Wednesday, May 22, 2019

Msg #6 - Rocking out your preparation

Welcome to our sixth preparedness update.All previous updates can be found at https://nehbprepare.blogspot.com 
Useful info and links at the bottom of the page

Important News:

  • By now you should have the first four songs learned well enough to attend a run-through.  Please do attend run-throughs, and consider hosting one as well!  It's fun, easy and all you need is some space, and maybe some water. Do not hesitate to ask me for help with learning.

  • Basses: a friendly thought.  Our part in Change The World is rhythmically complex and very challenging.  It's not too early to spend some time working on the rhythm.  I learned it best when I just drummed it with my hands.  Once you have the rhythm, the rest of the song is reasonable.  (Other parts need not worry.)
  • Our geomap is available to use. Find people near you to sing with.  We kept the contact information out of it, because it is public - please reach out to the Registrar (or other Board member) via email to get contact information

  • Uniforms - it's a little early, but the standard uniform for the chorus concert is always the same: black shoes, socks, pants, belt, plain white long sleeve dress shirt (with undershirt) and any solid colored long tie. If you plan to do Friday sing-outs (more on those upcoming), the "uniform" is a Hawaiian shirt, jeans and sneakers.
  • Reminders:
    • If you are a new or returning attendee and want a sponsor assigned to you, someone who can help you prepare better or answer your questions, please ask.

    • Additional part learning tracks are available for your personal use only.  $20 per part, contact our Treasurer to purchase.
    • We are still seeking and accepting singers, especially leads.  Please: promote us to your quartet, chorus or other talented singing friends.  Scholarships are available, if needed.  Have them apply.


    • Current members - a reminder that to retain your membership you must have a current BHS membership and you must also attend at least every other year.  Memberships expire after the second consecutive failure to attend.  Future members - if this is your second consecutive NEHB you can apply for membership during the rally via a recorded audition.  More details coming down the road.

Rock It For Me

Words and Music by Kay and Sue Werner
Arrangement by Aaron Dale
If you can’t feel the beat on this one, you may be dead. :-)

Twin sisters Kay and Sue Werner wrote this song for release in 1938, for the band Chick Webb and His Orchestra.  Chick Webb was a jazz and blues drummer in the New York scene from an early age, An important proponent of the Swing style, his band became well known at one of the staples of the Jazz scene, the Savoy Ballroom.


By 1938, his band was often winning The Battle of The Bands, over such notables as Benny Goodman and Count Basie. Around that time they began to feature a new young singer - Ella Fitzgerald.

She went on to fame and glory. Unfortunately, Chick Webb (who had significant damage to his body from tuberculosis at a young age), passed away not long after this song was released.

The young ladies who composed this song were born in Alabama in 1918 - making them just 20  years old when they wrote it. The song is one of the earliest popular music songs to use the phrase “Rock And Roll”.


This song makes magical use of the swing rhythms of the era - and it is filled with lovely features. Swing was notable for melodic improvisation - sing those features with a little push-pull but keep it danceable.  Basses, the swing rhythm is yours to establish - and never let go.

VIDEO LINKS
Ella Fitzgerald showing us how it’s done
Mildred Bailey sings a cool variant (different lyrics)
Pratt Street Power, making it fun barbershop
McPhly - bringing a cool rhythmic variation


Useful Info And Links

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Wednesday, May 15, 2019

Msg #5: Moonlight Becomes Us

Welcome to our fifth preparedness update.All previous updates can be found at https://nehbprepare.blogspot.com 
Useful info and links at the bottom of the page

Important News:


  • We are working on a geomap of attendees which will be shared soon.  The Board has decided to prepare one that has minimal personal information - we expect that if you want to contact one another via the geomap, you will ask for contact information. (Any Board Member can share that with you.)
  • If you are a new or returning attendee and want a sponsor assigned to you, someone who can help you prepare better or answer your questions, please ask.
  • Many attendees ask to purchase additional part learning tracks.  The Board has slightly modified its previous policies.  Attendees can purchase additional parts only for rallies where they have paid for the music. Cost will be $20 per part - available until we run out of licenses. We will be requiring a statement that you understand the tracks are for your personal use, not for other groups or quartets and that they cannot be shared.  If you have previously asked for part recordings, please check in with us again.

  • Please join the preparedness team!  I'm looking for a lead, baritone and tenor who can help write up some notes which aid in learning that part on all 12 songs.
  • Reminders:
    • We are still seeking and accepting singers, especially leads.  Please: promote us to your quartet, chorus or other talented sing friends.  Scholarships are available, if needed.  Have them apply.
    • We are beginning to plan run-throughs - please attend or host.  May is songs 1-4.  To schedule a run-through, email Rob Sheridan.  You can access the calendar on the web, add it to your own online calendar or find it on the NEHB web site.
    • Current members - a reminder that to retain your membership you must have a current BHS membership and you must also attend at least every other year.  Memberships expire after the second consecutive failure to attend.

Moonlight Becomes You

Music by James Van Heusen, Words by Johnny Burke
Arrangement by Ed Waesche

Let’s not spend a lot of time on the actual movie this wonderful song came from.  It was one of the many Bing Crosby/Bob Hope “Road to ....” films. They were screwball musical comedies with essentially racist premises, and fantastic singing.  This one was Road to Morocco. (The full list in order: Singapore, Zanzibar, Morocco, Utopia, Rio, Bali, Hong Kong.)

Moonlight Becomes You, is a simply gorgeous love song, made utterly barbershop singable.  The original song was written for Paramount Pictures by James Van Heusen (music) and Johnny Burke (lyrics). They wrote almost all the music for almost all the Road To pictures.  Paramount Pictures was, like most of the other studios, in a factory model - sign stars to long term contracts, write formula films that made money, and put them before audiences as fast as possible. Ed Waesche wrote our arrangement, lush with beautiful chords.

Bing Crosby made the song famous - it’s been covered again and again and again.

The plot is wonderfully confused and confusing, with a Moroccan Princess intent on marrying one of two shipwrecked best friends, while the other best friend tries to insert himself into the situation - not knowing that the first man to marry the Princess is predicted to die within the week.  As with most screwball comedies, both men find lovely women in the end, and leave to return to America.

Anyway, Bing wins the girl with this song, and it’s used as a theme throughout.  If you don’t know Bing Crosby’s career - I lack the space to tell you. He was that good, and that successful - with more movies, awards, songs, comedies, television shows, etcetera than perhaps any other American entertainer.

I had a wonderful conversation at Mixed Harmony Brigade of New England about this song.  We were wondering why women leads sang this song slowly, while men tended to lead the song more quickly.  My theory was - to a woman this is a song about how beautiful you look, and it can’t last long enough, to a man this was a declaration of love. We worry if it’ll go badly, so we sort of get to the point.  Women: beauty. Men: worry about rejection. It’s my crazy theory, and I’m sticking to it for now. :-)

VIDEO LINK

The song, from the movie, sung by Bing Crosby
Ella Fitzgerald - She is always a great example of style
Frank Sinatra - His rhythm is always unique, but his emotion is sublime
Seth MacFarlane swings the heck out of it.  (Yes, the Family Guy animator and voice actor)

Useful Info And Links

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Wednesday, May 8, 2019

Msg #4: Dreaming and other planning

Welcome to our fourth preparedness update.All previous updates can be found at https://nehbprepare.blogspot.com 
Useful info and links at the bottom of the page

Important News:

  • If you have sponsored someone - have you checked on their progress? If you have a sponsor, do you know who it is and have you checked in with them?  These relationships will make for a more exciting and prepared rally.

  • We will be announcing a new policy on purchasing other-part learning tracks shortly. (After the Board meeting 12May2019.)
    • We are still seeking and accepting singers, especially in the higher parts.  Please: promote us to your quartet, chorus or other talented sing friends.  Scholarships are available, if needed.  Have them apply.

Learning Is A Philosophy

Some people are wired to always learn - I admire that passion, and try to emulate it.  Some people think that learning time is later - don't be that guy.  If you prepare now - you reduce your stress.  Don't wait to the last minute, and come to the Rally worried.  Early preparation is the best way to keep everything fun.

Prepare with a buddy - check notes, check words, talk about the music.  Your sponsor (if you have one) is a great choice, but we can find you a partner if you need one.

Professionally, I am a software engineer.  Any software engineer can tell you that a good start now is better than a great start later.  Constant growth and improvement is a goal - often referred to as kaizen.

Give yourself the gift of kaizen - constant slow growth and improvement, predicated on making consistent early efforts.

Please Join The Preparedness Team

I've been creating notes for myself on potential trouble spots on each song. (You will see a lot of progress, because I learned the core 8 for another brigade earlier this year.)

I'd love to have a tenor, lead and baritone create a similar document that we can share, which outlines potential trouble spots for their part.  Please volunteer by sending me an email.

Lullabye (Goodnight My Angel)

Words and Music by Billy Joel
Arrangement by Kirk Young

I am indebted to Rueben Barnes for his interpretation of this song as he coached my chorus (Vocal Revolution).

Lullabye is Billy Joel’s famous song for his children, a song with many layers of meaning. (Billy Joel also made a children’s book out of it)  Northeast District’s own Kirk Young arranged this song, and it is immensely popular.  NEHB introduced this song to Harmony Brigades at our first ever rally.

The song is not called “Lullaby”, but “Lullabye” - a portmanteau of Lullaby and Goodbye.

There are many stories about the origin of the song - but let’s go right to Billy Joel himself for the story - in this video. He had a melody, but no lyrics. One night his daughter asked “Daddy, what happens when you die?”. His answer was that when you die, you go into other people’s hearts. You go into the rest of their lives with them.  But since this question was asked while Billy Joel and his wife were divorcing, so he felt the question was two-fold: she was also asking if he was going to leave her? He said never would. These are the first two layers of the song - death and divorce

One of the fascinating moments in the video is that telling the story made him too emotional to sing. The best performances I have ever done of this song were when I let my heart out - at Mixed Harmony Brigade of New England, one entire quartet began crying as we sang.  It was amazing.

The lyrics are simply about putting your young child to sleep - another layer of meaning. (The song’s verses are about closing eyes, going to sleep, and dreaming.)

Most parents do the same sleepy-time pattern every night.  In my house, I gave my daughter a warm bath, read her a few stories, sang a quiet song. This was a daily precious time for both of us.  To prolong that moment, young children often ask questions. They talk about fears, or ask about things that matter to them. The answers are a time for comfort - you promise to never be far away.  Sometimes the next room, but sometimes you promise to always be there for them. You will love them, forever.

But it is time for sleep, and so no matter what it left unsaid - you put them down to sleep, and go into the next room.  If things go well, they go to sleep with a quiet mind - but it’s not unusual for you to bring your thoughts and worries with you. You think of the past, you wonder about the future. Those are deep waters indeed.

As your child lays asleep and dreaming - you also dream. You think about your dreams for your child and yourself. Someday, your child will grow up, and you will grow old, and you will die.  Someday your child will be where you are now. Will they know your song? Will they sing them to your grandchildren - even if you aren’t there?

Will the things that matter most to you, become an important part of your child, and future generations?

Even if you aren’t a parent, you were once a child.  Remember.

Performance note - there are a number of pickups into the next phrase (most often the bass has the pickup.).  It is lovely when the other 3 parts hold over the breath before the pickup, and then breath on their own. The song is a bedtime ritual - close your eyes, go to sleep, dream.

VIDEO LINKS
Gas House Gang (from a studio album)
Fireside Quartet absolutely crushing this arrangement - two of them attend NEHB....

Useful Info And Links

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Wednesday, May 1, 2019

Msg #3: Be a follower, not a leader

Welcome to our third preparedness update.All previous updates can be found at https://nehbprepare.blogspot.com 
Useful info and links at the bottom of the page

Important News

  • Will Johnson is still looking for people interested in the challenge song Loch Lomond. Our challenge song program is an optional 13th song from the list of songs submitted for our rally. Email him to express interest or to get additional information.
  • We are still seeking and accepting singers, especially in the higher parts.  Please: promote us to your quartet, chorus or other talented sing friends.  Scholarships are available, if needed.  Have them apply.

Useful Music Learning Tips

I'll be adding one or two ideas on learning music, on occasion.

There are a number of useful tips and techniques for software tools on the NEHB website that you can use to manipulate your learning tracks.  Audacity (on laptops) can be used to slow songs, record you singing against the other parts (for later analysis) and so forth.  Phone apps can do some of those things as well - explore what your phone can do!

As you learn your words and notes, it is absolutely vital to learn the planned breathing spots in each song.  In songs this challenging, a missed breath can really hurt your singing!  It's not unusual for songs this challenging to require additional breaths.  (For example, the bass part at the beginning of Change The World, or various posts.)  Planning your own personal breathes is an important part of preparation.

Come Follow The Band

Music Cy Coleman, Lyrics Michael Stewart
Arrangement by Steve Tramack
It’s all about the circus - the roar of the greasepaint, the smell of the crowd. :-)
Back in the 1800s, a famous son of Connecticut, a local mayor and businessman got into show business - Phineas Taylor Barnum.  His fascination with hoaxes, freaks and oddities (and his willingness to huckster people into paying to see them) created one of America’s most famous traveling circuses.
He was a famous promoter and showman. He was both a great and terrible man - a slave owner who became a voice against slavery in the Civil War, a huckster and humbug who was a dutiful politician and mayor. Promoter of theater and music, creator of frauds and outrageous promotions. You may think you know of him from his most famous creation - the Barnum and Bailey Circus. But there was much more to him than that.
Quite the American character.  So much so that a musical named Barnum was written about his life - although it is only loosely based upon the facts.
Come Follow The Band is a rousing march from the show, sung when he goes on tour with his paramour and they are greeted in a wild and self-promotional fashion.  The song opens the second act of the play. It’s big, it’s loud, it’s jump out of your seat. All the razzamatazz, all of the oompapa!
Arranged by New England’s own Steve Tramack - he boils down an entire marching band with dozens of instruments to only four parts.  It’ll keep you busy, but it’s worth it. When singing the part of a musical instrument, embrace the instrument completely. Sing it well, but sing it silly - it’ll repay you.
Bass Notes - this song is tough.  It has five repetitions of the chorus, none are the same.  It has two repetitions of the interlude - with little in common.  And it has almost no words to hang it all on, but the various “noises” are critical.  I found it easiest to break it down, and learn each chorus individually (1-5) until I could sing any of them as individual songs in any order.  After that the interludes are relatively easy to learn.
Once learned, it is superb to sing.  You will be rewarded for your efforts.
VIDEO LINKS
The soundtrack from the Broadway performance.
A reprise of the original show, in London, featuring Jim Dale in the role (CHOREOGRAPHY!)
A performance from Australia - you can see how important it is to commit to the song fully

Useful Info And Links


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Wednesday, April 24, 2019

Msg #2: It's time we had the talk about birds and bees

Welcome to our second preparedness update.
All previous updates can be found at https://nehbprepare.blogspot.com 
Useful info and links at the bottom of the page.

Important News

We are still recruiting singers

You probably saw the email Daniel sent earlier this week - while we have enough singers for a solid rally, we certainly have capacity for more people, especially in that higher-sounding clef I hear so much about. :-)

Please publicize NEHB to friends, fellow singers, people you admire.  For those worried about the cost, remind them that we have scholarships available.

More singers = more fun!

Planning your learning process

We need to learn a little more than a song every 2 weeks to be successful, and most people aim for a slightly quicker pace than that.  I, personally, have aimed for at least a song a week.  If the week ends and I'm not done, I still start the next song.

Doing so dovetails nicely with our run-through schedules:
  • May = songs 1-4
  • June = songs 5-8 (and some 1-4)
  • July = songs 9-12 plus challenge
  • August = everything
  • September = rally

Need Help?

Singing is a together-activity, and so is preparing for a rally.

If you are a first-time brigade person, you have been assigned a sponsor.  Sponsors and their sponsored singers should be communicating at least once a week on progress, and offering help and suggestions.  If your sponsor isn't responsive - we can get you a new one.  If your sponsored person isn't responsive - please let us know so we can provide more help.

If anyone (new or old) needs help, or suggestions - please reach out to the VP of Music, or me, or anyone at all.  We will get you the help you need. Many of these songs are of high complexity - but we will help.

Run-throughs are far more helpful than you think.  If you can't make it to run-throughs, we can find you a partner to video-chat with and sing for, or to whom you can send audio recordings for evaluation.

Your success is as important to all of us at the rally as it is to you.

This will be my 8th rally - I would never be properly ready for a rally without singing with others and getting feedback.

Between You And The Birds And The Bees And Cupid


Words and Music by Pee Wee King and Redd Stewart
Arrangement by Aaron Dale

I would bet that OC Times has had more of their songs sung at Brigades than any other quartet.  The next best thing to an OC Times song with Sean Devine on lead, is a Throwback song with Sean Devine on lead.

Sean and his quartets have a fine ear for country songs that make fun barbershop arrangements.  This song is a classic from Pee Wee King - a famous arranger of old fashioned country classics in the 40s and 50s.  Honored with many lifetime achievement awards, Pee Wee (born Julius Frank Anthony Kuczynski) wrote Tennessee Waltz and other famous tunes. In this song he partnered with a frequent collaborator, Redd Stewart.

In the classic tradition of “we can’t talk about it, but we can allude to it”, this song is about having fallen deeply in love.  Cupid was not always the floating cherub with the arrows that we see today - he was originally the god of erotic love and desire. While Cupid originally had two types of arrows (gold=desire, lead=fear and fleeing), we tend to focus on just the arrows of desire today.

The Birds and the Bees - well, you don’t expect me to explain those to you, do you now? :-) Besides, in previous years we’ve sung “Let’s Do It” (“Birds do it, Bees do it, even educated fleas do it. Let’s do it, let’s fall in love.”)  Such imagery goes back to the Romans and through the Middle Ages. You understand how our melodeer got in this position. At least he seems happy about it.

Aaron Dale produced this arrangement.  It’s in a classic barbershop style of basic repetition, simple key changes, and a bit of variety in the lyrics and rhythms to keep the audience awake and alive. Avoid the temptation to sing too bouncy - keep some smoothness to the lines as you go.

 Sometimes I'll insert some advice into the song description of the week, aimed at my fellow basses.  I'll be calling that the Bass Note.

Bass Note:there are pickups you sing, and pickups you don't. Be careful. The most common pickup basses miss is "a-well now". The most common one we sing when we shouldn't is "Between".

VIDEO LINKS

Pee Wee King his own self - fascinating differences in timing and emphasis
Chorus 52eighty (youth) - a faster pace and interesting interpretation
Boom Town - why should Throwback have all the fun?

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Wednesday, April 17, 2019

Welcome to the 2019 Preparedness Program: Message #1

Please Read All Of The Following

In this first note of 2019, I lay out our plans for preparation, what these notes will contain (and how to read them best) and a bunch of other important stuff.

Please read all of this email. You won't have to read all of the emails that follow - although it will help if you do.

Welcome, and "Why Am I Getting These"

Hi, I am Mark Schuldenfrei - your Chief Preparedness Assistant.  I am mostly a cheerleader for the work you are doing, a help for any troubles you may encounter, and an occasional reminder to your conscience that the Rally is ever closer. :-)

I am here as a Promoter and Maximizer of Fun. The best way to enjoy your Rally experience is to never think about the songs themselves, but to think about the singing you are doing during the weekend.  The more you can think about making music and how great you sound, the more fun you (and everyone else) will have.

If You Need Help with learning, or are stuck on a song, or with anything - I can put you in touch with the right people.  Feel free to email me.

We help each other prepare, so that we can enjoy our weekend to the fullest.  Simple as that.  If we (as a team) can make preparing as much fun as singing together, we will have achieved Peak Harmony Brigade Satori.

Format and Contents of These Notes

Summary: Read the top, reference the bottom, enjoy the middle.

Each email will also be a blog post which you may refer back to. Important information at the top - new, different, timely.  Please read at least the top info.  Deadlines, new resources, errata (if any), offers of additional ways to have fun.  If you read the top info, you will be all set.

At the bottom of each email will be a compilation of all the old information - useful links, deadlines, stuff like that.  You should be able to find everything that you currently need at the bottom of the most recent email.

In the middle of the sandwich - useful advice, entertaining information, fun stuff, weird pictures, links to inspiring performances.  Stuff like that.  Since I sing bass, I may make some bass-centric observations.  Oh well. :-)

We Are Still Recruiting Singers

We are still actively recruiting singers, especially in the top clef.  We have a few basses and one baritone waiting for balanced parts to sing with.  Please recruit people that you are sure everyone would want to sing with and send them to our application page.  More singers = more singing = better fun.

Useful Info And Links

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Thursday, September 6, 2018

Msg #20: Stuff you gotta know besides the 12 songs. :-)

PLEASE READ CAREFULLY

Our preparation phase is largely over (although there are plenty of run-throughs left this week and weekend). But we have a few items left to cover.

 Most of your critical information is here.

AIRPORT TRAVEL: I will stop accepting requests for airport rides shortly, because we need time to arrange drivers.  If you need a ride from the airport or to the airport click the links. If you have questions, please email me.

 CHECKERS STILL NEEDED: Volunteer to Ted Blank via email.

SINGOUTS still available: held in the hours before the rally on Friday please email either Noah Morrison or Lee Daum.

DINNER THURSDAY There is a restaurant dinner planned Thursday Night, contact Lee Daum if interested. (Cost not included in the rally.)

SHOW TICKETS still for sale, they will NOT be sold at the door. Invite friends!

COSTUMES: The weekend is scheduled tightly, there is no time to go shopping.  Bring the chorus uniform (solid white long-sleeved dress shirt, solid colored conventional tie, black everything-else, optional solid colored suspenders if needed.)  If doing singouts, Hawaiian shirt, jeans and good sneakers.   Bring spares of everything if you have them, somehow we need them every year.

ATTENDEES FROM PREVIOUS YEARS:
  • Bring old Brigade song books (with your name in them) and sing some oldies!
  • NEHB Brigaders, bring old book-bags, name-tag holders, lanyards.
FORWARD LOOKING CALENDAR:
We have always been on the third weekend of September since inception.  In 2020 (two rallies from now) we will be on the second weekend of September.

NON-MEMBERS
  • If this is your second NEHB Rally in a row, you are eligible to apply for membership.  Instructions will be available at registration.  (2 specific songs to be recorded and submitted).
  • There is a members meeting at each Rally, where members (only) get to vote on matters of importance to future Rallies.

    THESE ARE NOT OPEN TO DISCUSSION ON THE NEHB MAILING LIST - we need to keep this lane clear for last minute important updates.

    This year the topics and votes include:
    • Vote on new Board of Directors for 2019
    • Discussion only: potential alternatives to a random draw quartet contest for 2019
    • Discussion only: expected increase in costs of procuring music
    • Discussion and vote about adding female attendees next year - and if so, either as a one time experiment or permanent change.
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