ORANGE SQUEEZIN'S
 Orange Barbershop QUARTET Chapter, FWD, Orange, California August-September, 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 Another month has rolled along and the singing just keeps getting better at the Orange Chapter. I am impressed at the quality of the sounds that we hear at our meetings. Sure, we do not compete with the Masters, but then we are not 130 strong. However, we have a strong group of singers who like to sing in quartets. Not only do they like to sing in quartets, they are not afraid to sing in quartets. I don’t know how many of you remember belonging to choruses and asking some of the members to come sing in the corner as a quartet and being refused because they were afraid to sing in a quartet. Many members are leaners. You know what a leaner is. It is a guy who needs to have someone next to him singing the same part. He can’t sing his part by himself. You can’t be a leaner if you are in a quartet. You must hold your own in a quartet. It is a lot harder to sing in a quartet than to sing in a chorus. Many chorus members are leaners and can’t hold their own in a quartet. But in the Orange Chapter, there are no leaners. I’m sure that the first time you sang in a quartet, you were scared. But you’re not scared now. And it shows at our chapter meetings. I told Patrique, my wife, that the harmony sounds are getting better and better each week. You know what that means. That means that it is much more fun to come to the meetings on Monday evening. It means there are good singers at the meeting. It means that know you will be singing with competent singers on Monday evenings. And that’s when the fun begins! Don’t forget to save Saturday, 27 August for the Summer Sing at Phil Roth’s house. Phil will have instructions on how to get there. It starts at 3 PM and goes on until we quit singing or Phil kicks us out. But you know he won’t do that as long as there are enough guys there so that he can sing in a quartet. We are still looking for guests to come on 12 Sept. It won’t be a formal open house, but we are encouraging guests to come that night. We would love to have a bunch of new singers join us. We obviously prefer ones that either have quartet experience, chorus experience or can hold their own in a quartet. So if you know anyone like that, do him and us a favor and bring him over. We have made arrangements to have quartets singing in the Orange and Mainplace Malls the weekends before the 12th of Sept., so we may get some extra singers that way. Even if we don’t, it will be a terrific blast to sing in the Malls.
Another Good Monday
It should have been a quiet meeting night for the Orange Quartet Chapter. After all, some of our members had been away for much of the previous week, traveling to and from the International Convention at Salt Lake City. Phil and Phyllis Roth took their time so they could enjoy the Sacred Gold performance on Sunday morning, which featured the MOH and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, as well as several medalist quartets. It was a major wingding, held in the new Convention Center, which seats up to 21,000. But Barbara and I left early Sunday morning because of a previous commitment. Dave and Patrique Gryvnak were off summering on a well-deserved vacation. Michael Werner had cheered himself hoarse at a baseball game, so he couldn’t sing, but he still ran the entire meeting, and few noticed that Mike sounded a lot like Joe Cocker the rocker.
On the plus side, our young bass Steve was there as usual and eager to sing. Cap’n John Majzler reported that he had once again won a peck of first place ribbons at the Orange County Fair. We had a sheaf of new CDs to choose between for the raffle. Our Number One Fan came and stayed through the Afterglow, applauding every quartet. She also carried our food orders over to Dennys so that the refreshments would be timely. Who is our Number One Fan? I’ll give you a hint; she’s the lady who wears the “Number One Fan” name card. We’ll reveal her name next month.
As you’d expect, several leads wanted to take Phil Roth’s place that Monday. We auditioned Gary and Rich, who had several songs ready to sing with Indigo Lite.
In a pleasant surprise, the Fullerton-based quartet Gaslight Review arrived to spend the evening with us. Lead Spence Graves, bass Don Derler, tenor Bobby Faris and bari Bob Calderwood, who is a frequent habitué of our glows, participated in the random quarteting. Also, Jeff Parmer was in demand as an unattached lead, and at the glow we all tried out new songs and new parts.
For me the Convention had been a pleasure, except that I missed the frequent opportunities to quartet that our local chapters provide. We made up for that on Monday. That’s what the Orange Quartet Chapter is all about.
Come on over to 3061 Ruth Elaine, Saturday, August 27. Singing starts promptly at 3:00 PM and lasts until ??. Refreshments will be provided. Bring a snack to share.
Alternate Route
Using The Breath For Musical Effect
It's more than just oxygen -- it's a part of the musical experience. Music judge and coach Kevin Keller explains how.
There are a number of things that make a group "musical". One of the primary tools is the delivery of the breath. Yes, the delivery of the breath. The breath is the most important part of each and every phrase; more important than any note that you sing. Furthermore, the breath concludes the musical phrase rather than starting it.
When the breath is the most important part of the phrase and it concludes the phrase, you must energize the end of the phrase to raise the musical value of the breath. You will also sustain the energy through the phrase and build it, as opposed to plodding along and falling into chord worshipping (whether you intended to or not!). This reinforces the lyrical message of the song. Musically, you can sing louder, softer, faster, slower, more/less color, more/less texture. Just about anything you believe will work actually will work. You manage your breath better, because less air is expended needlessly at the beginning of the phrase. You improve your synchronization on attacks and releases. When the breath is "ordinary" (re: a place to get air), all that you can do is exactly what you were doing with dynamics, texture, color, tempo, etc. This is not musically appealing!
Take one of your repertoire songs and perform this exercise. Sing 32 bars where the breath is ordinary, a place to get air. Then sing those same 32 bars and focus on making the breath the most musically interesting part of the phrase. See what results you get and which you like better.
There are a host of other things you will discover a focus on the breath will bring. Enjoy!
The Salt Lake Tribune
It’s nice to know that cities all over America fight for the chance to host our Barbershop Harmony National Conventions. Their enthusiasm may stem from the fact that we’re a friendly bunch. We don’t break furniture or traffic laws. We like to eat at restaurants. Our only two bad habits are that we carry water bottles everywhere and that we break into song at all hours—and I mean all hours. We certainly did all of the above in Salt Lake City this July.
I enjoyed that Convention, and Salt Lake City was a gracious host town. The LDS Convention Hall even made an exception to its standing rule and let us bring in water. The downtown trains were free. A youth group volunteered to provide quick, tasty outdoor lunches and dinners. On Sunday a special chorus of 600 gold medalists was invited to perform with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. A week later, my hotel even mailed me a pair of expensive shoes that I had left behind. These are hospitable folks.
So I was surprised when a friend showed me an article entitled “Blow out the earplugs, barbershop guys are gone” from the July 11th issue of The Salt Lake Tribune. Granted that by then the paper was talking about us rather than to us, but the local barbershop chapters have the right to feel “disrespected”. My friend, who sings lead (the easy part) in a quartet, felt that the author “just didn’t get it” about our hobby, and hit us a low blow by writing a negative article.
So I read the column, and I feel better now. I really sympathize with the writer, who was trying to be funny. He admits that he was traumatized as a boy by the man next door, who rehearsed a harmony part at full blat while working outside. (The neighbor, a Mr. Hobbs, was probably a baritone who subscribed to the theory that bystanders are the one exception to Article Six of our Code Of Ethics, which states, “We shall refrain from forcing our songs on unsympathetic ears”.) This excruciating child abuse went on for years and evidently featured the bari parts for “A Boy’s Best Friend Is His Mother” and “I Only Want A Buddy Not A Sweetheart”. The writer says he can’t sing a lick, but he knows what he likes to hear, and that stuff wasn’t it.
This year, in a brilliant PR move, our BHS leadership invited thousands of Salt Lake citizens to attend parts of our contests without charge. Nothing helps a newcomer to “get it” like hearing a good performance by a great quartet. But if he plays hooky as the writer did, he’s better off at an opera, a Tycho drumming or a karaoke festival. The editor could send someone who has an open mind, free of psychic scars and a simmering urge for vengeance against long-dead malefactors. To do otherwise would be pointless, like sending Yours Truly to report on a grunge rap concert.
But that was a pretty good line about “time now to collect your missing pets from the animal shelter”. Maybe Mr. Hobbs was a tenor. I think I sang with him once.
Chapter History: Fifth Anniversary
FOUND IN THE November, 1995, issue of "Squeezin's," editor Paul Kelley and probably author of this item.
Believe it nor not, November 18, 1990 was the FIRST meeting of the "Orange Plaza City Serenaders" chapter to be. This was to be and still is a chapter for the sole purpose of barbershop quartetting. At that time there was not another chapter of like persuasion in our society. The organizing committee consisted of Rich Lewis, Jim Czach, Frank Devine, Fred Robirds, Don Moffatt, Phil Wortman, John Hanger, Dean Taylor and Roulo West.
One Singer, Two Chapters
In past decades, joining two Barbershop chapters usually meant that a singer was in some kind of transition. Was he living in two different cities, or was he a “snow bird” who spent half of his year in the north and the rest in the south? Or perhaps he was of a mind to leave one chapter and was sampling the second while he decided. In either case, a dual membership was a temporary thing. It soon simplified itself one way or the other, if only because most singers do not have the time and energy to rehearse and perform in two sets of performance and contest schedules, with duplicate sets of costumes to maintain.
Nowadays, the presence of quartet-only chapters has added a different option. Their purpose is to expand an individual’s opportunities to learn and sing songs, with three other guys. They also encourage all the singing virtues that a chorus chapter works on: blending, breath support, voice placement and the “ping”, and the all-important emotional connection with the audience. Because that audience is a very friendly one and is sitting up close, the “fourth wall” is easier to break than in a darkened auditorium with a microphone.
A good quartet chapter does not make many demands on its members’ time. The Orange Quartet Chapter, for example, opens for informal rehearsals at 6 pm. Pickup quartets gather between 6 and 7:30, when organized activities begin. Each singer present is lined up with a quartet, which goes off to rehearse a song of their choice for about 20 minutes. Then they all return to perform the song before the group. This process happens twice, usually with a second combination of singers. Then around 9:45 the chapter reconvenes at the all-important afterglow, a parade of organized and pickup quartets which allows interested singers to perform in a dozen or more combinations. Some baris and tenors who can read music have sung in twenty or more quartets at a glow. So many songs, in so little time! Again, the purpose is to sing for the pleasure of it and to develop new skills with new songs.
New quartets spin off from this rich musical experience with great frequency. Some are able to fit their rehearsals into the Monday evening “time window”. Most dual members have found that the added time spent quarteting has whetted their appetite for singing. Members who have been in champion chorus chapters such as the Masters of Harmony say that one ambitious chapter such as the MOH demands much more time and attention than does a typical chorus chapter plus a quartet chapter.
The Orange Quartet Chapter is often visited by singers who hope to form a quartet with one or more of our members. We’re pleased to see that happen, but we don’t wait for it.
The quality of the many pickup quartets in which we sing will vary, depending on the songs we know in common and the skills of each singer. If your goal is always to make the quartet produce the best possible performance, you will find each combination to be a worthwhile experience. Down the line, you will learn a large repertoire of beautiful songs and will become able to sing for pleasure in many gatherings that have only four barbershoppers present. Members of our chapter give their wives a standing offer to be their personal quartet, available at short notice to sing without charge at social events. It’s a small price to pay for that extra night out. Besides, happy wives make happy quartets, and vice versa.
So there you have it. If you enjoy singing in quartets and want to learn a lot of new songs, a dual membership may be the thing for you. Bring a friend from your chapter; he’ll enjoy the evening. The Orange Quartet Chapter meets every Monday at the First Christian Church, 1130 East Walnut St., in Orange, California. That’s about two blocks west of Tustin Street.
New Song Titles for Us "well aged" folks
Some of the Baby Boomers favorite songs have been re-released with new titles and lyrics to accommodate an aging audience:
Herman's Hermits - "Mrs. Brown, You've Got A Lovely Walker"
The Bee Gees - "How Can You Mend A Broken Hip"
Nancy Sinatra - "These Boots Aren't Made for Bunions"
The Beatles - "I Get By With A Little Help From Depends"
Marvin Gaye - "I Heard It Through The Grape Nuts"
ABBA - "Denture Queen"
Leo Sayer - "You Make Me Feel Like Napping"
Commodores - "Once, Twice, Three Times To The Bathroom"
Bobby Darin - "Splish, Splash, I Was Havin' A Flash"
Procol Harem - "A Whiter Shade of Hair"
Next Issue
Because of your Editor's summer travel, this issue is for August-September.
Target publication date for the next Squeezins' bulletin is Oct. 1 or whenever we get enough articles. Send your articles to Editor at dcacton@earthlink.net.
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