The UK Launch of ‘Popular Voiceworks 2’ at the ABCD Convention in Leeds.

Fresh out of the box ...

Last Sunday, I launched PV2 with a clinic to choral directors from around the UK, sponsored by Oxford University Press. We did a practical session, which began with warm-ups, and then we explored our ‘cry’, our ‘twang’ and (some of us) even our ‘belt’!

Then we sang through a number of the songs, some with backing tracks and some with piano accompaniment, and I used a couple of exercises to introduce the improvising workshop material. There were around 50 choral directors present, which was not bad.

Here is a picture of the first copies of ‘Popular Voiceworks 2’, fresh out of their box. There is something about the special smell of new books, particularly when they are your own.

The first Popular Voiceworks book won the Music Retailers' Association prize for “Best Pop Music Publication’ in 2008, but actually I think this one is better. The songs are uniformly strong, and somehow second time around, we were more experienced, so the text seems tighter and more considered.

I hope it really is useful - educators, please do let me know what you think by commenting here.