I multitracked a new tag from the ubiquitous book o’ tags. This is “Sleepy Time Down South” number 33.
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Biggest challenges:
Edit: Most of the explanation I came up with for this turns out to be wrong. I will update when I understand more thoroughly.
I recently had a conversation with my dad regarding “overtones” (a note that can be heard in a chord that is not acutally being sung). He informed me that what we in the barbershop community call overtones can be more accurately called sum tones, or as wikipedia calls them combination tones. The explination is that all tones, or sounds that we percieve as a single note, are actually comprised of that note, and an infinite number of notes above it (overtones). These notes are arranged according to the harmonic series: the root and octave above, the fifth above that, the root above that, the third above that, and so on with the intervals between these notes getting smaller as we Read More…
Chelsea and I have been dating a year and six months as of today. If she had been dating a real singer, he probably would have written her a sweet love song by now. But, for reasons I still don’t understand, she chose me instead. So instead of a whole love song, she just gets a barbershop love tag.
I love you Chelsea. Thanks for putting up with me and my nerdy ways for a whole year and a half.
Written and recorded for Chelsea:
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Due to a rehearsal, I am not going to be able to see my Mama on Mother’s Day, so I am celebrating it with her a day early. My acquaintance/idol/current-ipod-favorite H.P. Mendoza, and a girl at 16th and Mission Poetry who read a poem about her mom, reminded me that being an artist is pointless if you can’t use your art form to express yourself. So for Mother’s Day I made my mom an audio/barbershop Hallmark greeting card multi-tracked in a noisy practice room at school.
Happy Mother’s Day Lisa:
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Inspired by these Youtube videos, I taught my friends the Cry tag, by Brian Beck, from the ubiquitous tag book (number 14). This tag is especially fun because it works in almost any key, high or low. Here is my multi-track version in G#-ish. I am thinking of calling my multi-track quartet “Jortet”!
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Previously: Other barbershop posts
Continuing in my attempts to improve my barbershop skillz, I sat down today and recorded my first up-tempo multi-track barbershop tag. Despite my fears, my voice is in much better shape in this one even though it required many more takes. To be honest, I was beginning to doubt weather my voice would ever be able to sing barbershop convincingly. Especially up-tempo numbers.
Improvements:
Still to work on: Read More…
Here is a tag I wrote, and multi-tracked, as a custom ring tone for my cell phone.
The text:
Hello, hello hello hello! Hello, you phone is ringin’. Hello, that’s why I’m singin’: “Hello.” (Pick up your, cell, phone!)
The tag:
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For more multi-track barbershop fun, check out the “barbershop” category of this blog.
Another attempt at barbershop multi-tracking:
Still to work on:
Again, this tag is from this (No. 19) collection of barbershop tags. The arranger is not cited, but the .pdf says the tag was sung by the Dealer’s Choice in 1973.
The tag:
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Previously:
I learned a good deal from the “imperfections” of my first barbershop multi-track and was anxious to try another one to put this knowledge to use. So I did.
The improvements I made were:
Areas that I still wish to improve are:
As before the music is from this (No. 98) great collection of barbershop tags. However this time, neither the arranger nor the quartet are cited.
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On Chamber Singers tour to ACDA some other guys and myself (currently called Four Sweaty Guys in a Practice Room) started singing some barbershop tags, which lead Paul to show me this great online collection in .pdf format. Now that we are back, I had a chance to play though a bunch of them on the piano with Jason Pano, and we found this gem: “Love Letters Straight From the Heart”
The .pdf file says it was written by Fred King in 1981 and was sung by the Pros And Cons.
I thought it would be ideal canidate for my first barbershop multi-track. So, here you all go:
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