LEARNING MATERIALS
We pride ourselves on providing world-class learning materials. Our philosophy is to support everyone to achieve their highest aims, so our learning materials need to be the best in the business. We consistently receive high praise from our members for the quality of what we produce.
Arrangements
All of the vocal arrangements that we sing are written by our musical director, Timothy Allen. He is a prolific and highly-regarded arranger, with his music being performed by thousands of singers across the world.
Tim's arrangements are one of the things that give New Horizon Choir our unique sound. They are crafted to be very "singable", whilst also having a big impact. Every voice part gets a moment in the spotlight - every singer in the choir should have their chance to shine.
Sheet music
In addition to being New Horizon Choir's musical director, Tim also works as a musical typesetter, and as a proof-reader for a major online music repository. His scores are clear, precise, and created with non-professional musicians in mind. Little things can make a big difference, so our sheet music:
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Is always available from the first session of a season
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Doesn't use complex repeat structures
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Has bar numbers at every bar, to make finding your place in sessions easier
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Uses English text for musical instructions where possible
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Has the songs in the order we'll perform them
Learning tracks
Members of New Horizon Choir will listen to their learning tracks a lot over the course of a season, so we believe they should not just be accurate, but also a pleasure to listen to. This is why we work with some of the best session singers in the UK to create our tracks. Your individual vocal line is clearly audible, with the other vocal parts mixed in very quietly, so you can get cues from them.
When the need arises, we also provide additional learning material, such as spoken pronunciation guides for foreign lyrics, slowed-down versions of fast-moving passages etc.
You can hear a few examples of our learning tracks below.
Backing tracks
We perform to custom-made backing tracks, which we record ourselves using state-of-the-art music production software. These include what are known as "virtual instruments" - software that uses recordings of real players playing every note on their instrument. This means that if you hear a flute on our backing tracks, for example, it's the principal flautist from the BBC Symphony Orchestra.
We use backing tracks because a) they are consistent every time - no sudden surprises when a band is introduced on concert day, and b) their volume can be controlled, allowing the choir to always be clearly heard.