Chapter Fifty Four: That Thing Called Coning

On Saturday September 18th the Cultured Pearls had the honor of being coached by Ms Sharon Vitkovsky, baritone of the 1992 Queens of Harmony, City Lights. There were a good many things she worked with us on, but the thing that stuck with me more than anything was the concept of coning your own part.

If you are a barbershop singer you are probably more than familiar with the cone. The cool thing about the barbershop style is that when the bass sound is predominant it brings out the melody so that the listener hears everything (here comes the pun) in perfect harmony. That being said of the whole sound, for optimal singing it is also best that each singer "cones" her part - filling out with more sound when she is lower and not blasting when she's singing up higher. It has also been said that a good tenor is actually more like a volcano, sound bursting out through the high notes and not pinching them up . For this I have made a high-tech MS Paint version of the cone to give you a nifty visual - please hold your applause for my graphic design giftedness.

I had heard this term before, but had not really applied it to my quartet singing in any conscious way. What I found was that it made it easier to do my job and helped lock and ring the chords better. I also learned how to really support the sound when I got into my lower notes. I knew that pushing volume was not the same as giving more sound but I didn't always know how to open up my singing voice to achieve more resonance, and thusly more sound. (Thusly, don't I sound fancy...anyway.) I had been discovering through the awesome coaching the chorus had been getting, how to open up my sound and just how many dimensions it really had. The next step was getting all those places open so the sound could flow freely. When Sharon was coaching us I really started to feel and hear the difference when I did it "right."

But for me the really cool thing was after the coaching when I was listening to the recording I had made. I really heard, in our voices, that thing where the bass is the loudest but the lead is predominant - and its sooooo cool!

Chapter Fourty Four: Baby's First BHS International

Tomorrow I will depart for Philly with my trusty Lead and Partner-In-Crime, Sabrina. We will be taking part in our very first Men's International Convention and we couldn't be more excited. Thanks to the loving sponsorship of several ladies in our chorus we won't have to sleep on lobby couches. And in true Theatre Kid style, not only are we attending our first BHS Convention, but we're crewing an event - The World Harmony Jamboree.

I do, of course, plan to fully cover what are sure to be my fun-tastic experiences through the art of blogging. And will also be Tweeting like a fiend through as much of the convention as I can - because in my mind this is the kind of event that Twitter should really be used for. So to all you twittering barbershoppers, I'll see you at #bbshop :)

Philly Here I Come!

Chapter Fourty Three: Reality Bites

I have come to realize that I lack the solid skill set needed to be a supremely excellent quartet bass. I do not lack the enthusiasm or drive to get those skills and make them an all-the-time part of my bbshop performing life. But I have some work to do before I become actually as good as I sometimes think I am. So I made a list. Some of these I have begun to work on and some need some more serious work and attention. Here is my current list:

Cool Bass Thing........................................What I Need to do to make this better
Bass pick ups ...........................................better breath support
Counter rhythms........................................check. check. double check.
Crazy magic carpet/wall of sound.....................need more consistent vocal production & breath support
Fearless, pin-point accuracy...........................working on it
Love of the part and the style.........................check
Belief that I sing the melody...........................who else would be singing it?

I am Alexis, Bass-in-Progress :) hear me roar!
(and by roar of course I mean, take an accurate pitch, sing with forward resonance and tall full space, lift the ends of phrases into the next phrase, take an in-tempo breath, smile with my eyes, and sell the message of the song!)

*Author's Note*

It was my very fondest wish when starting this blog to be able to keep a chronological record of my super-sweet barbershop adventures. I wanted to post everything in order and take readers along my journey. The problem being that I started the blog after a lot of these events took place, so I find myself "back-logged." I go between writing about what just happened - with the excitement freshly in my mind as I type but then going back to fill in the space between where I last published and my most recent event so that I can "earn" the posting of it.

No more say I! I have many chapters written but unpublished because the connecting chapters are unfinished. But I am going to post them because what good are they if no one can read them, I mean really.

So here come the barrage of posts. Connect the dots as you may - and enjoy!

Chapter Twenty Nine: Week O' Barbershop - Day 1

Every year my office has a dinner to thank the principals and cooperating teachers who take student teachers into their school and into their classrooms. It is both a nice way to thank them for helping us to prepare the teachers of tomorrow and chance to get to actually meet these wonderful educators who we hear so much about, but don't often get to meet. I like this event because I get design the invitations and get to do the flower arrangements every year - just a little creative fun.

This year's dinner was particularly exciting because my quartet, the Cultured Pearls, was going to perform! I had wanted the girls to come and sing last year, but scheduling didn't allow this to happen. But this year I put it on our calendar nice and early - so it was the first gig to kick off our "Week O' Barbershop." It was also our first paid gig! We 'sang for our supper'!

Once everyone had their food Gail introduced us. It was a very nice introduction because 3/4 of us are Manhattanville Alum's and all of us are involved in education in one way or another. We sang 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy), A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes, and One Fine Day. One of our fantastic field supervisors, Prof. Gomez, even got a video of us on her nifty Flip that she uses to record her student teachers when she goes to do observations.

Our next stop was over to the music building. But on the way we stopped to take a picture or two under the beautiful flowering trees we have at the top of the quad. After that it off to see if we could catch the Cherry's. Mark Cherry and Beverly Meyer direct the Mville Musical, direct the Quintessentials (the elite pop vocal ensemble), and also teach Cabaret Performance workshop and other close harmony groups on campus. In short, they are the people who taught me to turn my diphthongs and sing with my chin down. They also taught me how to develop patter for musical sets and that the use my head voice is a beautiful thing. Sabrina and Stephanie and I were very privileged to work with them during our time as undergrads. So needless to say, we very much wanted to show off our super sweet quartet for them.

This was especially true for me because I was a girl who had trouble holding her on vocal line in college. In vocal ensembles I either sang Alto II or Tenor. I could learn and follow the line and sing it confidently from any standing position in the group. But when I was the only person in the group responsible for that part, I had trouble. It wasn't until I joined our college a cappella group, Manhattanville Sound, that I could truly hold my part. And what part was I singing might you ask...why bass of course.

But back to the Cherry's. We were thrilled to finally be able to show that what we've been up to. We found them over in Pius X, the performance auditorium in the music building. We hopped up on the stage, they took their seats in the audience and we sang the same three song set for them. They were smiling and clapping! It was so nice to be able to give that performance back to them. In the middle of two of the songs we stopped to introduce our tenor, who they'd never met. I told the story of how we told her we were "Cherry trained" that means we all turn our diphthongs together :)

After that we all had to run off to our different worlds. SQ had to get back to Jersey. Katie had to go to the library and finish a paper. And Sabrina and I were off to thesis tech to see a show that we wouldn't otherwise get to see because we'd be at regional in Philly. A most wonderful Day 1 of our Week O' Barbershop.