The Acorn - Oak City Sound's Weekly Newsletter - March 30, 2023

Type of post: Chorus news item
Sub-type: No sub-type
Posted By: Nic Cols
Status: Current
Date Posted: Thu, Mar 30 2023

1. Notes for this week

  • Mar 27:  Four of last week's guests first-time guests returned to sing with us again: Mike Carney, Chris Alberti, Michael McQueen, and Patrick O'Hannigan. David Kraay, who has attended the last two weeks, was unable to attend, but should be back with us next week. Thanks again to our members, and some of their wives, who made these guests feel so welcome. Total 20 singers were present.
    • Good Afterglow at The Corner Tavern with 6 in attendance. including first-time guest Patrick O'Hannigan.
  • URGENT for Leads: We emailed to you earlier today a short video of Here Comes the Sun, just measures 6 and 7 on the piano, with our notes at slower speed. This should help a lot in fixing notes and timing problems, with those two measures, in your prep for Monday's concert.
  • Apr 3 (Monday): Oak City Sound concert at Springmoor in north Raleigh. Meet in the Chapel at 6:15. Concert willl run from 7pm to 8pm. See detailed chorus instructions from Vern Pike which was emailed to each singer. Show Songset and order for April 3 (and beyond):
    • Bare Necessities
    • Ride the Chariot
    • Yesterday 
    • Here Comes the Sun
    • Almost Like Being in Love
    • Do You Hear the People Sing
    • Over the Rainbow
    • The Longest Time
    • The Lion Sleeps Tonight
    • Sweet Caroline
    • You've Got a Friend in Me
  • Apr 10: Regular rehearsal at our regular location at our regular time. 
 

2. Carol's Korner

  • Wasn't it great having 20 voices singing on Monday?? There were a few regulars who were absent -- so our number could have been 25! Many thanks to all who invited friends to come. Please encourage them to keep coming! 
  • If anything on the SongSet above startles you, that is what you should be working on for Monday! 
  • Based on Monday's rehearsal, your practice time this week should be focused on Here Comes the Sun, You've Got a Friend in Me, and Do You Hear the People Sing? We will be sure to sing through those in our rehearsal time before the show on Monday. 
  • Please plan to stick around for a short rehearsal time after the Springmoor show on Monday. We haven't touched Desperado and Honesty in a while and we need to refresh that and be sure our new friends are not relying too much on tracks without knowing how we will be performing these songs.

    Let's go entertain our friends at Springmoor and have some fun doing it!

3. Ben's Buzz

10 Steps to a Note

1. Hear a Pitch. See Nov 25 detail.
2. Find Your Note. See Nov 30 Detail
3. Check Your Posture

4. Drop the Jaw!  See Feb 8 Detail.
5. Form a Vowel. See Feb 15 Detail. 
6. Open Your Throat. See Feb 22 Detail. 

7. Open the Vocal Folds
This will generally happen naturally, although not always. If you have a noisy inhale, then your vocal folds are not open - they are trying to vibrate and hence making noise. If that’s the case, they are not far enough apart and you have to think about it some more.

Think about taking a big gulp of air, like a swimmer - your throat is open (step 6) as a swimmer you open your mouth wide and pull in air. Of course, a barbershopper breathes in through the nose and out through the mouth (we discussed that in an earlier Buzz), but trying the swimmers breath exercise may help you understand - to feel - the open vocal folds. It’s also easier to breathe in when you inhale. Once you get that feel, that’s what you want to do in this step.

Think it through … Step 6 was to open the throat, Step 7 to open the vocal chords, and that will set us up for Step 8, to take a singer’s breath - see you next time!
 

4. Future Notes

  • Apr 23 (Sunday): Sing National Anthem at UNC Baseball game in Chapel Hill, est. start time 1pm.
  • Apr 29 (Saturday): Cary Spring Daze booth AND concert. Booth will need to be manned all day. Call time for concert is 11:30. On stage from 12:15 to 13:00. We need volunteers to man the booth throughout the day. How about you?
  • May 8 (Monday): Oak City Sound in concert at Templeton Retirement Village. Vern Pike lives there now and is our contact. The Templeton is located at 215 Brightmore Dr, Cary, NC 27518, across Kildaire Farm Rd from WakeMed Cary.

5. Long Range

  • Monday May 29: Is Memorial Day. Searstone is not available to us. Make suggestions on what would be fun to do.
  • June 5: 7:15pm: Concert at Searstone! Please show up at 6:30. 
  • August 4 to 6, 2023. At Clemson University Campus in Clemson, SC. The Carolinas District is now partnering with the Dixie District to run a single Harmony Education Program ("HEP") in the summer for both NSC and DIX districts. This tot fab educational weekend will be held at Clemson University in Clemson, SC. Absolutely top-tier faculty is assembled for this training event. I can personally attest that this is a GREAT weekend of singing education, for individual singers, quartets, entire choruses, and chorus directors. Pencil this weekend into your calendar for now. Over the next couple weeks, we as a chorus will decide if we can attend as a chorus.
  • Oct 22, a Sunday afternoon. Oak City Sound in concert at Preston Pointe in Morrisville.
6. Champagne Room
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