SHARPS & FLATS. August Thank you. President s :

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1 EDITOR: PAT CLOSE SHARPS & FLATS August 2009 OLEAN, N.Y.. CHAPTER BARBERSHOP HARMONY SOCIETY PRESIDENT: MARSHALL ALLEN DIRECTOR: LOUIS PETRONI. President s : Thank you Ladies! Just as a reminder guys, our board meetings have been moved to the last Tuesday of each month at 6 pm. If the board meetings are short, there will be extra practice time or quarteting until 7pm rehearsal time. Marshall Director s : Summer Fun Sing Out Here is a plan how the evening might work: 6:30-7:00 Ice Cream! 7:00-7:15 Warm ups Plus two tags 7:15-7:45 Familiar Songs & Polecats as a g group chorus with various guest directors who are in attendance: (Here are some of the songs we might sing as a VLI (Very Large Inter-chapter) Chorus along with Pole Cats) Star Spangled Banner, Hello Mary Lou, Coney Island Baby, When There's Love at Home, Battle Hymn of the Republic, Darkness on the Delta, God Bless America 7:45-8:00 Each chapter chorus that is represented is invited to sing a song or two. 8:00-8:15 Any quartets or pick-up quartets are invited to sing a song or two. Time remaining - form up into tag teams and sing the two tags plus rotate into different tag quartets. (Some tag teams might have to be 5 or more guys depending on availability of 4 parts.) Here are just a few It is about time we say THANK YOU to the ladies behind the barbershoppers. These ladies have been our groupies and most of the time roadies for the chapters. We see them when we walk in. We see them out at our functions. They have kind words for us. They take part in our productions. They set up our refreshments. They sit behind us with cheerleader s pom-poms. They even help Monty keep his music filed in order and keep his dates logged in! So please join me in giving them a big ole SALUTE! Oak Hill Park The last page of the newsletter will contain n the two tags that will be featured that night. Please try to familiarize yourself with your part. If you can sing another part, please try to learn that part also. There will be copies at the event of these two tags. Please pass this with attachments on to your guys who will be attending. Or pass out tags at you chapter night and try them out. It will be FUN! See you there! There is a big pavilion so the event is rain or shine! Louis

2 Gina s Corner: Hi, Everyone! You are all invited to sing at Bradford's Italian Festival. It is on Friday, August 14, We will be singing at 5:45 pm and warming up at 5:15 pm. The Festival is located off of the Tops parking lot. We warm up in the Social Hall of St. Bernard's. You can park at Tops, the Presbyterian Church (and walk down the block), or at St. Bernard's. Dress is a polo shirt, your choice of chapter polo, and black pants. The songs (and not necessarily in this order): The Old Songs/Down Our Way Cabaret Hey Look Me Over Can You Feel the Love Tonight A Wink and a Smile Hello Mary Lou Irish Blessing Zip-a-Dee Do-Dah Harry's quartet is singing, if there is another quartet who would like to sing, please let me know. Gina {ed Note: We really need to try our best to support the Bradford events as strong as we cover the Olean singouts. It is good for business, as they say.} PenNY Arcade at Angelica Heritage days Harry Malone- Tenor, Gary Larson- Lead, Harris Fitch- Bass, Greg Wagner- Baritone Editorial: We are well into our summer season and the member turnout has been strong. The audience numbers seem small but those that did attend each event truly enjoyed themselves. With the declining Society membership, we are blessed to have cooperating chapters that support each other to make sure we can keep our commitments, pick up some new commitments and potentially reach new members. New members will not find us but rather we shall find them. New members will not find us in the basements of the church but rather will see us when we are out. As I have stated before, promotion of ourselves is the greatest challenge. We have pointed out some methods to do this with signage, posters and cards. Signs and posters need to be discussed further, but every member has cards in their possession. Now what have you done with yours? Are they sitting on the table or are they in you music binder? Have you carried any to any singouts we have had once you received them? How many have cards have you handed out? Some of the suggestions as to how to get the cards into the hands and minds of potential members may be: Keep two or three cards in your wallet and make it your mission to give out those cards in one week s time, then replace those cards and do it again the next week. Make the recruiting pitch during each performance and invite them to speak to a member at the conclusion. Once a singout is completed, we need to mingle with the crowd (with cards in hand). Make it clear the You can sing too. Have an information table at our engagements. This may be manned or unmanned to get the information to the people. My first experience, 30 years ago after seeing a quartet, I was approached by the members and invited to a meeting. As it turns out, as I have mentioned before, it was Zeke Burr s Quartet. I did make a few meetings but then left for the service. It was then, my fault I never found a chapter where I was stationed and I have regretted it ever since. But now that I have found one and you will be hard pressed to make me go away, I believe that we can

3 make the first move. The fact that the barbershoppers were casually promoting themselves made me go to my first meetings. Now we need to promote more aggressively. Then it should be up to the whole chapter to hang on to the new guys. When the time comes, we need to make their first meetings special. Take care of them. Make sure they are comfortable in the part they sing. Make sure they have all of the music. Ensure they have an understanding of the organization and where they fit in. You must make sure that when you speak about going to singouts or that you will cover certain packages, that they understand what that entails. Just because most of the guys have well let s just say quite a few years in the chapter and they intuitively know what is required don t let the new guy flounder around trying to figure out what is going on. Step up and ask them once in a while, How are you getting on? or Are you comfortable in what you are doing and do you understand what you are doing? I know I am starting to sound like a broken record (preferably a four part record) but this is crucial in our survival. I will continue speaking on this but I will try and be more inventive in how I say it each time so as not to beat this death. I am seeking your assistance to keep a society alive so I may continue to do what we all love. {ed} The Four-Gettables Seen here testing out the performing waters at The Taste of Olean. Pat Close- Tenor, Dan McDowell- Lead, Ron Washburn- Bass, Louis Petroni- Baritone Rehearsal dates Aug: 11 Olean, Sept: 15 Olean, 25 Bradford 22 Coudersport Oct: 06 Olean, 13 Coudersport REMINDER! Don t forget to use the online calendar that Louis has developed to keep us updated to almost the current minute. I try my best to get the dates as accurate as possible at the time of publishing but many times there are changes after the fact which makes my calendar null and void. I will still continue to publish my calendar but it will only be a rough picture. {ed} For complete information on ALL events go online to: c=longplay%40roadrunner.com&ctz=ameri ca/new_york&pvttk=b1fcfc81d72fd89e87dfe fc796 Upcoming s for Olean Bradford and Coudersport: Aug pm Angelica Heritage days Center Park Gazebo (uniform Black & Polo Shirt) Aug pm Bradford Chapel Ridge Aug 8 Genesis House Fundraiser (black and Polos) Aug pm Olean Oak Hill Park (black and Polos) Aug pm YMCA Day Camp (black and Polos) Aug pm arrive Bradford Italian Festival (black /Polos) Aug pm Meeting of the Chapters - Olean War Vets Park (Polo shirts and something comfortable) Aug 23 TBD 2009 Chautauqua Show Sept 25/26 Friday/Saturday SLD Fall Convention Oct pm (black/white shirt blue vest, long blue tie) Olean Fall Show Portville School For comments or inquiries Sharps & Flats Editor Patrick (Pat) Close, 5 Fourth Avenue, Franklinville N.Y mrpclose@aol.com Harmoniously Serving: Olean- Bradford -Coudersport

4 New guest feature: Dear Miss Manners: I recently went to a barbershop harmony chorus sing out. It was fun for a while, but a few episodes were rather bothersome. It was sometimes difficult to understand the words during the chorus performance, and at times there seemed to be very little harmony due to the excessively loud leads. The director kept signaling them to quiet down, but to no avail. In addition to that, I was appalled to by the rudeness of some of the performers. When the chorus took a break, a quartet took the stage and sang a few numbers. During their set, a few of the chorus singers talked loudly among themselves throughout, making it difficult to concentrate on the performance. Signed, Gentle Reader Dear Gentle Reader: You have touched on a few things that are a problem in the barbershop harmony world. These problems are rather persistent, but could be so easily fixed. The first is the audience understanding the words. When 10 or 20 or more men are singing at the same time they all have to sing the same words at the same time in order for the audience to understand the message. This means thatt all the men need know the words. Even if one does not, he can keep quiet or he can sing a different word, which will interfere with what the others are trying to accomplish. The first choice is much better for the audience and therefore for the chorus as well. Also, the words have to be pronounced the same way by all singers. If one pronounces the words differently, a mush comes out in place of the words. In addition, if most of the singers sing all of the right words at the same time but a few others are late, not keeping up with the director and the rest of the guys, the result is a jumble in place of a smooth choral sound. The fix is to pay attention to the director and for everyone to listen to everyone else. As for your second point, there will usually be some very enthusiastic singers in any group. This is actually a good thing, and their enthusiasm can spread throughout the chorus and help to give the performance lots of energy, which the audience will feel and respond to. But it all has to be under control, and that means everyone has to sing at the volume the director calls for, not according to the feelings of the individual singers. This is the difference of singing solo and singing as a member of a chorus. Again, the fix is to listen to everyone and pay attention to the director. A good rule of thumb for choral performers is - if you hear yourself and are not aware of all the other parts, you are singing too loud.. Singers have to listen to others the whole time they are singing. This is a skill that has to be worked on, but if everyone works on it, the blend can be awesome. Your third point is very easy one to fix, but this can be accomplished if everyone involved in the performance is on the same page. Talking while others perform is a sign that the talkers are not concerned about the performance at all, if it does not directly involve them. These are the same people that often have their own private conversations during rehearsal, thus negating anything the director and chorus is trying to accomplish. Such behavior is thus not only ill mannered, but also counterproductive. A chorus can avoid these traps by insisting every member pay attention to the surrounding sound; pay attention to the director, and work on their own part often enough to sing it correctly. The big picture is for everybody to focus on attempting to fit into the chorus and what it is trying to accomplish, rather than for individuals to be out for oing on around them. their own fun regardless of what else is go Miss Manners Advice line

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6 SUNDAY August MONDAY TUESDAY WEDNESDAY THURSDAY FRIDAY SATURDAY pm Angelica Heritage Days 3 Bradford 645 Chapel Ridge 4 Happy Anniv David & Nova Ross Rehearsal IN Olean Ice Cream Social pm War Vet Park Happy B'day John Sherer 23 Chautauqua Show Rehearsal IN Bradford pm Genesis House pm Oak Hill Park Olean 14 Bradford Italian Fest arrive 5pm Happy Birthday Jon Chisholm John Ross Jean Ford Happy Anniv Lew & Sandra Cook SUNDAY September MONDAY TUESDAY WEDNESDAY THURSDAY FRIDAY SATURDAY Bradford 640pm 13 Happy anniversary Harris & Sara Fitch Eccumenical rehearsal IN Olean Happy Birthday Louis Petroni Claude Conklin Dave Hauber rehearsal IN Coudersport SLD Convention 26 SLD Convention