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July 2020 Making Music in the Middle of America Volume X, Issue 8
With communication continuing among board members throughout this COVID-19 period, discussion is starting to turn to the possible resumption of live rehearsals in the near future.
Your bulletin editor is attempting to keep information flowing as well by publishing your newsletter on a monthly basis.
Ultimately, the board has been unable to make specific plans because of the status of the COVID-19 barriers. The annual show, scheduled originally for the last weekend in March, remains in an uncer-tain state, not totally cancelled but not yet rescheduled.
In the discussion about the situation as a whole, Chorus Director Fran Wilson said he had been in contact with the Hastings Chorus leaders, and it may be possible Hastings would join with Kearney for a show this November.
Vice President of Music and Performance Monty McCollough said that of course the schedules for singing at nursing and assisted living homes, as well as churches this summer, are also on hold.
He added that the chorus will eventually try to make up those engagements when things open up, hopefully soon. Looking at things from a cautious point of view, no activities involving large crowds (more than ten) are recommended.
The annual Memorial Day celebration held at the Kearney Cemetery was con-celled due to the pandemic concerns. It rained, there would no doubt have had to been a change of venue regardless.
The 1733 Chorus has offered patriotic music for the occasions for several dec-ades.
There was considerable optimism, on the other hand, that the Nebraska State Fair will be held in late August, early Septem-ber. Treasurer Jim Berlund notes that the final payment for the booths is coming up, so he hopes the leaders of the state fair have concrete decisions made soon.
The 1733 board, at this time, decided it would be difficult to have regular weekly meetings, but it would continue to try a monthly board meeting when needed to handle chorus business.
The Chordnator Website: kearneychorus.com
Keep the Whole World Singing!
Chorus Now In Our 49th Year
Official 1733 Chorus Newsletter
ONE OF OUR MOST IMPORTANT PROJECTS HAS
BEEN THE STATE FAIR NEBRAKAPPELLA! DAY
Virtual HU
Starts in July The Barbershop Harmony Society is of-fering Harmony University in a virtual setting through July.
Celebrate five decades of HU with Joe Liles, David Wright, Jim Henry and Deb-bie Cleveland
Week one experience virtual choir with Deke Sharon.
Weeks 2-3 core seminars will take place with arrangers, directors, leaders, per-formers, music educatiors and singers.
Week four elective classes will be offers in over 90 live, interactive 50-minutes classes.
Since they are online, you have the option to watch later as well.
Bruce Holen Healing
Bruce Holne's wife, Jan, has been report-ing faithfully, that Bruce has undergone considerable therapy, and on the mend.
VISION STATEMENT The vision of the 1733 Kearney Area Barbershop Chorus is to be
recognized as a quality men's choral group, bound by a love of four-
part barbershop harmony. Our aim is to have ordinary men produce
extraordinary music, with every member encouraged to actively
participate in the chorus and its related events.
Page 2 Volume X, Issue 8 The Chordnator July 2020
An official publication of the
Kearney Area 1733 Barbershop Chorus
Board of Directors and Officers of the Kearney Area 1733 Barbershop Chorus
Musical Director
Fran Wilson, [email protected], 308/234-5376
Assistant Directors
Monty McCollough, John Moore, Gary Davis
President
Gary Helms, [email protected], 308/236-7472
Secretary
Ron Morris, [email protected],
Treasurer
James Berglund, [email protected], 308/627-6416
VP Membership & Chapter Development
Gary Helms
VP Music & Performance
Monty McCollough, [email protected],
308/238-3423
Director of Pubic Relations
John Moore
Chapter Hospitality & Sunshine Chairman
Allen Krohn
Chapter Historian
Mitch O’Neill, [email protected],
308/440-3330
Harmony Foundation Chairman
Mitch O’Neill
Board Member at Large
John Glatter
Bulletin Editor
Web Site Administrator John Moore, 308/325-5430
A little girl and a little boy were at daycare one day. The girl approaches the boy and says, “Hey Stevie, wanna play house?” He says, “Sure! What do you want me to do?” The girl replies, “I want you to communicate.” He says to her, “that word is too big. I have no idea what it means.” The little girl smirks and says, “Perfect. You can be the husband.”
Joke of the Moth...Offered by Fran Wilson
Weekly meet-ings are on hold until the Covid-19 situ-ation is under control.
The Chordnator July 2020 Page 3
I think we are all ready for the most exciting, mind blowing, bang-up Fourth of July celebration we’ve ever had.
Just to get past the pandemic is quite a relief, and I am hoping by the Fourth we will
be at that place.
We’ve often enjoyed a won-derful time to picnic, watch a parade, and maybe join in an afternoon baseball or soft-ball.
We used to make the parade at Sumner, then do a picnic in the park. The af-ternoon ws filled
with various sporting activities, including a rodeo.
That evening there was a fantastic fire-works display.
I’m not sure what’s up this year of course.
But let’s hope some-thing happens that lets us get out in the summer wind and watch the cotton tree fluff all over.
We haven’t always spent the evening in Sumner.
We live in a cul-de-sac, so the neighborhood res-idents often met in the mid-dle of the circle where se set up our family rockets and sparklers to share with every-one.
In those days, there were maybe two dozen kids run-ning and jumping around, all agog about the smoke and fire and bright lights—and loud sounds.
Most of these children are grown-ups now, so they have celebrations as their homes.
NEWS
In all this joy, we have re-ceived some sad news about Jim Sanks’ mother. Del-phine Sanks passing away around June 4.
The mission of the 1733 Kearney Area Bar-
bershop Chorus is to promote, preserve, and
perpetuate barbershop style harmony in both
choruses and quartets. To accomplish this, we
will strive to improve our singing and perfor-
mance skills through fun, fellowship and
teamwork, ultimately adding to the artistic
quality and charitable outreach in our commu-
nity.
MISSION STATEMENT
By jpm
Volume X, Issue 8
Here’s the Pitch
By jpm
Make July 4th Your Breakout Party!
In addition, we have been informed that Bob Crandall’s father has passed away June 14.
He had been at Chris-tian Homes in Holdrege, and recent-ly was recovering from some problems, according to Jan and Bruce Holen..
Volume X, Issue 8 Page 4 The Chordnator July 2020
GETTING BACK TO THE MUSIC
What is our philosophy?
[Ed. JPM: Stolen from the Nashville Singers. They got it from Todd Wilson, and it was edited by yours truly]
We are about becoming excellent singers and performers. That entails work, but it should also be fun. For those who enjoy good music, performing at a level that is both personally satisfying and pleasing to your audience is immensely rewarding.
We believe that given a basic ability to match pitch and harmonize while singing; most anybody can learn to be an excellent ensemble singer. The commitment to ac-quire and apply skills is the responsibility of each singer. We do not work on the premise that strong singers carry weak-er singers.
Musical excellence requires attention to detail. Rehearsal time is focused largely on refining performance details. Members are expected to spend time outside of rehears-al learning music and practicing singing skills. Training a few nights a month is not sufficient to build and maintain those skills.
While we expect members to learn music quickly ("off the paper" within a month of introduction) in the first few weeks, we encourage members to use their music to take notes and record performance de-tails.
We recognize that achieving and main-taining excellence requires mental focus and discipline, as well as physical skills. We subscribe to the principles of mental management described by Lannie Bassham in his book "With Winning in Mind." Those principles include:
• Excellence in performance is accom-plished by your subconscious. You must practice the necessary skills until you can execute them subconsciously. If your conscious mind is focused on technical detail while you're performing, the perfor-mance will suffer.
• You must create a self-image con-
sistent with the level of excellence to which you aspire. Given sufficient train-ing, performance will always match self-image. The cynic who makes excuses for his own performance or always finds fault in others is cultivating a negative self-image and preparing to fail.
• Developing physical skills and mental discipline takes focus. When we experi-ence moments of musical greatness, it is because we are "in the zone" - focused on the music and on the director.
Excellence is an ever-moving target. It is a process, not a destination. We never let down in our pursuit of excel-lence, never stop building the skills.
Stance, posture, and breathing are insepa-rable from good singing. If you are not rehearsing with good singing habits and posture, you're practicing bad habits.
A few words about rehearsal decorum...
We rehearse to learn, to pursue the excel-lence that is our goal. When we lose focus, we stop the learning process. Worse, we disrupt the learning process of those around us. In a large ensemble, the be-havior of each member is magnified. We set high standards for rehearsal decorum because rehearsal behavior directly affects our focus and our accomplishment.
Some expectations for rehearsal deco-rum:
• Watch the di-
rector. His job is to direct our focus. He can't do that if you're not focused on him.
• When the sing-ing stops, focus more intently on
the director. He stopped us for a reason, which he is about to explain. There's a natural tendency to relax when you stop singing. That interrupts focus and momen-tum, which takes time to re-establish. Re-sist the tendency.
• When the pitch pipe blows, stop talk-
ing and focus on the pitch. Listen to the pitch and embed the key center in your mind. Don't hum the pitch. The key to singing in tune is hearing the correct pitch in your mind. Practice that skill when the pitch pipe blows.
• Resist the tendency to instruct others around you. While well intentioned, it takes away focus from what the director is trying to do. Discuss consistent problems later with your section leader.
• Watch the director.
• Resist the tendency to ask questions, either of the director or of your neighbor. Taking group time for individual questions is an inefficient use of time. Focus instead on what the director is working on. If your question is not answered in the course of the rehearsal, ask your section leader dur-ing the break.
• Resist the urge to entertain your
neighbors during a rehearsal. They're try-ing to focus on the director.
By the way, watch the director. Always a good idea.
One more thing...
We are a results-oriented organization that depends on many behind-the-scenes ef-forts to run smoothly and to accomplish our goals. We all have skills beyond our singing ability that can be applied to the benefit of the chorus. We expect every singer to contribute in some way to the ongoing operation of the ensemble. Once you're settled in your musical role, find a way to help outside of rehearsal.
The preceding chorus philosophy includes excerpts from a document written by Ralph Brooks, President of the 2001 Inter-national Champion Northbrook New Tra-
dition Chorus concern-ing their basic chorus philosophy. Some sections have been edited to improve this document's applica-bility for he Nashville Singers, and may be helpful to us.
