Shrine of Democracy Chorus
Rapid City, SD
By the time you read this we should be talking about the successful Oktoberfest we just had. Thanks to all who pitched in with decorations and helped get the hall set up and ready (and then took it all down again afterwards).
Coming right up is the singout at the Mormon church on Canyon Lake Drive. Please be at practice Nov. 2nd to prepare.
Annnnnd theennn...it's time to get out the Christmas music and get ready for appearances at the mall and various retirement homes. And the beat goes on....
I just ordered thirteen tickets for the International in Denver next summer. I just wish it had been 50 or 60. I can't stress enough what a wonderful experience it is to hear the very best of our society compete for the gold medals signifying THE BEST of the best. And the competition is only part of the fun. Check out the society website and the Harmonizer for all the scheduled events and seminars. It is worth completely redoing your summer plans, if you need to, in order to attend the International when it is this close to us. There are still lots of good tickets available.
Sign seen on cemetery road: DEAD END.
Due to varicose reasons, the bored members did not meet as a board in October. If the bored members all know what board room in which they are meeting as a bored board, then the bored members may (or may not) attend the board meeting of the bored.
You may be wondering how the Harmonizer placement project is progressing. We have been holding 50-50 raffles for several weeks and asked for donations of your old Harmonizers. The copies that members donated to the effort have been placed in lobbies and waiting rooms in the Rapid City area. RC Regional Hospital was quite happy to have the magazines and will place/replace as many as we can bring in. Twenty copies of the May-June 2006 issue were ordered from Harmony Marketplace to be given to school libraries. That order arrived while I was on vacation. Some, but not all of those have been placed in area schools. Funds are available for purchase of more new Harmonizers when needed.
But I need your help, again. While talking to one school librarian I asked about need or desire for a CD with the national anthem on it for their use during school day opening festivities. The librarian thought that a CD would be OK, but with TVs in each classroom the news notes and such are promulgated by way of the TVs. So - does anyone know of an available video of a quartet singing the anthem?
CDs with the national anthem would still make a nice addition to school resources as many or most schools do not have vocalists to sing the anthem for sporting or assembly events and would welcome some variety in their recorded inventory. Let me know which quartet you think has the best cut of the national anthem. I will then approach them about donating/purchasing/licensing their rendition for duplication and placement in our area schools and amateur sports teams.
Thanks for your support, and your help!
The Society's search for a new home in Nashville ended with the purchase of an existing building at a prime downtown Nashville address.
The Society will breathe new life into the 36,000-square-foot building, located at 110 7th Avenue North, as extensive renovations begin in the next few months. Just off Broadway in the center of Nashville - with easy access off Interstate 65 - the Society headquarters will enjoy a prime location, good neighbors, and great potential for return on investment.
Centering the Society in Music City will help increase awareness of the organization and the barbershop harmony art form.
Located in the immediate area of the new Society headquarters are the Nashville Convention Center, the Gaylord Entertainment Center, an arts magnet high school, a Masonic temple and a planned residential building. Only minutes away are the brand new Schermerhorn Symphony Center, Frist Center for the Visual Arts, Ryman Auditorium and Tennessee State, Belmont and Vanderbilt universities. Nashville, itself, is a prime tourism location.
Since we didn't have a Board of Directors meeting in October, due to a lack of an available quorum and confusion over location, I'd like to share just a few random thoughts.
First, it's very exciting to see and share the voices of our new members of the Chorus. We've recently added some marvelous pipes in both the lead and bass sections.
Secondly, we had 16 members whose annual memberships would expire at the end of September, and 12 chose to remain "paid-up" for another year.
It was great fun and rewarding to sing at the Black Hills Symphony Concert on the 14th of October, and I have received some very nice compliments from folks who heard us. There were also a few guys out in the crowd we haven't seen for a while who mentioned they may soon return!! I noticed them singing along even though they weren't on the risers!!
Judging from the continually growing number of requests for us to sing for an occasion, we must be doing something very right. I'm very excited about the Broadway theme we've chosen for next Spring's show, and look forward to hitting the spots right after Oktoberfest is past. Of course, we can't forget the fun of Christmas sings, but all the singing will keep us mighty busy. Take care of your voices and keep those chords well lubricated (water, Pete, not just the sudsy stuff!!)
See you next Thursday!! Don't forget we switch to 7 PM on November 2 (first Thursday after daylight-wasting time ends).
You may recall the recent death of Steve Irwin, also known as the Crocodile Hunter. I just learned that The Blenders from Brisbane sang at his private funeral service. This was televised on ABC (Australian Broadcasting Company) but I don't know what US stations it may have been shown on. A sad occasion, but at the same time, an impressive invitation for our singing brothers in Australia.
A link to The Blenders' site. The Blenders plan to attend the Denver International Convention in 2006.
PRESIDENT: Pete Anderson
VICE PRESIDENTS:
Chapter Development - Steve Ferley
Music - John Elving
Publicity & PR - Del Beck
SECRETARY: David L'Esperance
TREASURER: Jim Gogolin
IMMED. PAST PRES: Steve Ferley
BOARD MEMBERS AT LARGE:
Bill Andersen
Doug Andrews
Jason Dannenbring
Others by appointment may be following. Be watching for your name!
That old Oktoberfest toast reminds us of why we celebrate the 200 year-old German festival. It started and still is held in Munich, Germany in the same "meadow" of its origin when King Ludwig I married Princess Theresia. The King invited all the "Commoners in the land" to the wedding. Oktoberfest is really a Bavarian festival, not necessarily held in great regard in much of Germany. It is more popular in the United States than in the Old Country. A Toast! A Toast! to the good times. (Insert your own translation for a fun activity.)
You may have noticed that the dance floor was filled with dancers approximately 60 seconds after the band started playing. This crowd was ready to dance and the action provides proof that the above line from the song is right on. A Leichtensteiner, or anyone else who loves "Oompah music", cannot stay "in his place/platz" but must get out and dance when the "musik legte los," when the music lets loose or takes off.
This chapter has supported an Oktoberfest since 1998. The festival has been held, in our own style, during most October months since its inception here. In order for this activity to become a reality, individuals must get involved. Here is recognition to those who helped make it happen. Hopefully no one was overlooked:
Let's start with the music. Clayton Southwick, John Elving and Jim Price worked long and hard preparing us in the singing of the polkas. John took the wraps off a brand new sound system literally minutes before the warm-up of the event, set it all up and made the necessary adjustments. His wife, Barbara, worked the sound board.
Gary Welsh set up the stage providing the beautiful backdrops along with a new set of lights which he put together. Gary also enlisted the help of his family, as his wife, son and brother all assisted in some way. Good plan.
Doug Nahrgang located a field of pumpkins and gourds which the owner offered to us at no cost. Doug, Pete and Del filled Doug's pickup with the harvest which was brought to the KC Hall to provide a nice fall decor.
Jim Gogolin was our Bratmeister. He provided the grills and supervised the bratwurst production carried out by Gene Opstedahl and several chapter members. Jim considered applying for hazard pay after one grill "blew up" during lighting and singed his eyebrows. The door prizes and the neat table covering were Jim's ideas.
Pete Anderson is such a reliable Biermeister. He seems to enjoy his work. There is always a generous supply of good beer. Former member Bob Melvin once again served as head bartender. The radio ads were also arranged for by Pete. Steve Ferley, aided by his wife Beth Anne and others, handled ticket sales and keeping the riff-raff (except for the chorus members) out of the hall.
When you next see Brenda Pates, please thank her for the huge contribution she continues to make to our festival by gathering, preparing and setting up our food concession. This is a really large money-maker and vital to our success. Assisting Brenda Saturday morning in the preparation of the potato salad were Jane Anderson, Lynell Parrott-Knowlton, Shirley Whitney, and Sharon Beck.
A big thanks to the wives of chorus members for a super job in serving the food to our customers. Couldn't do it without you!.
We applaud the chorus members for their enthusiastic performance of the polka show. Even the "Liechtensteiner" came through in good shape. Thanks, guys, for the help with setting up and striking the stage and picking up wherever needed. Risky Business added to the show with two great numbers along with their humor and energy.
A salute to our friends from the Germans from Russia Heritage Society for the partnership we enjoy in making our festival authentic. The kuchen was so-o-o good. They sold every slice with folks wanting more.
The Hazukas and Father Kari - what a perfect band for the occasion. The beautiful (?) accordion sounds were a real treat. This band attracted a local following which helped our efforts toward a successful event. This group representing three generations of Hazukas and one Priest must be unique. Roy, Roger and Brad Hazuka from eastern South Dakota and Father Kari from Sturgis make up this fine foursome.
This chapter can be proud of an activity which brings together the efforts of its members and involves the community. Oh, by the way, preliminary financial figures indicate that we may have ended on the plus-side of the ledger.
Another BIG THANKS needs to go to Del for heading this up. Without his use of the bull-whip, Oktoberfest a la Shrine of Democracy, would never happen. Thanks for keeping us on track and spearheading another successful Oktoberfest, Del. Ed.
Barbershop singers are fond of referring to singing as their 'hobby' or referring to themselves as 'amateur singers.' There are about 800 chapters of barbershop singers in the country. My guess is that about 80 or so of these chapters are populated with men who have a sincere interest in singing as well as they can. They engage in competition, they study, they practice, and they put a lot of time into their barbershop activity. Others like to enjoy barbershop singing, but with various levels of commitment, ranging from some contest participation to social & family performing.
"Each of these groups have different goals and funding needs. Some do well on the dues and an annual show for themselves and their friends. Others seek a larger budget that will cover the cost of coaching, learning tapes, and support for their educational and improvement programs.
"The top ten percent come close to being obsessed with improvement. They regularly screen new singers and have self recording and audition programs in place to continuously improve the quality of their members' personal singing. When this top group refers to themselves as engaging in a 'hobby,' or allow themselves to be called 'amateurs,' they may do a disservice to their funding opportunities. Grant givers do not fund hobbies nor do they seek to support amateurs. Take a minute to look at the words used.
"The dictionary says that an amateur is 'Somebody who does or takes part in something for pleasure rather than for pay.' And 'Somebody who loves or is greatly interested in something.' I take pleasure in singing with the chorus and with my quartet. I work hard to improve my singing. I invest a lot of time in the activity. I spend money on obtaining help in my effort to improve.
"But my dictionary also says that an amateur is "Somebody who has only limited skill in, or knowledge of, an activity." I'm afraid that grant givers latch on to this alternate definition and put all who sing barbershop music into this category and don't consider the ability of the amateur (Tiger Woods was once an amateur golfer).
"We also have a tendency to refer to our activity as a hobby. As long as the definition in mind is an activity engaged in for pleasure and relaxation during spare time,' then we are probably engaged in a hobby.
"Many of our hard-working top singers get paid. Are they no longer amateurs? Our chorus and quartets are paid for major public performances to support our cost structure. The better a group sings the more they are considered to be worth. So are they engaged in a hobby? Are they professionals or amateurs?
Perhaps until grant givers and other supporters of the arts understand that we are serious about what we do, we should drop the words 'hobby' and 'amateur' from our barbershop vocabulary and tell people that we are members of an arts organization. Rather than calling ourselves amateurs and hobbyists, we should refer to ourselves as artists and performers."
How do we make our performances believable when it comes to presentation (formerly called "stage presence")? This has been an item of discussion lately among coaches in our barbershop world. Here are some ideas from one person, as expressed via the internet. Brent Graham is a director, quartet man, arranger, judge, and quartet & chorus coach.
(1) Re: hand movements, I'll see if I can explain an idea I use when coaching. It works a LOT better in person, for sure, but here goes:
Dissociate your hand movements from downbeats and/or lyrics. This is quite the opposite of using your hands to "support the music". Using "Story of the Rose (HOMH)," let's look at some typical moves and some other choices. Usually, the lead raises his hands on "Heart" and lowers his hands on "my heart". Then, raises again on "Life" and lowers on "naught". The other three probably follow suit to some degree (although probably not exactly in synch with the lead), but the bass/bari have some hand raising during their swipe on "with-out____ you". So we get what I call "hand flash": L-up, L-dn, L-up, L-dn, B/b-up, B/b-dn. You get the idea.
So, my suggestion to the lead is to delay bringing his hands up until "... of my HEART" and leave them up until somewhere around "LIFE would be ...". And while they're up, keep them in motion to display expressiveness. The trick is to avoid just "flashing" your hands up-and-down.
The analogy is to a director. The good directors paint a picture of the music with their hands and don't hammer at each word, or even at each downbeat. We want to use our hands to create a picture of the music.
(2) Re: foot movement/placement. Each singer MUST move his feet!! I use analogies to playing defense in basketball, to fielding a ground ball in baseball, and to returning a ball in tennis. Foot movement is the preparatory thing that must be done to have a chance to succeed at the athletic skill. The trick is to position your feet so as to allow for easy shifting IN (to the quartet) and OUT (to the audience), which means you cannot be too "turned in" or too "squared out" (see #3 below re: focus). And you must move your feet IN ANTICIPATION of the choreo/move to come - feet first, then body/hands. Again, easier shown than discussed. :)
(3) Re: "focus". My belief is that we look at the same spot too much. And the novice singers try to look everywhere at once, thus making it look like they're nervous. So I coach as follows.
Pick "an area" about 15-20 feet in front of the stage, centered around the director, and about 3-5 feet wide. Stage left members look at the LEFT side of the area and stage right members look at the RIGHT side of the area. This is distinctly different than the "criss-cross" approach that has been used for years ("old school"). This approach yields a comfortable, "open", unit look-and-feel, and displays more of the singers to more of the audience. All the top groups use this approach, whether they know it or not. It allows for individualized performance, and yet creates a unity that is clear to the audience.
(4) As far as "selling" a song, you MUST look at the arrangement first. The arranger had an interpretation in mind; try to discover what that interp was. And then if you want to tell a different story, you may have to modify the chart or at least modify the interp to tell that story. In my example from above (HOMH), my chart of the song (the one "Realtime" sang) leads you to a different place than the Society chart or Brian Beck's chart. So the chorus members must each have a common understanding of what story they are telling with a particular chart, and then we can begin to lay out the "how-to" of selling a song.
The Xs and Os of selling a song differ with each person, but the main thing to remember is that if you are NOT "a natural" (like Randy Chisolm, for example), you MUST perform technically to make the audience believe you ARE a natural. Again, I turn to what the great directors do: they learn how to express themselves facially and in body/hand movements to make their members believe that they are "feeling it". Practice looking "sad", "melancholy", "inspired", "joyful", "wistful", and look in the mirror to see if the look you are making matches the expression you are trying to convey. If it does not, keep practicing until it does. If it does, memorize what that facial expression FEELS like and then you can call it up on command.
In summary, we performers are truly like athletes. We have to hone certain technical skills before we can play (perform) artistically. Those of us in the Society have differing levels of skills, and no amount of work can take us to the highest levels of performance if we have only a modicum of talent. But hard, smart work can take each of us to our own 100%, which is all we can ask.
Dipthong - Underwear for nerds.
Cluster Tone - Where the true enharmonic pitch is dead centre and the singers are clustered around it.
Approximento - A musical entrance that is somewhere in the vicinity of the correct pitch.
Shoe horn - an instrument that plays the foot notes.
Adagio Frommagio - To sing in a slow and cheesy manner.
Angus Dei - To sing with a divine, beefy tone.
A Patella - Unaccompanied kneeslapping.
Tune Bucket - A vessel which some people cannot carry.
Whomp-Squeak Ratio - The ratio of resonance to ping in the voice.
Read some very interesting vocal insights into what it's like to be both a classical and barbershop singer.
As both a university teacher in choral music and a gold medalist, I'm often asked how the vocal production in barbershop quartet singing is similar or dissimilar to that of choral vocal production for the concert stage. Possibly, the better question may be whether it should be similar or dissimilar.
Once, I had the pleasure of spending a few days with the late Moses Hogan. At that time, he was 43 years old, the conductor of the most respected performance choir of spirituals, and the foremost living arranger of spirituals in America. I asked him about his view of vocal production as it applied to his style of music. He said, "We have become more sophisticated over time. We've learned so much about how to sing better so why shouldn't we incorporate this better technique into our style of singing?"
I came away from that conversation thinking about how the same is true in singing the barbershop style. We have learned so much and to not use this knowledge to make better sounds would be cheating the style of becoming a more viable art form. I am the first in line to want to keep it barbershop and I am also most excited to hear better quartets sing with better technique with each passing year.
Technique is technique. It is to be learned so as to add to one's palate of colors and skills. As performers, we need to be willing to stretch ourselves so as to create skills that allow us to sing in different ways for varied situations and styles. As a studio singer of commercials and jingles, I found that there was no such thing as too much technique. Listen, listen, listen! Learn from those great singers from other quartets as well as those from other styles. Be the best kind of vocal thief by stealing from the best and making it your own. Take voice lessons and above all, practice.
(This is part three of a five part series written by Bill Biffle, BHS director, music category judge, Society board member and newly elected Executive Vice President of the BHS.)
Last month I promised you a second segment on inhalation; and here it is.
As you know, session one in this series dealt with STANDING UP STRAIGHT. Session two was BREATHING IN and dealt with what happens to the lower abdominal area during that vital process. This session I want to discuss the rest of the inhalation process, that is, what should happen to the "upper apparatus" every time you inhale?
The idea here is to make the area where the sound resonates (the area between the larynx to the lips) as large as possible while not inducing any unnecessary tension. The components to this process are:
So, to recap, the "singer's breath" consists of connecting the expansion of the lower abdominal area (see last month's CC) with the proper positioning of the throat, mouth, tongue and lips. If you'll make the effort to master these movements, and take EVERY breath this way EVERY time you sing (assuming you've still got the good posture from lesson one, of course), you'll be at least half way to our goal: better singing!
Watch out! Next week [issue] - EXHALATlON! Good luck and good singing!