MEMBERS
EXPLORING MUSIC Readers tell us about the music they love. Email editor@makingmusic.org.uk
Jukebox Readers share how a particular piece of music inspires them
How Can I Tell You - Cat Stevens When I was in my mid-twenties (I’m 73 now) I met and dated a lovely young lady with a terrific sense of humour. She often played the Cat Stevens song, How Can I Tell You. It meant a lot to us, and we played it frequently. Like many other foolish young men I didn’t take our relationship seriously enough, so after a year she was whisked away by a man who gave her far more attention. She married him and had two children, then divorced him. Later we ran into each other when
I was engaged to my current wife, and she has since remarried a lovely man. We have stayed friends and kept in touch over the last fifty years. I played the guitar on and off throughout my teens and twenties but never really got serious with it until my 12-year-old daughter (now 35) took guitar lessons at school. She came home and I heard her practicing in her room – it sounded amazing, so I dug my guitar out of the dusty store cupboard and began practicing in earnest. I started going to open mic nights and a year later did my first street performance. I really enjoy the busking vibe, and the beauty of it is that you go when you want, play as long as you want, and go home when you want. I continue to busk today and look after the Bristol Buskers Facebook Page. Among my generally uplifting set list I’m often asked to do some slow songs, so I learned How Can I Tell You, and on the very first day I sang it, a couple came up to me and asked me to sing it again for them as they were getting married that week. I try to sing it with feeling so that people can really hear the meaningful words of the song, and relate to it in their own lives as I have. Trevor George Guitarist and Busker facebook.com/BristolBuskers/videos
Signing choirs What are signing choirs and how do they work? Choirs that use British Sign Language (BSL) are known as signing choirs. (In Northern Ireland, Irish Sign Language (ISL) and BSL are used). First developed in the church, in partnership with the Deaf members of the congregation, these choirs encouraged equality between the experience of Deaf and hearing members. ‘Big D’ deaf people are people born deaf or who experience hearing loss before spoken language is acquired, and regard their deafness as part of their identity and culture rather than as a disability. They form the Deaf community and are predominantly BSL users. ‘Small d’ deaf people are those who have become deafened or hard of hearing later in life after they have acquired a spoken language, and so identify themselves with the hearing community. Small d deaf people are more likely to use hearing aids and develop lip reading skills. Signing choirs often include d/Deaf, hard of hearing and hearing members, all of whom sign sing to recorded music. Some choirs occasionally sing vocally too. Choirs who perform
both using sign language and vocally describe themselves as bi-language. Signing choirs are as diverse as vocal choirs in terms of the type of music that they perform. Genres range from classical to rock, pop and funk and the different styles are often reflected in the physical movements of the choir. Such movements – in addition to signing – are part of capturing and enjoying the essence of the music, though the main focus is on the signing and not on choreography. Signed song translations vary widely. Some signing choirs use Sign Supported English (SSE), whereas others use fuller BSL interpretations. Because BSL has a different grammatical structure to English, a process is used to capture the essence of the music, melody and lyrics to make the most of the beautiful and evocative nature of signing. Find out more: makingmusic.org.uk/intro-to-signing-choirs
Spring 2020 HIGHNOTES
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