ClassicalCode

In an attempt to record something for Chelsea (she has been away for almost a month now) I decided to record one of my favorite love songs, Everything I Have is Yours. I believe that only version of it that I have heard was a Bing Crosby recording that had been doctored to sound like it was on a really old phonograph for a play.

I have never had any faith in my ability to come up with harmony parts by ear, I always need a piece of paper and a pencil for that, so I decided to challenge myself.

Apparently my ear harmonies are possessed by Lord Satan.

The aftermath:

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In an attempt to find a way to put my multitracks on youtube, I came up with a neat idea. Show all four parts of a tag in sol-feg hand signs as it is sung. This could be a great tool for visual learners to both learn a barbershop tag, and hone their hand sign reading skills, a skill that is usually hard to practice without the help of another sol-feg nerd.

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:

• More natural sounding lead voice (other recordings sounded very spread, or heady)
• Good rhythmic tuning

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:

• Rhythm (especially bad in bell chord: “gone, gone, gone, gone”)
• Consonants (Clear, but unobtrusive)

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:

• Love Letter’s Straight from the Heart
• Lord, You Made the Night Too Long

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:

• More natural vowels
• Better tuning
• More head voice (less pushed tone)
• Better blend

Areas that I still wish to improve are:

• More natural consonants
• Cleaner tuning of leaps
• Cleaner cut offs for breaths (unashamed)

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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