Enter the Head of a Music Judge • Youtube and You • Overhaul Chapter Guest Nights
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INSIDE: Enter the head of a Music judge • YouTube and you • Overhaul chapter guest nights July/August 2008 Order YOur 2008 cOnventiOn cds and dvd! 2008 International Convention Dual-Layer DVD $40 2008 International Chorus Competitors CD $15 Order online at 2008 International Quartet Competitors CD $15 www.harmonymarketplace.com Buy any two items, save $5 Phone orders toll free: Buy all three items, save $10 1-800-876-7464 Or fax orders to 615-313-7615 July/August 2008 VOLUME LXVIII NUMBER 4 20 Features Where’s my favorite video? 12 Why contest videos have disappeared from YouTube, and why we want to keep songwriters happy.. STAFF A fresh slice of the Bills 14 In 1957, the best quartet of their era siezed a chance for immortality.—an offer Dick Grapes had to refuse. JIM BAGBY Point deductions in Music 23 If you dance around the edges of the barbershop umbrella, what kind of penalties can you expect? MUSIC JUDGES HOW BIG IS THAT UMBRELLA? You like more complex arrangements? Newer songs? A wider Welcome new members! vocal range? You can get all of the above and still 25 Introducing hundreds of first-time Society members, and be singing solid barbershop ... within reason. But congratulations to the men who spread the word. hear this from the head Music judge, Kevin Keller: Groups that sing more traditional barbershop have a much easier time impressing both audiences and Music category judges. And then there are those On the Cover: penalties ... Dick Grapes Photo by Gary McBride Departments 2 10 THE PRESIDENT’S PAGE HARMONY HOW-TO Singing for Life requires physical conditioning How to overhaul your chapter guest night 3 43 LETTERS STAY TUNED An alternate take on separate youth choruses Double slam dunk for Great Northern Union 4 Sri Lanka gets a dose of barbershop harmony STRAIGHT TALK 46 The energy to make big things happen MEMBER SERVICE DIRECTORY 7 Where to find answers TEMPO 48 Final farewell to Freddie? THE TAG Singing for Life recap “I Love to Sing ’Em” by Mac Huff July/August 2008 • The HARMONIZER 1 THE PRESIDENT’S PAGE Noah Funderburg, Society President • [email protected] Singing for Life requires good condition- y motto for each of my two years as your President edge William Storey from the Smith Mountain has emphasized doing something for life. My 2007 Lake, Va. chapter for mentioning this idea. Now motto “Harmony for Life!” emphasized the promo- to keep this in context, anyone who knows me, or M tion of a lifetime of harmony both in our interac- has seen me, would remark that Funderburg needs tions with each other and musically. My 2008 to lose a few pounds. OK, maybe more than just a motto, “Harmony 4 Life!” emphasized the value of few. quartet singing for our Society and society at large. I recognized that need last fall and began an ef- In this article, I would like to share thoughts about fort to work down my weight. For Christmas, I in- barbershopping for our lifetime. formed my wife that I was going to buy a Nintendo Thanks to our Marketing and PR Committee, Wii game console. This ostensibly was for our now chaired by Phil Maxfield of the Southwestern grandchildren who visit us frequently and enjoy District, we ran a successful inaugural campaign video games. Of course, since one of the first games for blood donations in a program called Singing I purchased was Call of Duty (a World War II simu- for Life! The total amount of blood lated battle game) Mary looked at me a bit doubt- collected was more than 3,000 fully about my motivations. There are also some units. That is awesome for our first good sports games like bowling (I bowled over 200 effort. Plans are already underway for the first time in my life using the game), tennis, to improve the program in 2009 to and boxing. So I argued that my need for gaming involve more chapters and increase was to get healthy, and believe me, boxing three our success in donated units of rounds with my animated opponents can really blood. The efforts by more than 100 wear me out. chapters participating in Singing Then Nintendo announced a new product for Life! has given the promise of called Wii Fit, which is a series of exercises and When we say life to many people in the United games all aimed at helping you become more fit. I we are pre- States and Canada. We should be have started a regimen using this game and have proud of that, and should endeav- already lost a few pounds. The international con- serving our or to do much more next year. vention interrupted my schedule, but I am back to At our International conven- daily workouts. hobby for tion in Nashville, Gary Parker, This leads to the conclusion that we should all our grand- bass of 1973 gold medalist quartet pay more attention to our individual health and The Dealer’s Choice, was a fitness. When we say we are preserving our hobby children, we successful candidate for a seat on for our grandchildren, we can do that more ef- can do that the Society Board. In his remarks fectively if we live longer so we can sing longer. to the Board, he commented on So while singing itself seems to promote longevity, more effec- actuarial information about fac- being out of shape may bring down that effect. I tively if we tors that help extend a person’s encourage all members to seriously consider a plan life. While activities such as for healthy eating and exercise. It will make us live longer so gardening, meditating, or having better singers, with greater breathing capacity, and a pet might increase your life by surely that will enhance the weekly chapter meet- we can sing a few years, singing was found to ing experience for ourselves and our chapters. longer. increase your life by as much as 15 I will let you know in my next article how my years. We all know that singing weight loss is going. Perhaps your chapter might has enriched our lives, but we should find ways to like to start a healthy chapter plan. We even could promote this information to potential members. start a contest to see which chapter loses the most We might even find this useful information for our weight. Let’s keep barbershopping ... for Life! shorter-term members to consider when they con- template renewing their dues. “Sing barbershop, live longer.” I like that connection. Toward a longer barbershop life A final thought, which some may say has taken me into the realm of meddling, starts with my own state of physical fitness. I would like to acknowl- [email protected] 2 The HARMONIZER • July/August 2008 LETTERS [email protected] An alternate take on youth choruses ike so many others who have commented, I was able to the thousands of “old guys” who don’t attend thrilled with the youth choruses at the Midwinter conventions but want to, or should, keep singing in in San Antonio. Their performances were certainly senior quartets, octets and choruses. one of the highlights of the convention. Another On a slightly different vein, if we are to believe L highlight, for me, was the number and quality of everything we read in The Harmonizer, “kids” don’t seniors’ quartets that also performed. I sometimes want to sing with “old guys.” A casual observation think that, with all the emphasis on youth in the of the activities in the hotel lobby in San Antonio last few years in The Harmonizer would suggest otherwise. When I and elsewhere, we tend to over- joined the Society as a youth (and look the equally important need my wife joined Sweet Adelines short- to encourage the “old guys” to ly after), there were maybe a dozen keep singing and performing, not guys in my age group. Yes, we wanted only for their own happiness and to sing together, but in quartets. The welfare, but for the betterment of vast majority of chorus members were society as a whole. The benefits some 20, 30, 40 or more years older. for physical and mental health But we sang with them, made lasting are well known and understood. friendships, socialized, learned from However, senior competitors them, and our kids called them “aunts” represent only a tiny fraction of and “uncles.” That was 50 years ago the members in this age group. and they are gone now. But I wouldn’t I believe the Society could do trade the memories of those good times more to support and inspire the rest—the for a bucketful of gold medals. men who have built the Society for the past 50 If it takes youth choruses to get the “kids” years or so, but who are now, at least to some de- singing, I’m all for them. But maybe, just maybe, gree, overlooked. For instance, they (we) need to they’re missing something very special. n be shown that they don’t need boy sopranos singing AL DAVIS tenor and screaming tags to sing good barbershop. Cambridge, Ont. Joe Liles with Antique Gold ably demonstrat- ing, and Jim DeBusman HEY, WHY ISN’T THIS THE CONVENTION ISSUE? After have made excellent producing the May/June issue, the editor of The July/August 2008 Harmonizer moved office and family in an adventurous Volume LXVIII Number 4 presentations on tech- Complete contact info: page 34. niques for preserving cross-country move to Nashville and prepared for and The Harmonizer (USPS No.