The Acorn - Oak City Sound Weekly Newsletter - Nov 2, 2022
| Type of post: | Chorus news item |
| Sub-type: | No sub-type |
| Posted By: | Nic Cols |
| Status: | Current |
| Date Posted: | Wed, Nov 2 2022 |
1. Notes for this week
- Last Monday's rehearsal at Searstone was well attended.
- Because of the rain, the Afterglow, held back at our usual location Corner Tavern, had a smaller crowd than usual. However, entuhsiasm and camaraderie were not at all diminished! All 4 parts were represented and we managed a good rendition of "Last Night Alone" for the huge crowd there.
- A person in the audience at our Glenaire concert last week was very impressed with our performance, and wants to book us for a concert early in 1Q2023.
- Next NCSU Football game concession is Saturday, November 5, with a 5pm show-up time. Kickoff time is 8pm. See Tim Kinsey for parking passes and details.
- Next Monday, November 7, we have our usual rehearsal at Searstone at 7pm.
- We'll be working Christmas rep. By now, all songs should be memorized and we should be off-spots!
- Have you downloaded the form for selling program ads for our Dec 6 Show at Cary Arts Center? Have you approached at least one person, organization, or business to sell the Ad to? All sales have to be turned in by mid-November!
2. Carol's Korner
- Work toward consistency in applying "The R Rule" to all of our songs. Every. Time. For those who have not been paying attention, "The R Rule" is: Unless R is the initial letter in the word (such as Ride or Reindeer) DO NOT SING IT. If it is an R sound connecting one syllable to another, either sing it by flipping the tip of your tongue up behind your top teeth to make a sound more similar to D, or keep the tip of your tongue down behind your bottom teeth to make a modified R sound. At all times, avoid the urge to point your tongue up in the middle of your mouth and sing like a drunken pirrrrrrrrrrrrrrrate!!
- The more time you are committed to singing with the tip of your tongue resting behind your bottom teeth, the freer your whole singing process will be and the more flexible and beautiful your voice will be!
- Remember that good singing diction consists of clear, crisp consonants and clean, pure vowels. 99.9% of our singing time should be dedicated to vowel sounds. The consonants are a tiny disruption to the line of vowels that is the icing on the cake.
3. Ben's Buzz
Breathing buzz part 2 …
Occasionally I will hiccup while I’m singing. Not loud, just silent, yet it ruins the flow of the musical line. It turns out that the hiccup is caused by stale air stuck in the bottom of my lungs. That is also one of the causes of yawning. The air goes bad because I don’t use all of my air or get rid of it. Rather, I sometimes take several short breaths, even gasps, to keep singing along. Then my body gets me back - Hiccup!
The best time to get rid of the air is between songs and especially as the pitch is being blown - Expel all the air and then tank up. Another way is to use up all of your air singing an arc of the phrase of a song, which also helps with that connected legato wall of sound we’re often hearing about.
A great exercise for this is to breath in deeply on 2 or 4 counts, then use the air making an “s” sound - sssssss - for 4, 8, 12, and even 16 counts. At the end of the “s” counts, use “sh” to quickly force out all of then air left. In the next Ben's Buzz I’ll talk about how to do this silently while in concert.
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Occasionally I will hiccup while I’m singing. Not loud, just silent, yet it ruins the flow of the musical line. It turns out that the hiccup is caused by stale air stuck in the bottom of my lungs. That is also one of the causes of yawning. The air goes bad because I don’t use all of my air or get rid of it. Rather, I sometimes take several short breaths, even gasps, to keep singing along. Then my body gets me back - Hiccup!
The best time to get rid of the air is between songs and especially as the pitch is being blown - Expel all the air and then tank up. Another way is to use up all of your air singing an arc of the phrase of a song, which also helps with that connected legato wall of sound we’re often hearing about.
A great exercise for this is to breath in deeply on 2 or 4 counts, then use the air making an “s” sound - sssssss - for 4, 8, 12, and even 16 counts. At the end of the “s” counts, use “sh” to quickly force out all of then air left. In the next Ben's Buzz I’ll talk about how to do this silently while in concert.
4. Future Notes
- Saturday November 5 is our next (#6 of 7) football concession session at Carter Finley stadium. These are our most important fund raiser events of the year. We need to provide 6 workers for each event. The signup sheet is available now.
- Remember that a volunteer does not have to be a chapter members to work the concession. Family and friends can help out, too.
- Tim will provide more details as we approach each date. Meanwhile, click Concession to sign up as you are able.
- Here is the entire remaining schedule, as far as we know right now:
- Nov 5 - Report at 5:00pm, kickoff at 8pm
- Nov 12 - time TBA
- John Adams - We are all saddened to hear that John Adams has passed away in early September this year. John was a long time member of the RTP Chapter. We have just learned of John's Funeral arrangements:
- John Adams Funeral:
November 12, 2022 @ 11 AM
University United Methodist Church
150 E Franklin Ave
Chapel Hill, NC 27514
- John Adams Funeral:
5. Long Range
- Christmas Season:
- Dec 5: Show, a Monday evening Christmas Concert at Searstone.
- Dec 6: Show, a Tuesday evening. We will put on our Christmas show at the Cary Arts Center theater.
- We will need to sell tickets and Ads. Last week, Mike emailed to all of us a summary of what you need to know regarding Ad sales. He mentioned Monday evening that we are not married to a particular pricing structure, so be inventive! If each one of us sold a single Ad, it would bring in more revenue than the entire revenue from our last concert. Just do it!
- Christmas Vignettes: As part of the Christmas Show, we will again offer our audience personal stories regarding Christmas. This has been well received by both the chorus members AND the audience. Mike keeps asking for these .... so please create one from your holiday memories THIS WEEK and send it to him. A photo or two to go along with the story would be helpful.
- Dec 12: Christmas Show at Glenaire! On a Monday evening. Show up time will be 6:15, and concert starts at 7pm.
- Dec 19: Christmas Concert at Springmoor Retirement Community in north Raleigh off Creedmoor Rd. On a Monday evening. Show up time will be 6:15, and concert starts at 7pm.
- And THAT! gentlemen and gentle lady, is an example of a full Christmas Season calendar. So many of us are also so busy with Church choirs and other family activities. It's a very busy time of year for singers, so we should thank each other for each's time, dedication, vitality, and enthusiasm in supporting the Oak City Sound at this time.
- January - start counting on having a guest night in late January.
- February - plan to run Singing Valentines again this year. February 14 is a Tuesday, so we'll look for opportunities on the previous weekend.
6. Champagne Room
- Congratulations to the Carolina Statesmen, our NSC District Seniors' Chorus, led by Larry Triplett, who qualified to compete at the 2023 Midwinter Convention, to be held on February 7-12, 2023 in Daytona Beach, FL, Convention details are at https://www.barbershop.org/events/2023-midwinter-daytona-beach.The Statesmen are def recruiting, so see Paul Martin for more details.
