Hug a musician, they seldom get to dance.

I will attempt to summarize some of the key points from what I remember of the two sessions with Steve Armstrong and Bill Rashleigh.

Although we were clearly not singing at our best on Saturday morning, and had a couple more people away than what was expected, what we did with Steve still had a positive effect when we put it together Monday night.

Steve had some specific comments for each section:

Leads: - "don't sing to conserve air, sing to use air"

- Use more air - bubbling to accomplish this

Basses: - Various physical and visual tricks to "smooth out" the sound

- Legato singing

Baris: - No "scooping" into notes

- Rhythmic precision

Tenors: - Imagine your sound going up - a higher, lighter sound.

Another exercise we did, all together, was where everyone sang their parts on staccato "pa" syllables. The function of this was to improve the rhythmical precision - the notes are so short that you will know instantly if anyone is singing a slightly different rhythm. Also it improves note accuracy - the chords are so short that there is no time to adjust and tune the chord, the chord has to tune immediately.

Also the whole chorus did the bubbling exercise to remind us to be singing with enough "air".

And finally, Steve reminded us to take ownership of our mistakes. If you make a mistake that you know about, you can lift up your hand and thus save time for everyone. The chorus will not have to go back and correct something that is already known.

We all took different classes in the afternoon which, from what I understand, all went quite well. Many of you were in Chris Arnold's singing class, which got great reviews and was very nicely summarized last week by Ron Schurman.

As for the visit from Bill Rashleigh, he gave us a great night which further complemented what we did on the weekend. He ran a type of master class that ended up having extremely positive effects on the chorus. The first half was devoted to a fun and energetic review of some basics that we sometimes need to be reminded of. To do this, it featured some "my brain hurts" exercises, where we were singing scale factors with their numbers. The second half was a type of coaching session for me that I asked for, to try and break me out of some of the bad habits that I had developed. I think most importantly is that he gave both of us (you and me) permission to stop each other if we observe each other dropping back into bad habits.

Some of the things he included for the chorus:

- Posture

- Use the air - done by bubbling

- Breath so that if you hold your sides just under the rib cage, that there is expansion there

- Using the muscles around your nose to make breathing easier

- Make sure that the upper lip is not resting on the teeth. Higher harmonics this way

- Make sure that there is no "tongue tension" and that it is "lying" in its propper place

- Always keep concentrated on singing

- Roots - stars, 5ths - co-stars, 3rds - extras

- Always follow what the director is showing - whether right or wrong

Some of the things he included for me:

- Stay small - within the "Power Box" - easier to follow - No bouncing or bending of legs - prevents "scooping"

- Breath with the chorus with prep

- Don't sing along etc...

- Keep back straight

- Don't "walk around" (or dance :)

- Show emotion and colour without the use of hands - 4-6 feet back from the outside tips of the risers - Shoulders should be broad

- Look at the chorus

As I said, this made for really fun results; so much so that I totally didn't recognize what I was hearing. The next few weeks should be very fun.

Steven Wheaton, President Murray Phillips, Editor of the Mini Pitch