Shrine of Democracy Chorus
Rapid City, SD
Just back from the Mitchell show. It was really great to have a good representation from our chapter to show support for other barbershoppers in South Dakota. This kind of support for their show often benefits us by getting them to come to our Harmony Happening, and you can be sure I will be encouraging just that over the coming year.
And speaking of the HH. I talked with several of our regular attendees from Aberdeen and Sioux Falls who were there, as well as a quartet from Yankton and a college quartet from USD. It seems that our hobby is growing in southeastern SD.
Mitchell had 30 men on stage, counting the director and it was evident that they were pleased to be there. The headliners, Metropolis and Vocal Spectrum, wowed the audience with their spots. Having heard Metropolis before in Estes Park, I was a little disappointed with them. They were much better at Estes. Vocal Spectrum showed why they won the Gold last summer. They were super. And having a tenor that can hold a post for 30 seconds doesn't hurt anything either. He had to have lungs as big as Johns belly. Hehehehe.
Note on a baritone's chair:
Out of my mind, be back in five minutes.
LEARN YOUR POLKAS, GUYS!! OCTOBER 28 IS RAPIDLY APPROACHING.
Much of the discussion at the September meeting centered on the newly acquired sound system, new casual uniform components, sing-outs and special events.
The system will be complete this week, with the exception of the speaker stands.
Pete will contact Don Stover as a possible source for new shirts, embroidered with the Chapter Logo.
The band for Oktoberfest will be Hazukas and Fr. Kari, to be held at the Knights of Columbus Hall October 28.
Clayton's Rushmore Honoree Luncheon on September 14th, and the Black Hills Symphony Concert on October 14th are the next big performances.
As possible sources for additional funding, both grant applications and corporate sponsorship were discussed, as was applying for membership in the Allied Arts Fund Drive.
Jim Gogolin and Del Beck were appointed to be the nominating committee for the slate of Officers for the 2007 Chapter year.
Once again, the possibility and desire to create a Chorus CD was raised. At a not-too-distant Chapter meeting, we will ask the members whether they are willing to devote the large amount of additional time necessary to achieve a good product. Extensive rehearsals, numerous takes and potentially long recording sessions are among the issues, as we should only be satisfied with producing the highest quality performances we can generate.
President Pete encouraged all to plan to attend the 2007 International Convention and Competition in Denver. He says until you have experienced one, you will not believe the excitement and atmosphere.
The next Board meeting will be Tuesday, October 3 at Coldwell Bankers Training Room.
Last Saturday (Sept. 30) I travelled 300 miles to purchase some door prizes for the coming Oktoberfest. That was a one way distance. The trip took some thirteen hours of my time. It was a most pleasant day, though. You see, I travelled in the company of five other barbershoppers and barbershop fans. During the course of the day I listened to the best barbershop music heard outside your own head. That was on the CD's played through the automobile stereo system. And I saw and heard two of the society's best quartets perform on stage. Wow! What a show! Metropolis - currently ranked number four in the world of barbershop and Vocal Spectrum, the most recent gold medal winners.
But the performances were not the only good deal of the day. Barbershopping is such a wonderful fraternity. At the performance venue there was opportunity to visit with friends from all parts of the state who were there to enjoy the great performances also. I talked to friends from Sioux Falls, Aberdeen and Pierre. Had I had more time no doubt there would have been still more friends seen and greeted. And not to be overlooked was the fun of singing in the VLQ from our chapter that performed at the Afterglow.
All this much fun, and it occurred at a chapter show in Mitchell. Just think what the International Convention will be like in Denver. No, 300 miles was not too far. And neither is 425, the distance to Denver. My tickets are purchased for Denver International. Are yours?
Extracted from a Jay Garber e-mail (who forwarded it from who knows where)
What kind of Tater are you?
While in Indianapolis at the International Convention, I attended the Masters Class that the Masters of Harmony (2005 Chorus Champions) gave on Thursday.
Here are a couple of points that I thought were interesting.
Someone asked how they get their beautiful, flowing sound. Their Director, Mark Hale, said their basic dynamic volume is a level two (out of ten). He said, that low starting level gives them lots of opportunities to grow the sound for dramatic effects. It is easier to show emotion when you start small and grow the sound, than to risk oversinging by starting loud and trying to get louder. He also said they intentionally replace "poor ounding" vowels with "better" vowels. He had the chorus demonstrate singing through the overtone of a good vowel in order to improve a vowel that doesn't sing well. (Like singing an ee vowel through an oo vowel).
When asked what the riser standing order is, he said they stand in sections. Basses on the right, Baritones on the left, and Tenors in the middle, wedged in between the leads. Mark said this makes it easier for him to direct the individual voice parts to correct problems. (He said, if they were in a shotgun formation, he would have to invent ways to give direction to the individual sections, without the other parts getting mixed messages. He said, that doesn't mean everyone should stand in sections. It's just the way he likes it.)
They introduced their Board of Directors, Music Team, Section Leaders, Choreographer etc. And then the Chapter President said, "Almost to a man, every member of the chapter has been assigned a job in the chorus."
An interesting point that I have been considering ever since is; they were not doing anything that I couldn't do. The "key" is to prepare a singing plan that explains how to use the lyrics of the song to enhance the music, and to get emotionally involved in the telling of the story. The biggest hurdle, is to get 100% agreement with every single singer. (At one point in the rehearsal, the coach told the baritones that they had sung their part beautifully. But, it was out of balance with the other three parts. It's not enough to just sing the proper notes. You need to match tonal quality and listen to the other parts to adjust volume to balance the chords. So, they have to not think about singing their part as written. Rather, they need to listen, and sing their part to enhance the ensemble sound.... So, apparently, even if you're right, you can still be wrong for the overall musical effect).
As I observed both of these groups singing, I was deeply impressed by the pride in their stance, and the joy in their eyes. And I silently said to myself, "I want to learn to sing with Artistry too."
Asked about auditions, here is what they said:
It is a three step audition process.
First: Every candidate receives a Vocal Assessment. They test their vocal range, and singing ability. They are assigned a voice part, a "buddy" is assigned to help them learn chorus etiquette, and the candidate is given a list of what to expect if they decide to join the Chapter. (Including attendance rules, costs, travel, learning times etc.). They are given the sheet music and learning tapes for two chorus songs. They are told to learn the music, and record themselves singing in the chorus. These tapes are evaluated as part of the audition process.
Second: They are given a Visual Assessment. Checking rhythm with clapping exercises and simple dance steps, and how well they can show emotions.
Third: If he successfully completes all these steps. He comes before the Board of Directors and, If all agree, he is asked to sign the list that he was given. His signature represents his acceptance of responsibility, as a chapter member, for all of the items on that list.
I also attended a rehearsal of my good friends in The Vocal Accord Chorus, from Batavia New York. They obviously knew their words & music, and had the choreography down pat. So their coach (sorry, I didn't get his name or chapter) was teaching "Artistry." They were focusing on the story of the lyric. They broke down the song phrase by phrase, to get 100% agreement on what emotion to portray for each phrase. With each run through, the coach implored them to think ahead, and transition to the emotion of the next phrase, before they began singing it (He said, "If you wait until you start singing the phrase, it's too late. And, you'll be playing catchup for the rest of the song."). As they approached the end of each phrase, he would yell, "Transition!"
He chided them for having "strain" apparent in their voices. He asked them to immerse themselves in telling the story, rather than concentrate on the singing. And that would help their body relax. And the vocal production would be freer and cleaner. And as they practiced, I could hear a noticeable improvement in the sound.
He also had them consider the importance of every word in each phrase. As it turns out, they had been "throwing away" some of the adjectives and connecting words. Those words, if emphasized properly, increased the emotional impact and believability of the story. With his suggestions, the emotional message of the song was revealed, and used to propel the music effortlessly along. It was the most extraordinary transformation I have ever seen or heard. I have had good quartets and choruses hold me spellbound before. But, this was the first time I have understood the amount of focus and preparation it takes (not individually, but everyone in agreement, all the time).
How many 75-year-old men do you see in the 100-yard dash at the Olympics? Well ... none. But in this hobby, senior members can still compete and participate if they take proper care of their voices.
You may be asking yourself, "Why is this 32-year-old upstart writing about the aging voice?" I like to tell people that I've researched this topic so that I could better contribute in rehearsals after an "old guy" joined Uptown Sound. The truth is, I've been studying the voice throughout 15 years as a Barbershopper, and especially when I was a music education major at Bowling Green State University. I've studied the aging voice for many reasons, including the fact that I have a special responsibility to help the older singers in The Alliance Chorus, which I direct. Likewise, I've had to research this topic to better teach older members of my vocal techniques classes at Harmony College and HEP schools. Last, I'm preparing for my sunset years of this hobby; none of us is getting any younger!
It's not your imagination: your voice really does change as you age
The good news for older singers is that studies show that the male voice, like fine wine, can get better with age. It keeps maturing until around 45, and with proper care can remain stable until at least age 65—and sometimes to age 80 and beyond.
The not-so-good news is that your voice definitely changes as you grow older. For example, the following ravages on the aging voice will make it weaker and less flexible:
You can minimize the effects of aging
You can't merely will away the above changes; however, good overall vocal health can minimize the negative effect, allowing you to remain a great singer even into your golden years. As you grow older, you'll need to pay especially close attention to the following:
Formed in February 2004, this young (well, mostly young) quartet began with four voices and a whole bunch of dreams. After receiving second place in the 2004 Rocky Mountain District contest and qualifying for the 2005 International competition, a personnel change was made that kept the group off the International stage. It was at this point when the quartet decided they would no longer let anything get in their way.
Many groups tout their "collective years of experience," so if you add together Ignition!'s years of barbershop singing experience, it's probably somewhere near 50 years of total barbershop singing experience (thanks Denny). Above all this, Ignition!'s goal is to "ignite" audiences through performing a wide variety of vocal styles and unique arrangements. You'll also get to see the group's famous bass singer, Denny Malone, show you a thing or two about how "old guys still got it".
Dan Testa (Tenor) is the newest member of Ignition!. Dan has been performing on stage, and singing for roughly 25 years. He started singing in choruses and doing musical theater at an early age. Dan started singing barbershop in 1989 but took a break from the style to study opera and theater, graduating from the University of Colorado in 1995 with a bachelors degree in music. Now a member of the Actors' Equity Association, Dan performs in musicals around the country and in local theaters.
Prior to becoming the new tenor for Ignition!, Dan founded many contemporary a cappella groups. Most notably, while living in San Francisco, Dan helped start The New Originals. The New Originals won the 1996 Bay Area Harmony Sweepstakes.
Curtis Terry (Lead) is the youngest member of the quartet. Curtis (or CT as he is primarily called by his friends) has been singing for about 4 years. He began singing barbershop in 2001 with the Denver MountainAires chorus and then with the Sound of the Rockies. Ignition! is his second quartet, the first being a RMD quartet called Inside Story.
When not barbershopping, CT is a full-time student at Denver University, part-time limo driver, and avid custom motorcycle builder and rider. Lastly, in case you were wondering, he is not a natural blonde.
James Taylor (Baritone) has been singing for more than 20 years in various choral, classical, and vocal jazz ensembles, having traveled throughout the U.S. and Europe. He discovered barbershop after hearing a radio advertisement in Salt Lake City in early 2000, then being nearly cold-cocked by an errantly thrown pitch pipe by famous baritone Jason January during an Acoustix appearance. He has been a member of the Saltaires Show Chorus, and the Sound of The Rockies chorus. Ignition! is James' third quartet, having previously sung with RMD quartets "Sound Logik" and "BoomTown!"
Dennis Malone (Bass) became a barbershopper in high school, although not a member of the society. He took some friends to West Towns Chorus once when it was directed by Earl Auge. Denny went to SIU in Carbondale, IL for college and became a charter member of the Little Egypt Chorus in Herrin, IL.
After graduation Denny found himself in Dallas and joined a new chorus called the Vocal Majority. Denny happened to be in the right place at the right time and started singing with the Stage Door Four which morphed into the Side Street Ramblers. Leaving Texas in 1988 he moved to Virginia and joined the Alexandria Harmonizers.
Denny has had quite the career. Six Chorus gold medals, a couple silver, a few bronze, and one quartet gold medal. One interesting fact - Denny actually has a chorus gold medal older than Ignition!'s Lead
I don't know about your chorus, but I find that a lot (most) of the rehearsal progress made one week is lost by the next week's rehearsal. This includes the learning of new music. This may not apply, or be a new concept to your chorus, but I suspect that it is. I was browsing the internet on this subject, and came across a web site for the University of Waterloo, which has a great explanation for the phenomena called the "Curve of Forgetting". (I remember the curve from my engineering days, but had forgotten about it.) You can visit this web site at http://www.adm.uwaterloo.ca/infocs/study/curve.html to see for yourself.
Basically, what it says is that material learned (knowledge gained) one day will have deteriorated to 2-3% in seven days, if the material is not reviewed. (Just to clarify...what the curve says is that after a week...only 2-3% is *retained* if there's no follow up...about par for most choruses, it would seem.) However, if 10 minutes is spent on it the next day, most of the knowledge is retained. While this curve was generated based on college lectures, I have to believe it would apply to Barbershop Music learning as well. Now, all we have to do is review the music within a day of the rehearsal, and we should see some huge benefits.
The curve is very interesting. It demonstrates that reviewing the next day results in less time needed for the review than if you wait 2, 3, 4, days, etc.
Voices change between young adulthood and old age because of anatomical changes in the larynx (voice box), respiratory system, mouth, and tissues of the throat. Some of those changes include atrophy of muscles, increased stiffness of tissues, and drying of membranes. There is also evidence that facial bones continue to grow during this period, although the magnitude of the growth is small. These physical changes affect your voice by increasing the instability of vocal chord vibration, altering the pitch level and reducing the amount of air available in a single breath when speaking. Aging also affects the manner in which the voice resonates as it travels from the vocal chords to the lips and those resonance changes affect voice quality.
Age related voice changes are different for men and women, with men tending to show more dramatic changes. In men, speaking pitch lowers from young adulthood to middle age and then rises after middle age. By age 80, a man can expect that his speaking pitch will be at the highest level of his adult life. In women, the speaking pitch remains relatively unchanged from young adulthood to middle age. Pitch lowers slightly at menopause and then remains relatively steady into old age. Other age-related voice and speech changes in both men and women include a slower speaking rate and the restriction of pitch range.
Scissors Movement - Two voice parts that cross each other, while the other two voices sustain, leading to an inversion of the chord.
Shoulder-Raiser - A listeners physical reaction to a singer who doesn't quite reach his/her note.
Singlish - A method of singing a song as if one was speaking the part, phonetically connective.
Skunk Song - A melody essentially useless for woodshedding purposes, because of an existing familiar arrangement.
Slab - to sing slowly through a measure chord by chord, also called blocking.
Sleeping Around - Secretly singing with three other people in order to establish a new/better quartet.
Spank - Great vocal execution as in "Boy that lead spanks!"
Sweet Spot - The optimum range in one's vocal range.
Tag - The ending of a song, too often over-arranged.
Tag Quartet - Four singers begin a song and one by one are replaced by a new singer, tagged out if you will.
Tear-jerker - A tender, sentimental ballad that evokes emotion.
Tiddly - A musical embellishment usually by a baritone.
Toe-Tapper - An uptune with great rhythmic pulse.
Train Wreck - When one or more parts sings a wrong note, the resulting chord sounds like railway calamity.
VLQ - Very large quartet or mini-chorus, if you will.
Wall of Sound - Seamless, continuous vocalization.
Woodshed - To improvise your part in a song, hopefully not melody.
Yawner - A very boring and poor performance of a song.
Yodel-Chord - A phenomenon in woodshedding, where two voices land on the same note and simultaneously move to the missing part.
Yodeling - An attempt to find one's proper note, - see woodshedding.
(This is part two of a five part series written by Bill Biffle, BHS director, music category judge, Society board member and new Executive Vice President of BHS.)
Last month we began this series of steps to better singing by talking about posture. I know you have all spent the last few weeks [two months] working on developing a good, upright, relaxed stance as a habitual foundation for good singing. (If not, go back and begin! This posture is ABSOLUTELY necessary if you are to benefit from what follows). Well then, its time to proceed to Step Two - INHALATION.
O.K., you say, what's the big deal, I already know how to inhale - I do it all the time! Well, so you do, but maybe not in the way to best help you enjoy singing. Read on!
Proceeding from the position of good posture (well balanced body, pelvis tucked, chest expanded, shoulders down and relaxed, head centered, neck free), slowly breathe in through the nose, very deeply, and feel the area around the belt line expand (front, rear and sides). Remember, the chest should be comfortably raised and expanded. If you have difficulty producing this feeling, sit on the edge of a chair with your elbows on your knees and breathe deeply through the nose. This will let you feel the expansion around the belt line that is the basis for the "singer's breath."
Secondly, stand in front of a mirror and monitor your chest (look at the top button of your shirt) as you breathe in deeply as described above. There should be no, make that NO, movement of your upper chest area (which is, of course, already expanded). Repeat this process several times. (Be careful of hyperventilation! If you feel dizzy, stop for awhile).
It may be helpful to think of this process as expanding the muscles around the belt line, thereby creating a vacuum into which the air will rush. However you visualize it, it is vitally important for the sides, front and back of the area below the rib cage to be involved.
As a last point, try to feel (and imagine) the area below the stomach going down as you inhale. This will further allow the expansion you need to occur.
Now, kiddies, you MUST practice this for a few minutes each day. If you will, these movements will become habitual in a very short time. Good inhalation habits, coupled with an upright, relaxed posture, will MEASURABLY improve your singing and your enjoyment of this great hobby.
TRY IT, YOU'LL LIKE IT! I PROMISE!