I skipped the mass sing so I could catch up on this blog - the things I do for you!
So now it's midnight and I'm back from the Quartet Finals and the Coronet Club Show. Again, I'm not going to describe the quartet finals in details because you should have been watching the webcast and reading Marti Lovejoy's excellent descriptions on the Sweet Adelines Yahoo group.
There were some very funny moments in the quartet contest. Each quartet has 15 minutes and must perform two contest level songs, but can do other stuff and include some patter. For instance, AKA, the microphone testers, did a skit about teaching Harriet to cook coq au vin: complete with rubber chook, chefs hat, kitchen utensils and bottle of wine. Remix are looking for another contest they can win, and try a midsized quartet contest (only 2 of them sing) and a small chorus (one directs, 3 sing). Martini tell what sounds like a very old joke about how a phone call to God costs $50000 in the US but only 50 cents in Canada - because in Canada it's a local call. There are several versions of a country accent.
At Intermission Peggy Gram presents the President's Life Time Achievement Award to Britt-Helene from Sweden, and Britt-Helene makes a very moving speech including part in Swedish (because it's difficult to express emotion in English). Lots of little things today are making me cry - it's a very emotional day.
After the quartets finish, Moxie Ladies, who are last year's champions, perform and there's another award presentation from the Music Educators National Committee to Karen, who is a music teacher in a high school and started a young women in harmony program that's been going 18 years. She makes me cry too.
The quartets are called back on stage and the results are announced.
Spritzer is 10th with 2553
Mojo is 9th with 2625
Remix is 8th with 2646
Razzcals is 7th with 2650
Capri is 6th with 2666
Journey is 5th with 2687
Martini is 4th with 2710
Maxx Factor is 3rd with 2712
Jackpot is 2nd with 2789
Zing! is 1st with 2821.
Zing! were faculty for the barbershop cruise Jo and I did round Hawaii last year, so we're very pleased for them. More tears as they receive their crowns and trophies and flowers.
Di Huber, our coach and good friend from River Blenders chorus, directs everybody in singing the Winners Song.
And then it's off to dinner. The first few places we try have long queues - Friday night must be when everyone comes to town in Nashville. A group of us find a pasta place that's mostly empty and has no waiting. At least it offers salad. And beer.
It's now a quarter past midnight: you'll have to wait until tomorrow for the next exciting instalment, which will be about the Coronet Club Show. More tears, I'm afraid.
Friday, October 23, 2009
Education Class with Melodeers
This morning's education class was with Jim Arns and the Melodeers, last year's champions (and four times before that as well).
We were in the Grand Ballroom of the Renaissance Hotel, next to the Convention Centre. It was a bit hard to see from where we were sitting, but I took lots of notes.
We started with physical warmups: mostly arm waving, as that's all we could see. It reminded me of Michaela's warmup exercises for CKC.
Then Renee Porzel (I think) led a session to emphasise the similarities of everyone in Sweet Adelines. It was "raise your hands if you ...". The Melodeers are similar to everyone else in the proportion of old and new members, members who travel distances, members with children and grandchildren.
The theme for this class was "the common thread - it's all about the music"
Choosing Personal Responsibility
The Melodeers make it as simple as possible, and everything is based on the music. They create rehearsals that people want to attend, and so they've got rid of a lot of rules about things like attendance records. They believe in Choosing Personal Responsibility. This means that each member is in charge of what she gets out of rehearsal and what she contributes. For example, they don't provide learning tracks for new songs. For one thing, Jim keeps changing the arrangement and interpretation. Members learn however they can. Many members make their own recordings of rehearsals. If they miss a rehearsal, it's up to them to ask a riser buddy to tape it for them so they can catch up. People will also make their own video recording of choreo, or arrange to get a copy of someone else's recording.
There is a lot of internal peer pressure from other members that motivates people. There is also a lot of help available from Section Leaders and the Visual Team. Jim teaches at the level of the fastest learners, and he teaches the members who are at rehearsal (not those who've missed rehearsals).
Renee says this all carries over to her personal life as well: she found her 7 year old son phoning Dominos to order pizza because on rehearsal nights, he knows they have pizza for dinner.
What they don't do
Julie has been a member of the Melodeers for 40 years and has 5 international first place medals to show for it. She says they don't do much admin business at rehearsals, they trust their leaders to do it behind the scenes. Since 1976 they have not had attendance requirements, because it bogged things down. She says you can't legislate enthusiasm, and perfect attendance doesn't win points from the judges. Members don't want to miss a minute of rehearsals. They want to give Jim all the time he needs.
Vocal Production
Jim talks about their approach to vocal production.
Unity means a common approach to whatever we do. He refers to the 5 principles: posture, breathing, phonation, resonation, articulation.
About posture: "the finest instrument on the globe has a human around it" - the voice is different from other musical instruments because it is not fixed in place. The chorus demonstrates monkey vs person vs champion singer.
About resonance: Jim talks about the 'living room' vs the 'bathroom'. In the living room, we want to get the sound absorbing soft bits out of the way to produce a rich, warm, lush sound. In the bathroom we use the hard surfaces of the hard palate and teeth to produce ring. We change the internal shapes and surfaces of the vocal instrument to produce sound.
Jim talks about the living room vowels: ah oh aw; and the bathroom vowels: ee, eh , (and others I didn't write down), the schizo vowels oo and eugh (roadkill oo), and the ugly child a. I might not have these exactly right.
(I'll finish this later, the quartet finals are starting in 10 minutes).
Jim gets the Melodeers to demonstrate various kinds of disunity by singing Love Letters Straight to Your Heart: Vowel matching disunity, placement disunity, resonance disunity. We can hear the difference, even though the notes and words are correct.
Our knowledge and expectations have increased over the years, we're all still learning.
Artistry and Expression
Renee says the lyrics of most of our barbershop ballads are beautiful, they're often about love and other emotions. Each member of the Melodeers is asked to create their own story that means something to them, based on their own life experiences, to help them feel and communicate the emotions of the song.
Renee says as a judge she looks across the faces of a chorus and can see lightbulbs either on or off (on, on, off, on). The Melodeers demonstrate with the baris off and the rest on: we can pick the baris. Then the whole chorus demonstrates off, on, off. Faces also affect the sound.
Physical movement
Telling everyone to move on the breath is a basic way of getting everyone moving, but it looks pretty funny (the Melodeers demonstrate) when it doesn't match the lyrics. It's better to move in a real and genuine way, and this also helps phrase endings and makes dynamics easier.
New member
Alison has been a member for 2 years. She is a professor of communication in her other life and says you can apply a 'transactional model of communication" to singing: it's about sending and receiving messages. Music, emotion and individual messages are all simultaneously communicated. She says Melodeers rehearsals are fun, action packed and never dull.
Demo
Jim uses Time After Time to demonstrate what it sounds like when each part does something different; then one voice sticking out; then baris over-emoting. He says if everyone is emotionally connected, there's unity. By the way, Renee says the rule for the chorus is no hands above the waist.
Then they demonstrate singing with a steady flow of air, and how this prevents choppiness.
The Melodeers sing Why Did I Choose You.
Administration
Donna is Team Manager. She explains how administration has been streamlined, and that "it's all about the music". The Management Team meets once a month for an hour before rehearsal. They circulate all reports before the meeting, and any questions and clarification is done by email beforehand. Financial decisions are based on "does it help the singing?" Dues are $365 a year and have not been increased for 4 years. The role of the Management Team is to support Jim's vision. Rehearsals are for singing.
Inflection
Jim says in speech inflection is the rise and fall of pitch in the voice to add meaning and emphasis. In singing we also use inflection on some words to add character. They demonstrate using Ring Out the Bells in Dixieland to contrast with inflection, without inflection.
Renee says the visual plan matches the music. They demonstrate using small hands vs big hands for the big bell on "ding dong ding dong". A visual mismatch affects the music too because it feels wrong for the singers.
Questions
How do you get rid of 's'?
Sing vowel to vowel eg ki-ssme, not kiss me. In uptunes the tempo tells us where the vowels go, so it's easier than ballads. Watch the Director: often stray 's's are human error. Jim is not a big fan of having some people leave off the 's': it's a cheap short cut that makes it harder for singers to express meaning ("ki me"?)
Does Jim sing, and if so what part?
No, but if he did it would be bass.
How do you indoctrinate new members?
Melodeers don't provide learning tapes, because Jim is always making changes and learning tapes would become out of date very quickly. New members are thrown in the deep end. They do their own taping and recording and they show up every week so they don't miss out.
How to achieve those long held notes at the end of a song?
Good breathing skills. Or, if necessary, stagger breathing but do it artistically: make sure you exit and enter on whatever vowel the rest of the chorus is singing.
How big is your Music Team and how often do they meet?
Jim introduces the Music Team: Associate Directors, Director's Resource Coordinator, Section Leaders, Tape Evaluations. There are quite a lot of them. They meet whenever they need to - not necessarily all together.
How often do you have Section rehearsals?
Section rehearsals are always on chorus nights, because of the distances people have to travel and the other demands on their time. Also, if some people didn't come to Section rehearsals they would be unproductive.
They don't have extra rehearsals leading up to contest. They do have geographic groups that meet separately sometimes.
Does Front row learn choreo separately? And do they sing as well as dance?
There are no outside rehearsals for front row, and they do sing. Jim demonstrates how the chorus sounds when the front row doesn't sing. The choreo plan is taught during normal rehearsals: 90% is the same as the chorus anyway. It's never about the front row: they are a minority.
What are qualifying requirements?
Vocal requirement is 0 0 0: zero mistakes on words, notes or breathing. The vocal qualification check is done over two weeks: if they don't pass the first week, they work on it during the week and then resubmit the second week. The deadline is firm, and some people don't go to contest because they haven't qualified. It happens about 10-12 weeks before contest.
Once they have passed the vocal requirement, they do a visual qualification on the risers during a rehearsal. It's done by the Visual Team, who assign scores. They must achieve a pass.
Qualification is only required for contest, not for all repertoire. It's not punitive, because lots of help is offered to get people through it.
How can a small chorus sound as good as the Melodeers?
Jim demonstrates what it sounds like when just one row of the Melodeers sing.
Do you have auditions for front row?
There is ongoing evaluation during rehearsals. Front row auditions are held a year and a half before International contest.
Melodeers have got over being told individually when they make mistakes. Jim says "there is no crying in barbershop" - we are musicians, and like all musicians we can take critique.
How do new members learn the repertoire?
They do get a CD with the two audition songs (contest songs) on them. They get a list of current repertoire, and learn the rest of the repertoire the same way as everyone else. They are told who they can go to to ask them to record their part for them during rehearsal. They can buy Melodeers CDs! They are required to audition in a quartet in front of the Music Staff, about 4-6 weeks after they start.
We were in the Grand Ballroom of the Renaissance Hotel, next to the Convention Centre. It was a bit hard to see from where we were sitting, but I took lots of notes.
We started with physical warmups: mostly arm waving, as that's all we could see. It reminded me of Michaela's warmup exercises for CKC.
Then Renee Porzel (I think) led a session to emphasise the similarities of everyone in Sweet Adelines. It was "raise your hands if you ...". The Melodeers are similar to everyone else in the proportion of old and new members, members who travel distances, members with children and grandchildren.
The theme for this class was "the common thread - it's all about the music"
Choosing Personal Responsibility
The Melodeers make it as simple as possible, and everything is based on the music. They create rehearsals that people want to attend, and so they've got rid of a lot of rules about things like attendance records. They believe in Choosing Personal Responsibility. This means that each member is in charge of what she gets out of rehearsal and what she contributes. For example, they don't provide learning tracks for new songs. For one thing, Jim keeps changing the arrangement and interpretation. Members learn however they can. Many members make their own recordings of rehearsals. If they miss a rehearsal, it's up to them to ask a riser buddy to tape it for them so they can catch up. People will also make their own video recording of choreo, or arrange to get a copy of someone else's recording.
There is a lot of internal peer pressure from other members that motivates people. There is also a lot of help available from Section Leaders and the Visual Team. Jim teaches at the level of the fastest learners, and he teaches the members who are at rehearsal (not those who've missed rehearsals).
Renee says this all carries over to her personal life as well: she found her 7 year old son phoning Dominos to order pizza because on rehearsal nights, he knows they have pizza for dinner.
What they don't do
Julie has been a member of the Melodeers for 40 years and has 5 international first place medals to show for it. She says they don't do much admin business at rehearsals, they trust their leaders to do it behind the scenes. Since 1976 they have not had attendance requirements, because it bogged things down. She says you can't legislate enthusiasm, and perfect attendance doesn't win points from the judges. Members don't want to miss a minute of rehearsals. They want to give Jim all the time he needs.
Vocal Production
Jim talks about their approach to vocal production.
Unity means a common approach to whatever we do. He refers to the 5 principles: posture, breathing, phonation, resonation, articulation.
About posture: "the finest instrument on the globe has a human around it" - the voice is different from other musical instruments because it is not fixed in place. The chorus demonstrates monkey vs person vs champion singer.
About resonance: Jim talks about the 'living room' vs the 'bathroom'. In the living room, we want to get the sound absorbing soft bits out of the way to produce a rich, warm, lush sound. In the bathroom we use the hard surfaces of the hard palate and teeth to produce ring. We change the internal shapes and surfaces of the vocal instrument to produce sound.
Jim talks about the living room vowels: ah oh aw; and the bathroom vowels: ee, eh , (and others I didn't write down), the schizo vowels oo and eugh (roadkill oo), and the ugly child a. I might not have these exactly right.
(I'll finish this later, the quartet finals are starting in 10 minutes).
Jim gets the Melodeers to demonstrate various kinds of disunity by singing Love Letters Straight to Your Heart: Vowel matching disunity, placement disunity, resonance disunity. We can hear the difference, even though the notes and words are correct.
Our knowledge and expectations have increased over the years, we're all still learning.
Artistry and Expression
Renee says the lyrics of most of our barbershop ballads are beautiful, they're often about love and other emotions. Each member of the Melodeers is asked to create their own story that means something to them, based on their own life experiences, to help them feel and communicate the emotions of the song.
Renee says as a judge she looks across the faces of a chorus and can see lightbulbs either on or off (on, on, off, on). The Melodeers demonstrate with the baris off and the rest on: we can pick the baris. Then the whole chorus demonstrates off, on, off. Faces also affect the sound.
Physical movement
Telling everyone to move on the breath is a basic way of getting everyone moving, but it looks pretty funny (the Melodeers demonstrate) when it doesn't match the lyrics. It's better to move in a real and genuine way, and this also helps phrase endings and makes dynamics easier.
New member
Alison has been a member for 2 years. She is a professor of communication in her other life and says you can apply a 'transactional model of communication" to singing: it's about sending and receiving messages. Music, emotion and individual messages are all simultaneously communicated. She says Melodeers rehearsals are fun, action packed and never dull.
Demo
Jim uses Time After Time to demonstrate what it sounds like when each part does something different; then one voice sticking out; then baris over-emoting. He says if everyone is emotionally connected, there's unity. By the way, Renee says the rule for the chorus is no hands above the waist.
Then they demonstrate singing with a steady flow of air, and how this prevents choppiness.
The Melodeers sing Why Did I Choose You.
Administration
Donna is Team Manager. She explains how administration has been streamlined, and that "it's all about the music". The Management Team meets once a month for an hour before rehearsal. They circulate all reports before the meeting, and any questions and clarification is done by email beforehand. Financial decisions are based on "does it help the singing?" Dues are $365 a year and have not been increased for 4 years. The role of the Management Team is to support Jim's vision. Rehearsals are for singing.
Inflection
Jim says in speech inflection is the rise and fall of pitch in the voice to add meaning and emphasis. In singing we also use inflection on some words to add character. They demonstrate using Ring Out the Bells in Dixieland to contrast with inflection, without inflection.
Renee says the visual plan matches the music. They demonstrate using small hands vs big hands for the big bell on "ding dong ding dong". A visual mismatch affects the music too because it feels wrong for the singers.
Questions
How do you get rid of 's'?
Sing vowel to vowel eg ki-ssme, not kiss me. In uptunes the tempo tells us where the vowels go, so it's easier than ballads. Watch the Director: often stray 's's are human error. Jim is not a big fan of having some people leave off the 's': it's a cheap short cut that makes it harder for singers to express meaning ("ki me"?)
Does Jim sing, and if so what part?
No, but if he did it would be bass.
How do you indoctrinate new members?
Melodeers don't provide learning tapes, because Jim is always making changes and learning tapes would become out of date very quickly. New members are thrown in the deep end. They do their own taping and recording and they show up every week so they don't miss out.
How to achieve those long held notes at the end of a song?
Good breathing skills. Or, if necessary, stagger breathing but do it artistically: make sure you exit and enter on whatever vowel the rest of the chorus is singing.
How big is your Music Team and how often do they meet?
Jim introduces the Music Team: Associate Directors, Director's Resource Coordinator, Section Leaders, Tape Evaluations. There are quite a lot of them. They meet whenever they need to - not necessarily all together.
How often do you have Section rehearsals?
Section rehearsals are always on chorus nights, because of the distances people have to travel and the other demands on their time. Also, if some people didn't come to Section rehearsals they would be unproductive.
They don't have extra rehearsals leading up to contest. They do have geographic groups that meet separately sometimes.
Does Front row learn choreo separately? And do they sing as well as dance?
There are no outside rehearsals for front row, and they do sing. Jim demonstrates how the chorus sounds when the front row doesn't sing. The choreo plan is taught during normal rehearsals: 90% is the same as the chorus anyway. It's never about the front row: they are a minority.
What are qualifying requirements?
Vocal requirement is 0 0 0: zero mistakes on words, notes or breathing. The vocal qualification check is done over two weeks: if they don't pass the first week, they work on it during the week and then resubmit the second week. The deadline is firm, and some people don't go to contest because they haven't qualified. It happens about 10-12 weeks before contest.
Once they have passed the vocal requirement, they do a visual qualification on the risers during a rehearsal. It's done by the Visual Team, who assign scores. They must achieve a pass.
Qualification is only required for contest, not for all repertoire. It's not punitive, because lots of help is offered to get people through it.
How can a small chorus sound as good as the Melodeers?
Jim demonstrates what it sounds like when just one row of the Melodeers sing.
Do you have auditions for front row?
There is ongoing evaluation during rehearsals. Front row auditions are held a year and a half before International contest.
Melodeers have got over being told individually when they make mistakes. Jim says "there is no crying in barbershop" - we are musicians, and like all musicians we can take critique.
How do new members learn the repertoire?
They do get a CD with the two audition songs (contest songs) on them. They get a list of current repertoire, and learn the rest of the repertoire the same way as everyone else. They are told who they can go to to ask them to record their part for them during rehearsal. They can buy Melodeers CDs! They are required to audition in a quartet in front of the Music Staff, about 4-6 weeks after they start.
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Chorus competition
Thursday, 22nd October: Chris Kemp's birthday.
I woke up at 5:30 am and crept out of the bedroom to get a head start on doing my nails. After showering I wandered around in knickers and bra ticking off my mental list of things to do. Have breakfast. Put in contact lenses. Just as I was about to start makeup, Sharon turned up and did my hair (and Sue's as well). I worked through the CKC 12 step program for putting on makeup. It took four goes to get the right eyelash on, and I only got it right with Sharon's help. It's extraordinary how long it takes to get made up and dressed: at 8 am Sue and I were just putting on the finishing touches.
We went down to the CKC room for makeup check at 8:15 am, and I passed muster. Then we went back down again at 9 am to start warmups.
Around 10 am we headed down to the foyer to line up and wait for the bus. Two nice Convention Assistants were waiting there to guide us. We sang I Am Australian while we were waiting, then on the bus we sang Can You Feel the Love, and then something else. The bus didn't have to go very far, just one block, but it took us to the stage door entrance of the Sommet Centre and then we started the traffic pattern. Scioto Valley were just coming off, and Waikato Rivertones were llining up to go on, as we made our way to the warm up room. There was hardly any time at all before we were lining up to go on stage.
I don't remember much about our 6 minutes of fame, to be honest. It went according to plan, and I didn't make any major mistakes, and it was over really quickly. It felt quite relaxed and fun to do, and the audience was great, very welcoming.
Because we were the second competitor, we were able to hear all the other choruses. The standard was very high, so there was lots of interesting stuff to hear and see. I had fun (again) recording the costumes and picking which choruses would make the finals. Lions Gate was our pick. Considering it's an international competition, I thought some of the costumes were horrific, and I'm very proud of ours - we had lots of compliments.
After the competition finished the Ann Gooch award was presented to Lea Baker, and then the Melodeers performed, including their Geek package from Honolulu which was very funny and clever. Then they announced the 10 finalists - not us, of course.
We headed back to the Hilton to wait for Vicki and Di to bring us the results. Vicki and Kaitlyn were in a rehearsal for the family chorus, but Steph picked up a copy of the chorus results when it was published so we found out that we had scored 1110 and come 25th. We were all up on the Mezzanine screaming with joy, hugging and taking photos of each other being ecstatic. Di Huber came by, and some of our River Blender friends. We moved to our CKC room to wait for Vicki, and spent the time drinking and gloating and taking more photos.
Vicki and James and Di and Kaitlyn and Liam arrived around 9:30 and we formed an arch of honour to welcome them. We all sat down and Vicki read out the comments on the score sheets. There was nothing to surprise us, and some encouraging comments that we were heading in the right direction.
We voted where to go for a late dinner (downstairs to the Sports Grille) and took over a room there for a spontaneous celebration.
And so to bed - late again, it's now half past midnight and we need to be up early for a class with the Melodeers.
I woke up at 5:30 am and crept out of the bedroom to get a head start on doing my nails. After showering I wandered around in knickers and bra ticking off my mental list of things to do. Have breakfast. Put in contact lenses. Just as I was about to start makeup, Sharon turned up and did my hair (and Sue's as well). I worked through the CKC 12 step program for putting on makeup. It took four goes to get the right eyelash on, and I only got it right with Sharon's help. It's extraordinary how long it takes to get made up and dressed: at 8 am Sue and I were just putting on the finishing touches.
We went down to the CKC room for makeup check at 8:15 am, and I passed muster. Then we went back down again at 9 am to start warmups.
Around 10 am we headed down to the foyer to line up and wait for the bus. Two nice Convention Assistants were waiting there to guide us. We sang I Am Australian while we were waiting, then on the bus we sang Can You Feel the Love, and then something else. The bus didn't have to go very far, just one block, but it took us to the stage door entrance of the Sommet Centre and then we started the traffic pattern. Scioto Valley were just coming off, and Waikato Rivertones were llining up to go on, as we made our way to the warm up room. There was hardly any time at all before we were lining up to go on stage.
I don't remember much about our 6 minutes of fame, to be honest. It went according to plan, and I didn't make any major mistakes, and it was over really quickly. It felt quite relaxed and fun to do, and the audience was great, very welcoming.
Because we were the second competitor, we were able to hear all the other choruses. The standard was very high, so there was lots of interesting stuff to hear and see. I had fun (again) recording the costumes and picking which choruses would make the finals. Lions Gate was our pick. Considering it's an international competition, I thought some of the costumes were horrific, and I'm very proud of ours - we had lots of compliments.
After the competition finished the Ann Gooch award was presented to Lea Baker, and then the Melodeers performed, including their Geek package from Honolulu which was very funny and clever. Then they announced the 10 finalists - not us, of course.
We headed back to the Hilton to wait for Vicki and Di to bring us the results. Vicki and Kaitlyn were in a rehearsal for the family chorus, but Steph picked up a copy of the chorus results when it was published so we found out that we had scored 1110 and come 25th. We were all up on the Mezzanine screaming with joy, hugging and taking photos of each other being ecstatic. Di Huber came by, and some of our River Blender friends. We moved to our CKC room to wait for Vicki, and spent the time drinking and gloating and taking more photos.
Vicki and James and Di and Kaitlyn and Liam arrived around 9:30 and we formed an arch of honour to welcome them. We all sat down and Vicki read out the comments on the score sheets. There was nothing to surprise us, and some encouraging comments that we were heading in the right direction.
We voted where to go for a late dinner (downstairs to the Sports Grille) and took over a room there for a spontaneous celebration.
And so to bed - late again, it's now half past midnight and we need to be up early for a class with the Melodeers.
What day is it?
Okay, this is the blog for Wednesday, because I'm a day behind. But here's a sneak preview from Thursday's chorus semifinals: CKC was place 25th out of 33 choruses, and scored 1110! This may not mean much to anyone outside the chorus, but for us it was very exciting, as we had expected to come last, or close to it. Anyway, more of that later.
On Wednesday we watched the quartet semi-finals, which started at 10:45 am. I had ordered a Keeping Score book through Vicki S, and had fun recording the costumes of the various quartets and the songs they sang. I tried rating them (A, B+, B or B-- they're all pretty good just to be there competing) but didn't worry about allocating exact points. Several quartets sang songs that are in CKC's repertoire: If I Give My Heart To You; Somebody's Happy; Never Say Never, How Deep Is The Ocean, Joint is Jumping, Kiss Me One More Time. I guess that shows Vicki's good taste! It was fascinating to see the different interpretations. I was paying particular attention to hair and makeup, my particular bugbears.
We stayed for BlackJaq's performance and then had to go to rehearsal from 3 pm to 5 pm. Di Huber was there again to encourage us and remind us to use our big muscles. Then we went back to the quartet semifinals. It was hard going, but a few of us stayed right until the end (quartet number 52) and announcement of the results.
By the time I got back to our room Sue was in bed asleep, so I closed the door and put on a layer of nail polish. In bed at 11 pm.
On Wednesday we watched the quartet semi-finals, which started at 10:45 am. I had ordered a Keeping Score book through Vicki S, and had fun recording the costumes of the various quartets and the songs they sang. I tried rating them (A, B+, B or B-- they're all pretty good just to be there competing) but didn't worry about allocating exact points. Several quartets sang songs that are in CKC's repertoire: If I Give My Heart To You; Somebody's Happy; Never Say Never, How Deep Is The Ocean, Joint is Jumping, Kiss Me One More Time. I guess that shows Vicki's good taste! It was fascinating to see the different interpretations. I was paying particular attention to hair and makeup, my particular bugbears.
We stayed for BlackJaq's performance and then had to go to rehearsal from 3 pm to 5 pm. Di Huber was there again to encourage us and remind us to use our big muscles. Then we went back to the quartet semifinals. It was hard going, but a few of us stayed right until the end (quartet number 52) and announcement of the results.
By the time I got back to our room Sue was in bed asleep, so I closed the door and put on a layer of nail polish. In bed at 11 pm.
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Harmony in Nashville
On Tuesday we had two rehearsals, visited Harmony Bazaar, and watched the second half of the Harmony Classic competition.
Our first rehearsal was from 11 am to 1:45 pm and after warmups we moved to the Rich Tones risers in the Ballroom of the Renaissance Hotel. Vicki D and Steph and Di were at the briefing, so Vicki S took us for the first part of rehearsal. We had lots of visitors: Lynne Smith, and Pat Le Vezu, and Lea Baker. Lynne and Lea gave us some last minute coaching and encouragement. There were also some of Vicki's friends from Bay Area Showcase and we sang I Am Australian for them.
Most of us put off lunch so that we could explore Harmony Bazaar. We queued up to get seats together for the Coronet Club show on Friday night (note to self: next time, book in advance!). I bought a brooch with my name in diamante, and a Sing Baby Sing book from the SAI shop (and a pen that lights up for writing in the dark). Then I visited Kate Veeder at the Young Singers Foundation Silent Auction booth to collect my Kiwi Express tote bag and throw. I am definitely going to have to post some stuff home before i go much further! I only did the periphery of Harmony Bazaar, and will have to go back again to see the rest.
We had another rehearsal on the international risers from 4 pm to 7 pm, but Vicki relented and let us out early because we were getting tired. Linda Wareham and Elidia Rymer made presentations to us - including chocolate kisses - and BlackJaQ, who sang us one song. There were also messages from Jim Arns and the Melodeers (who gave us fortune cookies with geek messages). Jim's message to Vicki was beautiful, I must get the wording from her.
From rehearsal we walked down to the Sommet Centre to watch the Harmony Classic contest. This is for small choruses. We missed the A division small choruses, but Kaitlyn said that Millenium Magic, who won with 1268 points, did an amazing Thriller package. Marti Lovejoy has a detailed description of each performance on the Sweet Adelines Yahoo group which is worth reading.
We did see the Division AA midsize choruses. Each chorus did a themed package. Metro Mix wore long debutante dresses in varied colours and each member had a sash with "Miss - xxx" on it" Miss-Demeanor, Miss-Spelled, Miss-allaneous, and so on. Several pageant contestants were interviewed and that led into the songs: Dr Jazz, I Was Never Spellbound, Stray Cat and You Gotta Know (that's probably not the right names).
Top of the Rock were cute, they all wore different Barbie costumes and celebrated Barbie's 50th birthday. There was even a Barbie astronaut. And a Ken doll. They sang It's Raining Ken, I Was never Spellbound, Oh You Beautiful Doll (of course) and finished with what sounded like an African song - with a drum - about Celebration.
Scioto Valley wore black knee length dresses with red lining and sparkly long sleeves - very classy. They had a great sound. Sang It's Going to be a Great Day, Sweetheart No More, a Jazz Medley, and Woman (with a soloist). They won the Division with a score of 1350.
Jacksonville Harmony, directed by Ann Gooch, were all dressed in overalls and were pit crew for a race. The pit crew boss was being interviewed about the secret of winning, and kept saying it's all about having a winning attitude. They sang Where Have My Old Friends gone, Let a Winner Lead the Way, It's Not Where You Start It's Where You Finish and The Greatest Race of All.
We were buggered by this time, but stayed on for the announcement of the winners. I found Sue back in our room, watching television, and we watched the tail end of Stripes (an army comedy with John Candy and Bill thingagummy from Ghostbusters).
I woke up at 5:30 am even though we set the alarm for 7 am, so I'm going to be really tired tonight. Today's program is chorus breakfast, quartet semifinals, rehearsal, and more quartet semifinals: with a bit of Harmony Bazaar and grocery shopping for fresh vegetables thrown in. There's a microwave in our room, and I fancy steamed veg for dinner.
Our first rehearsal was from 11 am to 1:45 pm and after warmups we moved to the Rich Tones risers in the Ballroom of the Renaissance Hotel. Vicki D and Steph and Di were at the briefing, so Vicki S took us for the first part of rehearsal. We had lots of visitors: Lynne Smith, and Pat Le Vezu, and Lea Baker. Lynne and Lea gave us some last minute coaching and encouragement. There were also some of Vicki's friends from Bay Area Showcase and we sang I Am Australian for them.
Most of us put off lunch so that we could explore Harmony Bazaar. We queued up to get seats together for the Coronet Club show on Friday night (note to self: next time, book in advance!). I bought a brooch with my name in diamante, and a Sing Baby Sing book from the SAI shop (and a pen that lights up for writing in the dark). Then I visited Kate Veeder at the Young Singers Foundation Silent Auction booth to collect my Kiwi Express tote bag and throw. I am definitely going to have to post some stuff home before i go much further! I only did the periphery of Harmony Bazaar, and will have to go back again to see the rest.
We had another rehearsal on the international risers from 4 pm to 7 pm, but Vicki relented and let us out early because we were getting tired. Linda Wareham and Elidia Rymer made presentations to us - including chocolate kisses - and BlackJaQ, who sang us one song. There were also messages from Jim Arns and the Melodeers (who gave us fortune cookies with geek messages). Jim's message to Vicki was beautiful, I must get the wording from her.
From rehearsal we walked down to the Sommet Centre to watch the Harmony Classic contest. This is for small choruses. We missed the A division small choruses, but Kaitlyn said that Millenium Magic, who won with 1268 points, did an amazing Thriller package. Marti Lovejoy has a detailed description of each performance on the Sweet Adelines Yahoo group which is worth reading.
We did see the Division AA midsize choruses. Each chorus did a themed package. Metro Mix wore long debutante dresses in varied colours and each member had a sash with "Miss - xxx" on it" Miss-Demeanor, Miss-Spelled, Miss-allaneous, and so on. Several pageant contestants were interviewed and that led into the songs: Dr Jazz, I Was Never Spellbound, Stray Cat and You Gotta Know (that's probably not the right names).
Top of the Rock were cute, they all wore different Barbie costumes and celebrated Barbie's 50th birthday. There was even a Barbie astronaut. And a Ken doll. They sang It's Raining Ken, I Was never Spellbound, Oh You Beautiful Doll (of course) and finished with what sounded like an African song - with a drum - about Celebration.
Scioto Valley wore black knee length dresses with red lining and sparkly long sleeves - very classy. They had a great sound. Sang It's Going to be a Great Day, Sweetheart No More, a Jazz Medley, and Woman (with a soloist). They won the Division with a score of 1350.
Jacksonville Harmony, directed by Ann Gooch, were all dressed in overalls and were pit crew for a race. The pit crew boss was being interviewed about the secret of winning, and kept saying it's all about having a winning attitude. They sang Where Have My Old Friends gone, Let a Winner Lead the Way, It's Not Where You Start It's Where You Finish and The Greatest Race of All.
We were buggered by this time, but stayed on for the announcement of the winners. I found Sue back in our room, watching television, and we watched the tail end of Stripes (an army comedy with John Candy and Bill thingagummy from Ghostbusters).
I woke up at 5:30 am even though we set the alarm for 7 am, so I'm going to be really tired tonight. Today's program is chorus breakfast, quartet semifinals, rehearsal, and more quartet semifinals: with a bit of Harmony Bazaar and grocery shopping for fresh vegetables thrown in. There's a microwave in our room, and I fancy steamed veg for dinner.
Monday, October 19, 2009
Touring Nashville
We'd picked up some tourist brochures from the concierge last night and decided we wanted to go shopping at Opry Mills, which involved a shuttle bus, and do a trolley tour, and see an Elvis Presley show.
It was kind of late by the time we got up and dressed. We went out for breakfast, but there weren't many places open. We found the place where we buy tickets for the trolley tour, and decided to get the 3 in 1 ticket which includes a walking tour and a ticket to the Country Music Hall of Fame.
Then we dashed down the street to Mike's Coffee Bar to pick up coffee/tea and bagel/muffin for breakfast, and back to catch the 10 am trolley tour. It was interesting and entertaining: a great way to start, as we found out about lots of places that it would be good to go back and see in more detail later. There's a replica of the Parthenon in the park, and we went down Music Row where there are lots of recording studios and music publishing houses.
When we got back we did the walking tour, from 11 am to 12:30 am. That took us into the Ryman Auditorium, where they were having rehearsals for the ASCAP awards; and into a record store where a late night radio show was recorded with live musicians after they finished performing at the Ryman; and through the Orchid Room which has a "Hall of Fame" with pictures and signatures of famous (and not so famous) musicians. Our guide, Marianne, told us lots of interesting stories about the history.
We had lunch at the arcade and then bought more groceries at Dollar General Store and walked back to the hotel. We kept running into other CKC people, and other Sweet Adelines.
We missed the shuttle bus to Opry Mills so we shared a taxi with Leanne and Gigi. It cost $25 one way, and we shared the cost between us so it wasn't too bad - only 15 minutes. Opry Mills is a big shopping mall. It has lots of shoe shops and dress shops. I bought a few things at the Old Navy Store that were on the clearance racks, and Sue bought a second suitcase. There's a wonderful cafe called the Rainforest Cafe which has aquaria, trees, vines, and wildlife like a jungle. Occasionally the lights dim and flash and there's a sound of thunder. They have a hippo rising from mist outside the door. We saw Karen and Di and Vicki Sutton and some others queued up to record two songs for a CD, but decided not to stay and watch as we were running out of time.
We caught a taxi back, changed quickly, and dashed down to the Sports Grill for a sandwich before the bus picked us up for the Elvis Presley show. As it turned out the bus was later than we had expected. Our driver Larry gave us some more background about Nashville as we went by other hotels to pick up guests. The biggest industry is health (lots of hospitals). Entertainment was about number 5.
The Elvis Tribute was performed by John Beardsley, with a band and two girl singers. He's been doing it for 10 years. The auditorium was pretty full. It was two hours non-stop, with about 30 Elvis songs. He has done a lot of research to make the performance authentic - costumes, instruments, sound and even the type of microphone. He had amazing energy all the way through: an example to us when singing in the chorus!
We were sitting in the front row, centre. When he asked for a hanky to mop his brow, Lorraine stripped off and offered her jacket: very sexy! There was also a group of Future Famers of America who got very involved and whistled and cheered - especially the girls.
We caught the bus home to the hotel, and dropped into the Sports Grill for a cocktail and a beer. I left Sue to it and came back to blog.
And so to bed. A big day tomorrow, with rehearsals most of the day and Harmony Classic in the evening.
It was kind of late by the time we got up and dressed. We went out for breakfast, but there weren't many places open. We found the place where we buy tickets for the trolley tour, and decided to get the 3 in 1 ticket which includes a walking tour and a ticket to the Country Music Hall of Fame.
Then we dashed down the street to Mike's Coffee Bar to pick up coffee/tea and bagel/muffin for breakfast, and back to catch the 10 am trolley tour. It was interesting and entertaining: a great way to start, as we found out about lots of places that it would be good to go back and see in more detail later. There's a replica of the Parthenon in the park, and we went down Music Row where there are lots of recording studios and music publishing houses.
When we got back we did the walking tour, from 11 am to 12:30 am. That took us into the Ryman Auditorium, where they were having rehearsals for the ASCAP awards; and into a record store where a late night radio show was recorded with live musicians after they finished performing at the Ryman; and through the Orchid Room which has a "Hall of Fame" with pictures and signatures of famous (and not so famous) musicians. Our guide, Marianne, told us lots of interesting stories about the history.
We had lunch at the arcade and then bought more groceries at Dollar General Store and walked back to the hotel. We kept running into other CKC people, and other Sweet Adelines.
We missed the shuttle bus to Opry Mills so we shared a taxi with Leanne and Gigi. It cost $25 one way, and we shared the cost between us so it wasn't too bad - only 15 minutes. Opry Mills is a big shopping mall. It has lots of shoe shops and dress shops. I bought a few things at the Old Navy Store that were on the clearance racks, and Sue bought a second suitcase. There's a wonderful cafe called the Rainforest Cafe which has aquaria, trees, vines, and wildlife like a jungle. Occasionally the lights dim and flash and there's a sound of thunder. They have a hippo rising from mist outside the door. We saw Karen and Di and Vicki Sutton and some others queued up to record two songs for a CD, but decided not to stay and watch as we were running out of time.
We caught a taxi back, changed quickly, and dashed down to the Sports Grill for a sandwich before the bus picked us up for the Elvis Presley show. As it turned out the bus was later than we had expected. Our driver Larry gave us some more background about Nashville as we went by other hotels to pick up guests. The biggest industry is health (lots of hospitals). Entertainment was about number 5.
The Elvis Tribute was performed by John Beardsley, with a band and two girl singers. He's been doing it for 10 years. The auditorium was pretty full. It was two hours non-stop, with about 30 Elvis songs. He has done a lot of research to make the performance authentic - costumes, instruments, sound and even the type of microphone. He had amazing energy all the way through: an example to us when singing in the chorus!
We were sitting in the front row, centre. When he asked for a hanky to mop his brow, Lorraine stripped off and offered her jacket: very sexy! There was also a group of Future Famers of America who got very involved and whistled and cheered - especially the girls.
We caught the bus home to the hotel, and dropped into the Sports Grill for a cocktail and a beer. I left Sue to it and came back to blog.
And so to bed. A big day tomorrow, with rehearsals most of the day and Harmony Classic in the evening.
St Louis to Nashville
And up at 6 am on Sunday. I was having a complicated dream about looking for a place where I could change my costume, and finding Sue sleeping, and heard Sharon calling out. I thought it was the middle of the night and she was talking in her sleep (David had warned us about that) but it turned out to be a call to breakfast.
Breakfast was omelette and a Bloody Mary, garnished with pickled okra in lieu of an olive and celery. Sharon gave each of us a care package (fruit, cookies and chocolate) and we packed and loaded all our bags into the back of the truck. We left at 8 am so we'd have time to shop for basic supplies on the way, and arrived at the church at 10 am. The two coaches turned up, and gradually We all sang How We Sang Today, with our arms around each other's waists, and We Are Family. Then the River Blenders lined the road as we drove away.
It was interesting to see the scenery as we drove out of St Louis. The trees are starting to change colour. I was reading a book about raccoons which was set in 1918, and then its sequel some years later, and the author described beautifully the countryside back then and all the wildlife. He made raccoons sound delightful. We've seen them only as road kill, but in numbers which suggest they're still plentiful in the countryside.
We crossed several rivers and went down several highways, none of which I can remember the names of. We stopped for a late lunch at Mount Vernon, and scattered in several different directions to find food. There were long waits at most of the fast food outlets and our driver, Rick, was right to say we'd need at least an hour there. then it was back on the road again, and another short rest stop further along at a tourist information centre. After we crossed the border into Tennessee we sang for a while, with Vicki directing, and then Liam did a solo with ipod backing.
Around 6:30 pm we saw the lights of Nashville, and were glad to pull up at the Hilton. Lorraine and I had collected a dollar or two from everyone to tip the drivers, and split it between them. There was a long line of us at the reception desk waiting to check in, and only one person on reception (or so it seemed to those of us at the back of the queue) but eventually Sue and I got our room key and could settle in.
Our room has a bedroom separate from the living room and bathroom, and ours has a king bed which we decided was big enough to share without annoying each other. Internet access is $11.95 a day (ouch) and after I'd signed up to this for the week i discovered the business centre downstairs has free internet access (bother). We settled in and then went out for dinner to Ripley's Grill and Bar-B-Q around the corner. There were a couple of guitarists playing. Apparently all the bars have live music, and the musicians just play for tips.
Then we came home and slept very soundly. The bed is very comfortable.
Breakfast was omelette and a Bloody Mary, garnished with pickled okra in lieu of an olive and celery. Sharon gave each of us a care package (fruit, cookies and chocolate) and we packed and loaded all our bags into the back of the truck. We left at 8 am so we'd have time to shop for basic supplies on the way, and arrived at the church at 10 am. The two coaches turned up, and gradually We all sang How We Sang Today, with our arms around each other's waists, and We Are Family. Then the River Blenders lined the road as we drove away.
It was interesting to see the scenery as we drove out of St Louis. The trees are starting to change colour. I was reading a book about raccoons which was set in 1918, and then its sequel some years later, and the author described beautifully the countryside back then and all the wildlife. He made raccoons sound delightful. We've seen them only as road kill, but in numbers which suggest they're still plentiful in the countryside.
We crossed several rivers and went down several highways, none of which I can remember the names of. We stopped for a late lunch at Mount Vernon, and scattered in several different directions to find food. There were long waits at most of the fast food outlets and our driver, Rick, was right to say we'd need at least an hour there. then it was back on the road again, and another short rest stop further along at a tourist information centre. After we crossed the border into Tennessee we sang for a while, with Vicki directing, and then Liam did a solo with ipod backing.
Around 6:30 pm we saw the lights of Nashville, and were glad to pull up at the Hilton. Lorraine and I had collected a dollar or two from everyone to tip the drivers, and split it between them. There was a long line of us at the reception desk waiting to check in, and only one person on reception (or so it seemed to those of us at the back of the queue) but eventually Sue and I got our room key and could settle in.
Our room has a bedroom separate from the living room and bathroom, and ours has a king bed which we decided was big enough to share without annoying each other. Internet access is $11.95 a day (ouch) and after I'd signed up to this for the week i discovered the business centre downstairs has free internet access (bother). We settled in and then went out for dinner to Ripley's Grill and Bar-B-Q around the corner. There were a couple of guitarists playing. Apparently all the bars have live music, and the musicians just play for tips.
Then we came home and slept very soundly. The bed is very comfortable.
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