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Your Regional Management Team, Convention Team and Sweet Adelines International will continue to keep you informed as events unfold during this COVID-19 pandemic.
Communications will continue to be emailed directly to members to ensure everyone is updated as more information becomes available.
Here are links to the communications regarding the cancellation of Regional convention that have been sent thus far:
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March 2020
Past Issues
Next submission deadline
March 30
members' area
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UserID member16
Password singalong
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2020 VISION
and
BEYOND
Chorus Growth Planning Event
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Registration materials, class descriptions and schedule were originally planned to be sent this week but, due to the circumstances we are all under at present,
we have delayed the registration.
However, at this time, the event
is
not
cancelled, so please keep June 20 on your calendar. We will keep you informed should anything change.
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I’m thinking of each of you at this challenging time. Given I have a little extra time on my hands with the many event cancellations, I have been helping myself feel more happy and productive by taking advantage of the time with… MUSICAL EDUCATION!
How ‘bout you? In case you want to share in my quest for improving your musicianship during the down-time, here are some ideas with links – and you may have more!
- Chorus Connection Blog – Helpful articles for the choral community on a multitude of subjects, many of which are written by authors who are Sweet Adelines.
In harmony,
Region 16 Education Coordinator
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Have you heard of the latest Sweet Adelines marketing program,
Life on a High Note
?
All the marketing materials you would like to see are there, all designed for you, ready to use. Click and download. Personalize it to your chorus and you are set to go!
While you’re on the website, check out the
Social Media File
. There are tutorials on how to use Facebook and Twitter.
Be more recognizable! Every time you post something on social media, use some hashtags: #sairegion16, #SweetAdelines, #lifeonahighnote, #(yourchorusname).
2020 is going to be an amazing year for Region 16 and we are definitely on the move!
Marketing Coordinator
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Who’s on Second?
Last month I hinted that I would write about the interval called a MAJOR SECOND. If I didn’t capture your attention last month with finding the fifth of the chord, you might find this topic equally boring, so scroll on down. I won’t be hurt. But this could be fun, especially if you spend just 15 minutes with your quartet buddies finding this car horn interval in your music a few times. (This article has nothing to do with the second scale step of the key of the song.)
The distance between two notes in a major second is two semitones. For example G to A or Bb to C. If they are sung at the same time by two different parts, a wonderful RUB in the sound is created. Decades ago we called them ‘chopsticks’, probably because when you play that little ditty on a piano it starts by playing an F and G together four times. That interval is a MAJOR SECOND. Now we know better and call it by the musical name that it has.
In barbershop music, we find them frequently between lead and tenor or lead and baritone. They are easy to find visually on the page if they are both in the same clef, i.e. between lead and tenor because the notes are right next to each other – on a line and space blobbed together. The same distance can often be found between lead and bari, too. If this is new to you, go to the second last chord of a verse or chorus. You may just find that interval between two parts because a ‘barbershop seventh chord’ sends us to resolve the harmony back to home plate on the tonic chord (doh, mi, soh, doh).
The whole point of finding those major seconds is to SING THEM EQUALLY to add chills to the barbershop sound. It doesn’t matter which part has the higher note. The tenor note may be lower than the lead note but both parts should be sung with equal PRESENCE. That is the same for any two parts that are only two semitones apart. You can identify them BY EAR when you duet accurately so you don’t even have to know the name of the notes if that visual exercise mystifies you. All four of you in the quartet can LISTEN to each duet, to hear the rub or car horn in the sound, then circle it on the paper to remind yourselves that equal presence is necessary.
All of this is to acknowledge that being PART SMART is more than singing the dots on the page. All our parts interact in such a way that we can move people just by paying attention to the arrangement. We can’t sing barbershop alone. Go forth and create goose bumps for us in the audience!
Region 16 Quartet Coordinator
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Our third A Cappella Challenge was a day of wonder! Watching the next generation of 140 young singers come together, first in Erin's inspiring education class and then in their individual groups, was truly stirring. Their shared joy, talents (there were three perfect pitch singers - all human pitch pipes), and raised voices in beautiful harmonies gave us shivers thinking of the important role a cappella music plays in their young lives and the rich journeys ahead through their love of music. The thrills and excitement these young singers experienced led me to wonder how do we keep alive in our organization opportunities to grow and enrich our chorus experiences? How do we preserve what we have today to promote our special craft for the youth of tomorrow? The A Cappella Challenge has most definitely opened the doors to expanding our outreach beyond the barbershop community, and promises to be just one avenue to promote the joys of a cappella singing.
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On the heels of the A Cappella Challenge we welcomed Dale Syverson, Director of The Rich-Tone Chorus, for two nights of hard work and fun coaching. We are excited about the new depths we explored and the deeper understanding of our craft which subsequently unfolded. Thank you Dale, Erin and June for your brilliance. You are truly magnificent!
As we approach our nominations for the North Metro 2020 Harmony Award recipient (Sweet Adeline of the Year), I am reminded of the many special and caring people in our chorus, and the love, support and camaraderie we share in our united joy of singing and performing. I am also reminded of those who are currently struggling with a painful family or personal issue, and how important it is to take time to share a loving and supportive word and to lift them up in their time of need. All choruses provide a place of gentle comfort; a safe place to be who we are meant to be. All the more reason for us to keep searching for ways to attract more women and youth into our communities.
Jacqui Barron
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Orangeville Show Chorus
had an AWESOME retreat in February at the Nottawasaga Inn. Jordan Travis was our amazing coach and, with lots of hard work, we emerged from the weekend re-energized, renewed, refreshed, and re-educated on practically every aspect of our musical product!!!
We reconnected with our sisters in song from
York Harmony
who were on site for their retreat, and paid a visit to present them with kazoos to add some fun to their journey to the international stage.
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Saturday evening the chorus took part in a “Personality Dimensions” workshop, led by Sarah Brisbin. We discovered our personality types and learned how best to work together with the four identified colour groups, pictured below. INQUIRING Green, ORGANIZED Gold, AUTHENTIC Blue and RESOURCEFUL Orange. It was both enlightening and great fun!
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HOLD THE DATE: Orangeville Show Chorus “Songs of the Silver Screen” – Saturday, May 23, 2020, Westminster United Church, Orangeville. 3:00 and 7:30 pm.
Tickets $25. Children 12 and under $10.
Anne Richardson
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Eastside’s Valentine’s Day Videogram project has been a great success! On February 14, we sent out quite a number of video Singing Valentines. We had so much fun singing our love songs and creating the videograms that we are looking forward to starting a new tradition and doing this every year. Our next steps may be creating personalized videograms and songs for other occasions such as birthdays and anniversaries. Stay tuned!
As much fun as Valentine’s Videograms was, our big event in February was our fabulous and fun Retreat weekend!
Eastside, jointly with
Kawartha Music Company, attended an amazing coaching weekend. Our friends from
Kawartha had car-pooled down highway 115 to Whitby in November so this time
Eastside car-pooled up the 115 to hold our joint event in Peterborough. We always learn so much from our wonderful coach, Sue Melvin. She was outstanding as always. We are so happy with our joint chorus endeavor with our sisters in harmony at
Kawartha Music Company.
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We worked hard for two days but had lots of fun, too. Our dinner Saturday night was so much fun. What did we do in our “off” time after dinner and singing all day? Well, of course we sang some more! The crowd at One-Eyed Jack restaurant seemed to thoroughly appreciate the songs we sang for them during their dinner.
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Each year on Family Day,
Circle of Harmony
performs at our wonderful rehearsal facility, the Queen Elizabeth Park Community and Cultural Centre.
The cultural centre is home to a large number of community groups, as well as many sports activities. Our performance for the Town of Oakville helps us give back!
The audience is always very warm and receptive and a joy to sing for and this past Family Day was no exception. Led by our amazing Assistant Director, Margaret Fielding, the members of
Circle of Harmony
had fun singing a variety of songs from our repertoire.
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York Harmony Chorus
has a few very important updates to share with everyone in our region. In light of the recent events with the Covid-19 activity, it has been decided that
we will be postponing our “Death by Chocolate”
event until further notice. We are considering a new date in the fall.
If you have tickets for our event, please keep them in a safe place and we will be honouring them for our rescheduled show. We are truly disappointed, however, we feel it’s necessary with the current climate. We appreciate your understanding and support!
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For our Lottery,
we will be proceeding with our draw.
We will be conducting the draw on Saturday March 21 at 3 pm. This will be streamed through Facebook. Additional details will be coming out regarding our FABULOUS DRAW. Please stay tuned.
We would like to also take this opportunity to send out a huge THANK YOU and much support to all Region 16 directors and the Regional Management Team, as well as the Sweet Adelines International Board of Directors. These are interesting times. We are very fortunate to have such incredible leaders navigating through these past few days with a high level of resolve. Many have expressed their sincere disappointment with the cancellation of this year's Region 16 convention, understanding very well that it was a very difficult decision to make and many factors needed full consideration.
Circumstances have been changing close to home and globally. We stand together in harmony. We will persevere. We are blessed to be part of such an incredible organization.
Stay calm, breathe, sing and remember all the joy that it brings! Spring is on its way.
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In other news...
We began the month with our Louisville Kentucky-themed retreat weekend, with the ever-incredible Erin Howden as our coach! Lots of work and lots of play for us Louisville Sluggers! This was followed just two weeks later by a re-appearance of Erin for another great coaching session, this time at our home base.
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On February 25, we had our second successful Louisville fundraising event at
The Works Gourmet Burgers in Newmarket. What amazing management and staff! If you haven’t visited them yet, you should! Their food is delicious, AND they are big supporters of YHC and barbershop.
On February 27 we celebrated our 50
th year!
50 years ago, '
York Highlands Chorus
' was chartered. With our new name,
York Harmony Chorus
, we now begin our year-long celebration. We look forward to this year being filled with so many amazing memories and accomplishments.
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We are also looking forward to reconnecting with some of our past members later at our big anniversary party in September (we will keep you posted on the details). A huge thank you goes out to every member who crossed our risers. You’re all a part of our history!
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