ORANGE SQUEEZIN'S
 Orange Barbershop QUARTET Chapter, FWD, Orange, California December, 2005
MEETING EVERY MONDAY 7:30 P.M.- COME SING WITH US UNTIL 10 P.M.
Afterglow, Denny's Restaurant, 3000 W Chapman between the 57 and 5 fwys by Dave Gryvnak What a great time we have been having. Lots of singers, lots of singing. And talking about singing, we’ve started the Christmas songs. Everybody should be bringing their Christmas music to the chapter meetings. The Installation banquet was a huge success. Spence Graves brought his terrific quartet,and he was the installing officer. I must say, Spence did the best job as the Installing Officer that I’ve witnessed. We had a bunch of awards that we gave out at the Installation Banquet. The selection of awards is at the discretion of the President. Here are the awards:
Annie Di Mola: Number One Fan Award Here comes Christmas. We’re going to sing at the Hospital again, Chapman General at the corner of Chapman and Yorba in the city of Orange. Mark your calendar, 19 December. This is always a terrific event. Wear something Christmasy. Lots of singing and lots of fun.
And bring a friend to the meetings. If you introduce someone to Barbershop singing, he’ll thank you the rest of his life. Remember, if you’re too busy to sing, you’re too busy.
New Officers
President: Mike Werner
Smile, Orange Quartet Chapter
The Harmonizer for Sept./Oct. arrived this week. As always, it was full of good, punchy articles and timely announcements. On Page 18 sits a paid advertisement, in color, which says only “Preserving Our Heritage”, and www.bqpa.com. I googled it, and Presto! The second internet site listed was The Orange Quartet Chapter. If other music nuts track us down as easily as I did, we’d better get ready for them. We’re like a good restaurant that has just been “discovered”. So here’s how I’d revise our menu.
We need to warn every new guy that we aren’t a Music 1A class. We welcome all kinds of singers, but our chapter originally took only experienced chorus singers and quarteters, giving them a place to rehearse, perform, form new quartet combinations, and share the good vibes. With time we have discovered that some new guys fit into quartets easily, but all of us have much to learn about the art of singing well in a foursome. A chorus chapter is a more logical place for a really green singer, and within a year it will prepare him for serious quarteting, if he’s up to it. Lead singers may be an exception to this rule, because they are often able to do well simply by ignoring the harmony parts and singing a great solo. But they must limit their vibrato and sing to the Phantom Beat if the quartet is to ring chords and have a sense of forward propulsion. To quote Paul Kelley, the Smiling Sage of Walnut Street, who used to be a fighter pilot, “Maintain air speed!” In other words, don’t worship the chords to the point of stalling the song.
Then too we need to be ready to sing the good stuff with a visitor. We’re pretty good at that already! Ask Rich Spencer and Gary Phillips, two leads who have learned a sheaf of new songs with our quartets recently. They learn a song on their own; then they step up and announce that they’re ready to quartet it. By the way, at the last Afterglow, both of these guys proved that they’re ready to form their own quartets. They also wowed a visitor who sang with them. The line forms to the right, gentlemen.
But seriously, has the Orange Quartet Chapter overlooked any great songs that most of us would like to learn? That’s a tough question. Give a gander to this list of “Advanced Polecats” that Will Hamblet of the South Bay Chapter is considering:
1. Alone Because I Love You
Personally, I have tried all of these songs with quartets, and I have enjoyed all but #1. But if we want to teach suitable songs for gigs, only numbers 5, 7, 8, 9, and 11 would qualify, “IMHO”. Make that “IMH but experienced O”. I look forward to debating the merits of the rest of the list with anybody, but I’d point out that six good gig songs are a fine start for us. Also, I’d note that numbers 4, 6, and 10 are great for glows.
Speaking of glows, you may have noticed that many of our people are not true Tag-singing addicts. I think it’s time for tags to receive their place in the sun—or the moon, actually. Here’s my challenge. Bring between four and eight printed copies of your favorite tag to a meeting; find some guys who want to rehearse it in private, and then spring it on the group as if it were a song. Most guys learn a song with charts. Why deny them that aid when teaching a tag? So how do I know so much about tags already? Well, I just wrote four original tags, and I want to try them out. Watch out for Stanley!
An Update On This TAGGER
Events move quickly in the Orange Quartet Chapter. Yes, I’ve been writing new tags (see other article), so last night I took four of them to Monday meeting. As luck would have it, Ken Tillmanns was back from a tropical ocean cruise, happy, well-fed and raring to go. He looked at my printed tags and suggested a few fixes on the spot. Mostly he was noticing that on some three-note chords (called tritones), I had two guys singing the same note, an octave apart. Ken suggested that bass and lead, or bass and tenor sounded better than bari and lead or bari and tenor. Today I tried them out on the keyboard, agreed with Ken, and made the changes. Now I need a quartet chapter to try them out with, and in that respect I’m in luck!
I want to thank all you guys who agreed to try out the tags with me last night. I was pleased that you all decided to take home your copies. Now I’m even more pleased to advise you that they’re already obsolete and should be destroyed. See you next week!
Tag Writing Contest
We want to announce a Tag Contest that was proposed by Noah Funderburg.
It will be used to help promote Indianapolis but will be just plain FUN
for lots and lots of barbershoppers. We hope you will encourage others to
participate. The rules and guidelines were developed by the Music
Department, Ed Watson and myself. Noah has seen this list and is
enthusiastic about the project.
Thanx, Noah, for a great idea. Onward. Stay tuned.
John Schneider
Contest Rules:
It must be an original tag, both lyrics and music. You may not use
copyrighted material of any kind.
About Your Holiday Light Display...
You think YOUR light display is good? Take a look at this:
Mangled Metaphors And Choice Expressions
As heard by Dorothy Acton among family and friends.
He's flogging a dead horse up the wrong tree.
Next Issue
Target publication date for the next Squeezins' bulletin is Jan. 1 or whenever we get enough articles. Send your articles to Editor at dcacton@earthlink.net.
|
