swannieboy

Lovely session today Hummy Mummies (and Hummy Daddy!). Have a wonderful Christmas and see you in the New Year! (9th January). Keep your eyes peeled for more news of other branches starting up... Richard xx

Looking forward to seeing lots of you there this morning. Sorry for radio silence, it's been a hell of a week...!

Lovely sounds yesterday from all the Hummy Mummies. Thank you for coming all you new recruits, you did brilliantly. We had quite a lot of apologies due to sickness, but were in no way depleted in numbers thanks to a new influx of mums. Looking forward to the new year now. We will have 2 more sessions this year and then break for Christmas. We will start again on 9 Jan at Christchurch, and will hopefully have sorted out another weekly session in West Dulwich too. I'm getting there with rolling this out in other locations as well - will keep you posted. I'll do a little mail-out later on. Richard x

Hi Michelle Well, I run 2 choirs which do that - there's London City Voices which meet at 6.30pm on Wednesdays in the City (finish at 8pm), or there's the Nunhead Community Choir who meet at Ivydale Primary School on a Thursday from 8pm till 9.45pm. The Nunhead Choir have a concert coming up next Sunday (11 Dec), check on the website for details.

Yes, do come along scareyt, I think you'll enjoy it. The new recording replaces the old one on the website. I'll keep updating so that our progress can be followed... Lots of exciting things happening with Hummy Mummies, watch this space...

Just updated the recording of Make You Feel My Love with yesterday's one. You all sound great! Do please keep the suggestions coming for songs - feel free to do so in this forum, rather than as a PM, as then we can discuss them.

No, they should just open up as an overlay on top of the main window. If they don't, you should be able to right-click or ctrl-click and save the link as an mp3... Anyone else having any problems?

My apologies. I know about amusia, it's just very rare. I meant to go back and qualify my statement with "apart from a very small selection of the population", but forgot, due to being so cross about the terrible singing master. Wikipedia reckons about 4% of the population have amusia. My experience would say that it's far less than that - every person that I have worked with has been able to pitch at the end of our session. Not necessarily easily - sometimes it takes a few weeks of work.

Incidentally, what often happens, particularly with male choir directors or singing "masters" is that obviously, being men, their voices are much deeper. Inexperienced singers often can't make the octave transposition that is needed, as unless your son has large amounts of testosterone, his voice won't have broken yet. He's probably trying to pitch the notes at exactly the same pitch as the Master of Singing, rather than transposing up the octave, and he can't get low enough, so it sounds like he can't pitch. Very common. Also, sometimes people find it hard to sing a pitch played on an instrument, rather than one which is sung. Lots of people can't pitch a note played on the piano, but can if you sing it to them. This just takes a bit of patience and practise.

Sorry - just to interject here - "tone deafness" is an absolute myth. Otta, anyone (save perhaps the profoundly deaf) can be taught to pitch. I'm working with a gentleman (in fact, the chap who is printing my Hummy Mummies cards) who has never ever sung, always been told that he's tone deaf - and he is definitely not! It's just a matter of teaching someone to listen and use the vocal muscles properly. It's a bit like driving a car - anyone who has ever tried to teach someone to use the accelerator SLOWLY will know that it takes a while to get used to the miniscule movements that are needed. I've been working with people who "can't sing" for over 25 years and have a 100% success rate. Bring him along to me in Brockley some time and I'll show him what needs to be done (no charge). PM me for details if you're interested. I'm disgusted at the "singing master". Sounds like something of a jumped-up idiot. I thought we'd eradicated that sort of music teacher, but clearly not. :X

Right, the recordings are up. Quite pleased with them, given that we've only had 2 sessions. Haven't had a chance to record the alto line separately yet, as my mum is in hospital and I've been doing lots of stuff for her (aren't I a good son!). But I will, fret ye not. In the meantime, have a listen here, and if you're not already subscribed to the mailing list, sign yourself up. I'm getting the 10-session cards delivered tonight! :)

Thanks bluesuperted. I really enjoyed the session too. You all sounded fab. I'll be putting the stuff online soon so that people can hear what the results are. I'll also put the alto lines up so that people can practise them at home. Just trademarked the name - watch this space for further developments...

Hi Sophie - point taken - we'll watch that and make it workable. Just sent an email to those of you on the mailing list. Looking forward to seeing lots of you tomorrow. Richard

Don't know of anyone local, but if you speak to either Dominic, Tom or Beatrice at The Penny Group (based in London Bridge) they are brilliant. Beatrice is new, and I believe she still has an exam to take to be fully qualified, but the senior partners sit in with her anyway. She specialises in working with women, which is good in a traditionally male-dominated career, and she is very approachable. And I'm sure they'll come and visit you - they're all about family values.

Right, a few more developments. I've booked the room for the next few weeks as it looks like this is a going concern. I'll hopefully have the 10-session cards printed by Monday - but if not, I'll make the drop-in ?5 again. After I get them printed the drop-in session will be ?6 and the block of 10 will be ?50. I'm after a bit of Mum Expertise. Where are the places to target with flyers, leaflets etc. Sparkle has been very helpful, as has oldnewromantic, but if you have ideas about other potential locations, whether in E Dulwich or not, please let me know. Also, if any of you have any good connections in the media, I'm looking to get some PR for this at the moment, so if you know any TV producers or influential journalists, please feel free to put them in touch. Look forward to seeing you on Monday at 10am. Richard

Thank you Hummy Mummies for being so receptive to it all. I had a lot of fun too. I'll be bringing some toy cars next week... Have a listen to Sweet Child of Mine this week if you can ;)

Hi all Just wondering how many of you are planning to come tomorrow morning? I'm looking forward to this very much. I've managed to get a nice playmat and couple of books and toys. Been looking for NCT nearly-new sales but not found anything else in time. If you have anything suitable in good condition, bring it along and I may well buy it from you. Hope to see a good contingent of mums tomorrow. Richard

Right, the website has been updated, and you can now buy a block of 10 sessions online for ?50 via PayPal. It's easy, convenient and cash-free. I'll be printing cards as soon as I've designed them - realistically they'll be ready for Monday 21 November, so the first drop-in session will be ?5, not ?6. Once I have the cards up and running, a one-off session will cost ?6. The advantage with this system is that you don't waste the sessions you don't use. You simply don't pay for any you don't attend. It's the only sensible way to run a regular activity given our busy lifestyles, and I don't know why more people don't do it.

If any of you lovely people have any suggestions as to what sort of toys to get and where I might get some without breaking the bank, I'd love to hear them. I'm taking a bit of a risk on this, and want to make sure that I provide a good selection of toys, but can't afford much at this stage. I've checked Freecycle but can't see much at the moment. Anyone got a selection they want to flog me?

:-) I doubt it. I've probably heard worse. On that note (no pun intended), please don't feel that you have to be amazing at singing to join Hummy Mummies. Even if you think you can't sing you'll be welcome to come and try. Many music teachers are responsible for making people believe that they cannot sing - were you ever told to mime while everyone else in the class sang at assembly? If that's you, come and have a word with me. I can teach you to pitch in about 20 minutes. Everyone. There is no-one, save for the profoundly deaf, who hasn't got the capacity to sing. I have proved it on numerous occasions. Here's a testimonial from Huey (proprieter of the highly-recommended Bambuni, the new Nunhead deli): "I can honestly say that my singing lesson with Richard changed my life! Having spent my life believing I couldn't sing, within an hour Richard showed me that was not the case. The lesson, and Richard's encouragement, gave me the confidence to find my voice and even to join my local community choir! Richard possesses the ability to put people at ease and makes breaking down barriers a fun experience." So come along even if you've never had a go of this sort of thing before.

Hi buggie - request duly noted. It would be a tremendous honour though if you did change swimming classes... ;-)

Bellenden Belle and bluesuperted, I'm glad you're excited. So am I. And it does still makes sense with the lower price, worry not. I'm more concerned about getting a decent number of people along so we can make a great sound. We can have 50 people in the back hall - I'd like to see at least 20 mums there, preferably 30ish. In terms of the PAYG - I'm getting some "loyalty cards" made up which you can buy and simply get stamped/ticked every time you come. Then, if you buy a block of 10 and you suddenly can't make the next 3 weeks, it doesn't matter because you can just use them when you can come. Where would be good places to leave leaflets? I'm going to get some printed, hopefully by Wednesday.

Thank you all for your feedback - this is great - I'm trying to get it right, so your help is much appreciated. Otta and Bluesuperted, I take on board what you're saying about price. I was actually taking my cue from some of the other events which go on at Christchurch, but I'm happy to drop the price if people feel that it's too high. How about ?6 per session or ?50 for 10? Also, I wasn't clear in my post - mums with little babies are most welcome too, not just toddlers. You don't even have to be sporting a child. The point is to provide something that mums can come to whereas they may not be able to make an evening one for childcare reasons. It doesn't matter if some of the members aren't mums, but the majority will be.

Also to say, if there's clearly enough interest, I will pay someone to come along to help to keep the children occupied. It would be great if those of you who are interested could sign up to the mailing list so I have an idea of numbers. Over 200 views of the thread so far - clearly there are interested parties about. I promise not to send you spam or sell your email address to anyone :)

Thanks for all your feedback and questions so far. I am planning to have some toys there - I wondered what people think would be good? It's been a few years since mine were that old - quite happy to go hunting though. It kind of depends on who comes, to an extent. I'll give it some thought and take into account any more feedback I get here. Many thanks for your interest.