Bass Desires: third-year English student Charles Green reports from the bass section…

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Mixed formation has shaken things up in the Chamber Choir.

The eyes have it...

At practise, I no longer sit with Matt Norman, whispering the same old euphemisms and profanities; now I get to look at him on the other side of our horseshoe. Faces have replaced words, and not always distracting ones. It has changed the way we handle our line.

On Tuesday, at his suggestion, we laid aside our copies of Carol of the Bells and put in some physical expression rather than rigid folder-holding. Likewise, when Dan again proved his superfluity (but obviously only a tiny bit) in Remember, O Thou Man, there was an excellent moment in which we all looked eagerly to each other for entries and tempo.

We had a really good rehearsal. Last week at Blean we were suffocated not only by the dry acoustic of the church, but by our own lack of confidence in attacking phrases and singing with a bit of gesture, but this time we went for it. Actually, the first half was [censored for readers of a gentle disposition]  – only when Paris Noble made a startlingly inspirational appeal for positivity did we all begin to sing like we wanted to be there. For these Christmas carols (Ding Dong springs to mind), we can afford to overdo it, and this is particularly true for the cathedral service, where consonants need to be spat to be heard at all as our voices will wash over the Nave.

If we look and sound like overenthusiastic idiots, then we’re probably doing the right thing. I look like I’m about to burst into tears when I’m singing high, but I think I can be proud to look this way when everyone else does. That said, the horseshoe shape might prove our undoing if everyone looks like me while singing. It might just set Matt Norman off mid-concert.