REGINA GOLDEN HARVEST Barbershop Chorus

Society for the Preservation and Encouragement of Barber Shop Quartet Singing in America

# Sharp Notes #

Publication of the Regina Golden Harvest Chorus

Golden Harvest Chorus meets most Monday Evenings, 7:30-10:00 at
Knox Metropolitan United Church, corner of Victoria and Lorne, Regina, Saskatchewan
Guests always welcome!

October 2002

Musical Notes

I should have realized when I was asked to let my name stand for MVP, I wasn’t being be nominated as the "most valuable player". By the time I figured it out, it was too late. "Last month I couldn’t spell Music Vice President and this month I are one!" Only now am I beginning to realize the extent of the responsibilities of this position… from learning tapes to a whole lot more.

Speaking of learning tapes, be sure you have all four of our repertoire tapes. Learning Tape #1 (the Pole Cats and other barbershop standards); Learning Tape #2, Learning Tape #3 and this year’s repertoire in Learning Tape #4. The most recent edition of #4 is now available. Bring a loonie or previous version of the tape to rehearsal and we can trade. If you have out dated or extra learning tapes at home, please turn them in. They too are worth a loonie.

But don’t just get the tapes, use them! A few minutes a day can make learning our songs so much easier. Play them on your commute to and from the office. If you are one of those lucky enough to be "UBJ" (unencumbered by jobs), play them on your commute to and from "coffee row". Imagine how much you could learn on a trip out of town!

Our director invests countless hours building and refining his skills so that collectively we can learn to sing to our full potential. We as a chorus have invested our financial resources in providing him with the opportunity to help us become better singers and more entertaining performers. But what have we as individual singers invested? Have we been doing our part to realize that potential?

We have a great sound when we know our music, pay attention to our director and focus on doing our best. Our vowels match and our chords truly ring. We need to make those our goals every time we sing a song, be it in rehearsal or performance.

To reach those goals means practice, practice, practice. There isn’t sufficient time during rehearsal to learn our music. Rehearsal is a time for rehearsing what we have learned, not for learning what we have not. Rehearsal time is for refining our "musical product". It’s wasted when we don’t know our music. If we are "glued to the paper", we cannot respond to our director’s guiding hand.

Our job, as individual singers, is to come to rehearsal with the words and music of each song committed to memory as soon as possible. It shouldn’t take more than two weeks after being introduced to a song. Sure there will be momentary lapses or difficult passages that need review, but there is nothing more "freeing" than being able to sing from the heart instead of the score. Only then can our director can take what we have learned on our own time and mold it into a cohesive musical product that conveys the true message of each song in word, note and expression.

We "have what we need" to be great chorus. Let’s each challenge ourselves to "do what it takes" to make it happen!

Eric Neufeld
Music VP

Bring harmony into someone’s life – bring them to our next Chapter meeting!

Welcome Guests!

A hearty welcome to our recent guests – David Bale, Lon Niedermayer, Doug Walton, Reg Bagwell, Randy Birchard, Gerry Hodges and Jim Roberts and an equally hearty "thank-you" to the singer-bringers who introduced these guests to our musical hobby.

Remember to make our guests feel welcome and offer encouragement (remember what it was like when you first came out) – and then take a second to thank the singer-bringers too.

Every Monday is a Guest Night!

Can’t Get Enough Barbershop?

Now you can listen to barberhop 24 hours a day thanks to a New Zealand barbershopper, Steve Currington.

You can find the Encore Barbershop Harmony Internet Broadcast from Wellington, New Zealand on your computer at www.singers.org.nz/encore.

Just follow the easy instructions and you can be enjoying the Vocal Majority, Bluegrass Student Union, Shannon Express, Toast of Tampa, Acoustix, Alexandria Harmonizers, Northern Lights, …

Keep a melody ringing in your heart!

Regina… My Town!

In order to bring this production to fruition, various members of our chorus volunteered for membership on one or more of four committees - steering, script, production, and promotion. Likewise, representatives for these committees were obtained from both of the Sweet Adeline choruses.

Over the summer, the steering and script committees in particular, met on several occasions. A scriptwriter was engaged and, in consultation with the script committee, developed a script to portray the milestones in the history and achievements of our city. In fact, two scripts were developed – one for a super show with the involvement of the ladies' choruses and the other for use by our chorus alone.

Through the steering committee, a date that was satisfactory for all groups involved was arrived at – the weekend of February 22/23, 2003. Although the exact venue has not yet been selected, the format will feature both a Saturday evening and a Sunday matinee performance.

We are now at the point where the script has been turned over to the production committee for implementation. Concurrently. the promotion committee has already begun work on publicizing our production.

Let's all ensure that our 2003 project will flourish!

Wayne Keys

Bring a Friend – Share the Fun!

Would you do a wedding?

"We are interested in a barbershop quartet for an outdoor wedding on May 24, 2003
in Fairfax, VA. Would you be available?"

This was a recent request that appeared in my email inbox – undoubtedly from someone who had seen us on the Internet. I replied that unfortunately we were several thousand kilometers away – but then I was able to put her in touch with a local quartet who will likely sing at the daughter’s wedding.

You never know where the next gig will come from…

I’m sure the Fairfax, Virginia quartet was surprised to receive a tip from Saskatchewan on a possible singout.

With our recent concerns about Bingo’s and fundraising – we all need to keep our ears and eyes open to possible singout opportunities (of both the paid and unpaid kind) – and to continue to talk up our hobby with our friends, neighbours, relatives and acquaintances, …

You never know where that next gig may appear from…

Bruce Fish,
Bulletin Editor

How much is enough?

Whenever I have canvassed for the United Way, I inevitably get asked, "Well, how much should I give?" Then I tell them about the Foreman in the Auto plant in Windsor, ON, who worked it out in terms of hours of work, which boils down to about 1-2% of one’s income. But that’s not the point, as interesting as it might be considering the emphasis on tithing in this community. The point is still the question, how much is enough?

When I think about the charity we have chosen (selected partly because one of its functions is it deals with speech defects), I have to ask are we doing enough? Perhaps, in light of all the discussion on the Chapter’s need for fund-raising, we are already doing all we can. But I want to put forward the following allegory.

An elderly man, that’s 65-plus, is standing at the coffin of his grandson at the graveyard. The youngster was shot down in mindless drive-by shooting that was done just for the hell of it. And he is asking himself, "where have we gone wrong as a community when this kind of thing can happen? Is it that we did not do enough when we were raising our kids? Did we do enough for others’ kids? What more could I have done? Could I have put my hand up when the call came for volunteers to help with the Scouts? Could I have volunteered in other ways? I seemed always to be too busy, and, surely there are others who can do this who aren’t so busy. Yet, maybe I could have squeezed it in. Certainly, I could have given more money to agencies, which were trying to do something for kids who had been shortchanged in terms of nurturing. And if I had done more of these things, would we be standing here today?"

There is no question that the lives that Anne Luke’s agency touches are changed, and channeled in a positive direction. Of course, it isn’t enough. One woman’s dedication is not going to change the world. But one woman’s dream is a light that beckons to others to do something.

Our individualistic society, where so much emphasis is put on standing on your own two feet militates against getting involved in community action that is absolutely crucial in the raising of responsible men and women. The old saying "it takes only two to make a baby but it takes a community to raise it" was never truer than it is today. And the good news is that it is catching on. The students in elementary schools are recognizing the need for group action, and are coming up with interesting little projects that help one another. You might think this might get watered down some, when the stresses of High School come along, but lo and behold, it is found there, too, something that would hardly have occurred a generation or two ago.

We can help with the process in two ways. We can support diligently the Early Learning Centre, both with funds, and by lending moral support; and we can get behind the effort of Dave Pearce, and get into the schools with some harmony.

After all, it is harmony we must strive for, in life and in song. Let’s go for it.

Jack Boan,
Service & Charities Chairman

Teach The Children To Sing!

Learn To Carry A Tune in a Bucket – or The Principles of Singing In Tune and Locking Barbershop Cchords

By Bill Biffle, Harmony College "Tune It or Die" instructor

Singing truly in tune is a lofty goal, but it's one of the most important skills any musician can master. All music-but especially our music-must be pristinely in tune to be really good. Below are some tips that will help you achieve better intonation.

The first-and most important-step is to become a better singer. Your voice is your instrument. If you don't have adequate control of it, you simply can't sing in tune. Learn to make a well-supported, freely produced, fully resonant tone throughout your full range at every volume level. How? Take voice lessons. If you wanted to learn to play the oboe, you would probably find a teacher. Your voice presents the same challenge. Just because you've been using it your whole life doesn't mean that you have the skill to make the fine adjustments required to truly sing in tune.

Here are a few "tricks of the trade" every singer should know.

Choose solid barbershop songs and arrangements that have a good percentage of barbershop seventh chords.

• Choose music that's well within the capabilities of the singers in the ensemble.
• Sing with an engaged, active, "lifted" face.
• Maintain the placement of your tone in a high, forward place. This, together with a steady flow of air that's free from muscular interference, will give essential "ring" to your tone.
• Sing clear, recognizable vowels and match them within the ensemble.
• To the extent you can, without creating undue vocal tension, match the tone quality (timbre) of the voices.
• Lift the pitch of every root and fifth (in the chord being sung, not in the key of the song).
• Sing each repeated pitch slightly higher than the previous one.

Leads

• Listen primarily to your part while singing, concentrating on maintaining the key of the song. Practice this at home by singing your line while stopping frequently to check the tonal center (key) against a pitch pipe.
• Mark every "do," "re," "la" and "ti" in the entire arrangement. Lift the pitch of each of these notes slightly.
• Lift the pitch of all raised accidentals.

Basses

• Mark every fifth in the chord that's in your line. Sing these pitches slightly higher than you're used to. (Again, this is the fifth of the chord being sung, not of the key the song is in.)
• Sing your line like a melody, lifting and connecting each the note.

Baritones and tenors

• Sing all fifths and roots of the chord slightly more fully than the other notes.
• Slightly lighten your tone and lessen your volume as the notes go higher.

Other helpful stuff

• Get in shape. Singing is an athletic act. If you tire, you'll sing out of tune.
• Hear in your "mind's ear" the pitch before you sing it. At the least, do this at the start of every phrase.
• Break the tyranny of "high" and "low" notes. There is, after all, nothing inherently high or low about any note. On the piano they're "right" and "left" notes. On a violin, they're "in" and "out." Try pointing down to "high" notes and up to "low" notes.
• Learn to truly listen as you sing. Build your awareness of the sounds that you and the rest of the ensemble are making. It's a learned skill; learn to do it.

Last, seek continual improvement as a singer and as a musician. Sing as well as you can every time you sing. Better singing produces better intonation.

Go and sin no more.

Live a Little… Sing in A Quartet!

Great news! Some of the old favourite singers and bands have re-released their great hits with new lyrics to accommodate their ageing audience. Some examples…

Herman's Hermits: "Mrs. Brown You've Got a Lovely Walker"

The Rolling Stones: "You Can't Always Pee When You Want"

Credence Clearwater Revival: "Bad Prune Rising"

Marvin Gaye:"I Heard It Through the Grape Nuts"

The Who: "Talkin' 'Bout My Medication"

The Troggs: "Bald Thing"

Carly Simon: "You're So Varicose Vein"

The Bee Gees: "How Can You Mend a Broken Hip"

Roberta Flack: "The First Time Ever I Forgot Your Face"

Johnny Nash: "I Can't See Clearly Now"

The Temptations: "Papa Got a Kidney Stone"

ABBA: "Denture Queen"

Leo Sayer: "You Make Me Feel Like Napping"

Commodores: "Once, Twice, Three Trips to the Bathroom"

Procol Harem: "A Whiter Shade of Hair"

The Beatles: "I Get By With a Little Help From Depends"

The Bass’ Creed

1. I will always remember that Basses are God's chosen people and will strive to convince others of that truth.

2. Whenever the notes fall within my "Power Range", I will sing in a manner that conveys the message "I am a Bass! Hear me roar!"

3. Whenever there exists the slightest opportunity for a swipe, I will take it, whether the music is so written or not.

4. I will, on rare occasions, allow the Baritone to take a swipe.

5. I will always remember that the Bass establishes the sound of the quartet or chorus and I will not allow the Bari, Lead and Tenor to forget it.

6. I will remember that the lead carries the melody and message of the song and so, will show him a modest amount of respect. I will not over do it.

7. I will remember that the Tenor, though he sings girlishly, is a rare and hard to find guy and so, will treat him with grudging respect. I will not over do it.

8. I will not step on the Lead's pickups and will tune my voice to his, even though he is prone to drop pitch. For I am a Bass and I can reach it.

9. I will frequently remind the Bari that his proper function is to make the Bass sound good.

10. I will do all of the above in a spirit of humility befitting one of God's chosen people.

Earl McGhee
Daytona Beach chapter

Sing! For Life…

November 2002

December 2002

Articles in this bulletin do not necessarily reflect the views of the chapter. Unless carrying a byline, they are those of the editor. Items received may be referred to the executive before publication.
All chapter officers and members are encouraged to submit articles to the Sharp Notes.
Please address any comments, suggestions or submissions to the editor – Bruce Fish, 761-2503 / bfish@accesscomm.ca. Current and back issues of the Sharp Notes can be found on the Golden Harvest Chapter website at www.gpfn.sk.ca/culture/arts/gharvest.

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IMPORTANT NOTICE
If you are one of hundreds of parachuting enthusiasts who bought our book, "Easy Sky Diving," please make the following correction: … on page 8, line 7, the words "state zip code" should have read "pull rip cord!"