On Saturday 11th March we were thrilled to be part of the very first National Signing Choir Competition.

This wasn’t our first experience of signing musicians. Last October we organised a concert with local music groups and one of our guest acts was Radcliffe Community Signing Choir. The finale of the evening was to be Elbow’s One Day Like This and all of our guests would join in. In the weeks leading up to the concert we rehearsed with the choir and learnt the signs for the chorus of One Day Like This. It was more challenging than learning choreography! As we watched the signing choir perform that night we were in awe of the emotion and feeling that went into each song.

We were delighted when we had the opportunity to repeat the experience again just a few months later!

Fourteen choirs from up and down the country entered the competition at the Nottingham Albert Hall. The competition was compered by Simon Astill of Harmoneyes and Stewart Hill, who was part of Gareth Malone’s Invictus Choir. We opened the event singing One Day Like This with members of each competing choir signing along with us.

After we had opened the competition we sat down to watch each of the choirs perform. There were four junior category entrants and ten open category entrants. Much like a Sweet Adelines contest the choirs were asked to perform two contrasting pieces of music, and the judging criteria were remarkably similar too; expression, musicality, interpretation.

The choirs took the ‘contrasting pieces’ advice to heart. It’s probably the first time that we’ve heard Wannabe, Muse’s Uprising, and Nella Fantasia in the same evening, but each choir showed passion for their music and the songs came alive.

At the end of the evening, whilst the judges conferred and made their decisions, we performed a set of 5 songs (well 16 if you get picky about Hooked on Classics!).

The junior choir winners were the de Ferrers Sign Choir from Burton upon Trent and the open choir category was won by Dee-Sign Choir from Chester.

To be involved in these performances has been a real privilege for us. It’s opened our eyes to a whole new way of expressing music and helped us see how music can be made accessible to all.

On Saturday 11th March we were thrilled to be part of the very first National Signing Choir Competition.

This wasn’t our first experience of signing musicians. Last October we organised a concert with local music groups and one of our guest acts was Radcliffe Community Signing Choir. The finale of the evening was to be Elbow’s One Day Like This and all of our guests would join in. In the weeks leading up to the concert we rehearsed with the choir and learnt the signs for the chorus of One Day Like This. It was more challenging than learning choreography! As we watched the signing choir perform that night we were in awe of the emotion and feeling that went into each song.

We were delighted when we had the opportunity to repeat the experience again just a few months later!

Fourteen choirs from up and down the country entered the competition at the Nottingham Albert Hall. The competition was compered by Simon Astill of Harmoneyes and Stewart Hill, who was part of Gareth Malone’s Invictus Choir. We opened the event singing One Day Like This with members of each competing choir signing along with us.

After we had opened the competition we sat down to watch each of the choirs perform. There were four junior category entrants and ten open category entrants. Much like a Sweet Adelines contest the choirs were asked to perform two contrasting pieces of music, and the judging criteria were remarkably similar too; expression, musicality, interpretation.

The choirs took the ‘contrasting pieces’ advice to heart. It’s probably the first time that we’ve heard Wannabe, Muse’s Uprising, and Nella Fantasia in the same evening, but each choir showed passion for their music and the songs came alive.

At the end of the evening, whilst the judges conferred and made their decisions, we performed a set of 5 songs (well 16 if you get picky about Hooked on Classics!).

The junior choir winners were the de Ferrers Sign Choir from Burton upon Trent and the open choir category was won by Dee-Sign Choir from Chester.

To be involved in these performances has been a real privilege for us. It’s opened our eyes to a whole new way of expressing music and helped us see how music can be made accessible to all.