The Chronicles of Harmony-a

last year some time, i had a hankerin' for some barbershop. i don't remember what prompted it, but i went looking for an album to buy online and found "4 Voices" by the quartet Four Voices. it was my first exposure to modern barbershop. up until then, i (falsely, but understandably) assumed it was a genre performed exclusively by guys with big giant mustaches, straw hats and matching red and white striped blazers. and sometimes canes.

after becoming enthralled with with the Four Voices album, i started looking online for more information. the Barbershop Harmony Society website has a bunch of good stuff. that's where Bob found the learning mp3's of "Keep the Whole World Singing"! (the recordings of us singing that are somewhere between awful and terrible...we were just kids then). i also looked on YouTube and found a ton of entertaining stuff...including people who film themselves singing the 4 different parts of Barbershop "tags" and splitting the screen, Brady Bunch style, so you can see them all at once. hilarious. and brilliant. this guy was the first, as far as i can tell. raw and unproduced, which i like. conversely, this guy is the reigning king, but sounds a little too perfect for my tastes. no question he's good, though. i digress.

my plan was to listen closely to the Four Voices version of "Didn't Want to Fall" and record the individual tracks using a keyboard, a computer and a Bass Podxt. i borrowed Matt Wood's keyboard (still have it, in fact) and got the first couple measures done, but then the parts pretty much became indistinguishable. particularly, the Baritone part. wow. what an awesome part! if i were to join a quartet (rather, another quartet) that's the part i would want to be. in my opinion, it's what makes a quartet a barbershop quartet. all these great 3rds and 7ths...

so i had the first measure or so recorded using the keyboard. in addition to sounding like crap, everyone else in the project let me know that it wouldn't be all that useful to them. but i wanted to do it anyway b/c i knew the way my brain works and i would benefit from it. eventually, i got wise and contacted the fine folks at the Barbershop Harmony Society and purchased the sheet music to the original arrangement of the song by Joe Liles. it's slightly different from the Four Voices version, but close. between the two, i figured we could make the version we wanted to perform.

on May 22nd, i gave the music to our resident musicologist, Matt X. and asked if he could record the four parts from the sheet music onto four tracks using a piano. with that, i reasoned, i could tell which part was which and make the minor changes between the 2 versions and record them onto one learning track for us to use. "you don't even have to sync them up", i said, trying to make it easier on him. what i got back was masterful.

he recorded the song, string quartet style, using violin for the tenor and lead, viola for baritone and cello for bass!! it was amazing! and he delivered it in 24 hours! but...it was in the key of F and the Four Voices version is in E. X even asked me before he started if i wanted him to do it in E to match 4V, but i declined. big mistake.

at this point, i had

1. the CD version as done by Four Voices
2. 1/4 of the song done keyboard style
3. the full Matt X. string quartet version in F
4. a live version of Four Voices singing it in E and
5. yet another live version by a quartet called Joker's Wild (in F)

it was getting confusing keeping track of all the different versions and instead of making it easier to learn the song, it was making it much harder for everyone.

we needed a definitive recording people could use to learn their part, myself included. throwing caution to the wind and confronting my insecurities about singing, i began the process of recording myself singing the 4 parts of the song using the same multi track recording program i had used with the failed keyboard project. it's a good thing my studio is so advanced or else it might not have turned out so good: a crappy PC mic that's the size of half a roll of Life-Savers, a mic stand made of a rubber band and a bottle of Windex, and a paper towel, folded in half and stretched between my hands, held in between my mouth and the mic to reduce the popping sound of hard consonants. watch your back, Taylor Roberts! i'm coming for you!!

after getting about half the song done, up to the bridge, i sent it out. the plan was to give it to them incrementally and i would keep working on it until it was done.

the first crack was awful. my technique was to listen to the Four Voices version (and when necessary, the Matt X version, followed by using the keyboard to modulate down from F to E), record 4 or so measures of bass, then go back and do the same for lead, then bari, then tenor. everything was going ok, sort of, until i played the Four Voices version along with mine. i was getting flatter and flatter with each additional recording segment. i was enraged.

without headphones it was hard to really hear what was going on. and being in the apartment, i couldn't turn the speakers up OR really belt it out during recording (those insecurities i mentioned). so i scrapped the whole thing and started again, much to the chagrin of the group. they were like, "no, it's fine, we can use it", but i am stubborn like that. i mean, if i'm gonna record it, i want it to be in key, you know? and i was a little angry...at myself and at Barbershop for being so hard.

but at this point, my confidence was blown and it was much, much harder for me to do the 2nd time around. i couldn't seem to find the pitch and was flat over and over. my blood pressure was rising. i would tell Andrea, "I'm gonna work on the song tonight" and the next day, she'd say, "Did you finish?". finish?? Finish?? HA. i'd just give her 'the look' b/c i had only gotten 4 or 8 measures done in 2 or 3 hours. this period was pretty upsetting. i began to question whether i could even do it or not...and whether we, as a group, could pull it off.

yadda yadda yadda, i got it done all the way to the very end. i had the 50 or so different segments of the song merged into 4 and everybody had a mix of their part, plus multiple combinations (3 parts in the left, your part in the right, bass-bari, bass-lead, bass-tenor, tenor-lead, etc...), but all the mixes were originating from the same 4 tracks, so it wasn't "confusing", per se.

the lead and bass parts were pretty easy to hear and record, but i still couldn't figure out the baritone and tenor parts at the very end of the song. the Four Voices ending is different from the Joe Liles arrangement, and trying to meld the 4V tenor part, which Andrea liked, with the original Bari part (4V does this crazy thing where the Bari takes it up an octave, which we didn't want to use) was tough. so Bob and Andrea were kind of on their own. they came through brilliantly.

barbershoppers like to finish their songs with tags, defined as "...usually the last four to eight bars, and often considered the best chords in the song." during the tag, it's not uncommon for someone to hold out a long note while the other members sing around that note, finally resolving at the end and holding it out for a while. this is called the "post". that was my favorite discovery in my barbershop journey; the first time i heard a post (the double post on the 1st song of the Four Voices album, "It's a Brand New Day". the lead starts it off for 4 bars, then the tenor picks it up and finishes it off. it's extremely sweet). Seth was nervous about the post and was afraid he wouldn't be able to hold it out, etc., but if you were there, you heard with your own hears that he nailed it. he really did a great job. way to go, Seth!

i have since gone back and finished the last 2 parts and the song's done for now. it's funny how the 2nd half is all sloppy compared to the 1st half. when time was getting short, my perfectionist nature gave way to "get it done, already!!!". with better equipment and some spare time, i would like to do it again with fewer track segments, so as to have a more consistent mix from segment to segment. i already have folders on my machine called DWF, DWF2, DWF3, etc... what's a few more??

Barbershop?

"that ain't been popular since ought-6...dag nabbit!!"
- Bart Simpson

so, anybody who's interested in the story of our Wedding Reception song performed by myself, my wife, Bob and Seth, should just go to Bob's website. the link is on the right. there's nothing substantial i could add to his recounting.

i will say that Andrea and i had so much fun hanging out with Bob and Seth practicing over the months. as time became short, we were making them come over 2 or 3 times a week...on top of all the work they poured into doing all the other reception music, which kicked ass. those two guys, plus the other 2 Witchger men (Kevin and Bob, Sr.) are the real heroes of our wedding day.

so yes, everything Bob says in his blog is true (except the part about him not being a "...rare, undeniable, dyed-in-the-wool musician." oh, he is. you better believe it). it was pretty rough during the Feasibility Testing phase of the project. i'd say if we hadn't locked in on a few of those "Keep The Whole World Singing" chords, we may not have pursued it. but as they say, that's what keeps people coming back to Barbershop! that feeling you get when you really ring one out!

i can't say it enough times publicly how indebted we are to Bob and Seth. we are very indebted to them. they would say, "no, it was fun!" or some other deflecting comment. but i don't even know how much work they put into our wedding. only they know. hours and hours and hours...more time than i've put into anything recently.

thank you guys!!

that time of year (PI-5)

pre-allergy spring and pre-allergy fall are my 2 favorite seasons. unfortunately, we are now into full on allergy mode Spring which is my least favorite season. close second is full on allergy mode Fall.

but this isn't a post about pollen, sneezing or itchy/watery eyes. if you've read this blog at all, you know the only things i post about with any frequency are barbershop and poison ivy. my last post covered barbershop, so there's your clue.

it's spring, as in "plants spring to life after they laid dormant all winter and fall and you thought they were dead and never coming back". that's right. i've been scouring the yard for poison sprouts...and finding them. sometimes they come up singularly, with their tiny, bright red leaves. other times, they are apart of a 10 foot vine running along the surface of the yard. either way, i've been on a mission all spring to eradicate all things poison ivy from the yard without infecting myself in the process. so far, so good.

yesterday, i decided i was tired of looking at the remnants of last years battle. the vines are dead and dry, the branches brittle and ugly. check it out:




i figured it was time to find some things out.
1. are those dead, dry poison ivy vines still capable of infecting people?
2. just how many of those vines can i rip down with my bare hands?

my goal was to answer the 1st by doing the 2nd.

saturday, after Andrea, the dog and i did the annual Mordecai yard sales, Andrea went to a baby shower, so that was my opportunity. she hates when i mess with the poison ivy, b/c i usually end up with it. assuming i would get it from head to toe, i thought a "before" picture would be prudent:



you can see i'm already in a bad mood.

our neighbor Matt and his little girl were in their back yard shed (you can see it in the pic below). when the 30 foot long "vine" came crashing down on the fence that separated us, it sounded like the whole tree to which it had been attached came down, instead. he came running out of the shed, "are you alright??". i was just standing there, a little shocked and making sure i hadn't just destroyed the fence, which it turns out i hadn't. he threw the the several feet of death-wood that had landed in his yard and i went about my business. it looked something like this:



there was all kinds of dust and bark falling down into my face and sticking to my body as the vine was coming off the tree. the good news is, i think i found the answer to question #1, which is "No". the answer to question #2 is "2". here's what the 2nd one looked like:



now, with the dog thrown in for scale:



i eventually removed my gloves and bare-handed the vine-wood. with loppers in hand, it cleaned up into about 3 piles, similar to this one:



you know how you can count the rings in the cross-section of a tree to estimate its age? check these babies out:

the 1st 2 are from the vines i ripped down. it's hard to distinguish after 17 or 18:




this is near the base. i would like to cut a cleaner cross section with a saw and get a better count. it looks to be about 18 or so rings, as well.


are there any botanists out there that can back me up on this? is this the largest, most disgusting poison ivy you've ever seen? i'll make you a deal: you come out and remove it from my pecan tree and in return, i'll let you study it and what not for as long as you need, provided it's less than a week. and you pay me.

that was yesterday.

today, i went looking for new growth. "new" as in, growth i hadn't seen before, but not necessarily "new", you know? along our back fence is no-mans-land. it's where the dog takes dumps and i dispose of charcoal ash. it's overgrown and i knew there had to be some poison ivy lurking back there unnoticed. my job was to find and neutralize it. and did i ever find it...

i didn't see much growing on the ground, so i looked up to scan the trees and what i saw horrified me: a very healthy poison ivy vine with long branches and very large leaves, probably 30 feet over my head. i was so pissed, i got my gloves on and started tugging on it. most of it came down, but the vine snapped and a large chunk was suspended in the air. Andrea was home by this point and stayed to watch the rest of the show. to get the rest of this new vine, i had to go after it. so up into the tree i went. at one point, the dog was on the ground below, barking and whining, i was about 8 feet up in the air with my right hand firmly grasping a freshly severed poison ivy vine, the majority of which was over my head and threatening to come down on top of me and i was imagining the worst case scenario of me falling out of the tree and landing on the dog...both of us strangling on the vine.

long story short, i made it out with only minor brushes of leaves on my ankles and right arm. as soon as i hit the ground, i ran into the house and showered. let's hope it was enough. behold the fruit:




Nice Flowers


click for super-high res. aren't they beautiful??? my eyes itch just from looking at this picture.

i look forward to the day when little white children can play with little black children in my back yard and not get infected with friggin' poison ivy!! i feel like the whole property should be condemned sometimes. it's not safe. how long am i going to have to put up with this stuff?

Bob's forensic analysis of video

this is great. you should click over and read it from the source, but in case you're too lazy, here's a copy-n-paste:

Highlights include:

• Seth smiling and smirking his way through the whole affair, as he does with many things in life.
• Mrs. Updyke looking like the happiest bride in the world.
• Mr. Updyke, with beer in one hand and woman in the other, looking like a seasoned barbershop professional having a little fun.
• Me mostly sort of looking like I am in pain, which I was not. I was having the time of my life, but I was also trying to concentrate and not mess up.
• -02:57: Jerry assuring Seth he was playing the right note on his pitch pipe. Seth never grew to fully trust that pitch pipe. He always thought it was playing him the wrong starting note.
• -02:52: Me not sticking my opening note. If you’re going to be solid on any note, it should be that opener. And I swear I always hit it in our practices. Oh well. Everyone else stays right on key and I recover ok.
• -02:05: Jerry holding up his ring finger when we sing “Place a wedding band upon your hand.” This is the extent of what we could come up with, choreography-wise.
• -01:49: The crowd interpreting a pause as the end of the song and going wild.
• -01:02: Mr. Updyke leaning in to the mic and really emphasizing the crazy low note he hits here. People being greatly amuzed by this. (check out the look of horror on Andrea's face as I lean in...i think she thought i was passing out or something. then, when she sees all is well, she snaps back into a smile and continues singing. my personal favorite part of the whole video)
  
• -00:54: That’s right. Key change.
• -00:18: Seth taking us out with a cool-looking, commanding “bam!” hand motion that was actually a signal for “I’ve been holding this note for a long time and I am now out of breath.”
• -00:15: Seth, Andrea, and I coming in for some love and Papa Updyke shoving us away. He later explained to me that he was trying to get us to spread out and take a bow, but then came to the realization that it was too much to orchestrate. (in retrospect, it would've been nice to have mentioned my plans to you all. instead, it has a "Get the hell away from me!!" look about it. couldn't be further from the truth!)
  
• -00:09: The four of us celebrating the culmination of several months of work, and our shared musical bond, by warmly embracing each other.
• -00:04: Me getting a face-full of Updyke’s boutinerre, because he is so freaking tall.

i added my own thoughts in bold...

that'll do, Bobby. that'll do.

he promises to go back to writing about other stuff soon, which is good b/c he's got so much material. i promise to go back to not writing for weeks at a time, then pop in with the occasional rant about something dumb.