Mix`ed Up

Ladies Association of British Barbershop Singers
www.labbs.co.uk
Mix’ed Up
C
onvention 2013 brought us the
amazing opportunity of competing
in a brand new competition for previous
the ideas for the performance got bigger
and bigger. We had two Muppet songs
arranged into a medley by the amazing
LABBS gold medal winning quartets. The
rules of the competition were different
from the usual two song set, so we got
to put together a contrasting package of
material of up to 12 minutes in length.
This got the creative juices flowing.
It was great to be competing against
NoteOrious & Finesse in such a prestigious
competition. Congratulations to Finesse
for taking the QC title and in fact to both
our fellow competitors for providing such
great competition and camaraderie.
Just over a year ago, we floated the
idea of a Muppet Quartet and from there
British arranger, Liz Garnett; Mr. Bassman
and Mahna Mahnah. It was brilliant to
work with Liz as she knew the personality
of The MIX and arranged it with us in
mind – even going as far as to check
the vocal range of our Tenor, Andrea, to
ensure that she could get the really low
notes towards the end for the punchline
of the song.
We are lucky to have our very own,
exceptionally talented dress maker, Lynn
Day Andrea’s mum. No sooner had we
suggested the idea of four huge puppets
to appear on stage with us, she started
Spring 2014
work giving “birth” to Kermit, Mr.
Bassman and two monstrous pink cows,
shortly followed by Statler and Waldorf.
As the year and the ideas developed
we gathered inspiration from Avenue Q,
spoke to professional puppeteers, watched
online puppet workshops and worked
with our fabulous and creative coach Dale
Kynaston. There was a lot of laughter, a
lot of re-writes and a lot of practice but
eventually it came together. From the
comments we received and the hits on
our You Tube video we figured you all
enjoyed it too. Thanks for your wonderful
comments, we had a blast performing it
and hearing your reception.
Back in November, we jetted off to
Holland to host an education weekend
along side aBSOLUT quartet for 16 Holland harmony and DABS quartets – what
a privilege! We were invited by the
brand new head of education for Holland harmony, Nelleke Dorrestijn who had
organised a cracking weekend of singing,
education, performance and most of all
fun for everyone involved.
After a sticky start involving four
quartet singers and only three passports,
the weekend kicked off with group
warm ups and sessions on “How to be
a great..<insert your part here>”. The
coaching of the quartets started in
earnest, with each member of aBSOLUT
and The MIX taking two quartets for 90
minutes of intensive coaching. Nearly all
the quartets worked up close with all of
us on an individual basis throughout the
weekend.Key themes that we explored
with all the quartets we saw were:
Forward placement
Breath control
Singing to ends of phrases
Looking and feeling comfortable on stage
Saturday night was show time, with
each of the 16 quartets performing to
the rest of the group – some of which
had never performed to such a large
crowd before. It was a
1
really great opportunity to get out and
perform in such a welcoming environment
and a great way of gaining more performance experience. Of course there were the
usual afterglow
activities after
the show until
the early hours.
On the Sunday we hosted
a session about
presentation,
lead by our bass,
Sandra who is a
LABBS Presentation Judge. We
looked at the detail that we work
on when it comes
to just walking
on and off the
stage, pitchpipe
technique, the
spread for the
acceptance and
overall just how
to make an audience comfortable with
your performance.
We topped the year off by singing on
the White Rosettes show in Leeds along-
side The Emerald Guard & Spirit of Harmony. They hosted a wonderful matineê
& evening show followed by a traditional
afterglow. Thank you ladies & gents for
making us feel
so welcome, oh
and the Muppets enjoyed it
too! So all in
all a pretty busy
end to 2013 for
The MIX. We’re
looking forward
to seeing you all
at the next event
wherever and
whenever that
may be.
Keep in touch
on facebook or
via our website
www.themixquartet.co.uk.
Jo, Sandra,
Andrea & Nancy,
The MIX
Notes from the Chairman
W
elcome to the latest edition of
Voice box where you may notice
small changes to the presentation and
layout of information. The Board has
been working hard to consider our
branding and presentation of materials
to be consistent across our website,
communications and advertisements
and throughout this issue you will see
that we have introduced this where
appropriate. We will continue to look
and develop this to fit our Association
so if you have any suggestions on how
we can improve this or would like to
offer help and expertise to do this then
please let us know.
Offers of help for all in all aspects of
LABBS activities are something we
are always grateful to receive. Our
Association runs entirely on the time
and energy volunteered by our members
and as we continue to grow and develop
we are looking for more people to help
us by taking on vacant or recently
created rôles. If you have the skills
and time to give to LABBS in any of
the rôles advertised in this issue then
please get in contact to find out more.
You will know from your club Council
representatives that we have recently
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trialled a new format at our Council
meetings that has been designed to
provide more time to share information
and expertise amongst ourselves. At
our January Council meeting it was
unanimously agreed to continue this
new approach and we hope that you
will see the benefits of this as we learn
from each other. One of the topics we
discussed in January was the many ideas
that you have offered to celebrate our
40th anniversary in 2016 and over the
coming months the Board and teams will
start to consider how to take some of
these forward for our celebration.
Finally, at our Council meeting we also
announced that in October 2017 LABBS
will be hosting the next European
Barbershop Convention in parallel to
our own national convention. This is
being held in partnership with our other
UK Barbershop in Harmony partners
and we are working with BABS and SAI
31 Quartet of Nations in the planning
of this event. This is a fantastic
opportunity for the UK and LABBS
to welcome our European barbershop
partners and share our passion and
talent with them over the course of an
extended weekend. We will keep you
updated as plans progress.
I wish you and your clubs and quartets
every success for the year ahead and
look forward to what I’m sure will be
another exciting year.
Alison Harbord
LABBS Chairman
New City Council
B
ristol appears to have a New City
Council complete with the coat of
remember.
I must tell you what added to the
evening of
great joy and
fun was the
very fact of
the Ladies
of Bristol
Fashion
having to
change and
prepare in the
actual Council
Chambers,
you could say
that those
chambers
have seen
arms and with Craig Kehoe presiding.
quite a few changes in their history, but
Well…Thank goodness, harmony at
NONE quite like that, on that evening, I
last in the Bristol City Council Chambers. will leave that to your imagination.
The main topic on the agenda was to
pass a resolution to have an evening of
musical entertainment in aid of Bristol
Children’s Hospital, supporting ”The
Grand Wallace and Gromit Appeal” , for
Saturday November 30th at City Hall.
There was a resounding “YES” from all
around the chamber and the motion was
carried
The arrangement was made for the
Lord Mayor Faruk Choudhury to grace
us with his presence. The evening
commenced with Bristol Fashion Ladies
giving us nothing but beautifully
controlled singing, soft and tender
moments holding the audience’s every
breath in great delight. The mood
There were great supporting acts:
changed taking us off into the magical
“H-Club”, an all male close harmony group
up tempo songs showing their artistic
born out of The Great Western Chorus of
skills and just why they are in LABBS
Bristol. The audience was thrilled to have
top ten choruse. With all expectations
been put in the forthcoming Christmas
filled the same can be said of the second festivity spirit with their Christmas songs
half performance, truly a night to
celebrating our Saviour’s birth.
Graig (MD) would like to give a
special thank you to “Jiggle” LABBS 2012
Silver medallists who made a long journey
to support this great evening. Their
presence made the entertainment so
worthwhile, their harmonies were superb
and a delight.
The audience had a surprise with The
NHS Choir “The above and Beyond Choir”
they were from all walks of professions
in Bristol’s NHS, their delightful and
encouraging MD enthusiastically directing
them through a very diverse repertoire,
dare I say injecting an inspiring
performance, a really lovely sound.
There was also a lot more fun being
provided by the MC Mr John Shipley
of LABBS fame who had the audience
laughing. Even the Lord Mayor passed
comment in his farewell speech of
thanks.
The Lord Mayor went on to draw a
very special raffle of a “Gromitina” a
Gromit figurine black and dressed with
fine round jewels, quite a prize that
managed to raise funds of £573.75p. A
thrilling result for the organizers.
Craig (MD) expressed his sincere wish
to give a huge thanks to all involved in
the organisation of the event and to all
who had taken part in the programme
and gave such wonderful performances,
waiving their fees and giving their time
for free, making it such a successful
evening. The event raised, after expenses,
£1050 for The Bristol Children’s Hospital,
a great result and truly a great evening
of musical entertainment. Sadly their
time in Council was short lived perhaps
not such a bad thing but hopefully they
left behind the lasting Harmony.
Laurence Levett PRO.,
Bristol Fashion
3
The Grandest National
O
n a blustery day at Aintree race
course in September, a colourful
array of pantomime ‘horses’ including a
zebra, a reindeer, an elephant, a cow a
unicorn and some
more conventional
equine species, lined
up for ‘the Grandest Charity National’
organised by LCVS/
United Way. Liverpool-based chorus,
Mersey Harmony
took part though, in
a spirit of fairness.
Their mount, ‘Lesley’s Folly’ (named
after their Marvellous MD, Lesley
Crawford) sportingly
took up the rear
position on the field
and cantered, trotted, neigh, strolled
to the finishing
line to the cheers
and applause of an
enthusiastic though slightly damp crowd.
Pictured, we see the flat fleet-footed filly
in all her finery: WAG bag, mobile phone
and, of course, rollers. The whole ensemble being the creation of faux fur-coated
owner/tailor extraordinaire (she made
the folly!), Maureen Huskisson, seen here
explaining the subtler points of the race
plan to an enthralled journalist. Trainer,
Julie Devine, gamely reins in the awesome
power of the eager thoroughbred with a
tight grip and the occasional sugar lump.
Mersey Harmony’s participation was
the brainchild of Treasurer, Heather
Lovelady and the brave (though cosily
warm) souls inside the costume were Cate
Gall and her daughter Lauren: who’d have
thought just over a year ago when they
joined the chorus, that mastering the art
of barbershop singing would involve this
type of initiation test. Asked how they
felt after their gruelling 100 metre dash,
they reported that they were ‘OK but a
little hoarse!’
An adjudicator
from the Guinness
Book of Records
was in attendance
and confirmed that
the participants
had set a new world
record for the most
pantomime horses
competing in a race,
so congratulations
to all who helped,
cajoled, raised funds
and braved the
weather, it blew a
gale and was very,
very wet!
Later and
thankfully indoors,
Mersey Harmony
was in fine voice
and provided a
lovely harmonious
sound as they entertained the rest of
the participants, guests, fundraisers
and dignitaries, including a Mare Mayor.
Although they didn’t gain a winner’s
rosette, they were first past the post with
the quality of their singing.
Racing Times Correspondent, aka Cate
Gall, PRO Mersey Harmony
News from The Harton Harmonisers
H
appy New Year to everyone in LABBS.
There will be big changes for us this
year because our talented M.D., Jean
Sutton, is returning to her home town
of Crewe. She has been with us for nine
years and we will all miss her vibrant
personality and Barbershop expertise.
We are now looking for a new M.D. with
a Barbershop background which may be
difficult with only two choruses here in
the North East.
It was with great sadness that we said
farewell to Bernice Guthrie in November
last year, aged 73 years.Bernice was our
Membership Secretary for many, many
years and, although she had lived in
South Shields for 45 years, had never
lost her Milton Keynes accent. She was a
talented Bass and will be greatly missed.
4
Our Christmas sing outs started in
November with our concert at Marsden
Baptist church, a bit early to sing carols
and “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” but
we did! In December we sang at Morrisons,
Matalan and Asda (not all on the same
day!) and at Sunderland Monkwearmouth
Hospital diabetic club. Again we have
raised a lot of money for our charity, Grace
House Children’s Hospice in Sunderland.
Our Christmas dinner was held at the
Sea Hotel in South Shields and our local
rep, Bunny Bainbridge, came with Jean.
There was a karaoke! We sang A Winter’s
Tale (without the backing tape!) but the
winner sang “My Old Man Said Follow The
Van” with a great cockney accent; I tried to
recruit her with no luck!
We have, at last, made our first CD. I
got in touch with a local man, Chay, who
has a small recording studio – he came to
our practice hall and we recorded eight
songs – he said we sounded great! (Our CD
will be on sale soon!)
Beryl Cooke. P.R.O.
Patchwork!!
H
ello! We’re Patchwork, Helen (tenor),
Ali (lead), James (bari) and Sean
(bass), a mixed quartet from Bristol.
All four of us met through
The University of Bristol
Barbershop Singers (www.
tubbs.org.uk). We come from
various different courses and
backgrounds – music, maths
and science! After a TUBBS
rehearsal over a year ago
now, the four of us hid in
a stairwell at the Students’
Union and sang through an
arrangement of Mlk by U2
(as made famous by Vocal
Spectrum) and were surprised
and pleased by the sound our
voices made together. Patchwork was formed!
We have plenty of singing
experience between us. Ali,
as well as singing at solo
gigs in and around London,
is the lead of silver medal
BABS quartet, Park Street.
The multitalented James
joined Ali and Park Street as
a stand-in tenor at the BABS prelims in
November 2013 and they were placed first
overall! James has also just joined the
Great Western Chorus of Bristol, as a lead
(!) Helen is a classically trained musician
who is working towards two recitals to
complete her final year studying Music at
The University of Bristol. Sean has been a
barbershop enthusiast for a few years and
wanted to be in a competing quartet – and
here we were, ready and waiting for our
perfect bass!
Helen stumbled across the LABBS
mixed quartet contest online by accident
one day last Spring and we entered. Little
did we know how much success we would
have! In fact, when the results were
announced we were in shock. We were
surrounded by our amazing friends from
TUBBS who screamed and shouted with
joy on our behalf, since we were utterly
speechless. Having their support, cheering
from the front row in the Sunday show,
was indispensable.
Despite our busy schedules
and now being based in three
different cities we’re trying
our hardest to rehearse as
often as possible for the BinG!
Convention in Dortmund in
March, so we can do as well as
possible and show how proud
we are to be able represent
LABBS and BABS. We can’t
thank LABBS enough for the
opportunity they offer mixed
quartets to compete and the
support they have given and
are giving us in our journey
onwards as the champion
mixed quartet 2013!
LABBS and BABS have
been very supportive
financially but it is still
an expensive trip for four
poor lowly students/recentgraduates. Therefore, we are
going to put on a fundraising
concert. We are honoured to
be joined by some special guest quartets
too: Park Street (current BABS silver
medallists), BOMB Squad (current LABBS
8th and Novice trophy winners) and
QuarteTones (current BABS 5th)
Please come along and help us raise
some funds for our trip! Saturday 1st
March in Alma Road Bristol. Tickets can be
bought on the door at £5 each.
Festival of Rememberance
M
ain Street Sound
was very honoured
to be invited to appear
in the York Festival of
Remembrance in York’s
Barbican Centre. We were
very proud to open the
first half and perform during the Festival singing
alongside York Military
Wives Choir, York Philharmonic Male Voice Choir,
local schools and The
Heavy Cavalry and Cambrai
Military Band. We found it very moving to in the Remembrance service and commujoin with the other artists and audience
nity singing.
We were approached
last year by the producer
of the Festival who worked
for Radio York. She came
to a rehearsal and really
enjoyed our style of singing and chose us to take
part.
It was another opportunity to wear our “Convention dresses”. As you will
se from the photo, they
were really appropriate for
the occasion.
Pam Lydiate,PRO Main
Street Sound
5
40 Years of Barbershop Harmony
H
ere we are in 2014 and it’s amazing to
think that Tyneside Ladies Barbershop
Harmony Chorus has been in existence since
1973. A great number of LABBS members
were not even a twinkle in anyone’s eye! Evelyn, Margaret and Bunny cutting the
cake to celebrate 40 years of Tyneside Ladies
Barbershop Harmony Chorus
Maybe not but here in Tyneside two other
ladies and I were very excited all those
years ago about this new style of music
Photographs by R.Bowe
namely ‘4 part Barbershop Harmony’.
So on October the 12th 2013 the chorus
now named Tyneside A Cappella celebrated
40 years of Barbershop Harmony with a
fabulous dinner and entertainment at the
Newcastle Novotel.
Evelyn Asher, Lead, Margaret Grant ,Bass
and myself sing Tenor are the only founder
members still singing with the chorus. We
were certainly thrilled and honoured to
be presented with beautiful flowers and
engraved glass commemorative awards to
remind us of our dedicated years with the
chorus.
Diane is stepping down as Chairman at
this year’s Tyneside A Cappella AGM. All of
us at Tyneside would like to thank her for
all the hard work she done for the chorus.
Tyneside A Cappella pictured singing
in summer at The National Trust Gibside
Chapel, Rowlands Gill Gateshead. Gibside is
a favourite venue of Director Peter and his
wife Susan who were married at the chapel.
What a perfect setting for a wedding.
Bunny Bainbridge, PRO
Tyneside A Cappella
Ladies Association of
British Barbershop Singers
LABBS ANNUAL CONVENTION 2014
Join us in Harrogate, UK, from Friday 31st October – Sunday 2nd November for an inspiring
weekend of Barbershop:
ü Exciting competitions for ladies quartets, mixed quartets, quartet champions
and ladies choruses
ü Dynamic shows with guests including British male Barbershop champions
from BABS
ü Education master classes
ü Fun, friendship and afterglows
ü Entertainment from Vocal 6, our specially invited guests
www.labbs.org.uk/convention
@SingLABBS
6
#LABBS14
… leading the way in harmony
Secret Singout
U
sually when the chorus is booked for
a show there is a frenzy of activity as
the event is advertised, tickets are prepared
and people invited. However, in December
our first singout for the festive season was
somewhat different. This engagement was to
a big surprise. Alys, the Lady
Captain of Heyrose Golf Club
in Cheshire wanted an extra
special treat to mark the end
of her year as Captain and
had approached us 12 months
previously to plan the surprise
show. The ladies section was
celebrating the end of the
year with their annual dinner.
The plan was we’d meet at
a local pub to do a little
warming up and then quietly
go across to the golf club as
the ladies were finishing their
dinner.
The plan worked perfectly.
Very quietly we sneaked
into an upper room so as not to be seen to
change into our sparkly blue costumes. As
the meal came to an end we went into an
adjoining room where our risers had been set
up and Hey Presto! as the doors were pulled
back we opened in song. The amazement on
the ladies’ faces, not to mention the squeals
of delight, were a joy to behold. We had
taken them completely by surprise. After
our first song Jo explained how Alys had
organised the show as a special treat for
the ladies. What a great audience they were,
they cheered and clapped
each song, took part in some
audience participation and a
few even shed a tear during
our emotional renditions of
The Way We Were and One Day
Like This. As the show came
to an end Alys joined us for a
photo and a few ladies even
expressed interest in coming
along to our Learn To Sing
course in January. It was a
lovely evening and definitely
one which we were pleased
we had helped to keep a
secret.
Alison Linfield : PRO,
Cheshire Chord Company
Learn to Sing!
C
heshire Chord
Company got
the New Year off
to a resounding
start with our
4 week Learn
to Sing course.
We leafleted,
promoted,
advertised and
generally oozed
our Barbershop
enthusiasm
all over the
Northwest and our
Music Team, Learn
to Sing Team and
Committee all
planned to make
it amazing and they didn’t disappoint.
53 ladies registered and arrived to hear
what it was all about and together with
over 40 existing chorus members, we filled
the risers with warm up exercises and craft
work not to mention the odd “Tag” and
sent them off with a song to learn (well
not all of it all at once) but they returned
the following week having learnt more
than we’d asked. Keen or what?!
At the time
of writing, we’re
preparing for the
fifth week where
their family and
friends will be
invited to see what
it was all about.
We hope that our
some of our Learn
to Sing ladies will
return once the
course has finished
and will have
become “hooked”
on Barbershop as we
all have been. Who
knows you may meet
The Music Team had chosen a brand
some of them at
Convention. We truly hope so.
new song, so the chorus learnt it along
We’re looking forward to representing
with the delegates too and took part in
LABBS at the BinG! Convention in March,
the craft sessions being delivered by our
make sure you keep up to date with our
music team.
news by following us on Twitter, Facebook
Three further weeks of learning new
or via our website.
warm up exercises, craft work, section
rehearsals and putting the song together. www.cheshirechord.co.uk
What an amazing sight and sound, over 90 Debby Hirst PRO
ladies singing a brand new song together, Cheshire Chord Company
so exciting!!
7
Fascinating Dellies!
I
t’s been such a rewarding few months
since our last missive to Voice Box
when we were getting ready for the
festive season. It’s lovely to do Christmas
gigs. The appreciation goes both ways;
we’re always so grateful when, despite
usually foul weather, the audience turns
up! Indeed they did for our fully booked
Winter Show. Mind you, by the end of
the evening, it was getting mighty snug
in the theatre, particularly for those
standing on the top riser, right under the
lights and through the dark we could see
many a programme being used as fans.
We fielded ‘in house’ quartet Out of Range
and octet RhythmMix, plus Junior FR who
did their usual stealing of the show. We
also have a small group, FromaFaR, who
sang a 10 part (!) arrangement of Mr
Blue Skies. By way of complete change,
one of our Baritones, Mads Harwood, an
exceptionally accomplished folk singer,
did an amazing job of ‘The Snow It Melts
In Winter’, accompanied by some very,
Whoo Hoo Choreography
very quiet backing chords (tested our
breath control!) she’d written for the
Chorus. A proper hair standing on end
job.
We had a super MC, too - Bass
singer Julie Morgan’s son Harry; a tall,
handsome 6 footer and in his 3rd year
at Portsmouth Uni studying drama, he
carried the evening along with immense
charm and humour. Hope his Mum doesn’t
let him read this, or he might charge us
next time.
The next event was our third
annual Harmony Singing Workshop and
was absolutely the best yet. Over 80
delegates rocked up to join in the fun
8
MD JO Dean and Assistant MD Karen Metcalfe giving it some wellie on the risers at
our winter show
and we mean rocked, because the song
we chose was ‘We Go Together’ from
Grease (oh, the words! We do like to
challenge our Dellies). The first hour,
taken by MD Jo Dean, was a thorough
briefing on singing craft and breathing.
FR then demonstrated the song to a
mostly horrified audience who were all
thinking “No way am I going to be able
to learn the words to that song in a day!”
Two break-out and three full sessions
later, including choreography, we were
ready for ‘Showtime’ – when invited
friends and family came along to watch
what had been achieved. They weren’t
disappointed. Fascinating Rhythm was,
once again, absolutely blown away by
what the delegates accomplished – Page
to Stage in just one day. We ended up
Baritone delegates spreading the love ...
with over 120 on and around the risers,
all of us grinning from ear to ear, having
had the most excellent day. Never doubt
that giving people the opportunity to
come together to sing in a supportive,
encouraging environment makes a
difference. The feedback we’ve had has
been genuinely moving – which more
than makes up for how knackered we
were on Sunday and we’re really looking
forward to doing it again next year.
Our January AGM behind us – much
planning and so much to look forward
to, including cutting our very first CD,
preparations for our 20th Anniversary
in 2015, exceptional people booked to
coach us, new music to learn. Doesn’t
get much better, does it?
The Phantom
Honorary Membership for Liz and Helen
H
onorary Membership for
Liz and Helen! They’re
simply the best and they
started with Chorus Iceni!
Two of Barbershop’s
most illustrious names, Liz
Garnett and Helen Owen,
started their barbershop
careers some 20 or so years
ago when they joined a
small East Anglian chorus
- then known as Colne
Harmony. Since then the
chorus has doubled in size
and changed its name to
Chorus Iceni. Things have moved on for
Liz and Helen too. After several years
learning their craft on the risers they
each moved on to pastures new and to
barbershop accolades galore! For Liz
the journey led her in the direction of
judging, coaching and music
arranging and from 2006 to
2013, Liz was LABBS Music
Category Director. Helen’s
path took her to gold medalwinning quartet performances
with LABBS as part of the
fabulous ‘Finesse’ and more
recently to 4th place at the
2013 SAI. The chorus has
retained close links with
Helen and Liz and watched
their rise to barbershop stardom with
pride. Clearly the roots put down went
deep! To honour these beginnings and
recognise the special friendship between
us, in 2013 the chorus approached Liz
and Helen with the offer of Honorary
Membership and were delighted when
Mona Botherel
O
n Monday 9th December 2013 Mona
Botherel, a truly inspirational
barbershop singer and one of LABBS
longest serving members, sadly passed
away.
Mona was a passionate barbershopper
and committed much of her remarkable energy and organisational skill to
the cause of establishing and growing
the barbershop art form in Britain. She
was LABBS member number 89 and has
been very influential in the development
of the association. She served on the
Executive Committee as LABBS Chairman
from 1995-97 and as treasurer on many
occasions. In recent years she worked on
the original charity working party bringing her clear and analytical approach to
ensure the best interests of LABBS and
its membership were served. She was
also the buyer
for the LABBS
shop until very
recently.
As you would
expect she was
a force in her
own chorus the
Barberettes
She tackled the
challenging bari part with ease, and at
the age of 80, was still performing on
stage with the Barberettes at the 2012
Convention in Telford. She served on the
committee of the Barberettes as a very
successful PRO and also treasurer for
many years before becoming Chairman
from 2010-2012. Although she retired
from singing with us in March 2013 after
34 years of membership, we continued
to consider her as one of our number
both responded with
a resounding, “Yes!”
Getting two such busy
people and the chorus
together wasn’t easy
but we finally managed
it at Llandudno as
the chorus started its
final rehearsal before
hitting the convention
stage. Helen Owen and
Liz Garnett are seen
here being welcomed
into the Chorus Iceni
family by MDs Nickie
Williams and Ian James and Chairman,
Sally Stephenson.
As I write, the chorus has just
welcomed 23 enthusiastic prospective
members to our latest ‘Come & Sing’
course. The second picture shows them
working on the Shirley Bassey
number, ‘Diamonds are Forever’.
Maybe our new ladies won’t
all reach the same dizzying
heights as our Honorary
Members but we hope each will
discover the same friendship
and joy in ringing those chords
as Liz and Helen experienced
all those years ago!
Sally Stephenson
PRO Chorus Iceni
and she was in regular contact with the
club she loved, keeping up to date with
all our activities and encouraging us all
the way.
At Mona’s funeral there were 6 past
LABBS Chairmen, representatives from
the LABBS Board of Trustees in attendance plus many past and present Barberettes. We know her family was grateful
that so many barbershoppers came from
all parts of the country.
Dear Mona, you were the wittiest and
most intelligent of women.Your energy
and organisational ability was awesome
but we will remember you most of all for
the way you supported, encouraged and
inspired others.
Ann-Marie Melville (Chairman)
Reading Ladies Barbershop Singers
-The Barberettes.
9
Plenty of Pzazz!
F
irstly we would like to wish our barbershop family a very happy new year. We
hope 2014 brings you health, happiness
and an abundance of barbershop
memories!
Pzazz formed in the Summer
of 2011 and has been having fun
ever since. With the many trials
and tribulations that life throws
at us, our motto has always been
to enjoy our friendship, sing great
songs and drink sparkling rosé.
We’ve no doubt Gill would also
include sourcing sparkly outfits in
this list.
We were thrilled in October of
last year to place 4th at our first
LABBS Convention. The standard
was exceptionally high and we
offer our congratulations to Echo,
Tone-acity and Northern Vibe. We
were also delighted to see our friend and
regular coach Sally McLean, achieve her
14th gold medal with the inspirational
White Rosettes.
Riverside Harmony, directed by our
fellow Crystal Anne-Marie Borneuf, invited
us to sing on their Christmas Cracker show
in December to raise money for Willowbrook Hospice in St Helens. It’s always a
pleasure to sing for such an appreciative
audience and over £500 was raised for
a very worthy cause. We had a fantastic
evening and look forward to performing
alongside the lovely ladies of Riverside in
the future.
Early February saw Pzazz head to
Birmingham for a coaching weekend with
The Buzz. What an amazing weekend.
We enjoyed singing at its very best
from four very talented ladies, who were
more than willing to share their time,
advice and wealth of experience with all
who attended. Thank you to LABBS for
organising this event. It’s always such fun
to have a quartet weekend away
and get to know other quartets,
whilst of course making great
music and improving our craft.
Pzazz is looking forward
to competing in the SABS
International contest in April
alongside our chorus Crystal
Chords. We would also like to send
good luck wishes to our sister
quartet Barberlicious as they make
their contest debut.
No sooner will we have
returned from SABS and rehearsals
for LABBS Prelims begin and
fingers crossed, LABBS Convention
in Harrogate which is without
doubt our favourite convention
venue. Our “bass clef” will be enjoying the
delights of Harrogate at the BABS 40th
Convention in May, please feel free to
join us at the bar for a quick Lazy Day or
simply a chat and a drink.
To discover more about Pzazz you can
find us on Facebook or our chorus website
crystalchords.org.uk.
Sarah, Gill, Julie & Monica
Certificates for The Belles
Whilst rehearsing for convention, the
Belles quickly recognised that their vocal
training, rehearsals, performances and competition successes provided exactly the
right evidence to achieve a
brand new qualification currently being piloted by North
Warwickshire and Hinckley
College. The NCFE Level 3
Award in Achieving Excellence in a Vocational Skill is
he Belles of Three Spires enjoy more
designed to recognise learnsuccess piloting a performance excellence qualification for North Warwickshire ers who have demonstrated
excellent performance. It
& Hinckley College
Proud members of the Belles have been provides an action planning
rewarded Performance Excellence Qualifica- framework within which the
tions certificates at the Skills Show at the naturally occurring evidence
fits.
NEC on 15th November. Certificates were
Thirteen members of the Belles regpresented by Marion Plant OBE, Principal
and Chief Executive of North Warwickshire istered for the award and achieved 100%
success, showing that the qualification
& Hinckley College and South Leicestershire College and a Director of the Skills
is as relevant to the craft of barbershop
Show.
harmony singing as it is to a myriad of
other skills such as beauty therapy, ballet
and bricklaying. T
10
Members of the Belles are now registering to undertake the Level 4 qualifications
helping to work towards Convention 2014!
Emer Scott-Baird
PRO The Belles of Three Spires
LABBS Convention 2014
VOCAL
VOCAL 6
6
“S
eeing is believing!
Imagine four tenors,
a baritone and a bass singer
firing off some good and
well-known songs. Very
skilful, very captivating and
very energetic”
Vocal Six was founded
in 1988; its members
are: Niclas Kåse, Staffan
Paulson, Stefan Högström,
Robert Green, Per Kockum
and Peder Tennek.
Their Show repertoire
includes pop, rock and jazz
together with humorous
dialogue and, as they say: “It makes
you want to join in and sing along!
Whether it’s a small event or a large
concert, the goal is to create a unique
moment with the audience. Vocal Six
Norway, Switzerland,
Taiwan and USA. In 2009,
they performed at the
International Male Voice
Choir Festival in the UK.
In March 2014, they
are visiting Germany,
Mallorca, Spain and
Taiwan.
Reviews of one of
their albums included:
…I would urge you
to have a listen. …it
might even be a little
old fashioned but it’s a
tremendously enjoyable
really knows how to custom-make a
listen nonetheless. I can only hope we
won’t have to wait another five years
show with a twist.”
for their next one.
Their tours have included their
Vocal Six sings big and loud and
home country of Sweden and visits to
Austria, Estonia, Finland, Holland, Italy, without holding back.
WE NEED YOU
Stewards
Stewards are always required. If you are interested
(and the Convention Team would really appreciate your
assistance), please contact: June Donovan:
junedonovan28@hotmail.co.uk
01446 735 088; 07712 784 540.
First Aiders
There are two Certified First Aiders on the Convention
Team but it would be useful if there was another person
on-call throughout the weekend. If you are not competing
and are interested, please contact: Joan Harrison:
executive60@hotmail.co.uk
01159 323 053
After several years, Laurence Levett will be stepping
down as LABBS Show Manager after Convention 2014; the
Convention Team would like to thank him for all his work
supporting LABBS and our Conventions.
HARROGATE
T
his year, sees us back at what has proved over the
years to be one of our
favourite venues. There will
be the usual Competitions and
Shows and, after its success
last year, the LABBS Fringe. The
Convention Team would welcome
any comments or suggestions that you may have for items
to be included in the Fringe; please address them to:
convention@labbs.org.uk
onvention Express will not be printed each day as
much of the information included previously is now
covered by signage around the Centres. In 2014, you will
receive only one edition in your Registration Pack which
will update any information that has changed and, of
course, any good wishes that you wish to include.
onvention registration forms will be available online
in April
C
C
@SingLABBS #LABBS14
www.labbs.org.uk/convention
11
On the cobbled street where we sang!
O
n the cobbled street
where we sang!
If you live in the East
End of London, in the
Yorkshire Dales, or where
the beautiful and young
people live in the suburb
of Chester, then you might
not know about our little
town in Greater Manchester
called Weatherfield!
However if you do, then
you know the name of the
most famous street in that
town! Yes I am talking
about Coronation Street!
When Crystal Chords
were asked to entertain the cast
and crew of the famous soap
during their Christmas
lunch, the excitement in the
ranks of the
Chorus was
tingling.
I may be
French but I
have lived in the
UK and especially
in the North West
for long enough to
know that Coronation
Street is an institution.
Unsurprisingly I am a mas
sive
fan of the show! It transpires that I am
not the only one and lots of the Crystals
were really
looking forward to
the gig!
Not all the cast was present but
the ones that were, were really nice and
appreciative. We even had the odd photo
opportunity with Alison King (AKA Carla
Connor), and Jennie McAlpine and Alan
Halsall (AKA Fiz and
Tyrone) who were really
lovely.
The most exciting
part of the day was that
we were allowed to go
on the set. It was quite
surreal to walk the cobbles with all those landmarks that we have come
to love over the years
such as The Kabin, Webster Autos, Underworld,
Audrey’s Hair Salon,
Street Cars, Roy’s Rolls
and the most famous of
all The Rover’s Return.
The street was buzzing with activity as a crowd of purple-clad
ladies mingled and took
photographs everywhere. We would
not have been
true to our
Barbershop
roots if we
did not sing. So
what better song
to sing than “On
The Street Where You
Live”, the competition
song that earned us the
Bronze medal in 2011. Fitting don’t you think?
Celine Macdonald-Matti
PR Officer, Crystal Chords
First Prize for Crystal Chords!
I
t was with anticipation that the Crystal
Chords walked on stage
at the North Wales Music
Festival in Llandudno on
Sunday 10th November
2013. It would be the first
time they would perform
their new repertoire song.
Would they like it? Would
we dare to dream!
Competition was tough
and when the scores were
announced, we held our
breath. Would it be good
enough?
Yes it was! The Crystal
Chords won first prize in
12
the Barbershop Chorus class. We felt very
proud to see Monica Funnell our Music
Director walk on stage
to collect the trophy and
prize money of £500.
It was such a boost
to our morale... but no
resting on our laurels,
Monica is hard at work
pushing us so we can
polish it and deliver an
even better performance
at the SABS “En
Armonía” convention in
April 2014. Watch this
space!
Celine Macdonald-Matti
PR Officer, Crystal Chords
Revised Contest Rules and Trophy Changes
Rule Changes
ost of the edits to the Contest Rules
are to clarify meaning and remove
ambiguity. The following nuggets are
areas of which you should be particularly
aware. However we recommend that you
check the Contest Rules appropriate to the
contest you are entering, even if you are
not intending to read the entire Contest &
Judging Handbook!
M
Coaching by Panel Judges
t is now clarified that the moratorium of
30 days applied to panel judges coaching
competing groups does also apply to mike-
I
warmers, if there is any possibility that
they could end up in the main contest.
For example, last year due to a couple of
quartets dropping out of the Semi-Finals,
the two quartets originally scheduled
to mike-warm that contest due to their
prelims placement were promoted to the
contest proper. If due to the status of the
mike-warming group or the rules of contest
this progression is not possible, they may
receive coaching.
Statistical Variances in Scores
he E&J has always adopted a pragmatic
approach whereby any judge handing
T
Changes to Trophies
Blue Chords Novice Quartet Trophy
his trophy will now be awarded
to the Novice Quartet gaining the
highest placing over the entire contest
cycle. In other words, any Novice Quartet
progressing from Prelims to the Semi-Finals
and Finals rounds is still competing for
the trophy and it goes to the quartet that
ended up placed highest. If no Novice
Quartet progresses beyond the Prelims
round to the Semi-Finals, then the highest
placed Novice Quartet at Prelims will be
presented the trophy at Convention.
in a score that is significantly different
from the other scores from their category
is notified and given the opportunity to
reconsider their score. This practice has been
in place in order to serve the competitors
better and ensure they receive the marks
they deserve. Following developments in
this area by the BHS this process is gaining
a more structured approach, utilising a
formula to indicate when variances need
to be addressed. More details are available
in the Contest & Judging Handbook,
including a Position Paper in the BHS Extract
document, found in the judging section on
the LABBS website.
to indicate novices on their members list
which they submit prior to contest, which
E&J reserves the right to check for veracity.
Formula: % new members on stage +
(Tot competitors – rank + 1) = Score
This formula is devised to place
emphasis on new members, therefore if
there is a brand new LABBS club with
members predominantly new-to-barbershop,
it is most likely that they would win the
A New Life for the Harmony InSpires
trophy (unless an established club had
Novice Chorus Trophy
ue to the fact that there is not always experienced phenomenal growth together
with high placing). If there is no new
a new LABBS chorus to award the
club, then recruitment together with
trophy to, the E&J Committee responded
achievement is celebrated.
to a request to look at how to repurpose
Chorus Divisions by Score are replaced
Note: the formula used for the ranking
this trophy so that it could be awarded
by Divisions by Size
score is not a simple subtraction otherwise
ollowing feedback of confusion
every year. The intention was to retain
surrounding divisions and some instances the celebration of new choruses and new
last place would come out as zero and first
where the award of a trophy did not bring
members bringing growth to LABBS.
place would score 1 less than the actual
the joy it was intended to invoke, the E&J
From 2014 the trophy will be
inverse placing. The “+1” element of the
Committee looked at options to repurpose
awarded to formula preserves the inverse numbers of
the trophies involved. After studying
the chorus
the ranking order correctly.
geographical and membership data and
with highest
Example 1: A brand new LABBS Chorus
options, it was decided to move to a model
percentage
has 2 experienced founder members,
of grouping choruses of different sizes to
of new
including the MD, and 18 novice members,
compete for each trophy as follows:
LABBS
and placed 25th out of 30 competitors.
members who % new members on stage: (18 ÷ 20) x 100
The Phoenix Trophy Small Chorus Award
are competing = 90%
for the first
Ranking score: 30 – 25 + 1 = 6
warded to the highest placed “small”
time in any
90+6 = 96 score
chorus with up to 25 members on
Example 2: Established chorus of 45
convention run
stage (including MD(s)).
by a barbershop existing members ran a learn to sing course
and gained 15 new members on stage, and
organisation.
The Red Rosettes Award
placed 4th out of 30 competitors.
It is calculated by adding the simple
(was Division 3 trophy)
% new members on stage: (15 ÷ 60)x 100
percentage of new members on stage
warded to the highest placed “mid= 25%
size” chorus with 26 to 40 members on (e.g. a chorus of 30 which includes 6 new
Ranking score: 30 – 4 + 1 = 27
members has 20% new members) to the
stage (including MD(s)).
25+27 = 52 score
inverse number of the rank achieved. The
Debi Cox,
highest score wins and in the event of a
The Peter Caller Award
tie, the trophy is awarded to the chorus
LABBS E&J Chairman,
(was Division 2 trophy)
with the highest percentage of new
Education Director
warded to the highest placed “large”
members. Each chorus will be required
chorus with 41 or more members on
T
stage (including MD(s)).
The numbers defining each group size
will be reviewed as required from time
to time, as the organisation grows and
distribution of chorus numbers demands.
Currently (2014) there are roughly equal
numbers of LABBS choruses in each size
group.
D
F
A
A
A
13
Category Updates from E&J
MUSIC CATEGORY
was delighted as Music Category Director
to have the opportunity to attend the
Barbershop Harmony Society Category
School and thank you so much, LABBS, for
making it possible.We covered such a lot of
ground but in terms of rule changes in the
Music Category, there is little to say. Rather
there is a growing change of emphasis.
I
The BHS is encouraging Music Judges
to celebrate and of course reward, the
musicality of contest performances in the
broadest sense. Through your music, let all
your audiences appreciate the barbershop
style of a cappella singing by creating
emotion in their hearts. If you want to
know more about this, come along to the
Music Category’s education day on 19th
July! More info later.
Delyth Knight,
LABBS Music Category Director
on exactly what the Presentation judges
are looking for in a performance and to
give competitors greater artistic freedom
and creative license. BHS want to stimulate innovation and enable performers to
think out of the box. LABBS Presentation
Category share this vision and wholeheartedly welcome this approach, which
effectively places a renewed emphasis on
the authenticity or believability of the
performance as appropriate to the song.
As before, both the vocal and visual
elements of the presentation, in the
context of the song, will be evaluated for
their contribution to the overall entertainment effect of the performance and
now there is new language to describe
and qualify what the judges are going to
reward. This is reflected in the Category
Description and on the Judging Form (you
will find these in the Contest & Judging
Handbook).
Practically what does this mean for the
PRESENTATION CATEGORY
here are changes happening within the contestant? What can we expect to see
LABBS Presentation Category which
rewarded as we move forward? Well, think
are being applied to this year’s contest
about those performances that have recycle and may affect your Presentation
ally affected you emotionally – were they
scores. Want to know more? Read on…
perfect? Probably not but were they sung
To ensure we are in line with the latfrom the heart so much that you were
est developments in barbershop, LABBS
completely wrapped up in the song’s meshasadopted the new Presentation Category sage? That’s what we’re looking for - less
description produced by the Barbershop
of the slick and more authenticity. Out are
Harmony Society (BHS), last year. LABBS
old fashioned barbershop gestures and in
sent Nickie Williams, Presentation Cateis whatever it takes to bring the song to
gory Director, to the BHS Category School life and touch the audience emotionally.
in America, in order to receive up-to-date To be honest, it’s nothing new. However,
training on the shift in perspective and to judges are being asked to score fearlessly
disseminate this to our own judges. The
and this may have consequences for you
BHS judges spent a substantial length of
as a competitor.
time evaluating the performances of proWe are excited to be part of an ever
fessional actors and singers to ascertain
evolving genre of singing where the art of
what makes an artistic performance and
performance is an integral part of the barhow this could be applied to barbershop
bershop style. LABBS choruses have been
performances. Effectively the consensus
making great improvements as reflected
was that barbershop needs to reflect real
in the increase of many choruses’ scores
world entertainment that would be valued in recent competitions. We hope you
by a wider audience.
will take time to read through the new
The Category Description rewrite has
Presentation Category description and look
been streamlined, condensing it to a mere forward to enjoying your performance at
seven pages in order to provide clarity
Convention. Make it real!
T
14
Nickie Williams,
LABBS Presentation Category Director
SINGING CATEGORY
had the pleasure of attending the BHS
Category School on behalf of the LABBS
Singing Category in order to receive firsthand training in current developments in
the category.
I
The Singing Category is undergoing a
change to the category language, namely,
the element of the category called ‘artistry’ is going to become ‘vocal expression’.
In reality this change does not make a
difference to how we judge this element,
it is more a codification and clarification
of the language used.
As you will be aware the singing
category currently judges (principally) 5
elements – intonation – vocal quality –
unity – expansion - artistry.
Artistry now becomes “vocal expression”
Focus is now on language within the
judging handbook and scoresheet which
reflects techniques for expressive singing
including:
Enunciation; Word usage sound; Inflections; Tone colour; Emotional Impact
“In order for all these techniques to be
artistic, they must effectively communicate the emotional content of the song.”
This will overlap with Presentation they talk about vocal expressiveness and
believability and also with Music, in their
elements of theme and delivery.
In truth, as mentioned above this is
not a ‘big shift’ but really just a way of
trying to express the element better. Singing has always judged the expression and
emotion of a performance but we hope the
language used in evaluations will now be
more transparent and helpful to the competitors. For more detail please read the
Singing Category Description contained in
the BHS Extract document published on
the LABBS website.
Nancy Kelsall,
Immediate past LABBS Singing
Category Director
LABBS TEAM POSITIONS
Would you like to get more involved in LABBS? Do you
have the time and skills to help our teams provide education
and events for our Association?
We are looking for people to fill the following rôles in our teams. If
you would like to know more about any of them, please email
secretary@labbs.org.uk to state an interest and find out more.
EVENTS DIRECTOR
As a member of the LABBS Board and a trustee of the charity, this
Director coordinates the events team and works with the Convention and Education teams to provide events management support.
ASSISTANT TREASURER
Working with the LABBS Treasurer in the management of E&J, Convention and Main Accounts and budgeting for the Association.
EVENTS SUPPORT
Working with the Events Director in the coordination of venue and
room bookings and event administration.
LABBS SHOW MANAGER
A member of the LABBS Convention team responsible for scheduling, planning and production of shows and liaison with special
guests at each Convention.
E&J SECRETARY
Documenting E&J meeting minutes and providing administrative
support to the E&J team and Education Director, this is a rôle of a
confidential nature .
15
Wessex
W
essex Harmony had a great
time in December getting into
the Christmas spirit. We enjoyed
entertaining the Christmas shoppers in
Poole whilst at the same time raising
money for the Royal National Institute
Minster sharing the programme with
both an adult and children’s choir. The
acoustics in the Minster are wonderful
and the audience was treated to a
programme of music ranging from
classical pieces to our genre of close,
four part harmony which we all love.
We were also lucky enough to have
the wonderful Nicky Salt come and coach
us over a couple of days in January.
It’s a real privilege to have such talent
helping us with our singing and, as you
can see, some of her techniques are a
little unconventional!
We would like to take this
opportunity of wishing our LABBS
Barbershop friends and Choruses a very
happy and successful 2014. We shall
look forward to meeting up with you all
later this year in Harrogate.’
Sue Banton,
PRO Wessex Harmony
for the Blind. This was followed by one
of our favourite seasonal sing-outs at
Ringwood Brewery. This is an event
where the audience is always very happy
to participate by singing along to the
Carols, beer in one hand and song sheet
in the other! Strangely enough it’s also
amazing just how many of our husbands
and partners are more than happy to be
part of the evening. A great time was
had by all!
In complete contrast, we again
sang this December in Wimborne
The Spirit of Smile
H
ow can we, Spirit of the
South, look back on 2013
and not smile?
We had such a good year.
Not only have we had great
sing-outs some familiar and
some new but we now have
a day-time chorus consisting
mostly of ladies of a certain
age. We call this the Silver
Spirit chorus and they do a
lot of sing-outs in retirement
homes and for charities during day
time, which often involves tea and
cake.
The ladies look forward to the
extra sing-outs as they get to sing
the good old war time sing along
songs as well as the repertoire
songs for Spirit of the South.
The highlight of the year
was obviously the convention at
16
Llandudno, it gives the chorus
purpose and a goal to aim for.
We enjoyed our stage time
and it is fantastic to be able
to kick back and chill out at
the afterglow and the evening
shows.
Can’t wait for Harrogate
October 2014!! See you all
there
Sandra Strawn
Spirit of the South
The Science of Sound
Singing in Perfect Harmony
ne of the most important things
about singing barbershop, is being
able tune ‘perfect’ chords. In
the ‘Definition of the Barbershop
Style’ which forms part of the
LABBS contest and judging
handbook, these ‘perfect’ chords
even get a mention;
“Barbershop singers adjust
pitches to achieve perfectly tuned
chords in just intonation whilst
remaining true to the established
tonal centre.”
What does this actually mean
and why is this perfection so essential
to the Barbershop style? Let me explain
with a bit of maths, history and even a
touch of physics.
Sound is a wave of air at different
pressures which is called a “waveform”.
When these waveforms of different notes
are played together they interact with
each other.
O
Sounds with a high pitch (like a
tenor) have a high frequency wave and
sounds with a lower pitch (like a bass)
have a lower frequency wave.
If two or more pitches are played
at the same time and their waveforms
physically “fit” into each other then they
sound really pleasant.
Here are three different pitches that
are being sung at the same time, each
one being represented by a waveform of
a different colour; the lowest in blue, the get the pulsing sound in your ears and
highest in purple and one in between in
not quite perfectly tuned chords. The
red. See how they all fit together?
margins that we are talking about here
are so small that most of the
time you can’t hear them but in
Barbershop, it’s this difference
that hooks us and keeps us
coming back for more!
When we sing unaccompanied
we aren’t limited to the equally
spaced fixed notes in an equal
temperament scale; our voices
are a very flexible instrument so
we can use just tuning to make
the notes in a chord fit together
For these waveforms to fit, they
and sound perfect.
need to be simple ratios of each other.
You can think of the notes that you
The red line goes up and down twice for
can sing looking like this on a piano
every time the blue line does, giving it
keyboard.
a ratio of 2:1 meaning it is double the
frequency.
When the waveforms don’t quite fit
with each other you can hear a pulsing
sound in the note that is being sung
which in scientific circles
is called a beat’. You can
physically feel this ‘beat’ as
In Barbershop, when we achieve this
a pulsing in your ear when
perfect fit in a chord across all four parts
two notes are playing just a it is referred to as “lock”.
fraction apart in pitch.
When this lock is achieved in
Before music was written Barbershop singing it creates new notes
down and before there
above and below the ones that you
were orchestras that used
are singing, all through the power of
lots of different types of
maths and physics. These new notes
instruments at the same
that are created are called overtones
time, tuning was done by ear and the
and undertones. When they are created
notes and the differences between them
they are referred to in Barbershop as
were ‘pure’ using these simple ratios. The “expanded singing” or sometimes as
waveforms always fitted into each other
“ringing a chord” or “the 5th voice”.
and sounded perfect, exact and “just”.
Most importantly, here is what this
Then, composers wanted to to get
science all means to your barbershop
all clever and use orchestras with lots of singing: the notes written on the sheet
different instruments in different pitches. music might not be the exact ones that
They also wanted to write things down
you need to sing to make the chord ring,
and transpose music into different keys.
you might have to sing slightly sharper
This perfect, “just” tuning system
(higher) or flatter (lower) to tune the
wouldn’t work, as the gaps between each note and get that “lock and ring”.
note in a scale weren’t exactly mathematif you have two notes on the music
ically the same and equal. It meant that
one after the other that are written the
when music was transposed into differsame on the music, then its likely that
ent keys, it didn’t sound right. So, they
you will need to adjust your tuning to
fudged it; the musicians created “equal
sing the right part of the note to get the
temperament” - the posh way of saying
chord to lock, particularly if the other
that the gap between all the notes in a
parts are moving around you.
scale is exactly the same.
If you learn from computer generated
Before equal temperament, all the
teach tracks, they will almost certainly
notes “fitted” together in a chord
use equal tempered tuning, so won’t have
perfectly and sounded marvellous. Now,
any lock and ring - be aware that when
when equal temperament is used the
you sing it yourself the notes might
notes don’t quite fit by the tiniest of
sound different! Getting
margins - and when that happens you
a teach track
17
sung by a human may be more expensive
but they are more accurate because they
will use just tuning.
If you are struggling with a note
SILVER BELLES
when you are learning something sat
in front of a piano, when you sing it in
person with the rest of the chord around
you, you are likely to just get the note
without any issues as your ear will find
it. It’s likely to have been a note that is
in between the ones that you can play on
the piano.
The lead and the bass will most often
be on the notes of the chord that need
the least tuning while the bari and the
tenor are normally on the notes that
need the most tuning - often leading to
the commonly seen “bari shoulder”, and
the “tenor tiptoe”.
Andrea Day
New MD
The fun bunch that is Coast to Coast are looking for a new Musical
Director. Meeting once a month and singing for the Convention Sunday
show, Coast to Coast also has Retreats and occasional foreign travel.
Starting June 2014.
If interested, please contact Anne on 01255 870453
18
DIRECTORS’ DAY
O
n Sunday January 26th, around
ninety directors, assistant directors
and section leaders came together at
the Q3 Academy for a day of fascinating
workshops aimed at helping us all
become more effective in our roles on
the music team. The event was led by
Dr Liz Garnett who started us off with a
whole-group session on “Working with
Human Beings”. Ably assisted by a panel
of willing individuals and Floddy the Hippo
of Belonging, Liz talked us through how
our singers might struggle to concentrate
on ringing chords when they were fixed on
their other more primal needs: physical,
safety, belonging, esteem, cognitive and
aesthetic.
In addition to the mass sessions there
were breakout sessions allowing delegates
to explore subjects like conducting
gesture; managing the voice; rehearsal
planning and diagnostic listening and
in a change from 2014, the day included
streamed sessions aimed at directors who
considered themselves novice, aspiring,
assistant, experienced or expert.
There was plenty of singing to be
had too. Monica Funnell, Helen Lappert,
Craig Kehoe, Nickie Williams and Hannah
Washington made sure we were properly
warmed up and ready to go with a variety
of rounds, harmony exercises, rain storms
and motorbikes! We sang our way through
Pennine Chimes
P
ennine Chimes have had a very
busy time over the Christmas
period,
raising funds
for the
chorus. On
1st and 15th
December we
were invited
by Haworth
Chamber
of Trade to
join their
annual street
festivities.
Haworth,
in West
Yorkshire,
with its
cobbled
streets and
quaint shops
is, of course,
famous for its connection with the
Bronte family. Visitors are attracted
every Christmas by the steam train,
which becomes the Santa Express.
Entertainment in the streets is provided
by a jazz band, Morris dancers and choirs.
Our thanks go to the owner of & Chocolate
across the road from where we sang; not
only did he give us free samples of his
delicious chocolate, he also tweeted this
photograph of us! We had 2 very enjoyable
days when the weather was very kind to
several polecats as five brave souls took to
the floor to be coached on their directing
by Liz.
Undoubtedly the highlight of the day
was a short session where Sally McLean of
the White Rosettes directed the massed
chorus of directors, while Liz talked us
through some of the features that made
her directing so powerful. I’m sure we all
went home thinking about wide backs,
didactic fingers and singing with our
bathroom tiles rather than our curtains!
Boo Lewis
TUBBS Musical Director
BOMB Squad Baritone
us; Haworth can be very bleak in winter!
We had been practising very hard for our
annual Christmas
Concert which
proved to be a
great success. We
were rewarded
with a ticket sell
out and a very
appreciative
audience.
On the
Saturday before
Christmas saw
chorus members
singing in the
local Sainsbury’s
entrance. Many
shoppers stopped
to join in with
the singing,
taking time out
from their busy
schedule. We all agreed that singing is such
a tonic; better than a tot of whisky any
day!!
Tracey Gill, Pennine Chimes
Club Secretary
19
NEW MUSICAL DIRECTOR REQUIRED
MOUNTAIN HARMONY CHORUS
Mountain Harmony Ladies Chorus is based in North Wales, near Mold and has over 40 members.
Following the recent departure of our MD, we are now seeking a new MD to continue to develop the Chorus,
its singing skills and repertoire.
We perform a wide variety of songs a cappella, mainly in the barbershop style.
We are members of LABBS and have regularly competed in the annual Convention along with over 30 other
choruses from all over the UK, as well as performing in more local events (including Llangollen International
Eisteddfod).
If you have the skills and enthusiasm to lead, coach and motivate our Chorus and would like the challenge of
improving and building on the excellent foundations laid since the Chorus was set up 25 years ago, then we
would love to hear from you.
Contact Heather Allsopp (Chairman) on:
01352 753312 or e-mail to allsopp.heather@gmail.com or c_ligo@o2.co.uk (Secretary) for further information.
Apologies!!!
M
any apologies to Tone-acity and Northern Vibe. Their photos were swapped in the last issue although the placements were right.
It should have been as follows:
Tone-acity
SILVER
Deadline for Next Issue
Friday
April 25th 2014
Please supply photographs in the
highest resolution possible, in colour,
as separate Jpeg files not in a Word
document. Expect the file to be bigger
than 300Kb, probably more than
1Mb. If it’s not then it’s probably low
resolution and won’t print well.
Northern Vibe
BRONZE
Diary Dates
Feb 22-23
LABBS/BABS Joint Judges Seminar
Mar 7-9
BinG! Convention inc World Mixed Quartets Comp., Dortmund
Mar 15
LABBS Board meeting
Mar 29 LABBS AGM and Council meeting
Apr 3-6
SABS Convention, Spain
Apr TBS Regional Education Days
May 8-11
Sweet Adelines Reg 31 Convention, Nottingham
May 23-26
BABS 40th Convention, Harrogate
Jun 7
LABBS Board meeting
For more dates and information see our website www.labbs.org.uk