Eight weeks to show time. John said it all in his email to ya'all last week, you've got to learn your music at home. Practice is for learning the interpretation and choreography. PLEASE, take this to heart and work on it at home with the learning CD and sheet music.
Thanks to all who participated one way or another in our Singing Valentines. It was a big effort and a successful one and it would have been impossible without the guys that were driving the quartets and taking the pictures, and those that got the roses and cards ready, and those that took all the phone orders and co-ordinated the quartets as we moved around town. Great teamwork!!! As usual, the recipients were pleasantly surprised and pleased, and each quartet can take pride in a job well done.
This falls into the category: Did You Know?
The reason congressmen work so hard to get re-elected is that they would hate to have to make a living under the laws they've passed. Makes sense to me.
At the February Board of Directors meeting, Singing Valentines preparations were discussed and assignments made to make sure all is in place. Ads are soon to appear, the flowers are ordered, fliers are printed and there are potentially three quartets available to perform. Del Beck expressed the importance of presentation and sound quality to our customers. Much of the February 8 meeting will center on fine tuning for the big day.
In other business, the Board will pursue obtaining property insurance to cover our recent purchases of sound and camera equipment and our trailer and contents.
Some of our newer members have stepped up and volunteered for Chorus taskings; Argyle Ullestad will absorb some of the Librarian duties, Peter Stach is the new Chorus Manager, and Greg Iverson will handle many of the preparations for Harmony Happening. Thanks to each of these gentlemen for accepting these important tasks. If any other Chorus members wish to assist, I'm sure each of them will welcome your involvement.
The Music Team plans to add a Youth in Harmony Day to Harmony Happenings on Friday, August 17. Pete Anderson will contact Rick Spencer to ask if he can arrive a day earlier to provide clinician support. Many of us will be tasked for this great new endeavor.
In the near future, written procedures will be established for processing requests for Chorus performances, a historical compilation of community service will be completed and your Board will create a definitive new mission statement.
We've had some wonderful new members join us, and please keep asking and bringing your friends to join us. I often wonder if it's legal to have this much fun and satisfaction with such a great group of gentlemen!!
The next meeting will be March 6 at the Coldwell Bankers Training Room, at 7 pm. And remember, you are always invited to join us.
SINGING VALENTINES: What a great day! Being privileged to deliver so many wonderful surprises made for, as Wayne Anderson put it, "probably the most fun and rewarding day we have". In addition to my beloved 7-year old granddaughter Mercedes, I sang to an elderly Mom, many totally surprised spouses, and a lovely young lady named Rose. Of course we sang a second song, My Wild Irish Rose, which opened tear-gate anew. Each and every visit was incredibly rewarding. We soon found ourselves ever more comfortable with the Love Me Tender arrangement and presented it at least 8 times.
I should also mention the valentine Johnny Sundby sent to his lady: she works at a dentist's offce, and she and her boss had a patient IN THE CHAIR, and we were ushered back to the treatment area. The dentist had to let the lady up out of the chair and stop what he was doing while we sang!! That was pretty bizarre!!
My personal thanks to Pete, Wayne and Al of Black Hills Blend for allowing me the privilege of singing with them for the day.
We've just finished a successful day of Singing Valentines. According to our treasurer, Jim Gogolin, we completed delivering sixty-one personal valentines. This was done by three quartets, with some filling in of parts when someone needed to be at work, etc. Start planning now for next year and get in a quartet so you, too, can experience the joy of making someone else cry tears of joy!
It's time now to focus our full effort on our Annual Show at Dakota Middle School. Ad sales will be starting soon as we approach our final months of preparation for the show. Hopefully, ticket sales will pick up as folks start looking at their calendars and realizing it's getting close. Don't miss an opportunity to tell someone what a great show they'll miss if they don't get their tickets. Word of mouth is always the best way to spread the news and encourage participation. Think of three people you could contact, and ask them if they have their tickets yet. If not, take an order or sell them the tickets. You can make a difference for your chapter. Not everyone can sell 40 tickets like some of our members do, but we can all sell some. Now is not the time to let down.
Some of our new members have asked what off the spots means. I also think that some of us who have been around the block a few times need to be reminded of this, too. Off the spots means no music - do it from memory. In more practical terms, if we are off the spots, every time we sing that song on the risers there should be no music being used by anyone up there. It is really hard to learn choreography, watch the director, and stay out of the way of others when we are staring at the notes on the page. That's why we need to learn our music and practice during the week - so that we can rehearse on Thursday.
Right now, we should all be off the spots on Ain't Misbehavin'; On A Wonderful Day Like Today; Do You Hear The People Sing?; You're A Grand Old Flag; Give My Regards To Broadway. Then by the end of March everything for the show will be off the spots. See you all at our weekly meetings and rehearsals.
A woman of my acquaintance ordered a valentine for her dog to give to her. In addition, it was her dog Bogie's birthday. So she was having a doggie birthday party. We didn't know what to expect but we planned for about anything.
When we got there, there were about a dozen dogs on her lanai (that's porch for you northerners) along with their owners. The dogs ranged from a yorkie size to a borzoi (Russian wolfhound). So we sang "If you were the only girl in the world and I were the only DOG." It got a great laugh from the owners. The canines didn't think it was so funny.
One dog took great exception to us and kept barking though our first song. His owner had to remove him for a time. They had bowls of doggie treats for the participants. It was a great time. Yeah. Ain't Valentine's Day great?
Does our community know about the Shrine of Democracy Chorus? Why haven't we filled the Dakota Middle School Auditorium seats to capacity for our annual shows? The following two paragraphs were taken from the Society publication PROBEmoter, Public Relations Officers and Bulletin Editors. Let's see if we can identify a greater share of our public and reach them with the kind of message which will result in ticket sales for our show.
Public relations professionals will tell you that there is a difference between an audience and a public. The difference is that from a public relations perspective, the term audience suggests a group of people who are the recipient of something such as a performance. For the most part audiences are passive. A public, on the other hand, is a group of people who have (or may have) an interest in your organization. Publics are active, and their perceptions may have consequences for an organization.
Your job is to identify the publics of your chapter. How do you do this? First, think of the groups of people your chapter has a relationship with - the media, funders, chapter members, the families of members, past audience members, etc. These groups would be your primary publics. Next, consider groups of people you would like to reach out to such as college students, fathers of teenagers, etc. These groups would be your secondary public. Remember, it is important to identify your publics so that you can tailor your message to each specific public.
In this issue you will find three seperate articles from members of Wild Blue Yonder (also know as the Metronomes). These are recollections from four men who found a lasting friendship through the barbershop music they sang together. It culminated many years later in competing in the Buffalo Bills contest at the BHS Mid-Winter Convention in Albuquerque, NM.
Each time I think about our quartet, I feel lucky and thankful. When I arrived at Rapid City Air Force Base - early in 1951, there were close to 5000 of us stationed there, but somehow, someway, four guys from four different states got together to sing barbershop harmony.
The good memories are many and here's one from some of our early days (nights). Uncle Sam's Air Force was not known for paying high wages, and paydays were a month apart. Needless to say, that night before payday, funds were pretty short. So, the four of us would scrape together enough for a "round" at one of Rapid's better watering holes. As we nursed our purchase, we managed a song or two, and guess what....the generous civilians were sending over more beer! It never failed.
I am forever grateful for my three great friends I sang with then--and sing with now from time to time--though our homes are many miles apart. I'm grateful, too, for the fine folks of Rapid City who were our loyal supporters and for those early barbershoppers who paved the way.
I arrived at Rapid City Air Force Base in March of 1951 and would occasionally sing with other guys who were entertaining or just having impromptu singing at the Airman's and the NCO clubs. As I recall, I met Wyman Schmidt at one of those events and we picked up a couple of other guys to do some woodshed harmony. The woodsheding took on a better sound when we found Don Richmond and John Jook. John happened to have some music for 4 part men's voices, and that made the sound improve again. In 1952 the "Four Teens" had won the barbershop championship and they sang at the air base for an air force show. We met them and took them to one of Rapid City's night clubs where we sang together till the wee hours of the morning.
When we were all discharged from the Air Force, we had not been together as a quartet for like 40 years. Then in 1994 we all came to the 28th bomb wing association re-union and still remembered the notes and words to one of the songs we used to sing. It was great. We enjoyed it so much that we did it again in 1996. Then in 2006 the four of us took part in the "Harmony Happening in the Hills" and sang with the mass chorus at Mount Rushmore under the direction of Jim Debusman. We also sang as a quartet that night. What a thrill. That experience made us want to sing in the Buffalo Bills contest at the Mid-Winter Convention in Albuquerque in Jan., 2007. We didn't win that contest, but we did have a great time.
What a great feeling it is to be involved with this hobby called barbershop harmony and be able to still ring an occasional chord together. However, this hobby has another fringe benefit that is called true friendship and that gives our hobby double pleasure.
The Cold War spawned in the late forties and heating up in the early fifties with the Korean War came about because of the ideological differences of two former WW II allies - America and Russia. And four young (good looking too) guys from colleges and farms in the Midwest were asked to take on roles in the Air Force that related primarily to the Cold War. Assigned to Rapid City Air Force Base (later renamed Ellsworth AFB in honor of our general who was killed in a B-36 crash in Newfoundland), these four guys became part of the 28th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing whose mission was primarily learning more about the Soviet Union targets in case the Cold War escalated into a hot war. Overall, keeping the Peace was the major objective by following Teddy Roosevelt's philosophy of "Walk Softly but Carry a Big Stick" and "Know Your Enemy".
It started in 1950 and was the impetus that brought these four guys together at RCAFB, but the mission of our Wing was not Korea, rather the overall Cold War between the two super powers. These four guys were part of the effort aimed at ferreting out the best information we could about the Soviet Union war machine. Thus, the 28th Reconnaissance Wing of B-36s was equipped to photographically and electronically determine the most significant targets in the Soviet Union.
Like any big organization, all types of support disciplines were needed for what was essentially a large intelligence operation, including administrative, personnel, and technical skills. We were those skills---we were Al Pitts, Don Richmond, John Cook, Wyman Schmidt.
In what became somewhat routine Air Force operations, these four guys used their free time to pursue what they liked best - music and ladies. They knew more about music so they capitalized on their backgrounds in vocal music they had experienced in their civilian homes, schools, churches, communities, and colleges. All had sung in quartets, choruses and choirs from childhood.
So, the stage was set and the Service Clubs at the air base served as a focal point to sing with others. Interestingly, the tallest guy and the shortest guy soon found they liked singing together, followed shortly thereafter by two other guys who shared similar interests and abilities. Their Midwestern roots in Michigan, Indiana, Missouri and Iowa likely contributed to their compatibility not only in music but in personalities.
These carryovers of the Greatest Generation first assembled in 1952 and a barbershop quartet rapidly developed. They found many supporters in both the military and the civilian population and were soon faced with many requests for performances at large and small gatherings, including everything from ladies aid groups to Tops in Blue. Included were performances with people such as Margaret Whiting, Joe "Fingers" Carr, the Four Teens (SPEBSQSA winners), the Chordettes, and others.
Eventually, this led to competing in the world-wide armed services talent contest and resulted in the Metronome quartet singing in the final competition in Washington, DC in 1954 held in conjunction with the 1954 national finals of the Barbershop Society of SPEBSQSA. Unfortunately, the discharge of Al Pitts shortly before the finals left the quartet searching for a last-minute bass. Even though we came in as medalists in the final competition we felt we could have won it all if we had our original bass Al Pitts.
Before we left DC, we were invited to attend a day at the Army-McCarthey hearings under the wing of Senator Mundt who was chairing the hearings. Those hearings are now illustrated in the movie "Goodnight and Good Luck" which depicts Edward R. Murrow's description of the hearings and including some footage of that 1954 event.
Shortly thereafter, 1954 saw each of us with duties in Greenland, Guam etc. before completing our Air Force commitments and returning to colleges, work and families. This coincided with marriages, families, and eventually 14 children to carry on the music traditions. Three of the four marriages have since resulted in 50-year anniversaries.
Move the tape forward 40 years and you find these same four guys reunited at the Air Force 28th Bomb Wing reunion, busting the chords again and thereafter at about 2-year intervals to the present time, culminating in the Metronome performance at Mount Rushmore in 2006 and at the Barbershop Harmony Society's Midwinter convention in Albuquerque in 2007.
These four guys not only helped keep the peace during the Cold War, they also set the stage for their lives and the bonds of friendship between people that love both harmony and camaraderie. May those bonds live on.
Here are some important things we would like you to discover concerning singing your best. Singing correctly and your very best are the most important things you can do to become the best possible performer. The information below should help you better understand the important fundamentals needed to improve your own voice.
Combine the rib and diaphragmatic breathing when singing. Remember . . . breathing for singing and breathing for living is quite different.