growing musicians
photo by Susie Shapiro
Maura Volante
The Alcorn Shanty Crew
A weekly singing jam, focusing on shanties and sea songs with Maura Volante
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Location: Alcorn Music Studios, 953 Gladstone Avenue, 613-729- 0693
Day & Time: Mondays, 7 to 8:30 pm
Dates: 6 sessions, Sept. 16 - Oct 28 (no class Oct 14 Thanksgiving)
Age: Open to everyone 18 and up.
Fee: $120 If this is an obstacle to your participation, please email Maura about a reduced fee.
To Register or for questions: Please email alcornmusic@gmail.com and provide your first and last name and phone number. Registration fee can be e-transferred to alcornmusic@gmail.com
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Maura led a couple of these series last fall, to great acclaim. After shifting to Canadian folk songs for the winter/spring sessions, the sirens are calling once more, and the shanty crew is sailing again!
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Sea shanties and nautical folk songs are fun and easy for everyone to sing. They are particularly great for group singing. There is something exhilarating about bellowing a loud chorus with a bunch of other folks. It can make you feel truly alive.
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The Alcorn Shanty Crew is a weekly session at the awesome Alcorn Music Studios. Folks are invited to sing along on choruses that are taught orally. Maura is the main shanty leader, but everyone has opportunities to lead songs, teach them to others and add harmonies.
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Attending every week, you inevitably gain confidence and musical skills, including listening, pitch control, breathing, blending and projection. You also learn how to follow by ear and memorize songs. It is a singing course with a difference: you are learning how to sing folk songs. We don’t use musical notation. Shanties are easy to learn, as they are repetitive, rhyming and simple to understand.
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Links to lyrics and recordings are provided to help you learn the songs at your leisure, and you are welcome to use recording devices at any time during the sessions to help you learn on your own.
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Shanties are best sung with a raw, rough sound, so we don’t aim for perfection. The Alcorn Shanty Crew is not a choir, but rather a bunch of people enjoying singing together, with songs that have been sung for centuries.
Open to everyone 18 and up.​​
Feel free to contact Maura for more information: Maura Volante