Issue 147

Singing for joy

23rd October 2006

Last week we spent an evening with the brand new Gospel Society to listen to their progress and catch up with Michael Sawyerr, the founder of the group.

Starting a Gospel society is something that Michael says he has been thinking about ever since arriving at Swansea, as unlike at other universities there was nothing at Swansea that covered this genre of music. It was only this year that Michael decided to push himself to organise the society and get it up and running. The choir sings a variety of gospel music from contemporary gospel music such as "Joyful, joyful", which many of you might recognise from the film "Sister Act". To some more original songs, which have been written and produced by Michael himself.

Many of the groups inspirations come from such people as Kirk Franklin, who is a well known American gospel singer and internationally renowned for breaking down musical barriers. Other influences come from singer Michael W. Smith who is also a well known gospel singer in America and various other gospel choirs.

The evening began with a range of breathing exercises to help warm up the vocal chords, following this we were taken through our paces as we did a range of scales and other voice exercises. Once warmed up we were split into three groups, the tenor's, alto's and the soprano's (and no that doesn't refer to the television show!) For those nonmusically minded people, the tenor's sing the lower part of the music, which is usually the boys. Then the alto's are in the middle, whilst the soprano's sing the highest part, and generally carry the melody of the song.

Having handed out the song sheets we all had a bash at the song. Clearly practice makes perfect and after a shaky start we soon got into the swing of things and began to sound like a choir, despite the input of my shocking voice. So as to improve each sections sound we broke down into our groups and worked on our separate parts. This was definitely a good idea as once we came back together again, we sounded far more in tune!

The choir brings together both Christians and non-Christians and has already formed a large group of keen members. By the time that I left they were happily practicing and sounding more harmonious by the second, and certainly much better without my input!

The group is always on the look out for new members and in particular those who have a strong passion and a love for singing and music. They have regular practices which usually take place on a Saturday evening, at a variety of local venues. Though they hope in the very near future to secure an official place to rehearse on campus.

They hope to be performing in the Bridge Cafe (D2, the former Green Room), Monkey Bar and has aims to link up with other worships groups from a range of local churches, keep an eye out for more information.

The Gospel Society are certainly something to look out for in the near future and if you would like anymore information about them, then please contact the group founder, Michael Sawyerr at: contemporarygospel@hotmail.co.uk

Dawn Lewis