The month of February just whizzed by. We had a wonderful night with International Visual Communication Judge and Coach Judy Pozsgay. Judy gave a detailed description of this revised category and showed us chorus performances that illustrated the various skill levels in the visual storytelling of a song. It was so much fun to see the videos; it made us miss being onstage!
Our director Dede introduced the singing partner system this month. We were each paired with a fellow member in a private breakout room so that we could sing for each other and help check our notes, breaths, etc. We gained confidence and really enjoyed getting to know another member in this way.
This month we heard two "60-second Sweet Adeline Stories", one from Michelle Cordova, the other from Donna Wierzbowski. Michelle is a local artist, and Donna is a retired English teacher and a published writer of romantic crime novels. Both ladies came to our organization after meeting a Sacramento Valley Chorus member and attending one of our shows. It never gets old hearing how joining SAI brings such joy and friendship to members.
 
Our Associate Member Mary Brookshire was surprised this month by her daughter Diane, who purchased and donated a new contestable song for the chorus in Mary's name. We miss Mary and celebrate her always-gracious hospitality which she has provided to the various coaches and others over the years. We wouldn’t be surprised to someday see Mary's own 5-star rating as an Airbnb host for Sweet Adeline sisters!
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River Lights Chorus is on a Director Search!
River Lights Chorus is a talented, active, competing member of Sweet Adelines International, with a current membership of 23 singers. We are located in the beautiful Central Valley of California in Modesto. For the last two years, the chorus has been under the direction of Sally Massen. We have added seven new members, been performing in the community, and our membership has stayed steady in 2020 with Zoom meetings. We have enjoyed the growth of the chorus and improved our sound, but, alas, Sally has moved out of state, so we will need a new director, and we are looking forward to the time we will be meeting in person again.
If you or someone you know would like more information about this awesome opportunity please contact us by email at riverlightschorus@gmail.com or call Liz Sakuma at 209-602-6565 or Judy Shaffer at 209-380-2244 or www.riverlightschorus.com,then click on the Director Search heading.
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FINALLY! On Sunday February 21 at 2 pm California HEAT Chorus had what we named our first Tailgate Rehearsal! That’s me (Susan Ramage) on the deck of member Carol Holland’s home in Los Molinos leading 14 masked singers in song. The mini megaphone was used for about two minutes, as sound just goes UP outside, and it was easier for me to mask up and talk through that. I gave out a number of silicone grids that made it easier to sing and have people understand us.
Carol’s husband Bob parked all of our cars (!!), and we happily reacquainted ourselves with each other (and a guest) since most of us had not seen each other in just under a year. Beautiful weather was a bit windy but did not discourage us. We physically warmed up and then vocally ran thru a few warmups and then dove into one of our favorite songs “Happy Together.” After a small break (so much to catch up on), we sang “Grand Old Flag.” We made plans to get together again in two weeks and are expecting two guests at that time. We picked out two more patriotic songs to work on as well as the two we sang that day.
As for me, I boo-hooed my way thru How We Sang Today and can’t wait to do it all over again. Thanks to everyone who made this happen!!
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Learning New Tools of the Trade
This winter, Song of Sonoma has been exploring the use of the TE Tuner app. This robust tool is helping us to stay motivated to practice frequently and to give us in-the-moment feedback about our vocal production. The feedback is particularly elusive when we can’t be heard by our director. Thank you to Rob Mance for working with us on vocal production and tuning us into this Tuner app!
We’ve also been trying our hand at recording tag through digital tools, thanks to the courageous endeavors of some of our technically-savvy singers.
Walking Down Memory Lane
We continue to hear from our Wonderful Sisters each week as we all take turns giving autobiographical chats. As we listen and learn about our personal, musical, and Sweet Adeline’s histories, we are certainly growing closer as a community.
We also took some time in the new year to watch our Sixties Show performance from over a year ago, when life was all a little simpler. Who knew that tie-dye and old sitcoms were about to make a comeback?!?
  
Gratitude in the New Year
Song of Sonoma feels grateful for coaches Peggy Jones, Ryan Heller, and Rob Mance for ongoing visits with us to explore the different elements of barbershop and to help us share our gratitude during this strange time. And we are all very grateful to our sister leaders, including our members who coordinate warm-ups, birthday wishes, holiday parties, visitor evenings, and all the behind-the-scenes activity that keeps us connected, moving forward, and singing together.
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High Desert Harmony hopes everyone had a lovely Valentine's Day! With all of the strife our world has faced since last year, our wish is for everyone to treat themselves with a little extra love. We hope you were able to do so during Valentine's Day and throughout the entire month of February! Below is a photo of us in our virtual rehearsal, dressed up in Valentine's colors:
Additionally, our chorus members learned about the history of barbershop music, which is heavily rooted in African American culture. As February was Black History Month, we felt that educating ourselves on the Black influence on the barbershop style was especially important. For instance, did you know that African American singers pioneered barbershop music all the way back in the late 1800s? It's a centuries-old style we know and love to this day!
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Even though February is our shortest month, it was jam-packed with activity! We had been working through the winter on a small group performance of I Might Just Hold You A Little Too Long, and we introduced our finished product at the beginning of the month. Here's a link to it for your enjoyment!
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(I Might Just) Hold You a Little Too Long
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We were privileged to have the composer, Paul Olguin, as a guest at one of our rehearsals this month. He is also the director of the Columbia River Chorus. It was fascinating to hear him share some of his story and talk about how the song came into existence.
We had ELEVEN quartets participate in creating Valentine's Day videos, and those were showcased in rehearsal throughout the month as well. You can see the ones that were made public on our YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/user/bascvideos.
We are continuing to work hard to stay engaged with learning our music and working on character in the songs. We do vocal warmups as well as physical warmups at rehearsal each week. We have also been having guests visit regularly, and we sang in another new member this month. Another one will be sung in at the beginning of March. Outside of chorus, many members participate in the Coffee Chat each weekday, and there was a fun Zoom Party for Chinese New Year this month. We learned a lot about Chinese New Year traditions.
At our last rehearsal in February, we were visited by our current International Champion Quartet, ClassRing. We had guests from all over the region that came to learn from these amazing women. They were very entertaining as they told us their story as to how they formed and how they manage to remain connected in spite of living in different places. Each of them then joined section breakouts to give part-specific coaching.
As more folks are being vaccinated, we look to the future with hope. There will come a day that we will all be together again. We all look forward to that day!
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WAKE UP WITH DEDE - VOCAL WARMUPS
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Announcing! Our wonderful director, Dede Nibler, is retiring shortly after we are able to get back to in-person rehearsals. Though we will miss Dede as our director, this opens an exciting opportunity for one lucky person to direct a high-level, competitive women's barbershop chorus. Sacramento Valley Chorus, a chapter of Sweet Adelines International, is seeking a dynamic director with skills, interpersonal and musical, to help us achieve our goals.
If you or anyone you know is interested in applying for the coveted SVC Director position, please contact dstcontact@sacramentovalleychorus.com
For more information about Sacramento Valley Chorus check out our website: sacramentovalleychorus.com
Visit us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SacValleyChorus |
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SWEET ADELINES INTERNATIONAL NEWS!
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As coaches and educators, the late Sharon Babb and Darlene Rogers helped countless Sweet Adelines strengthen their voices and confidence using the craft and artistry of barbershop music. To honor their memory, Peggy Gram and Dale Syverson (co-creators of Sing, Baby, Sing! along with Darlene Rogers) have donated a free audio recording (.mp3 file) of Sing, Baby, Sing!: Blue Ribbon Vocal Warmups, Edition #1, to Sweet Adelines members.
Singers will learn vocal exercises to build skills for all ranges in the following areas:
Resonation · Range extension · Passaggio ·
Flexibility · Agility
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Watch this video from Peggy Gram and Dale Syverson as they introduce
a special gift to Sweet Adelines Members. |
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Log in to the Sweet Adelines International website to download
your free .mp3 file! |
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| Sing, Baby, Sing!: Blue Ribbon Vocal Warmups, Edition #1 is the first in this popular series of vocal educational tools. The entire Sing, Baby, Sing! series includes CDs 1-7, as well as the book, A Springboard to Artistry. All are available for purchase in the Sweet Adelines online store at www.sweetadelines.com/shop. |
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Facebook is an excellent way to reach out to your audience. Be sure to post weekly. It can be a recap of your latest rehearsal, the announcement of an upcoming event or share a related musical meme.
Pacific Shores Region 12 has two Facebook pages:
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