John Contreras's blog

Hold that thought!

That's what has been on my mind for a month now, since I got back from Harmony College NW in June. Between illness, a business trip and a sing-out on our rehearsal night (which was well worth it!) I've been bottling up several cool things I learned in June but haven't had much time to implement. Individual voice coaching, tag writing class, and chorus performance tips are still swimming around in my mind like a bug-eyed goldfish in too small of a bowl. My favorite nugget came from a class with Will Fox. Tucked in between all the finer points of voice placement and tuning was this: If you want to be better than others at your chosen craft, you have to be willing to do things that others are not willing to.

With a career in training and as a father of three children, I love this definition of learning: "Learning has occurred when behavior changes." Our chorus picked up a new song this week (learn the basics at home, come prepared to start rehearsing): Seventy Six Trombones from The Music Man. The first half of the arrangement has the melody in the bass voices, and I was curious to see how it would sound at the first rehearsal. As a bass section, we've heard a lot of instruction about how to sing the melody when we have it: Sing like a Lead, just in a lower range. Keep the placement forward and the quality light, especially in your upper range (sometimes I think the phrase "Just 'cause you can, don't mean you should."  was written for barbershop basses).

This week's rehearsal included some genuine WOW! musical moments. I'm always impressed by Coby's listening abilities, and as he fine-tuned our balance, vowel shapes and blend we all felt the convergence of lyrics, arrangement and our singing. Like  a perfect barbershop storm these things came together in a way that made the song come to life. That might sound corny but if you've heard good barbershop harmony you know what I mean. It's the definition of synergy, where the total is greater than the sum of the parts. It's a full body experience for me, standing in the front row near the center as we deliver the poetry of the lyrics, carried along by the momentum of the arrangement, our family of voices molded into one.

And THAT is another reason I love this group!

Its an old saying that absence makes the heart grow fonder, but I bumped into that recently because I had a cold that was not worth sharing with my fellow singers and missed last weeks meeting. I returned this past Tuesday and had that odd feeling, as a long time member, that I had missed something. I wouldn't say for a moment that I felt left out, I've rarely experienced a more welcoming cohort of friends dedicated to a common purpose and the warmth of fellowship this week was exceptional. There was, however, the sense that something wonderful happened while I was away. That's the sense of special-ness that I love about this chapter and chorus, and what makes me so reluctant to miss a rehearsal.

March first, we've chased the last stray rose petals from Singing Valentines out of the car, and the tux is at the the cleaners. It's the perfect time of year for trying new things, so we're learning new music while also trying out a new riser setup for improved rehearsal acoustics. Guess what? Those two experiments are working quite well together. I can hear all the other parts so much better, making the new music noticeably easier to learn. We're still standing in sections, and I'm thinking it will be even better when we shift to a mixed (shotgun) formation later on. Beyond notes and words, I can also focus more on singing with heart and finesse when I hear the chords better because I hear the whole musical experience we're creating. What a blast!

John Contreras