I came away feeling I had achieved most of my goals. I have been given some tools and a book of instructions to help develop my directing skills.

My thanks go to you Mike, your team, and the volunteer choruses and octet who worked so hard all day. Without you it could not happen.

Regards, Stuart Newbold