Society for the Preservation and Encouragement of Barber Shop Quartet Singing in America

# Sharp Notes #

Publication of the Regina Golden Harvest Chorus

Golden Harvest Chorus meets most Monday Evenings, 7:30-10:00 at

Knox Metropolitan United Church, corner of Victoria and Lorne, Regina, Saskatchewan
Guests always welcome!

March 1998

In Loving Memory of Carl Clayton Stroh

Born November 17, 1919, Conestogo, Ontario.

Died February 11, 1998, Regina, Saskatchewan

Annual Show Update

Our Annual Show will be held on April 18, 1998 at Sheldon Williams Collegiate Auditorium starting at 7:30 PM till 10:00 or 10:30. The local Quartets performing will be the Queen City Slickers & the Chord-Jesters. If there is another local quartet that wants to perform on the show they should contact Lynn as soon as possible. Our "Guests" this year will be the Prairie Gold Sweet Adeline Chorus from Regina and our Feature Quartet will be the Mackenzie Touring Company from Eugene Oregon. These guys have won an International Comedy quartet contest so we can count on a lot of laughs.

Eric Longley from CKCK TV has agreed to be our MC for the evening. I spoke to him at the Tournament of Hearts and he confirmed he would do it. He is also aware that there is a script and as soon as I get the revised edition from Bill Coulthard, I will get it to Eric.

Show committee consists of Gord Gardiner -publicity; Rod Schlosser - Treasurer; Wayne Keys -Secretary; Stu Reiley -tickets; Bruce Fish -Posters; Ron Evans -Music; Bill Coulthard -Script; Bill Quick -Uniforms and me.

Show prices will be $12.00 per seat and they will be printed shortly. I spoke to Stu and he was awaiting confirmation of Sheldon, so now that we have it we'll go ahead with tickets. Gord has asked for a photo and article from our guest quartet.

What we need now is lots of talk and hype about the show to all your friends and show patrons to ensure that we come out of this with a healthy profit. Sheldon will seat 750 people so SELL, SELL, SELL.

Lynn Lowes

BINGO BINGO BINGO BINGO

Many thanks to our dedicated Bingo workers in February who helped raise $554.00 and $115 in Nevadas. There was only 6 of us there most of the time but we managed to get it done although the rush did cause a shortfall of $48.00 that could have been avoided if we only could get more volunteers. Its only once a month and we need the money to survive, its either that or raise our fees and that could scare away potential new members. Thanks to Stu Reilly -6 hrs, Ron Evans -6 hrs, Lynn Lowes -6 hrs, Peter Vanderstelt -6 hrs, Jack Boan -4 hrs, Bill Quick -4 hrs, Eltyn Hasz-3 hrs, and Rod Schlosser -2 hrs. The next Bingo is supposed to be a big one and we need at least 12 men to do the job. If you can help, even for a few hours it will be appreciated and we can expect to make around $1000

Its on Friday night March 20th so if you can help please let Lynn know.

Lynn Lowes

Membership

Welcome back for another year of song, laughter and friendships that last a lifetime. Congratulations to Ed Camrud , a 20 year member!

Report on Singing Valentines 1998

Congratulations to Mike Frolick (lead), J.D. Taylor (tenor), Ian Slocombe (baritone), and Ryan Bird (bass), for serenading the six people whose singing valentines were ordered. In addition, we are indebted to Val Stacyszyn, at SPMC, for organizing the route and putting together the packages of chocolate, valentine, and rose, for the quartet to offer to the recipient; to Stuart Reiley, for driving the quartet during the forenoon, to Ron Evans, for selling half of the "Valentines" (the others came by various means). From what we can find out, all of the customers were highly satisfied.

We learned a few things along the way, not the least from the Saskatoon barbershoppers. Our contact was Steve Walker, Tenor, Bridge City Four, who said, "Although not a chapter event as such, 3 quartets organized and presented a total of 78 paid Singing Valentines (and a number of unpaid ones). We ran from 8:30 AM to 6:00 on Friday the 13th, with one quartet going until 9 PM, and from about 10:00 AM to 3:00 PM, with one quartet going from noon to 10:00 PM on Saturday". In terms of media coverage, their quartets made four radio and two TV appearances, plus there were announcements in the local papers. Visa and MasterCard options were provided by the charity that they worked with, (the Heart and Stroke Foundation). The latter accounted for 63 percent of their bookings. "Valentine Central took calls as early as 6:30 AM and as late as 10:00 PM from February 2^nd on. All requests were able to be filled, and 8 senders (some still in tears) called back at a later point to express their satisfaction". "Disregarding the media exposure, the program was successful in bringing live, high-quality barbershop to a direct audience of about 1500-2000 people".

In addition to what we can learn from their experience, there are some other things.

1.  
2. The weekend is not a good time to go out with singing valentines, and it would be better to try to do it on the preceding Friday - or at least the bulk of it. The reason is that it is hard for a purchaser to know where the recipient is going to be on the weekend, but if she/he is at the office, it pinpoints it very nicely.
3.  
4. We need to get started much earlier than we did this year.
5.  
6. It doesn't hurt to have a charity with which to share the work for two reasons: it gives the event an emotional appeal that goes beyond the mere matter of something between two people; in other words, since Valentine's Day is focused on love the level of altruism is already quite high and to be hooked into a charity is consistent with the sentiment of the day; and, secondly, the members and supporters of the charity can be expected to do a lot of hustling up customers.

I am confident that the Early Learning Centre would be delighted to co-operate with us. We would be seen by the public to be taking the high road if we teamed up with such an organization. Compared with the success of the "first-timers" in Saskatoon, our results on Valentine's Day might look meagre. However, we shouldn't be discouraged; after all, in spite of several adverse circumstances, we did manage to keep the tradition alive - this being our third venture into the SVs field; and we learned a lot; and finally, we now have a really exciting goal to go after, namely, to make this annual event a real heart-throb of an experience, outdoing Saskatoon!

Jack Boan, Services & Charities Chairman

And also, special thanks to Jack for being the driving force behind getting the chapter moving on this. Thanks Jack!

I’m Going to Mini-HEP...

How About You?

Mark your calendars!!! June 5, 6 and 7 weekend presents us all with one of those great barbershopping opportunities. The 1998 Mini-HEP School will once again set up "campus" at Sportsman’s Park, just outside of Riding Mountain National Park at Onanole, Manitoba.

HEP stands for Harmony Education Program. Take it from one who has attended five of these weekends... there is much to pick up, regardless of how long you’ve been a member of the Society.

For established or budding quartets, the Quartet Clinic will this year feature Downstate Express, 1982 Land O’ Lakes District Champions and four time International Quarter Finalists. If you sign up for the Quartet Clinic, you’ll have a weekend of very focused, one-on-four attention as you work with each member of the quartet. As a bonus, you’ll get to demonstrate what you’ve learned on the Saturday Night Show in the barn.

For those not in a quartet, there is much to choose from as well. You can pick up some craft pointers, learn about choreography, sight-reading, vocal production, being an MC, chorus presentation and much more.

This year, we’d like to attend Mini-HEP as a chorus. If we are able to do this, we can arrange group transportation for the four-hour trip, as well as have the opportunity to have 2 hours of coaching if we’re one of the first four choruses to register. I’ll be promoting this idea over the next few weeks. Of course, to accomplish this, we need your commitment.

The setting at Sportsman’s Park is great! Ron McElvy and his family run a fine resort there and really do it up fine for the barbershoppers. If you have a camper of some sort, you can stay right at Sportsman’s Park in Ron’s RV park, with full amenities. Most attendees stay in one of the many cabins available just inside Riding Mountain National Park. Cabins can accommodate up to 6 or 8 people in one, two or three bedroom, modern units. Arrangements can be made through Ron McElvy for cabin accommodation. He has drag with the resort owners!

Of course, not all of the learning takes place in the class sessions. I must say that I’ve probably gained as much or more from the opportunity to meet and sing with other barbershoppers from throughout Saskatchewan, Manitoba, North Dakota, Minnesota and occasionally, from Thunder Bay, Ontario. The social events in the barn, the general sessions and after the Saturday Night Show, there are lots of chances to ring one with three guys you may have just met!

You get a lot for you money too! $65.00 buys your meals as well as the school. The only other expense is accommodation and travel, which will be shared and therefore kept minimal.

I highly recommend this weekend of fun! We’ll have to make a decision shortly about our ability to attend as a chorus. We’ll talk more at upcoming meetings, but I’ll be looking for commitment from you - so give it some serious thought now!

See the flyer information later in this bulletin for details.

Bill Coulthard

How to walk up and down stairs and not lose pitch at the same time

We've all learned how to walk many, many years ago, and learning to climb up and down stairs without falling was a part of that learning experience. But if you stop to think about it a moment, you'll see that the same technique you learned to keep from falling down (or up) a set of stairs will also keep you from falling up/down/off pitch when singing.

Say you're walking up a normal set of stairs and the rise of each step is exactly 8 inches from one step to the next. As you pick your foot up to place it on the next step, you have to pick it up just a little bit more than those 8 inches and then set it down on top of the stair step. If you pick your foot up any less than 8 inches, you end up falling flat on your face. (If you lift your foot too high, you end up looking like a dork.) In singing, it’s just the same -- moving from a lower note to a higher note, you always have to lift just a little bit higher and settle ever so lightly on the top of the note so that you don't trip and fall flat.

Now, let's practice walking down stairs. I'm sure you've all had the experience of thinking a step was smaller or bigger than it actually was, and landing too hard on a step. The secret lies in just hitting the step lightly from the top. And again, when singing, the secret lies in not overshooting when moving from a higher note to a lower one and just landing gently on top of the note.

So, next time you're singing, think about walking up or down stairs -- when going up you have to take steps that are just a little bit bigger; when going down you have to take steps that are just a little bit smaller. But don't try to chew gum at the same time -- even if you can walk and chew at the same time, singing and chewing at the same time just doesn't work.

Stay tuned -- next month, we'll learn how you can ski and hold a note on pitch at the same time.

Campbell's Soup Challenge

In the last issue we reported that we had sent out 3,381 labels to HeartSpring. Since then we have received more labels from the Radisson St. Paul’s Ladies to bring our total to over 4,500.

In the next day or two I will be sending a letter to the Saskatoon Chapter to enter into a challenge. Who can gather the most Campbell’s Soup Labels between now and December. 31^st, 1998? Well, we will see. My proposal is as follows:

This bit of fun might be a fun publicity stunt for both Chapters. It will almost certainly increase the amount of Soup labels we generate on behalf of HeartSpring, and, will surely promote some much needed interaction among the two Chapters.

I will ask you all to reach out to any sources you may have to ensure that we have a steady stream of labels coming in to us. If you need brochures please ask me.

Please remember: We need the portion of the label which identifies Campbell’s Soup, ONLY.

We also need these items tied in bundles of 100 with white string or put into a baggie, with the total included. Any other format creates a great amount of work. Submit your labels when you get 100, or just before the year-end. Periodic reminders shall be given so that you maintain your focus. We will keep track of who brings in the most from our Chorus and he will have the honor of being the MC for the Goat award at our show.

REMEMBER we may be the ones having to sing the Goat song at their show if we don’t watch out. Get Busy.

Doug Pederson

Heartspring Coordinator

GUEST NIGHT -- Every Monday Night!

Quartets

The Queen City Slickers performed at the HeartStop Lounge along with 3 other quartets in a Barbershop hour for the Scott Tournament of Hearts.

You can catch the Queen City Slickers at their next engagement when they perform in Swan River on March 21^st.

Stewart Wilkinson directed The Classics from Campbell Collegiate at the opening of the Scott Tournament of Hearts as they performed O Canada and We are the Champions for 6,400+ spectators.

Chord Jesters - We continue to try to work our way through some new songs and bring all four parts together on some of the old songs the Plainsmen used to use. We do plan to retain the Comedy flavor in the Quartet but who's going to try take Carl's place is still unknown (if at all possible). -- Lynn Lowes

Live a Little -- Sing in a Quartet!

Ten more ways to improve the Chorus

10. Community singing of a less formal nature will increase enjoyment for participants and attract new members more so than anything else we can do. Example: Riders or Pats Boosters

Doug Pederson, Program VP

Attention: Front-line Directors:

I am still in need of 3 or 4 Directors willing to participate in the Society Peer to Peer Mentor Program. This is a trial program that will link you up to a director in another district thats in a very similar situation as you. You will be able to share ideas, problems and solutions, etc.

Please let me know if you're willing to participate.

Thanks in advance,

Pat Rydberg, VPCDD

Update -- notes from the Headquarters Office

From Dan Daily, S.P.E.B.S.Q.S.A. Publications Editor

Barbershop in the movies

The recently opened movie, Good Will Hunting, has a segment filmed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The script called for a barbershop quartet to perform at an MIT alumni reunion.

Central casting contacted Northeast Connection, and offered the gig, which was naturally accepted with alacrity. Filming took place last April.

To avoid royalty fees, the foursome, Matt Mercier, tenor; Ralph St. George, lead; Dan Washington, bari and Bob Lynds, bass, were searching for a public domain song. Joe Liles gave them permission to use his "If I Had The Last Dream Left In The World."

About 28 seconds of the song may be heard on the sound track, and the quartet got about eight seconds of screen time, but both appear in the closing credits. Good show!

You've gotta have heart

Final figures weren't tallied as of the Update deadline, but chapter Singing Valentine registrations with the headquarters office have already passed the 350 mark, well above the 1997 total of 285.

The Society's new Singing Valentine Manual was released just in time for this year's Cupid Follies. Any chapter that has not yet had a Singing Valentines program should consider ordering the manual from the Harmony Marketplace, stock no. 4058 at $10, in preparation for next year.

More and more chapters have discovered the value of Singing Valentines, both as a public relations vehicle within their communities and as a highly profitable fund-raising venture. Prices ranged from a low of $25 to a high of $150. Most Singing Valentines are delivered Feb. 13 and 14, but some chapters have started as early as the 12th and gone as late as the 16th.

Success stories, program management tips and photos should be sent to The Harmonizer so they may be shared with other chapters in a Singing Valentines feature story planned for the November/December issue.

SPEBSQSA Endowment Fund report

Harmony Foundation oversees many funds to serve the charitable mission of our Society. Perhaps the one most critical to the Society's future is the SPEBSQSA Endowment Fund. An endowment is a fund in which the principal, or corpus, can never be used, only the earnings from the fund may be used. These earnings can provide grants or services for any of our Society needs. Therefore, the larger the endowment, the more grants and services we can provide.

The Society's Endowment Fund currently has more than $280,000 in assets. In addition, there are nearly $4,000,000 (that's four million dollars) in pledges to the endowment. Most of the pledges are in the form of end-of-lifetime gifts from dedicated barbershoppers.

The O.C. Cash Founder's Club was established for persons who donate or pledge at least $1,000 to the Society's Endowment Fund. There are more than 200 Founder's Club members today. We hope to raise that number to 2,000 by the year 2000.

For information on how you can become a Founder's Club member and help insure the future of SPEBSQSA, call Larry Gilhousen at (800) 876-SING ext. 8448.

Barbershop symphonic scores available

Seven scores for symphony orchestra and barbershop chorus are available to choruses and quartets. Performances of these works have proven very popular with symphony audiences, especially in "pops" concerts.

They cover a range of difficulty of performance, and chapters are advised to look over the chorus parts before committing to a performance. Five of the seven scores (and accompanying orchestral parts) are available through the Old Songs Library at Harmony Hall:

• "Battle Hymn Of The Republic," using Joe Liles' recent vocal arrangement
• "Barbershop Medley"
• "The Music Man Medley"
• "Yuletide Favorites" (using the corresponding Society holiday songbook)
• "Barbershop Christmas"

Also available through outsources are a "Music Of Irving Berlin" medley and a "George M. Cohan Medley." Contact information is on file for these two. Call (800) 876-7464, ext. 8548, for any of the above.

Bulletin Material -- Bruce Fish

Thanks to this month's reporters -- Lynn Lowes, Jack Boan, Doug Pederson and Bill Coulthard. Your contributions are appreciated by both the Sharp Notes editor and the general membership (and families). Please keep those cards and letters, faxes and emails coming. The next newsletter deadline is the last Monday of the month -- March 30^th and will be available for distribution and mailing the following Monday April 6^th. This is your opportunity to keep the general membership and their families informed. Articles and submissions may be submitted in any legible format. Feel free to fax me at work (751-7002); email it via the Internet to fishb@ibm.net (or bfish@cableregina.com -- any of these will find me); save it onto a diskette (just about any format should be ok); even scribble it onto a scrap of paper or on the back of an envelope as long as I can decipher it and give it to me or drop it in my mailbox. Email or diskettes are preferred since this saves me from having to retype it (and in return, you can get away with being a little late past the official Monday night deadline).

For those of you with connections to the Internet, or friends with connections, check out our bulletins and upcoming events at www.gpfn.sk.sa/culture/arts/gharvest. Our chorus picture and one from our installation of officers are up there for the world to see as well. You can also find information about the Land of Lakes District at their home page at www.mcs.com/~toma/www/pages/bbshop.lol.html -- or check out the International information at www.spebsqsa.org.

Israel police were looking for a man named Joseph, wanted for looting in the port city of Haifa. The suspect was described as the son of a Barcelona ex-nun and a German father. He was a former flutist and worked occasionally as a farmer. In short, he was

"A Haifa-lootin', flutin' Teuton, son-of-a-nun from Barcelona, part-time plowboy Joe."

Subject: O. C. Cash joins the computer age?

Forgive the intrusion, but I'm confused. I was searching through a list of subdirectories on my Windows 95 machine here when I stumbled across an interesting-looking folder that I'd never noticed before: C:\WINDOWS\OCCACHE. Is this some sort of 4-part harmony virus? Have I been spending too much time downloading stuff from barbershop websites? Should I just go back to work? John Mallett, Toronto, Ontario, lead - Jukebox, bari - Hallmark (Ontario's newest quartet!)

Articles in this bulletin do not necessarily reflect the views of the chapter. Unless carrying a byline, they are those of the editor. Items received may be referred to the executive before publication. All chapter officers and members are encouraged to submit articles to the Sharp Notes. Submissions will be credited to the author. Please address any comments, suggestions or submissions to the editor -- Bruce Fish.

Deadline for the April 1998 Sharp Notes is Monday, March 30^th.

Distribution the following Monday, April 6^th.