On the QT brings quartet singers great ideas on performance, singing skills and programs of the Barbershop Harmony Society. We hope you’ll share this information with your chapter, quartet and district to help all Barbershoppers get the most from the barbershop hobby.
Read On the QT on the web -- www.barbershop.org/ontheqt
Story ideas? Suggestions? Contact Jim DeBusman at jdebusman@barbershop.org, 800-876-7464, ext. 4125
In this issue
- Singing Tags Until the Wee Hours
- The Bogart-Bacall Syndrome and Vocal Fatigue
- Quartet Clubs Emphasize Four-Part Harmony
- Causes of Non-Productive Coughs
- Basic Performance Agreement for Chapter Shows
Singing Tags Until the Wee Hours
By a late night Quarteter
There was nothing more exciting than to be at mid-winter this year and see Barbershoppers in their 70s singing with young singers in their teens until the wee small hours of the morning. What a thrill it was to hear those chords ring and to see the delight on everyone’s faces. One of the most exciting things to see was gold medalists and singers who had never crossed the competition stage before singing together to make harmony. This year’s Mid-Winter Convention was the largest in the history of our Barbershop Harmony Society and next year’s looks to be even bigger with the possibility of an even larger youth festival.
Nashville was no different when it came to late night tag singing until the early hours and once again, age had little to do with whom you rang those chords. As the champions went from lobby to lobby you could hear the harmonies all over the place. O.C. Cash and Rupert Hall must have been smiling down as they heard many of the old tunes and yes . . .there were some not-so-old tunes being sung as well. A plethora of sounds of songs and tags filled each lobby.
This is what a convention is all about, after the contest is over! If you have never participated in this sort of activity, then you have not really been a part of what makes a weekend or a week like this complete; namely, ringing those barbershop chords with singers you’ve never met or . . . singing with a medalist or . . . your newest gold medalist.
Do yourself a big favor: The next time you go to a barbershop convention, challenge yourself to take the first step and form a foursome and sing a tag. Stay up as long as you can and continue to sing with guys and yes, some gals in your lobby, and you’ll never forget the tingle and goose bumps you experience.
The Bogart-Bacall Syndrome and Vocal Fatigue
By Dr. James Koufman
Thanks to Dr. James Koufman, Chairman of the Department of Otolaryngology, at Wake Forest University and a much published icon in the EENT community, we have an opportunity to learn more about vocal fatigue in our singers. The following article on Bogart-Bacall Syndrome appeared in a recent edition of the Journal of Singing (The Official Publication of NATS, the National Association of Teacher’s of Singing)
Many people with low-pitched speaking voices, who complain of vocal fatigue (worsening of the voice with "prolonged" usage) and soreness or pain in the throat with "prolonged" vocal usage, and hoarseness, suffer from what is called "Bogart-Bacall Syndrome." The condition is most common in voice users such as singers, actors, and radio or television personalities. Such people often employ a habitual speaking fundamental frequency (habitual pitch) that is too low and therefore very inefficient, thus producing a kind of muscle tension dysphonia. This is why the condition is called "Bogart-Bacall" syndrome (BBS); both of those great actors had noticeably low-pitched voices. However, for most people, to maintain a very low-pitched speaking voice (particularly when one uses the lowest pitch of ones pitch range), considerable effort is required. Interestingly, most people with this condition are unaware of the effort required, at least until trouble develops. Why and how does this problem occur?
In today’s society, a low-pitched speaking voice is generally considered to be authoritative, worldly, and sophisticated. Until the last few years, a low-pitched resonant voice was almost a prerequisite to become a radio or television news person. Consider the history of such voices in broadcasting . . . Chet Huntley, David Brinkley, Walter Cronkite, Peter Jennings; the list goes on and on. Indeed, the low-pitched voice has traditionally been an important distinguishing characteristic of many in the entertainment industry and indeed, in all public life.
Although some people consciously choose to employ a very low-pitched speaking fundamental frequency (SFF), usually the selection of one's habitual conversational pitch is unconsciously determined. Perhaps, Bogart-Bacall Syndrome, which is more common in women, is to some extent the result of social pressure on professional women to compete with men in the business arena. In actuality, however, no one knows why people get Bogart-Bacall Syndrome (BBS).
From the vocal clinician's point of view, a low-pitched SFF is not the only feature of the BBS. Also usually present is poor breath support for speech and apparent muscle tension in the larynx (when the larynx is examined with a fiberoptic laryngoscope). The pattern of muscle tension seen is termed "MTD III).”
Characteristically, there is contraction of the larynx with the back of the larynx being drawn or pulled forward toward the base of the epiglottis. Thus, with the “MTD III” finding, the posterior half or more of the vocal folds are obscured from view. For the laryngologist, the finding of “MTD III” when associated with a very low pitched speaking voice is a good sign of BBS.
"Poor breath support" refers to inefficient regulation of the air stream that drives the vocal folds. This problem is common in many types of voice disorders. Most BBS patients tend to speak when the air in the lungs is already relatively depleted. Thus, to maintain the pitch and volume of the voice increased work (muscle tension) results . . . hence the finding of “MTD III.” Interestingly, when BBS occurs in singers, “MTD III” is not present during singing. For some reason, perhaps due to vocal training, good breath support is exhibited during singing, but not during ordinary conversational speech. Ironically, singers with BBS may complain only of problems with the singing voice. It may be that the increased vocal demands of singing unmasks the laryngeal tension and fatigue that results from the chronic laryngeal muscle tension of chronic inefficient speaking.
For the voice clinician, the BBS consists of a triad -- very low-pitched speaking voice, poor breath support, and laryngeal muscle tension (MTD III). Correction of the syndrome in voice therapy consists of improving breath “warm air” control, and alteration of the habitual SFF . . . the patient will usually find a more efficient and optimal habitual pitch when the individuals attention is simply alerted to the problem. For some, such pitch alteration is difficult to achieve. In these cases, somewhat prolonged voice therapy by a trained speech and language pathologist may be required to avoid chronic voice problems.
REFERENCES:
1. Koufman JA, Blalock P aD: Vocal Fatigue and Dysphonia in the Professional
Voice User: Bogart-Bacall Syndrome. Laryngoscope 98: 493-4981988
2. Koufman JA, Blalock PD: Functional Voice Disorders. Oto
Clin N A 24:1059-1073,1991
3. Blalock PD: Breath Support. The Visible Voice
1:6,April,1992
Quartet Clubs Emphasize Four-Part Harmony
By John “Bo” Gibson
The QC (Quartet Club) was started to address what we perceived to be a lack of quartet activity in our chapter. The last two years we'd heard a lot of grumbling from different members about the chapter spending the bulk of rehearsal time on competition and 'chorus' performance repertoire.
While the emphasis on the chorus and what we do in shows and competition is marvelous and exciting, based on the comments from various members, we felt there was something missing in the overall Midwest Vocal Express barbershop experience.
Any organization is much like a three legged stool, and ours is no different. The first leg is the management-president, marketing, board, etc. The second leg is the product or service....in our case, it's the chorus and leadership-the director, the performance-team, etc. The third leg is the FUN stuff––quartet promotion and encouragement. If any one leg is missing, the stool falls over.
This has been the problem, in my and our other members’ opinions. The approach to quartetting has been sporadic, haphazard and basically non-existent at best. In reality, we have a pool of quartet guys who tend to sing with other quartet guys, so we're always recycling the same singers over and over into different quartets.
It was hard for a lot of us within the MVE to understand the reluctance of our leadership to really get behind the promotion of quartet singing if, for nothing else, just the potential to improve the confidence and abilities of the individual singer, thus upgrading the performance level of the chorus. It seems so obvious that the more quartet guys you have on the risers, the better the quality of singing. Doing this would be in our self interest with obvious benefits.
Due to this feeling that something was missing in our MVE singing experience, it was evident to Bill Kilbourne and me that something had to be done in order to give the general membership an opportunity to experience the thrill and fun of singing with four other guys. With the encouragement of our President Larry Lewis as well as many others, enter the MVE-QC.
The goal was to give those MVE members that wanted to sing in a quartet an organized, formal way to do it. Since Bill and I have hundreds of years (sic!) of experience plus all of the credentials to take this on, we decided to set the table to make it easy for those motivated, interested members to get all of the tools, help, encouragement or whatever it takes in order to form a quartet. Once we made the commitment, the format for the QC meetings fell into place quite easily.
We meet on Monday nights at 6:15 p.m. before rehearsal. At our first meeting, we outlined our goals to the guys: In no particular order, we discussed how to form a quartet and get someone to sing with you; how to get the tools necessary to sing in a quartet such as selecting repertoire; what kind of quartet it would be, competition or just fun; pitfalls in forming and how to avoid them, such as everyone wanting the same things and getting spouses and family involved; how to replace a member gracefully; what about performance packages; what fees to ask for; duties of all the members in a formal quartet such as handling logistics, contact person, etc., and on and on.
The QC had to have common music so we could mix and match parts to get a feel as to how guys fit together for blend. We started with "Wild Irish Rose" and "Heart of My Heart". We're learning three other songs now, and the QC will have a spot on our chapter website so our music can be shared with everyone - parts specific, the same as the chorus.
Eventually, our repertoire will be around 7-8 songs with a good mix of up-tempo, easy beat and ballads so that we can perform out and fulfill requests for quartets that MVE gets from the public. Our goal is to have the QC sing a song on the Christmas show as well as do walk-arounds at the malls in VLQ format to promote our events.
As we all know, ya gotta move forward in baby steps. We're gonna do it right, so with that in mind, by the end of the year we'll be able to measure our success. We may have our meetings on a selected day or evenings other than Monday . . . meet twice a month, not weekly. This process and the QC will eventually morph into something that we believe will become very good.
Causes of Non-Productive Coughs
by WebMD Medical Reference from Healthwise
Edited by James Estes & Jim DeBusman
Have you ever had a cough linger on for a period of two weeks after you had a “common cold”? This may be the reason why.
A nonproductive cough is dry and does not produce sputum. A dry, hacking cough may develop toward the end of a cold or after exposure to an irritant, such as dust or smoke.
There are many causes of a nonproductive cough, such as:
• Indicate spasms in the bronchial tubes (bronchospasm) caused by irritation.
• Allergies . . . frequent sneezing is also a common symptom of allergic rhinitis.
• Medicines called ACE inhibitors that are used to control high blood pressure. Examples of ACE inhibitors include captopril (Capoten), enalapril maleate (Vasotec), and lisinopril (Prinivil, Zestril, or Zestoretic).
• Viral illnesses. After a common cold, a dry cough may last several weeks longer than other symptoms and often gets worse at night.
• Exposure to dust, fumes, and chemicals in the work environment.
• Asthma. A chronic dry cough may be a sign of mild asthma. Other symptoms may include wheezing, shortness of breath, or a feeling of tightness in the chest. For more information, see the topic Asthma in Teens and Adults.
• Blockage of the airway by an inhaled object, such as food or a pill. For more information, see the topic Swallowed Objects.
Basic Performance Agreement for Chapter Shows
Recently, I’ve been asked for a contract example by quartets. The An Information Manual for Barbershop Quartets you received when you first registered as a quartet has a good example of an Information Request for Chapter Show Appearances. Here is a good Performance Agreement/Contract for you to tweak for your own quartet.
Performance Agreement/Contract
[(Name) herein called “Artist”], agrees to perform minutes of
Music on (Date) in a single set or different Minute sets at the
(Venue) in (city, state, province) for the
[(Client’s name) herein called “Contractor”] in accordance with the terms and
Conditions of this Agreement, which was prepared on (date).
In addition to the above, the artist agrees to:
• Arrival Time: Be prepared to perform at least 30 minutes prior to estimated stage time.
• Rules: Abide by the rules of conduct in the facility where the event is being held.
• Publicity: Provide the Contractor with publicity materials.
• Personnel: Notify: Contractor if Artist has any personnel changes.
• Misc: In the event of sickness or accident to Artist, or if a performance is rendered impossible or infeasible by any cause beyond the control of the Artist, it is understood and agreed that there shall be no claim or damages by either party to this Agreement, and Artist’s obligation as to such performance shall be deemed waived
The Contractor agrees to:
• Air Travel: (if applicable)
• Lodging: (if applicable)
• Ground Transportation: (if applicable)
• Audio/video: Prohibit any audio/video recordings of Artist’s performance(s) without express written consent.
Talent Fee: $
Expenses: $ (if applicable)
Note:
1) Additional performance fee on the same day:
2) Additional performance fee on the previous or following day:
3) Balance due on the day of the engagement:
4) Make all checks payable to:
5) Tax ID number (if applicable):
I acknowledge receipt of this Agreement and agree to the conditions stated herein.
Contractor Signature: Title:
Today’s Date:
Artist’s Signature: Title:
Today’s Date: