Wearin' of the Green
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In This Issue:
President's Message by Mike Werner
Afterglow, Denny's Restaurant, 3000 W Chapman between the 57 and 5 fwys by Mike Werner What happened on February 5 in Fallbrook was nothing short of amazing. Nearly 500 barbershoppers and family turned out to see performances by O C Times; Ready, Willing, & Mabel; Dazzle; A Capella Gold; and Hi Fidelity in support of one of our barbershop brothers Terry Aramian. Terry had suffered a stroke, and when word got out, many people inquired as to how they could help. For insurance reasons, the family could not receive direct contributions; however, this did not stop a fund called Music Appreciation 101 from starting the collection of donations that flooded in. MA 101 was a comedy quartet Terry was in, along with Lloyd Steinkamp, a friend of over 40 years. Lloyd's son, Gary was in charge of managing the funds. Terry's new quartet, Singers Limited, who included Jerry Fairchild, Jim McKee, and Ron Criswell worked to secure a venue for the benefit show. The Grand Tradition, owned by barbershopper Earl McDougal, was selected to be the site. Now if only every chapter putting on a show had this predicament! The demand for tickets was so overwhelming that there was no choice but to have the benefit at Fallbrook High School and the afterglow at the Grand Tradition. Predicament #2 -- It was not realized until everything had been set that the date of February 5 was the same date of some event called the Super Bowl! Not a thing was changed, and the show went off without a hitch. Lloyd did his usual super job MCing and kept the whole affair upbeat. For those who missed the afterglow, you would have heard Singers Limited perform with Terry on Baritone!
This event was not Society-organized. It was put together by those people who truly care about our brothers in harmony. Sure we were reflecting on one particular individual, but I believe that the bigger picture is that we do look out for our friends.
The Best Room in the House
The Orange Quartet Chapter likes to think that we improve the performances of the quartets that reside here or visit us. We even bring in experts now and then to jog us out of our bad old habits.
But bad habits die hard. Only a month or so after we’ve been put back on the yellow brick road, we sometimes slip into sloppy behavior. This is especially true when we are learning a new song, which pulls our attention away from our presentation. So … we forget about attack and release, vowel matching, eye contact, interaction with the other guys in our quartet, and the message of the song.
One simple way to clean out a lot of the unwanted sounds that clutter up our singing is to sing through the target song three times in close succession before anyone in the quartet comments on it. Ray Rhymer taught this at a Harmony College West seminar several years ago, and it works wonders. By the third repetition, you are all listening to each other, so the quartet sounds good. Let’s call it the Ray Rhymer Rule.
I would suggest that a quartet go one step further. If you sing it a fourth time and record yourselves, you can take your recordings home for review in the privacy of your homes. We could call it the Record and Review Rule. While you might then be tempted to tell the other three guys how they can improve their work, I’d trust them to do that. It’s more productive (and more diplomatic) to clean your own house first. If you are the lead, are you selling the song, or just singing notes? If you are the bass, are you supporting the phantom beat that the lead has established, or are you playing it safe by spotting him a third of a second before you begin each line? If you are the tenor, are you floating your part in there until the end of the line, and then getting the glory you deserve at the end? I thought so; you tenors are so perceptive. If you are the bari, you know all of these pitfalls. What a classy bunch of guys you baris are!
Back to reality, Indigo Quartet Lite had an instructive experience last Monday. The chapter was faced with an overflow crowd of about 32 guys, so Indigo (with visiting bass Don Derler subbing for Lee) was assigned to rehearse a song in the Gentlemen’s Lounge. Well, skeptics would call it the Men’s Head. Although the room is spatially challenged, it was recently refurbished; so now it is brightly lit, and it sports a large mirror over the sink. As our quartet faced the mirror, I glanced up and locked eyes with our tenor Rich Little, who was smiling and having a great time while he sang. Pretty soon all four of us were interacting with each other via the mirror, and our song took on personality, with a puckish element of the unpredictable. We walked back into the meeting room and wowed the crowd with a great performance. I think the song was “Ain’t Misbehavin’”, but it could have been “Scotch and Soda” or “Let the Rest of the World Go By”. The point is that we reached out to the crowd, which is an obvious duty but an easy one to duck.
The mirror is a wonderful teacher. It doesn’t scold you. It works at your speed. It won’t nag unless you repeat the offense. Best of all, it doesn’t gossip about you. It lets you share a smile and a wink with the other quartet members when you forget a word or a move. And when you have moved your performance up a notch, the mirror forgets all of your past sins. Occasional guests drop in and listen for a moment, but they don’t stick around.
So, when you are feeling up to the challenge, just ask Board Master Phil Roth to book your quartet into the Gentlemen’s Lounge. But you may have to reserve early now that Indigo Quartet is “in the know”. Once you have decided that you like what you see, that mirror is addictive.
Valentines & Meetings
We had a great time giving the singing valentines. We were able to do close to 60, a far cry from the 100 we did last year. But this is enough to sustain the chapter for this next year. It shows how dynamic a guy like Rich Lewis really was.
The Orange Quartet Chapter thanks the Masters Of Harmony for sending us many Singing Valentine requests. I believe we filled all of them up to the point of requests that came in on the 14th of Feb. It was this effort that made our Singing Valentines a financial success. It is such co-operation between chapters that makes our society a truly fraternal group.
We have been having a great time on Mondays. There have been over 30 members showing up and all of them can sing well. We have some new guys that can really lay it out. It is really getting exciting to hear all the good stuff. Many are coming early to woodshed from 6 to 7:30. And Denny's, our afterglow place, is always full. If you are not coming down on Monday evenings, you're missing a great time.
How a Chorus Chapter Can Jump-Start Quartets
A good quartet inspires the chorus chapter that is its home base. A chorus needs several quartets under its roof if it is to sound good and thrill its audience. But the better quartets tend to look far afield to find four singers whose voices, personalities and goals are a good match. Frankly, such a quartet won’t be of much help to any chapter except for show time. What a chorus chapter wants to develop is “in-house” quartets, which help it every time it rehearses. The Fullerton Chapter does this; check its excellent web site at: .
The key to starting up quartets is to draw your new members into the process. New singers often lose a year or more before discovering the Barber Pole Songs, because their chapter is busy with chorus repertoire, contests and shows. But the “Pole Cats” are
vital to the development of quartets. Even the Orange Quartet Chapter, which has no chorus to enter in contests (and no shows), uses the Barber Pole Songs to warm up, tune our ears, and greet visitors. Here’s how Orange promotes quarteting, and I recommend the system to every chorus chapter as well.
As soon as every new member knows what part he will sing, buy him a CD of the Barber Pole Songs and tell him to play them as often as he can fit them into his driving schedule.
Use them as warm-up songs in your chapter rehearsals, demanding as much vocal quality from your chorus when it sings “My Wild Irish Rose” as you do for a contest song. You will discover beautiful chords that you didn’t know existed, and the good habits of muscle memory will carry on into your contest singing.
Open the meeting room an hour early for the singing of the BPS (Barber Pole Songs). Allow the new guys to get their feet wet by singing along sometimes, but avoid hurt feelings by explaining the Fifth Wheel Rule up front. Start a chapter BPS program to give new guys recognition and the status that they always crave from their chapter. Give special status to all members who learn a second part; it’s easy and it may point the way for them to enter new quartets.
Even those members who choose not to sing in quartets are still helping their chapter by learning the BPS. This common repertoire is always productive when sung by a double quartet, and most of us enjoy double quartets as much as full-chorus singing.
Finally, bend every effort to make your break and your afterglow quartet-friendly times. Your in-house quartet members can reach out and pull in three other guys at random for a quick song, and a lot of good feeling will happen. If that pickup quartet sounds pretty good, give them a funny name and have them sing to the entire chapter immediately after break. They become your entertainment program for the evening. And at the glow, pass a Styrofoam barber pole down the table and limit the singing to one quartet at a time. For more ideas, contact the O.Q.C. at a href="http://www.harmonize.com/Orange/">http://www.harmonize.com/Orange/"
A Suggested Logo
Valentines Photos
A Valentine to Remember
The ever-faithful Orange Chapter gave me a singing Valentine. The quartet doing the honors was Orange Town Four, Phil Wortman, Paul Kelley, Don Engel, and Virgil Pletcher. After they sang, we lined up for a photo, and I was graced with the lead's hat. When I removed the skimmer, I happened to see some writing inside. This was intriguing. So I checked the skimmers of Wortman, Engel, and Pletcher, too! My unscientific conclusion: three out of four quarteters have something written inside their hat.
 Left to right: Phil Wortman, Paul Kelley, Don Engel, Virgil Pletcher
Barbershop Database
Submitted by Dave Gryvnak
Check out this web site: http://www.bsmdb.com/.
St. Patrick's Day Event
The Southbay Coastliners are having their annual St. Patrick's Day Party again this year. It will be held 7:30 pm Wednesday, 15 March, at the Eagles Lodge 138 S. Catalina, Redondo Beach. At last count, about 20 members of the Orange Quartet Chapter are going. This is a terrific event and a time to sing with many other B'shoppers. You don't want to miss this B'shop party. It is all fun and singing, farce contest and woodshedding. Ready, Willing and Mabel were there last time and not only did we get to hear them sing, some of us got to sing with them. Don't miss this event.
We will have a car pool leaving at 5:45 sharp from the church. We can't wait for late comers because the traffic is very bad, the parking at the Lodge is very sparse and we want to get there in time to not have to walk a mile back to the Lodge.
See you on the 15th.
Irish Joke
Father O'Malley rose from his bed. It was a fine spring day in his new Texas mission parish. He walked to the window of his bedroom to get a deep breath of the beautiful day outside. He then noticed there was a jackass lying dead in the middle of his front lawn. He promptly called the local police station. The conversation went like this:
"Good morning, Sergeant Flaherty speaking. How might I help you?"
"Top o' the mornin' to ya! This is Father O'Malley at St. Brigid's.
There's a jackass lying dead in me front lawn. Would ya be so kind as
to send a couple o' yer lads to take care of the matter?"
Sergeant Flaherty, considering himself to be quite a wit, replied with
a smirk, "Well now father, it was always my impression that you people
took care of the last rites!"
There was dead silence on the line for a long moment.
Father O'Malley then replied, "Aye, that's certainly true,
sergeant, but we are also obliged to notify the next of kin!"
Next Issue
Target publication date for the next Squeezins' bulletin is April 1 or whenever we get enough articles. Send your articles to Editor at dcacton@earthlink.net.
 ORANGE QUARTET CHAPTER, Barbershop Harmony Society
To find a separate printable list of officers for your records, click HERE.
OFFICERS
President: Mike Werner
Immediate Past President: Dave Gryvnak
V.P. Marketing & PR: Gary Phillips
Secretary:
Rich Spencer
Treasurer: Don Engel
V.P. Membership: Wes Reed
V.P. Music: Paul Gutierrez
V.P. Programs: Phil Roth
Member at Large: Ken Tillmanns
Bulletin Editor: Dorothy Acton
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ORANGE SQUEEZIN'S
