Date: May 1, 2000 SPECIAL 4 Page Edition

When there is just too much news for two pages I get frustrated. Then I have to get creative, since I have to fill four pages.

This week we have news of the Harmony, Inc. Area 2 AC&C (See the story to see what that means), we have our show fast approaching. There are tickets and ads to sell, Afterglow tickets to buy, the Festival de Chorales in Drummondville as well as all the rest of the usual good stuff.

Congratulations to "After Hours" and Montreal Chapter, Harmony Inc.! The audience at the Friday night quartet contest at Harmony, Inc. Area 2 Area Contest & Convention were treated to an excellent contest.

Those of us from Montreal were thrilled by the win by "After Hours." Morgan LaCroix, Maria Stolcz, Stacy Hugman-Frenette and Lindsay Chartier were winners in the excellent contest. They were even better that they were when they sang for us a few weeks ago.

As an added treat, Blue Champagne entertained us while the judges scores were being compiled. As usual, they were awesome, and this may have been their last performance for Area 2.

On Saturday afternoon, the Montreal Chapter put on a very entertaining set with an amazing transformation taking place in front of the appreciative audience. Unfortunately, the Presentation judges were not as appreciative. I know that I was delighted with the performance, but then I must admit to a small bias.

The Capital Chordettes from Ottawa were deserving winners of the Chorus Contest.

Only 3 Rehearsals before the Show. There are only three more Monday rehearsals before the show. We are planning on a special rehearsal on May 13. Please mark it down. Details will follow.

We have proved that we can be extraordinary, too, and we have just about nailed down all the songs.

Call for the Show is at 3:00 pm Saturday, May 20. Everyone will be required at the Salle Claude Champagne for a final run through cue to cue, and to get into performance mode together. DO NOT PLAN TO LEAVE AFTER YOU ARRIVE AT THE THEATRE UNTIL THE SHOW IS OVER! We will be eating together and getting into our best show

Buy your tickets for the Afterglow now. Sell those tickets and ads for our Annual Show/Concert. Our show for 2000, "Beginning to See the Light," will be on Saturday, May 20 in Salle Claude Champagne at Université de Montréal featuring PLATINUM, the 1999 Silver Medallist Quartet and the 1998 Harmony, Inc. International Champion quartet, Blue Champagne. This will be Blue Champagne's final performance. More than half the tickets are gone!

The Afterglow is confirmed for Le Buffet Dynastie de Chine and it will cost $14.00. This will be a fun part of the show, where we can unwind, and listen to the show quartets. John Clendinneng has tickets now.

Advertising is an important part of the program, so ask your dentist, barber, mechanic, suppliers… We need to sell $8,000 worth of ads. Let's do it! Besides, if we don't, the costume deposit will have to be that much larger.

WANTED Coordinator/Producer for Christmas CD in the works for 2001 The Chapter Board authorised the production of a Christmas CD with the other Barbershop Choruses and quartets in the Montreal Area. This will include South Shore Saints, Sweet Adeline's West Island Chorus, and Greater Montreal Chorus and Montreal Chapter of Harmony, Inc. and their quartets. We need someone to pilot this project to fruition. This is a great opportunity for you to really make a difference. See Alan Kenley for further details.

Festival des Chorales (choeurmania) du Village Québécois d'Antan (Quebec village of yesteryear) takes place in Drummondville, Québec and features all kinds of choral music. We have received an invitation to participate and the Music Team has agreed. Each chorus member is entitled to bring a guest with them and it should be a fun day for all. More details will follow in the near future.

The Village is classed as historic and plunges you into the period from 1810 to 1910, featuring 20 residences and 14 workshops. This looks like a fun event for the whole family.

3. Control Your Sound

[This is the third in a series of 5 parts to help us improve our singing. Enjoy. : ED]

The vocal folds (vocal cords) are a set of parallel muscular bands that close off the vocal tract within the larynx (glottis). They perform the same basic biological function in all air-breathing creatures. They are designed to keep food, drink and foreign objects from falling into the lungs. Once such foreign substances are arrested, the vocal folds allow you to "blow" them out of your airway. This is done by holding the vocal folds tightly together and building the sub-glottic air pressure (sub-glottic is the technical term for the airspace below the vocal cords). Then, like a "pop" gun, you open the folds and the air pressure "explodes" the offending item from your throat with a cough.

The vocal folds also allow you to trap and pressurise the air in your lungs. Here again Mother Nature wants to equalise the air pressure in your lungs with that of the atmosphere outside of your body. The result is that the pressurised air is expelled from your lungs via the open vocal folds and vocal tract.

By closing your vocal folds tightly while compressing your trapped air, you are able to establish a stable skeletal structure to support lifting, pushing and pulling. More specifically, with the vocal folds tightly closed, the air in the lungs is compressed by tensing the abdominal muscles, pushing up the guts to further elevate the diaphragm. At the same time the elevated ribs are pulled down to increase the pressure on the air trapped in the lungs. The net result is the solid structure required to support forceful activity.

You may have noticed a vocal sound (grunt) when exerting yourself lifting, pushing, or pulling. This sound results when the positive air pressure developed in the lungs overcomes the closing force of the vocal folds. The escaping air vibrates the vocal folds, producing the grunt sound. This is basically the technique used to produce the vocal sound required for speech and singing.

Using both hands, attempt lifting a heavy or immovable object.

1. Feel how your abdominal muscles tense to pressurize the air in your lungs (stabilizing your skeletal structure).
2. Note that your vocal folds are closed. You will feel muscular tension and air pressure in your neck.

The main differences between lifting and singing / speech are that the abdominal tensing is less intense and the vocal folds are not locked shut.

The process of vocal fold vibration, as used in singing / speech, is the same as that employed at the lips in making the "raspberry" sound or in "bubbling." When air passes through a constriction composed of two mobile tissue masses (lips or vocal folds), they are set into vibration. The frequency of their vibration is the pitch of the sound produced. This frequency of vibration is influenced by the rate of airflow, in conjunction with the tension, thickness, length, and weight of the vibrating tissue (lips or vocal folds).

In the lifting experiment above, the abdominal tensing was easily felt, as it was applied against the resistance of pressurized air (trapped by the closed vocal folds). The same abdominal muscles are used when singing; however, with less resistance, it is less noticeable. The following experiment should help you to become more aware of this muscular action as used during singing.

In singing, the action of the abdominal muscles is most easily felt by placing your hand on your stomach while you bubble (blow raspberries) or sing a sustained "Z-Z-Z-Z" sound. You will feel the strongest muscular action, as you are "squeezing" out the last of your usable air.

Vocal fold vibration results when the air pressure below the closed vocal folds overpowers the muscular tension holding the folds together. A burst of air escapes between the vocal folds, reducing the air pressure below the vocal folds. The muscular tension is then more powerful than this reduced "sub-glottic air pressure" and so the folds return to their closed position, and the air pressure increases again. This is one cycle. The process continues as long as the sub-glottic air pressure is elevated and the focal folds are closed with a medium pressure. The average man's voice consists of approximately 135 of these cycles per second (CPS); this frequency is also referred to as Hertz (Hz) or pitch. For reference, "C below Middle C" is 134 CPS.

Using a consistent air pressure, it is variation in vocal fold characteristics, which produces changes in pitch and breathiness. The key to controlled singing (i.e., vibrato and volume) is this balance between the sub-glottic air pressure and the muscular tension holding the vocal folds together. Volume is easy; you just force a greater amount of pressurized air between your vocal folds.

Vibrato (wavering pitch) is a bit trickier. It is an interesting quality for individual performances. However, it does not allow for the close harmony required for making and keeping chords ringing.

Vibrato is an imbalance between the sub-glottic air pressure and vocal fold tension.

Generally, the balance is so close that it produces a surging quality. Recall how your car lurches when you do not press down hard enough on the gas pedal. Usually, the imbalance is due to insufficient sub-glottic air pressure or fluctuating muscular tension at the diaphragm or vocal folds.

The solution is to slightly increase and maintain sub-glottic air pressure at a consistent level when driving the vocal folds for singing. If this does not work, the individual should "tinker" with the balance until they get a clean consistent pitch. The secret to producing varied sounds (i.e., pitch, brightness, and breathiness) with the vocal mechanism is adjusting vocal fold proximity, tension, length, and mass. These are all things that you control on a daily basis; they are under automatic control of the brain. All you have to do is think of the desired sound. Your vocal folds will automatically make the adjustments required to create that sound. As a chorus, we need to consistently produce the agreed sound at every point in a song. By doing this we can enhance our ability to ring cords and further convey the message.

In barbershop singing, it is important to produce a "unit sound." We must all produce the same qualities and sounds at the specified pitches. The better we do this, the better we ring chords. To further enhance this ringing, it is essential that we all pronounce the lyrics in the same manner. The chorus must agree on the vowels used, when diphthongs are turned and how consonant combinations will be pronounced.

Practice is something we do at home, every day, between rehearsals!

Rehearsal is where we reinforce what we have been practising every day!