By now the Rolaids have taken care of the after effects of that wonderful Thanksgiving dinner and a good portion of it has settled in various locations of your body, many of which were already well rounded. We all know those areas in a singer are expansions of our lungs which enable us to hold a "post" for long periods of time and sing long phrases without needing a breath. That's my story and I'm sticking with it.
Now that 2007 is coming to a close, so is my third term as your president. I hope I have done a good job in your eyes for I have certainly tried to set things in motion that would improve our performances and enhance your pride in being a member. My only regret is that we didn't grow to the point of having at least 50 members on stage during my presidency. I hope that will happen soon.
I know without a doubt that we have the potential to be one of the top three or four choruses in our district. Unfortunately, it seems many of you are unwilling to make the effort that would let us realize that stature. Things like getting to section practices only once a month, ON TIME. Getting to practice ON TIME. Learning your music at home so we can fine tune it at practice and not waste time going over the same things week after week. Working on our current performance music on your own so we can confidently do a performance at any time. Paying attention to whoever is directing and listening to what he is trying to tell you instead of talking to your neighbor, regardless of how important you think your message to your neighbor is. These things should be common sense to any adult in a hobby such as ours. If you do nothing else in our hobby in the coming year, PLEASE, make these things a priority in your weekly schedule.
It appears that January 19 will be the best day for our Installation Banquet. We are getting bids from a few places around town and will let you know ASAP. Please keep that evening open for it.
At your Board's November 6th meeting, President Pete Anderson called the session to order at 7:38 pm. A quorum of the elected members was present, including our newly elected member-at-large Jim Olson.
The minutes of the October meeting were approved as presented. Treasurer Jim Gogolin's report, showing we still have funds to operate, was accepted.
The advance session at The Anchorage B&B will begin promptly at 9 AM. Music VP John Elving says we will work on the new Christmas songs, brush the dust off some of the show music package, and have a well-focused good time. The potluck dinner, for which Lin Gogolin is preparing a turkey, will begin at about 5:30, and spouses and family are welcome.
A membership assistance committee, consisting of VP's of Music, Public Relations, Membership and President-elect Wayne Anderson, will develop a policy by which the Chorus may help the membership continue to pay their dues in cases where a lump sum payment would constitute a financial hardship.
Music VP John Elving noted the music for the Chorus to perform in the 2008 show will be selected from It Had To Be You, Bye Bye, Love, In The Still of The Night, Anything Goes, Night and Day, and Georgia On My Mind.
The annual Harmony Education Program is scheduled for February 8-10 in Estes Park, CO. This is one of the best clinics the Rocky Mountain District offers. The Board, on a motion from Del Beck and seconded by Wayne Anderson, approved the expenditure of up to $2500 to assist in tuition and lodging for members to attend. Transportation costs will be borne by the members. Registrations must be completed and presented to Treasurer Gogolin by the November 29 rehearsal.
Next year's Harmony Happenings in the Hills promises to be the best ever, with the Beatrice, NE chapter planning on being here. For many years, the Chapter has subsidized the full cost for our chorus members. This expense has resulted in the event losing money for the chapter each year. Beginning with next August's event, chapter members will be asked to contribute a nominal registration fee, which has yet to be determined, to enable us to at least break even.
The Installation and Awards Banquet for the new officers and Chorus members will be either January 12, after our advance session with Darin Drown, or January 19. The location and menu are yet to be determined.
The next Board of Directors meeting will be at 7:30 pm, December 4, at the offices of Agents of Insurance. All members of the Chorus are welcome to attend.
Here are three more of Director Clayton Southwick's three rules for singing. This time it is three rules for good vowel production while singing.
Use these rules all the time and we will naturally sound the same, or nearly the same due to matched vowels. Sounds so simple, doesn't it. All we need to do is remember all the time!
Just what is it that we as a singing organization do to convey a song to the audience? Many times I have heard that we are not actors or dancers - we just sing.
While we may not consider ourselves as either actors or dancers, there is something that borders on those two that we need to do to convey the message. Believe it or not, we are storytellers.
Every song ever sung tells a story. It is up to us to tell the story in such a way that the audience "gets it". We must convey that story so that our listeners, and even we as singers, know the full story. That means understanding from the beginning what the song is conveying.
I am reminded of a man I sang with in a quartet. When asked what the story of a particular song meant, he had a rather unique answer. The song was written by a man who had just lost his wife. This woman was the love of his life.
The song talks about how she was a beautiful rose, and one who brought beautiful color to all the roses. Now that she was gone, all the roses had lost their beauty for him.
The story this man came up with was this: "The roses are dead and so are you". You can see he didn't understand the story and so couldn't convey the sorrow and pain of the writer.
Do we convey the story any better to our audiences? I realize we aren't doing this particular song, but each song has a wonderful story to be told. Do we make the song meaningful for the listener? Or do we just sing the notes and words, trying to line things up?
I know that you are asked to sell the song facially, and in some cases add body movement to further enhance the message. That is not acting or dancing. That is simply being a good storyteller as we need to be. After all, that is what we do when we converse with someone. We are animated in our "story telling".
I would suggest that we each look at all our music, song by song, and find the story we can convey. It's there in plain black and white.
Write the words out on a separate sheet of paper. Read them aloud. Read them again, this time thinking of them as a story. Read that story so that anyone can understand what it is all about.
Now sing it that way every time you sing the song, but within the confines of the musical interpretation. Make it your story to tell.
If we all did that we would jump way ahead in becoming the chorus we can, and should be. We each need to own the song for our chorus to own the song. It's your song, not the director's, or music team's, or section leader's song. It is your's and your's alone to tell.
Shelley Herman is a barbershopper with somewhere around 50 years of membership in the society. He is also a recording engineer in Hollywood, CA. As such he has had the privilege of working with, and recording, many of the greats in the music world. Read the article and then think about the implications as to our chorus. Ed.
"When a chorus spends the time, money and effort to put on a top-notch performance, whether it's contest or not, the attention to the details are what makes the difference between a good performance and a great performance.
"This is true in almost anything. I've been fortunate, in my life, to work with some of the top name performers. The one thing they have in common is they are perfectionists, they sweat the details. Everything they do is planned and rehearsed, no detail is too small for them to consider. That's how they get the performances that bring the audiences to their feet.
"The same is true in barbershopping. Those gold medals aren't won by accident, they sweat the details. Ask the man or woman who owns one."
We have just celebrated Thanksgiving, a family holiday on which we can look back and appreciate some of the good things that have come our way. Barbershoppers are family. We have cause to be thankful for the many blessings of the good year we have just experienced.
Now it is on to the end of '07 and the coming of '08. Before we consider the New Year, however, we can look forward to two great publicity-gaining events - the Newcastle Show and Christmas caroling.
Caroling is an exceptionally gratifying event as we reach out to folks who may be confined to nursing homes or are limited in their ability to get around, and really appreciate our visit. An out-of-town show is a great opportunity.
And then it's time to get to work on '08. We have an annual show coming up with plenty of new music to prepare. It's time to start thinking of expanding our individual concept of public relations and marketing. It's time for more action aimed toward improvement of performance, promotions of our show as well as activities directed toward the growth of our chapter.
As individual members, every member should have at least one specific responsibility. What might yours be? Some members already have not just one but many responsibilities. They may be happy to share some of those.
Listed below are some major points for members to ponder as they relate directly to public relations and marketing.
Performance
Every member must accept personal responsibility for making good performance happen. Listed here are some issues needing attention:
Promotion, Publicity, Advertising - They are different.
In order to expand our thinking and efforts in PR and Marketing, let us consider the following ideas:
Merry Caroling and a great '08.
I saw this quote today in one of the articles about Robert Goulet's death. I thought it seemed especially appropriate to our musical style.
"When I'm using a microphone or doing recordings I try to concentrate on the emotional content of the song and to forget about the voice itself," he told The New York Times in 1962.
"Sometimes I think that if you sing with a big voice, the people in the audience don't listen to the words, as they should," he told the newspaper. "They just listen to the sound."
Sometimes I think some of our (singers) have the John Daly philosophy of barbershop, "Grip it and Rip it", when sometimes it takes a soft touch to tell the story and convey the true meaning of the song.
ENTHUSIASM IS CONTAGIOUS!!!!!
contents copyright of the author and © 9/5/2007 Barbershop Harmony Society
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In the first two articles of this series, we dealt with warming up the vocal mechanism and breathing efficiently as we sing. This part will deal with singing efficiently
Before you ask the question, yes, technic is a word. It is just as valid as technique. In music education circles, mostly eccentric European, technic is used as a catchall word for the study of voice placement and tone production.
Sergius Kagen, a veritable institution at the Julliard School of Music, once stated that the aim of vocal technic is "to enable the singer to produce, at will and with reasonable ease, sounds of specified pitch, duration, quality, volume, color, etc." (Yes, he called it technic, too). Given this definition, we can see that the study of technic is of primary importance to all singers, no matter what genre is being sung. The reason is that, whether opera or barbershop, the techniques for developing an efficient voice are fundamentally the same. An efficient voice can either pierce through a 75-piece orchestra or blend with l00 voices in whisper-quiet tones.
Tonal efficiency
The quest for a beautiful voice has been the subject of many a treatise and lively discussion. Any time you deal with a subjective term such as beauty, opinions can vary widely. Efficiency, however, is another matter. Efficiency in vocal production causes relaxation in tonal production which, in turn, produces a natural sound.
Consistency leads to efficient singing. This means that every time a given pitch is sung at a given volume, it should be sung the same way every time. When we speak, we don't think of a meaning and then find a word sound for it. Rather, we have a merged image in our minds of a meaning and a word sound. There should be no distinction between the meaning and the sound. Therefore, the goal of the singer should be to achieve a consolidation of lyrics and music when learning a song. One should approach the process of learning a song like learning a new language.
Emotions and sounds
In the case of a spoken language, the effort is much less, of course. First, you have been speaking for a long time, and you do it every day. It has become second nature. Also, you use emotional nuances (inflections) as added effects, and they are not always the same each time. For example, you could say the word "love" forty times, and each time the inflection imparted by the emotions would vary depending on the circumstances. In essence, you have a file in your brain of words/sounds and a separate one for emotions/inflections. These are combined as the need dictates.
You don't have that privilege when singing a song. Sure you can mix and match these files, but you should be aware of maintaining pitch, forming vowels, and controlling volumes. Beyond this, you have little control over the timing of these items because it is usually better to sing the same thing at the same time as everyone else around you. Right!
An important milestone
Success in your vocal development will come when you consistently imagine sounds at will.
Truly polished singers imagine these characteristics and, moreover, they have the ability to add the full complexity of the sound: color, timber, quality, intensity and resonance.
When the average barbershopper is confronted with this mind-numbing array of things to do at once, his usual reaction is to learn the words and music, and leave the rest to chance. As you have probably guessed, that is not enough.
A work of art
A song is a piece of art composed with the intention that it be performed. As a whole work, a song, if properly composed, is an embodiment of a complete idea. Therefore, it is the duty of the interpreter to adhere as closely as possible to the composer's concept. The singer's flexibility with the piece is therefore restricted. Large egos notwithstanding, singers are tools of the composer and are what bring about fruition of the piece. Granted, the performer can take liberties, but the composer pretty much "calls the shots."
The key to efficient singing
Learn the "language" of the song and imprint it in your mind so you can sing it the same way every time. In the case of a chorus member, chances are the director will go through these steps and give you the overall "feel" for the song through directions and instructions. In any case, try the following steps yourself, and it will probably be easier for you to interpret the song as you are directed.
Songs take on a character of their own as you delve deeper into their inner workings. If you take the time to learn the language of music and practice consistently, it will make for a more efficient voice.
Form a mental image
Notice there has been no mention of the mechanical aspects of singing. This is because, as mentioned in a previous article, the emphasis should be on proper breathing. To emphasize mechanical approaches to singing tends to produce singers that are more conscious of their muscular activities than the mental sound image. If you spend more time thinking about where your tongue should be, this detracts from the mental picture you should be having. The good thing about having a proper, precise and consistent mental image is that the body will put the tongue where it needs to be without you consciously telling it where to go. The same thing is true for the rest of your body parts. Concentrate on the mind and the body will follow. People have become scratch golfers by playing golf in their heads as much as on the course. Singing is no different.
Be confident
You have to be confident in yourself-and relaxed and comfortable with your technique-to imagine yourself "naked" on stage. That's a lot to ask for, but if you think about it, aren't you "laying yourself bare" every time you sing? If you aren't, you're not giving your all, and it will show.
No, this is not intended to be an article for True Confessions; it is simply a statement of fact. In preparation for singing with the chorus during the recent contest competition in Kansas City, for the first time since I joined the chorus 18 years ago, I felt that I had learned the songs. Finally, I know what it feels like to be able to focus on something other than words and notes.
I commend Director Ken Lang and the Music Committee for the steps that they instituted to assist each of us in learning the songs.
First, I found the extra time on the risers to be beneficial. As we have been told so often, everything starts to come together rapidly when you don't have to hold a piece of music in your hand. Even though I know standing is wearisome for many of us, there is no doubt in my mind that I learned the songs faster because I knew I had to sing them from the risers.
Second, although I dreaded the thought of having to submit a tape of my singing for evaluation, I recommend that we continue this practice. I also hope that we can take time to produce videos of some of our practices and/or performances and show selected portions of them during chapter meetings. I feel certain that many of us would be surprised to learn that our appearance during a performance is much different then we envision it to be.
I surely hope that the momentum achieved during the preparation for the CSD contest will continue as we prepare for future performances. Singing when one knows the songs is just pure fun!
Is this something we could learn from? Hmmm. . . I wonder. What a concept! Ed.
In the '60s, the Ambassadors of Harmony ('05 Gold and current Silver Medalists) put around 26 men on the risers, and regularly finished in last place in the district contests. However, in the last 20 years they have built the chapter up to a very large chorus and into a winner. In his Master Class at Salt Lake City, director Jim Henry said that the road to success was built around the following 12 points:
I'm not suggesting that we must adopt these rules to grow. Merely stating what was told in the class. The Ambassadors experience mirrors ours. In the '60s we had a very large chorus and routinely won contests. In the last 20 years we have been regressing and now feel great if we have 26 men on the risers. It might be wise to look closely at those 12 key points. We are now slowly growing, and acquiring more knowledgeable members. Perhaps we can incorporate more of those points and begin to grow.
Do you have a job in this chapter? I mean, do you have a job other than singing in the chorus?
We now have the Board of Directors elected for the 2008 year. I guess that means there aren't any more jobs for me to help out with, or get "elected" to. How wrong you are, Willy Warbler!
The biggest share of the jobs that need to be continually filled are not the ones that are elected positions. They are jobs that you, Joe Barbershopper, can, and should, do.
I have been impressed in the last year how so many of our new members have stepped up to the plate and taken on positions to help the chapter run smoothly. We have even had some of our guests come help out with things that our members don't want to do.
Do you have some time to give to the chapter? It doesn't have to be a great amount of time. As a matter of fact, some of the things that would help others out take only a few short minutes.
Do you have a little free time to call the guys in your section who are missing to see if there is something they need help with that we as a chapter can do? Can you come a few minutes early to chapter meeting and make sure that the room is set up, including the risers? Or maybe you would rather take a few minutes after chapter meeting to make sure the room is back in order for school classes the next day.
Perhaps the biggest "job" that needs to be done, and one which takes the most time, is being a buddy to the new guys. When a guest comes the first time, we should be assigning him to someone within the chorus to make sure he has music for the evening, a copy of the SOD Notes, knows where the rest room is - everything that can make him feel comfortably welcome.
Then when, not if, that man joins the chapter, be a buddy to see him through the first year of his membership. Make sure he knows what he needs to do to get uniforms, what he needs to know to make it through the first show. When we go to competition, make sure he knows what it's all about and what the weekend will involve. Set his mind at ease and help him become a productive member.
Involve him in the chores that you help with in the chapter. Then, he too, will help lighten the load for everyone.
One hallmark of a highly successful chapter is that every member has a job to do to make the chapter operate. He is not just a member of the chorus, but he is a valuable member of the chapter. With everyone's help we can be a highly successful chapter. Look around and see what needs to be done, then do it.
Sing-cerely & Humm-bly,
Sometimes members of a chorus are disappointed that, during a rehearsal, they don't often get to sing a song all the way through without stopping. Actually, this is something that is largely under the control of the singers themselves.
When a chorus director hears something that is not right, he or she has two choices:
Since the second choice would set the error more firmly in place, the director of a chorus that is really interested in improving will probably select the first choice.
One thing that every chorus member can do to help ensure that a song will not be interrupted during rehearsal is to strive to sing it so well that the director has no reason to stop it. While this writer certainly does not always succeed in meeting this challenge, he believes that it is a worthy goal.
Originally from Scoops & Swipes,
St. Petersburg, FL Chapter bulletin,
Clare F. McCreary, Editor.
Thanks to all for the overwhelming support for me in my race for president of the chapter. The landslide victory was truly heartwarming. Oh, wait a minute - I ran unopposed. Well, thanks for accepting Jim's recommendation then. I'm kind of new at this, so please be patient with me as we work our way through the upcoming year.
My plan for the chapter is basically twofold. I want to increase the quality of our performances, and I want to increase our membership numbers. Not exactly reinventing the wheel, but, with your help, I know we can achieve both goals.
I have always been involved in sports in one way or another, so some of my ideas will be sports related. For example, our performances can be compared to almost any team sport. It takes individual effort to do well, but we also need to remember we are a team. We have a coach who teaches us the plays, but we need to study the play book on our own before we take the field, or we won't do well when it comes to game time.
The leads are the quarterback - they need to be the ones who run the show. The basses are the linemen - without them, we can't make any headway. The baritones are the guys in motion who fill in the holes where they're needed. The tenors are the ones who kick the fifty yard field goals and save the game.
Playing the game is a lot of fun, but winning makes it even more fun. By the same token, singing barbershop is a lot of fun, but performing to the best of our ability makes it even more fun.
If we perform at a high level every time we appear in front of an audience, and if we let people know we have a good product, we will have more people who want to sing and perform with us, and we'll have more fun than ever.
Here we go!
From bad dates, to people who chew gum too loudly, to global warming, no complaint is too ridiculous - or too sublime - for the international complaints-choir movement.
Now, it's reached the United States, thanks to a couple from Finland out to combat the persistent American belief that it's best to think positively and keep complaints to yourself.
"That's insane," Oliver Kochta-Kalleinen, 35, said after the Complaints Choir of Chicago debuted in a sold-out auditorium at the Museum of Contemporary Art. "We say you should sing (complaints) out... acknowledge things aren't as they should be. It's therapeutic."
Kochta-Kalleinen and Tellervo Kalleinen, both of whom are artists, hit on their idea three years ago while pondering the Finish word "valituskuoro," which translates into "complaints choir" and refers to people complaining in packs.
The Kalleinens have started choirs from Australia to Israel devoted to the notion that it's healthier to belt gripes out, and, better yet, in four-part harmony.
The couple organized the first successful Complaints Choir in Birmingham, England, where a makeshift choir of college students sang in public squares and bars about pricey beer.
It was meant to be a one-off experiment, but clips of the Birmingham choir got onto YouTube, and they were inundated with emails.
That led to choirs in Helsinki, where singers bemoaned boring dreams, and one in Budapest, Hungary, which ranted about a neighbor holding folk-dance practice in an upstairs apartment.
After starting more than 20 such choirs elsewhere, the Helsinki couple say they traveled here to end "the tyranny of the positive attitude in America."
Participants aren't required to have a musical background, but they must offer at least one complaint for possible inclusion in the libretto.
Amy Levin's gripe made the cut. It was, "My ex-husband still lives in Chicago."
"When everyone's singing your complaint, it's very cathartic," the 38-year-old Chicagoan said after Saturday's performance. "It's as if you have a lot of support for your complaint."
Now all they need is a catchy moniker, something like SPEFPCSW (Society for the Preservation and Encouragement of Four-Part Complaint Singing in the World). We could call it CHS for short (Complaint Harmony Society).
This is a reprint from the April, 2006 issue of the Voice of Rushmore. It is well worth revisiting for our own re-assessment. Ed.
What can we do to improve our chorus? Am I a Competitor, Leader, Hobbyist, Affiliator or a Tag-a-long? "Where do I fit in my chapter"?
Every chapter's membership roster consists of individuals who fit into one or more of the above categories. Improve chapter membership, improve chapter quality and attract singers, not just numbers. This is not one of those panic, browbeating articles but it is an article of enlightenment.
Last fall at the SLD COTS school, there was a talk on the membership structure of our chapters. This talk brought out the fact that each chapter has members that fall into 5 categories;
What is your Chapter attitude and where do you fit in? Take a long look at your Chapter; see if you can recognize any of the above member types. Now ask yourself, "Where do I fit in?" Is there room for improvement?
A chapter full of competitors is a chapter that wants to go to a national convention. And why not! In our lifetime, how many opportunities do we get to do something that really makes a difference? Think how exciting it would be to travel to a national convention and compete on stage with the best in the world. Wow! Win or loose, it's the experience that counts.
The non-competitors in our Chapters need to analyze themselves and ask the question; "Why do I belong to my chorus?" Our common denominators are that we all love to sing and entertain or we would not be here in the first place. Would our audiences rather hear the blah "Blahville Harmonizers" from Blahville, USA or the exciting Vocal Majority chorus?
The Youth of the world are our future! Our youth today, want to win! They are growing up with competition. A chorus cannot attract a youthful singer if they have the "Blahville attitude". Our choruses must meet the new millennium with a year 2000 attitude. Yes you can teach an old dog new tricks. If we want to attract youth of the 21st century, we must become a chorus, a District and a Barbershop Society of the 21st century. Let's all sing with excitement, enthusiasm, focus, and then we will all have more fun. I for one have changed my mind about my attitude. I have decided to move up to the competitor level. It seems to me, that if viewing a rainbow is exciting, imagine what it must be to find the gold.
The Mt. Rushmore Chapter and the Shrine of Democracy Chorus shall promote, encourage and perpetuate barbershop-style singing in both chorus and quartets. We will recruit and welcome interested and motivated men who like to sing four-part a cappella harmony. We shall continually strive to improve our singing and performance skills, through the use of proper resources and opportunities. An attitude of fun, fellowship and teamwork will always guide our activities.