First Batch of Arrangements Approved
Preparations for the launch of ChoirCommunity are starting to ramp up.
This month, we got our first batch of approvals for licensed arrangements. Our licensing partners, Thirty-Two Music, have been working hard all year to obtain the publishing rights for our chosen launch list and their work is starting to bear fruit.
Here’s a selection of the approvals through so far:
Bridge Over Troubled Water – Simon and Garfunkel
Electricity – Elton John
Lean On Me – Bill Withers
Perfect – Fairground Attraction
Longest Time – Billy Joel
Dreamer – Supertramp
God Only Knows – Beach Boys
I Don’t Like Mondays – Boomtown Rats
Say What You Want – Texas
Ain’t No Sunshine – Bill Withers
Love Is The Drug – Roxy Music
S.O.S – Abba
Video Killed The Radio Star – The Buggles
By the time we launch on 1 January 2018, the list will be quite a lot longer. For now though, we’d love to know what you think. Would your choir enjoy singing these songs?
What else would you like on the list? (We can’t promise to deliver – the licensing process is a complex one and not always successful, but there’s no harm in asking.)
Please leave a comment below. We’d love to hear your thoughts.
My choir have requested ‘Sing sing sing’ which is devilishly hard, but as the title suggests, it’d be a great one to do! If there could be a simplified version that’d be super.
Thanks for your comment Clara. The first step is to see where the publishing rights are owned and how easy it would be to get approved. We will put this into the process and let you know. If it can be done, I’m sure one of our arrangers would be delighted to do it!
Are these arrangements satb or sab? If they were sab I would certainly like to use some of them. Are you planning on doing any classics?
Hi Ruth, the arrangements are going to be quite varied, although it’s fair to say that probably the majority are SATB at the moment. There are not many SAB as yet but if there’s a demand for that then we will certainly respond!
I would certainly appreciate SAB arrangements for my choir. We’re somewhat lacking in men so there’s no way I can divide into tenor and bass.
I agree SAB would be really useful for some less advanced choirs.
Great list of songs, but I must say that SATB versions usually set tenor line way too high for average male voices that aren’t bass. Hope that makes sense.
Hi James – very good comment.
My own community choirs have a mixed tenor group roughly even split between men and women. So I do have to be careful
not to go too high (or too low!) Generally I stay away from very high parts, although sometimes the song to genre demands it.
(African songs have higher tenor parts because they form the third harmony close up to the altos)
Would it be useful to show the range of each part for each song? this is possibly something we could provide to help
people know exactly what they are buying.
These look good to me and will certainly be ones I’d like to try with a small group. Will pass the word on to other choir leaders too.
Thankyou Jane – not many people know about us yet so we are hoping the word will spread!
please share on Facebook if you can
Hi Piers please may we have some SSA/SSAA as well?
Hi Philippa
We are launching with a few SSA arrangements – and this is something we want to expand depending on demand.
Every single arrangement needs a separate licensing agreement for score and mp3 tracks so its a long process but hopefully very worthwhile!
Are you able to arrange some Beatles songs with simple parts e.g. Blackbird and When I’m 64 ?
Hi Fiona – Beatles songs are of course very popular, but quite difficult to obtain permission for.
Here Comes The Sun has been approved as it’s a George Harrison number. Lennon McCartney songs
are proving harder to approve, but we do have a few pending. Keep an eye out for all our new releases
as they will keep coming through in the new year.
I have a Ladies Acapella group who sing in 3 parts. I would love some arrangements for them.
Hi Elaine,
as Piers says our launch material is predominantly SATB but we do plan to feature a large SSA section so will keep you posted.
Let us know what sort of music you like to sing.
Looking forward to seeing these arrangements. Great set of songs!