Next League Meeting - Dan Boland's Place 7pm

Thursday November 9th Run-through at Dan Boland's place

Another good day gentlemen,


Dan has offered his place up to the rowdy bunch of singers, oh barbershoppers for this Thursday. Dan has a great place where in the past we have brought together musicians to jam.


This week, we should focus on the four songs:


That Railroad Rag (just good fun)
Don't be a baby, baby (difficult harmony parts for note placement)
Drivin' Me Crazy (who says drivin')
When I'm Sixty Four (personally still in a learning phase)

 I want to try to get the blend a little tighter on some of the older songs that we have been doing so we may not get through full songs.


Here is the location for Dan's place:


11 Brackley Place, Halifax

League Meeting on Thursday 19 October 7pm at Ron Marchand's place



Hey guys,

Let's get together on Thursday for the next meeting of the League at Ron's place in Halifax at 7pm.

The plan will be to go over the first four songs of the league's rep:

Railroad Rag

Don't be a baby, baby

Drivin' Me Crazy

When I'm Sixty four

The biggest focus will be When I'm Sixty Four, BUT if you are not ready to sing the song, we will focus on the songs that you do know since our focus is on the greater harmonic sound so come with what you have.

The last 30 minutes, we will focus on a learning technique to get you started with learning a new song. We will use Be Our Guest since it is a shorter song.

See everyone then. Thanks.

Ron (not Ron's place)

Ron's Place

Thursday September 21 Run-through at Dan Boland's place

Another good day gentlemen,


Dan has offered his place up to the rowdy bunch of singers, oh barbershoppers for this Thursday. Dan has a great place where in the past we have brought together musicians to jam.


This week, we should focus on the four songs:


That Railroad Rag (just good fun)
Don't be a baby, baby (difficult harmony parts for note placement)
Drivin' Me Crazy (who says drivin')
When I'm Sixty Four (personally still in a learning phase)


I want to try to get the blend a little tighter on some of the older songs that we have been doing so we may not get through full songs.


Here is the location for Dan's place:


11 Brackley Place, Halifax

Wednesday Sept 6 Run-Through starting at 7pm

Good Evening Gentlemen,

Ron Marchand has offered his house for the next episode of the league where we shall going over the following three songs.
That Railroad Rail
Don't be a baby, baby
Driving Me Crazy

If four parts know "When I am sixty four", we will listen.
We are still calling on Baritones to make the evening right.

Ron's place is located in Halifax
Drive to the very end of Almon St heading towards Halifax Shopping Centre, turn right on to Goe. Dauphinee, 7th house on right. House is  Green with Canadian flag hanging on front porch.


2869 George Dauphinee Av.

Tomorrows Run-Through at Ed Berkovits' Place

Just a reminder:

My place is available for the rehearsal Wednesday night. I live at 1470 Summer St. #101 in Halifax. It is the Summer gardens apartments on the corner of Spring Garden Rd and Summer Street. Unfortunately they are working on the visitor parking area so everyone will have to park on the street.

We are getting together in the Party Room. 

See you there.

Ron

Need a host for run-throughs on Wednesday nights

I will be busy Tuesday and Thursday nights until Sept 17, so if a host can be found preferably on a Wednesday night (or Fridays or other) so I can make it out.

Also on Wednesdays (or Fridays) would be a great opportunity for our baritones to come out and join us. It isn't that we cannot accomplish a whole lot without the baritones, but it would be nice. In fact, last Thursday was spectacular for the singers that made it out since the group focused on learning how to match with different parts by dueting and also with three parts. In fact, we went over the time limit by 15 minutes.

We touched on "Drivin' me Crazy" and walked away with a pretty good sound with just two tries. There are two key changes in the song and there is a tendency is speed up during Chorus 2, but we made both on the second try.

Back to obtaining people to host the group. I believe during the summer, the numbers have been approximately 6-10 people so your place should be able to hold that many. Please you are not obligated to treat anybody with cakes or cookies, in fact, water is probably the only substance that our singers might ask for. I would offer my place, but being in Middle Sackville it is a drive for everyone but me.

Thank-you,
Ron

Next meeting this Thursday at SonLife

We will meet again this Thursday at 7pm.

Calling out any baritones to join us this week. There seems to be a bevy of lead singers, but we are low on baritones. The best combination of singers would be the ability to form 3 quartets.

This week, we shall focus on the two songs again "Railroad Rag" and "Don't be a baby, baby", however, if people are prepared, we can look at the third song "Drivin' me Crazy".

On the program Audacity, I can be available to help with the program. I know Don has helped a number of singers.

Listen to your music a number of times prior to Thursday so that you can get the most out of quartet learning.

Ron

Do we have enough Baritones for tonight's run-through?

Just asking?

The Leagues 1st Run-through

Next week we’re going to meet at a different place and a different day.  Chris Preston is hosting a run-through this  Friday the 28th at 7:00 pm.

His address is – 144 Caldwell Rd. Dartmouth. 

Take Portland St. to Caldwell Rd. and turn right. 

Chris' Ph# if you get lost. – 902-462-6993.

Focus will be on the two songs:

Railroad Rag

Don't be a baby, baby

You should be off-paper for at least some of the songs for the quartet focus.

Here is a google view of Chris' location.

League members singing in octet style before breaking into Quartets

Definitely a talented group getting the feel for the song we are working on. Arranged right after into quartet formation to work on blending and presentation. Disregarding the book shown in the picture only because Galen just started last Thursday, the quarteters must know the music to get the maximum benefit. I hope I was not the only one that enjoyed myself.

Octet getting the feel of the song

Quarteters Parts

Good afternoon everyone,

The league is for Quartet singers who like singing tough arrangements and who are not afraid to push themselves to learn words and notes to five fantastic arrangements. We will hold a friendly competition at the end of our package in the late October, early November time-frame. There will be some great singing and laughs. Preparation will be the key and all league singers are expected to be one hundred percent of their notes and words learned by contest.

It is a unique experience. Men who want to demonstrate that they have the ability, willingness and drive to learn five songs word and note perfect. That requires discipline.

Here is the link to the music. Only download the music that applies to your respective part. To download the music, right-click over the song and select "Save Link As..."

Link to the Music

When you have downloaded your respective tracks for your part, please email me so that I can keep track of the number of music that is out there to keep it legal. We will have to pay for BE OUR GUEST in the future.

Ron Blair

Package Front Page - June 2017

Audacity Program to aid in the learning process

The Audacity team is pleased to announce the release today of Audacity 2.1.3 

The Audacity Team.

Don has already helped Chris Preston to download Audacity and get him started. Don is a good source. I can also help.

I have also added the following plugins that allow you to export in different file formats such as MP3 files using LAME. The FFmpeg is a useful plugin if you want to import a windows audio file with an extension .WMA.

• LAME MP3 encoder – Allows Audacity to export MP3 files.
• FFmpeg import/export library – Allows Audacity to import and export many additional audio formats such as AC3, AMR(NB), M4A and WMA, and to import audio from video files.

The Leagues Inauguration

June 15th

What an excellent evening! A good evening for singing. The following people were able to make the evening:

Les Currie (baritone); Elliot Lehman, Don Sketchley, Ron Marchant (bass); Chris Preston, Raymond Sewell, Ed Berkovits (lead); and myself Ron (tenor).

Les and I were able to sing throughout the evening so we were limited to the songs that I knew. Only one quartet could sing the "Railroad Rag" that evening; therefore, we focused on suggested songs.

We are going to get the rest of the music to you shortly but in the meantime, the focus should be on "Railroad Rag".

Ron

Good Evening Gentlemen of Note

Good evening Gentlemen,

The barbershop chorus and quartet sound is a very rich sound that give people and the singers a lot of joy. I have been blessed with singing with September Sound for a number of years and also traveled to Marlborough Mass for the past four years to focus on quartet singing. As quartet singers will attest, the process of learning a song together is very uplifting.

This is my attempt to engage great singers from our chorus and possibly others to get together and learn to sing and perform four part harmony with a number of people in a quartet structure, but not a fixed quartet. The years going down to Mass., I found that the knowing the song bring the process of learning to be very enriching. 

The idea is to meet once a month to go over the song or songs to get singing with the other parts. Then break out into quartets and work the song maybe with a fifth ear to give helpful feedback. What makes this process work best is that each person know their part. Then the fun part begins to sing in close harmony. 

During the month, anyone can host a run-through and invite voice parts to sing.

The five songs are:

1. Railroad Rag - chorus song recommended by Russell to get things started.

2. Drivin' Me Crazy - Polecat II song and from Millstreams old rep

3. Don't be a baby, baby - Millstream old rep and September Sound rep

4. When I'm Sixty Four - Swells old rep and Casual Tide

5. Be Our Guest - new song