Photo by Carly Pearson
Members of the Sweet Adelines chorus rehearse together Tuesday evening at St. Mark's Lutheran Church. Front row: Lauralee Hearn. Second row: Ann McNeese, Nancy Crumb, Connie Struckman, and Sandy Heller. Back row: Tammy Just, and Barb Newell.
Practice didn’t quite make perfect, but it boosted the local Sweet Adelines chapter to a fourth place finish in the small chorus division of the Region 7 barbershop singing competition, held this spring in Overland Park. The region includes most of Kansas and parts of Nebraska, Missouri and Iowa.
“We improved our score 99 points,” said Jeanne Just of Americus, who directs the Twin Rivers Chorus of Sweet Adelines International. “We improved our sound.”
The 18 active members meet each Tuesday at 7 p.m. at St. Mark’s Lutheran Church to practice their repertoire and to learn new songs.
The chorus brings together singers from Ottawa, Hamilton, Cottonwood Falls, Miller, Americus and Emporia, as well as two former area residents who maintain their memberships and occasionally return to the group, despite living in Texas.
Membership is open to any female 16 years of age or older who enjoys singing in general and the unique harmonies that define the barbershop quartet sound.
Sweet Adelines International uses geometric figures to illustrate its descriptions of various group sounds:
Church choirs and glee club harmonies are balanced — cylindrical — with all voices carrying equal weight and intensity. Contemporary pop and progressive jazz harmonies are inverted cones, with the higher voices generally dominating the lower ones.
Proper barbershop balance is the opposite; it’s cone-shaped, with tenor singing harmony above the melody, lead, baritone (which sometimes takes the lead), and bass, which plays a strong role in both the four-tone chords and the ad libs that are characteristic in barbershop’s scoops and segues.
Its harmonies frequently go beyond major triads and sevenths to include a low fifth for the basses. And, of course, barbershop quartets and choruses sing a capella.
The Twin Rivers chapter, chartered in 1972, always is looking for more singers to join them, Just said. She would like to expand the chorus to 25 to 30 members.
The ability to read music isn’t required; a love of music and a good voice that can sing on pitch are all that is needed, and there are opportunities to improve less-than-perfect voices.
“A lot of singing techniques I learned here,” said long-time member Barb Newell, talking about the weekly practices.
Members of the group also can attend regional music schools through Sweet Adelines International to develop their skills and learn singing techniques.
“They have coaches come in, usually someone who has placed in international competition,” said Connie Struckman, who drives in from Hamilton for practices.
Singing is a lifelong habit for Struckman, whose family reunions always included time for making music together. Her involvement with the local chorus, though, was accidental.
“I went to a garage sale,” she said, with a laugh; “I followed the signs.”
The sale was one of two held annually by the Twin Rivers chapter to raise money for costumes and competition expenses, according to Tammy Just of Ottawa. The sales also are good recruitment tools for new members.
The chorus performs at the USO Show and at the Veterans’ Memorial during Veterans’ Day activities, before the annual Christmas parade, and in nursing homes during the holiday season, as well as for service clubs and other meetings throughout the year.
The practices and performances are fun, members said, but the Twin Rivers chapter brings them more than musical pleasure.
“We’re a really, really good support group for each other, too,” said Ann McNeese, a 12-year member. “These girls are like my second family.”
That, Jeanne Just said, is something the large choruses — some with 150 members — really aren’t able to offer.
“They sound good,” Just said, “but they don’t have as much fun.”
Newell agreed.
“I think that’s something we have that bigger groups do not,” she said.
More information may be had by calling 342-9419 or 342-4850 after 5 p.m.
Comments
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Posted by joetho (anonymous) on June 17, 2007 at 11:49 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Freedom of speech is good, I suppose, but this "freedom to be a big dumba**" is NOT in the constitution. Expand your horizons, bjm.
Posted by MelissaE (anonymous) on June 18, 2007 at 12:05 a.m. (Suggest removal)
joetho--where have you been since these discussions opened?
Thanks. :)
M
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