Video transcript
2021 Primary Proms repertoire - 03. Chicken on a Fencepost - teaching tips

[music playing]

RACHEL KELLY: Hi, I'm Rachel Kelly. This video is part of a series on tips for conducting your choir. This song is in two parts, soprano and alto. And it has very little singing in unison.

The time signature is a C with a line through it, which is called cut common time. This is exactly the same as writing 2/2, and it means we conduct two beats in each bar. And each beat represents a minim.

So we go down, up, down, up, 1, 2, 1, 2. (SINGING) Chicken on a fence post can't dance Josey. Now, this song can seem a bit daunting with all the different parts for the sopranos and altos to learn. So rather than go through with you each part of the song in the order it's written in, instead I'm going to suggest a plan of attack for how you could approach this song with your choir.

For a start, I wouldn't start by teaching them the first section. We can come to that later. I would jump straight in at bar 29. Now, this is the main melody that both the sopranos and the altos need to learn in this song.

For now, I'd ignore the fact that the sopranos sing the first phrase here and the altos sing the second phrase, and just teach them all the same tune. So we go like this. (SINGING) Chicken on a fence post can't dance Josey. Chicken on a fence post can't dance Josey. Chicken on a fence post can't dance Josey.

Then, it splits into harmony, with the sopranos singing up high. (SINGING) Hello Susie Brownie-oh, while the altos sing lower. (SINGING) Hello Susie Brownie-oh.

Now, jump to bar 45 and get the altos to sing this. They know this part. Chicken on a fence post can't dance Josey. Chicken on a fence post can't dance Josey. Chicken on a fence post can't dance Josey.

Hello Susie Brownie-oh. And at that point, you could get the sopranos to jump in with their high part at the end, because they know that bit. Hello Susie Brownie-oh.

Now, skip over to bar 81. And it's exactly the same as the first part that we sang. And probably by now, we could try splitting the phrases the way it's written in the music.

So starting with the sopranos, (SINGING) chicken on a fence post can't dance Josey. Chicken on a fence post can't dance Josey. Chicken on a fence post can't dance Josey. Hello Susie Brownie-oh.

And then, at bar 89, which is the very next bit, the altos sing all of their part again. The altos could actually try their part as far as up to bar 100 here. So from bar 93, they sing (SINGING) chicken on a fence post can't dance Josey.

Hello Susie Brownie-oh. Hello Susie Brownie-oh. Hello Susie: then stop them there, because it's different. And notice how we got suddenly softer where it said subito mp.

Next, I'd go back to bar 37 and teach the sopranos their countermelody that they have here. Now, the altos never need to know this part, so just teach it to the sopranos. So it goes, (SINGING) Josey can't dance. Josey can't dance. Josey can't dance.

Hello Susie Brownie-oh. And just watch. There's one place where they take a breath, and that's halfway through that section.

Then, you could try adding that soprano part in to the alto section that we've already done at bar 45 and see if both parts can hold their own melodies. And then, you can jump to bar 89, because exactly the same thing happens there. And see if you can, again, get to bar 100 with those little changes towards the end of it, with both parts this time.

And of course, this would all be taking place over the course of a few rehearsals. I wouldn't try teaching all of this song in one go. You'd want to consolidate what you've already learned each time and then try the next part.

Next, let's teach them the middle section at bar 55. It's short, and it's easy. The sopranos sing the first bit. The altos sing the next bit. Then, they both sing in unison.

So it goes, (SINGING) Hold my mule while I dance, Josey. Hold my mule while I dance. Hold my mule while I dance, Josey. Bigfoot Charlie can't dance.

And now, we get to go back to the beginning and learn the opening section, which may look a bit long and complicated, but it's actually just these four-bar patterns that are repeated. So the soprano pattern goes like this, (SINGING) chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken. And they do that four times in a row. Let's really emphasise the consonants in this section. So we want to make more of the ch and the cuh, and make them nice and percussive.

And when the sopranos get to their third pattern, that's when the altos come in. And the alto pattern goes like this. Chicken, chicken, chicken, chick. Chicken, chicken, chicken, chick. And they only do their pattern twice.

And then, if we jump across to bar 65, we'll see that this section is the same as what we've just done at the opening. The only slight difference is it's marked mp, rather than p. So it's just a tiny bit louder on it.

So the only bit they still need to learn is the last four bars of the song. Now, this is just the first half of the chicken pattern, followed by their hello Susie Brownie-oh part. Now, watch out for the dynamics here. At bar 101, we're suddenly soft, indicated by subito p. And then, for the last two bars, we're forte, or loud.

And you probably don't need to worry about conducting that final piano button after the singing, because it's so fast. And it could feel a bit awkward, like this. (SINGING) Hello Susie Brownie-oh. Boom.

So I'll show you from bar 97 to the end, singing the soprano part. So they go (SINGING) Hello Susie Brownie-oh. Hello Susie, chicken, chicken, chicken. Hello Susie Brownie-oh.