A Perfect Day

A few weeks back, I spent a very pleasant Sunday afternoon attending a Harmony Singing Workshop at Bishop Grosseteste University, in Lincoln. The workshop had been arranged by my friend Annie, and apart from her, her husband, Tim, and their daughter; it was going to be a roomful of strangers, so I admit to some nervousness. A big room too – something like 80+ people attended.

The workshop was given by Faith Watson, and she was brilliant, immediately putting us all at our ease.

During the afternoon, we worked on several different pieces, some short and sweet and some more complex; but the main piece was a multipart rendition of Lou Reed’s Perfect Day. Yes, we learned to sing Perfect Day, in harmony, in a few hours.

Having gone through this myself, I can wholeheartedly recommend this kind of workshop to anyone who likes singing. There is absolutely no requirement to read music – the songs were taught by Faith singing them to us, and us singing back. Nor was there any rigidity imposed regarding what you should be singing – everyone was taught all the parts, and then left to decide which part they wanted to sing. This meant that I was able to sing in my normal range for confidence, but venture out of my comfort zone on a couple of songs, for fun.

Anyway, Annie has just posted some of the results to SoundCloud – be aware that this was recorded on an Iphone, includes commentary/instruction by Faith, and is edited out of multiple sessions (as we sang a couple of verses, then went off to do something else, then did some more Perfect Day later).

But it is a nice keepsake of the memory. This is how I spent that Sunday; it was perfect.

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