Founder members of Vocal Dimension Chorus bring barbershop to the younger members of our community. On Friday 26th February, Encore! was invited by June George, the school’s music teacher to introduce Barbershop to St David’s School, Purley where Debbie Chamberlayne is the Year 6 teacher.

Encore! with St David's School

Debbie takes up the story in her own words...

I waited anxiously for the rest of Encore! to arrive. Up stairs in their classroom Year 6 were buzzing with excitement. After a quick warm up Encore! entertained the school during morning assembly. With cheers of “Encore!”, we did what we do best and sang another song! The children had already been told which part they were going to be singing, so after assembly, it was all systems go.

Our aim for the morning was to teach nineteen, 10 and 11 year olds Da Doo Ron Ron in a cappella four part harmony! After Encore! demonstrated the song, singing it through once, then singing in three parts and two parts to illustrate how important all the parts are, we trotted off to various locations around the school with our little band of very enthusiastic singers.

June popped into each group’s rehearsal to offer words of encouragement and praise, and was suitably impressed, as were we, with speed that the children picked up their individual parts.

After only about half an hour learning, the children were back in the hall to start putting the parts together. Eventually after every combination of parts had been exhausted, we sang in four part harmony. WOW! They were fantastic. There were a few tuning issues, but what they lacked in a few wrong notes, they made up for in enthusiasm. The basses came in right on time with their pick up “OH YEAH!”, the tenors trilled beautifully, the leads with a bit of encouragement belted out the melody and yes the brilliant baritones mastered their ‘gap filling’ part brilliantly.

After morning break, it was back to work on the choreography. Yes, we even had them doing moves! By 11.45, after a mere hour and forty five minutes learning parts and moves and coming up with a name for the newly formed chorus, they were ready to entertain the rest of the school.

It was a great pleasure for us, to introduce, Encore! Junior Chorus. With Val directing, and June helping out the baritone section, we wowed our audience with our choreographed rendition of Da Doo Ron Ron. Everyone single person in the school was there to cheer them on, including peripatetic music teachers, cooks and office staff.

They worked so hard and achieved a great deal in a very short amount of time. I, as their teacher am immensely proud of them. A big thank you to the rest of Encore! for giving up your time to share with them the joy of Barbershop singing. The children are still on a high and simply loved their taster of Barbershop harmony! Hopefully Encore! can make an annual appearance at St. David's to continue to share our joy of singing – it was an absolutely pleasure to work with the children.