Back in March, the Blogmeister mentioned the concept of the singer or musician as a small muscle athlete. http://dusty-beam.flywheelsites.com/2015/03/02/windward-notes-athletics-in-the-rehearsal-hall/. But what about the big muscles? We’re hauling big chunks of air in and out of ourselves and those big air bags are attached to our back and our chest and our shoulders and our opu. […]
When he was three, my nephew went to his first NCAA Division I hockey game. When I asked him how it was, his response was, “The man skates real fast and runs right into the fence”. It’s hard to imagine peeling back the layers of the game any further than that, getting down to its […]
Blasting off a concert with “Lord, I Know I’ve Been Changed” (insert booming applause noises here) set me to wondering about the hand-in-hand relationship between the gospel and blues musical styles and how they can so often be intertwined (and how awesome it can be when they are). A little research opened up some interesting […]
The “that’s cool” department and the “that’s silly” department have both asked for a little post-concert space in the blog. Great video from the former and I’ll apologize to the tenors for the latter ahead of time…um…then again, maybe I won’t. They ARE tenors after all. A Honda commercial where all of the sounds are […]
Pretty much anything that uses oxygen does it (sometimes for the worse, but we won’t talk about that): the energy of individuals combines when an experience is shared and that energy is compounded and boosts the individual’s energy which raises the energy level further. Lather, rinse and repeat until the entire mob is jacked up […]
(Blogmeister note: this is the second of the pre-concert posts, info nugget #2 as it were. Sing thee well!) “Spectacular achievement is always preceded by unspectacular preparation.” – Robert H. Schuller There are two answers to the question, “What’s happening on Friday?” if it’s posed to a member of the Windward Choral Society: “We have […]
(Blogmeister note: this is the first of two blog entries pertaining to this week’s concerts. Info nuggets to nibble on, especially if you’re new to this sort of insanity.) “If you’re nervous, that means you care and you want to give your best.” – Adriana Lima Whether you’ve been singing since Beethoven figured out which […]
(If you’re less than 40 years old, you might not get the reference in the title. Go ahead and ask someone over 40. You’ll like it.) We’ve all been there, I’m sure, that place where your voice slowly deteriorates from angelic singing to the sound a cat makes when it’s stuck in a trash can. […]
(Blogmeister note: No, this doesn’t have anything to do with choral singing, but it seemed we were due for a bit of silliness and this definitely qualifies. It never hurts to laugh a little, especially with a concert looming.) Like so many of us did back in the 70’s, I played in a garage band. […]
Sometimes the English language doesn’t make sense. As it evolved over the years, it’s taken some really weird turns. Take the word “run”. If I just say it alone, what do I mean? Beats me, it needs context. “I’m going outside to run.” “There’s a run in my stocking.” “Let the water run until it’s […]