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MEMBERS OF PROBE AND
THE BARBERSHOP HARMONY SOCIETY
North Georgia
Barbershop Singers
Jan 2014
Vol. 7, No. 1
Editor/publisher
Jack Martin
678-777-5013
Lake Lanier, Georgia Chapter <> SPEBSQSA, INC
Meets Tuesday evenings, 7:00 pm, Christ the King Lutheran Church
1125 Bettis-Tribble Gap Road, Cumming GA, 30040
Dan Sullivan, President, Tel 770
770--377
377--1294
Steve Dorn, Music Dir. Tel 678
678--595
595--4340
Picture provided by Kelly Starling
I decided to do something different this
month with my article for the bulletin. I would like to tell you about my
grandson.
Numerous times he
has come through when it matters the
most. I share this story to say that if we
as a chorus can apply some of the same thoughts
to our rehearsals and to our lives, it could help in
learning to sing effectively and also to live a creative, productive and inspired life in general.
This past summer and fall, my grandson and his
team had a fantastic season. They reached the
championship finals--to be played as best of three
games. In game one of the finals, he is the closing
pitcher. He comes into the game with two innings
left and his team has a comfortable lead 5-1. But
now the nightmare begins. Here he is in a challenging situation and after a lot of great attempts,
things are going downhill. His pitches are not the
consistent strikes as we have been accustomed to
seeing. The game is suddenly tied 5-5. And
worse, after another unintentional walk, the bases
are loaded.
Can you imagine the pressure? The coach pulls
my grandson. It’s a decision any good coach
would make and my grandson knew it. How
would you feel? Would you feel you have let
down your team? Would you feel rejected? His
teammate in the bottom of the last inning hits a
fantastic walk off home run and we win game one.
Fast forward to game two and he is the starting
pitcher. He has prepared, but things don’t go
well. In the third inning, he is replaced and we
are down 1-7.
So again, how would you
feel? Would you start thinking in the line of “I’ve
been doing well all season, and now when it matters the most I fail”? The team is down 4-8 but
fight back to tie it 8-8. They fall behind again 812 and come back to tie it 12-12. Starting the last
inning, they are batting first and are down 1213. His batting hasn’t worked either. He has
struck out twice, which has never happened before. What’s wrong? Can you imagine the frustration? He’s playing his worst game of the season
when it matters the most.
So here we are. We are down 12-13, a runner
on second and my grandson is up to bat. He
swings, and the ball flies above the outfielder and
almost goes to the fence. He gets to second base,
and the runner ties the game! It’s not only the
most important, but probably his best hit ever. He
then steals third base. His teammate hits a single,
my grandson runs home to take the lead.
The other team bats last and still has a chance
to score. My grandson now plays third base. With
two outs and a runner on first base, the batter hits a
fly ball. It sails beyond third base towards the side
fence to go foul. But my grandson runs like crazy,
1
and right before the ball is about to hit the fence,
he makes the catch of the season for the
win! They were now champions. You can imagine the celebration.
So what’s the lesson here? Talk about coming
through when it matters the most. What do you
think my grandson will remember? The bad start
or the unbelievably successful finish? What if he
had given up? What if he had started thinking that
he wouldn’t hit that ball today, that it was a horrible day, or given up on trying to catch that last
ball?
The feeling of success naturally becomes even
greater because of the prior struggles in our
lives. And it’s not about victory over the other
team really.
It’s about victory over ourselves. Many times when we falter, we want to
just quit or to blame something or somebody. Most of us are knocked down, replaced and
rejected at some point. Some use this as fuel to
become better and find ways to experience success, while others make the determination to give
up and never do it again. What we must remember is that successful people are those who have
failed the most. I thought about quitting a few
months back. I want you to understand that I am
not going to let my hearing deficiencies keep me
from making the most of the time I have singing
barbershop.
What is in your life that is holding you
back? It is far too common that when things don’t
go well we blame outside circumstances whether it
is the government, the economy, the music industry, or the umpire. The bottom line is that no matter how badly things seem to go, there is always an
opportunity to learn and grow. There is always an
opportunity to be a role model for others. There is
always a possibility that something wonderful can
come out of struggle.
I’d like to stress one thing: To be able to be
resourceful when things aren’t going well is much
more than having a positive mindset and believing. To learn effectively from every experience
includes every chorus rehearsal and performance. Let us make this the best year ever for
the North Georgia Barbershop Singers.
H
ey Guys,, We have but a few short weeks (6
to be exact) to get our act together for our
Singing Valentine Program. Duane Hunter will be
heading up the schedule for our quartets and putting together the flyers for advertising.
We have had great success for the past several years with this program and it has been a good
fund raiser for our chapter. But maybe more important, it has been great fun for our quartets and
certainly very pleasing to those recipients of our
Singing Valentines.
The below picture is the 6 guys that were
first to participate in the Singing Valentine program back in 2007.They are: (from left to right)
Rich Pilch, Jerry Frank, Jack Martin, Joe Weiner,
Dave Haas and Will Dunne.
More on the 2014 Singing Valentine program later in the bulletin.
2
Sound Decision
This is for my very good friend, SAM the
GOOD OLE BARBERSHOP MAN!!!!
By Dan Sullivan
S
am Franchiser is a long time singer
of barbershop music and has been a
member of several different barbershop chapters in Florida, Mississippi, and
Georgia and possibly another state or
two. Sam has been battling with some
health issues and is having to be away while
he is recuperating. With the Good Lord’s
help, Sam is going to win the war. On
December 28th, eight of Sam’s former members for his old Florida chapter, The Big Orange, drove up for a visit and Nancy said
that Sam got a really big dose of “special
medicine” from that visit. Sam was just
overwhelmed as they had a great time
catching up and doing a little singing. Pat,
Bill, Tommy, John, Jack, and Dan drove us
from Jacksonville, with Pat bringing
oranges and tangelos that he grew himself
back down if Florida. Kenny and Mark,
two other former members, drove up from
Atlanta. Nancy said there were just no
words to describe the good that they had
done---that kind of medicine that can’t be
bought. It all made for a very wonderful
Christmas for Sam and Nancy. Sam our
thoughts and prayers are always with you!!!
False Alarm
Sweet Tea
As you might have suspected Sam Frankhouser was a very active quartet man.
Shortly after Sam joined the NGBS he became active in a quartet called Sound Decision. As with many quartets they lost their
lead. This was the end of Sound Decision.
Sam soon started singing bari with
the False Alarm Quartet. With the disolvement of The North Georgia Gentlemen
quartet Sam also joined the Sweat Tea
quartet singing the Baritone part.
When Sam’s health began to fail he
dropped from quarteting with Fred Kanel
filling the bari part in the Sweat Tea, False
Alarm and Up Town.
3
Seventh Chords and "those minor chords"
W
e start every chorus practice and board meeting by singing The Old Songs, and
in the second line we sing about how we "love to hear those minor chords." Yet
there aren't any minor chords in the song, and in fact, most barbershop music contains
mostly the happy sounds of major chords and few of the sadder sounds of minor
chords. So why does this song call out the sound of minor chords when it doesn't have
any? The answer requires that we know something about a chord that's characteristic
of barbershop music – the seventh chord.
Seventh chords
Seventh chords are named for one particular note they contain – the seventh note. Think of the place on the
musical staff where a chord starts as position 1 or the primary note or root or the chord. If you count up the
lines and spaces on the staff to position 8 the note there is an octave higher than the primary note. If you
only go up to position 7 on the staff that note is called the seventh, and the presence of that note in a chord
is what gives it the name seventh chord.
A simple seventh chord contains the notes in the first, third, and fifth staff positions (called a major triad)
plus the note in the seventh position. The first figure shows a C-seventh
(C7) chord on a music staff with the key signature of F. It contains the
major triad middle-C, E, and G and the seventh note B♭. Of course a B♮
is also on the seventh staff position, and a chord containing that note
would have a different sound from the one with the B♭. The interval
from the primary C up to B♮ is slightly larger than the interval from the
C to the B♭, and consequently the larger interval is called the major seventh and the chord containing it is a
major seventh chord. The smaller interval to the B♭ is called the minor seventh.
A major seventh chord has a dissonant, unpleasing sound and is seldom used in barbershop music. (The
second figure shows an example of a C major seventh chord containing
a B♮.) A good example of a major seventh chord in popular music
occurs in Burt Bacharach's Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head. In the
first phrase the word "head" is accompanied by an F major seventh
chord that is held for a full measure. It provides a transition to a more
usual F dominant seventh chord (see below) that accompanies the
entire next measure starting with the word "just."
The chord containing the minor seventh – the B♭ in this example – is called the major-minor seventh or
dominant seventh. Unlike the major seventh, the dominant seventh chord is used constantly in barbershop
so much so that it has acquired the name barbershop seventh. (When skillful singers sing a barbershop
seventh they tune the chord to slightly different notes from those on a piano or pitch pipe to get the
sweetest sound. (The reasons for this are outside the scope of this short article.) The seventh chord is so
important to the barbershop style that there are strict contest requirements about how much of a song's
duration must be comprised of seventh chords.
So what about the "minor chords" in The Old Songs?
Musicians today understand clearly what a minor chord is but a century ago barbershop singers understood
it in a different way. As pointed out by Gage Averill in Four Parts, No Waiting: A Social History of American Barbershop Harmony (Oxford University Press, 2003) the minor chords referred to in songs such as
Mr. Jefferson, Lord Play that Barbershop Chord (1910) were the dominant seventh chords containing the
minor seventh interval that we now call barbershop sevenths. (continued on page 4)
4
Now we can understand the words in The Old Songs,
which was written in 1921. The "minor chords" it
refers to aren't minor chords in the music-theory
sense – they're the barbershop sevenths that are in all
our songs. So if The Old Songs doesn't have any
minor chords in the modern sense, how many minor
chords in the old barbershop sense (i.e., barbershop
sevenths) does it have?
In the music below for The Old Songs I've
marked all the seventh chords. It can be seen that of
the 23 chords in the song, 12 are the "minor" (i.e.,
seventh) chords that the lyrics speak about. In
addition, they are comprised of seventh chords
based on seven different notes – a veritable
banquet of seventh chords in a song about seventh
chords!
Next month I'll discuss a special kind of
seventh chord - the Chinese seventh – and we'll
see how many there are in the songs of our current
repertoire.
T
he featured quartet singing
“The Old Songs”
is the
Springfield Music Company. These
guys were from the Springfield,
Missouri area in the Central States
District. This quartet was one of the
great comedic groups of their times as
well as being accomplished singers.
I am not sure how many contest they won but I can assure you,
they won over many audiences well
beyond the boundaries of the midwest with their zany music and clever
antics.
I am proud to call them
personal friends!
editor
Daryl
Clyde
5
Paul
Jimmy
H
A
P
P
Y
T
he NGBS Music Committee has just rolled out our
first new song for 2014! We
will be working on "When I
Fall in Love" to perform in
contest this spring. The chart
hard copies were distributed
along with learning tracks (both
electronic and CDs).This
committee agrees that this is
going to be a challenging tune, but we feel the chorus
is up to the task as long as everyone put in the
personal time on their parts.
Our director has proposed a different (to this
chorus) method of learning for this song...one section
at a time. We will also be incorporating a few sectionals during the rehearsal portions of our chapter
meeting in the next few weeks to solidify our parts.
On a more personal note...I want to thank all
members of the 2013 NGBS Music Committee for
their input and support which made my job as Music
VP easier and smoother. I am looking forward to
serving in this position for another year and am
excited to see where our director will be taking us in
2014!
Stay tuned for more great adventures...
Thanks Gang, For Your Article Submissions
O
f the 14 guys I contacted for submitting bulletin
articles, 8 responded. We all owe a debt of
thanks to those 8 people for making our bulletin one
that is enjoyed by many through out our Chapter,
District and Society.
The making of a great bulletin, is that everyone participates. Are You Listening?
6
F
N
E
W
Y
E
A
R
alse Alarm Quartet (FAQ) has
been trying to get a
practice
schedule in place but is finding it a difficult task given the holidays, winter
illnesses, and family/personal events.
This seems to be one of the many challenges of being in a quartet, but every
struggle is worth it in the end and
things always seems to work
out...eventually.
FAQ was slated to perform
"Mary Had a Baby" for the NGBS
Christmas show in December; however, a few days prior to this event,
Andy (lead) came down with a bad
case of bronchitis! Not only was he
supposed to sing in the quartet, he also
had a solo in one of the other chorus
Christmas songs. Fortunately through
the wisdom of our chorus director
Steve Dorn, there were back-up soloists
in place who had been practicing for
weeks. But, what about "Mary"? Long
story short, Steve filled in for Andy and
did a fine job at that!
On December 22nd, FAQ had
the pleasure of singing at Northside
Hospital Forsyth for Andy's mother
who was to have major surgery the next
day...she thoroughly enjoyed that! The
nurses and doctors got to hear a couple
more songs at the nurses' station. It
was great, heads kept popping out of
hospital rooms as we sang on. Smiles
abounded...there's nothing like lifting
holiday spirits through barbershop singing! We continue to enjoy performing
because we know it is a contribution to
keeping the whole world singing!
We now have a presence on the
internet:falsealarmquartet.com and also
on facebook (False Alarm Quartet).
Six Steps to Better Singing
Through Better Listening
We Get Letters
T
o Jack and all NGBS members. I
have been a member since may
2013. I must say this experience has
been more rewarding than I expected. I have been
well received by everyone. I want to thank all for
your support in my first year. I hope I can contribute more and more as this new year progresses. I
look forward to new challenges this year. Continued teamwork will take us to greater heights.
Written by Mel Knight – Found in the Concho Capers,
San Angelo TX, Paul White, editor, who Found it in the Canyon
Chords, Montrose, Colorado. Bill Sutton, editor
W
hile working with a chorus not long ago, I reacquainted myself with how often we ignore a very
important factor in singing:
LISTENING.
The ears are a special part of the
total musical apparatus, whether singing or playing an
instrument. Ears can be used to enjoy the performance
of others. And it should be a highly sophisticated part
of your own performance.
First of all, we need to be able to ignore certain
sounds that are distracting to our musical experience,
whether it is squeaky risers, the whirring of a fan or
a passing car outside. Shutting out noise is a part of
focusing on the singing task at hand.
Second, we need to listen to ourselves in a
critical way, within the context of the total ensemble.
Am I on the right notes? In learning new music, do I
just bull my way through the notes and words or do I
try to check my accuracy against others around me?
When singing along with a learning track, do I often
loudly drown out the track's notes? Ease up. Listen.
You might even learn more accurately!
Third, and of great importance, am I singing in
tune with everyone else? This applies not only to the
tonality of the song, but of the accuracy of pitch within
my section. In a quartet, am I conscious of the other
three parts and the intonation of the total group? The
more you listen, the more likely you are to increase
your ability to recognize minute differences in pitch.
Fourth, do I listen to match vowel sounds with
my fellow singers? Does my ear tell me to adjust
in order to match others? The same thing applies to
attacks and releases. Do I begin and end with others in
the ensemble? If not, could it be we're not listening
closely enough?
Fifth, how is my balance with the other parts?
Am I too loud? Blending in? Are there some notes in
the chord that might require more or less volume?
You're not likely to know the answers to these questions if you aren't listening!
Finally, what do I sound like by myself? Am
I happy with my vocal production? Am I listening
critically for improvements when given specific
instructions? If you will let good, critical listening
skills develop, you will have a lot more fun singing…
and everyone around you will too! Happy listening!
Sincerely,
Neill Harris
I
got a nice note from Jerry Wood telling me of
his recent rotator cuff operations, and the
activities and limitations that he is (has) suffered in
the recent past. I am reluctant to repeat the exact
wording, but I can assure it was it was quite
humorous and life like. Thanks Jerry and here’s
hoping for your early recovery.
Sincerely
Jerry Wood
T
hank You Kevin Seidule.
Kevin
covered our Christmas Performance quite
adequately by sending me a passel of pictures and
videos he took during our show. “That’s What I
Call a Pal” Hummmm! A great barbershop song
available to all of us.
H
i Jack,
Thank you so much for sharing your excellent bulletin with us. On behalf of the Fullerton
Chapter, California we wish you and yours a terrific Christmas and New Year’s Holiday.
In harmony,
Spence Graves, Past President of the Fullerton
Chapter, CA
PS: Keep up the good work!
T
hanks Spence, I get considerable enjoyment
knowing that you are enjoying our Chapter
Bulletin.
jack
7
editorial
First Harmony of the
2014 Year
I
T
t is already January 6, 2014 and we will be
Singing Valentine’s on February 14,
2014. Tomorrow night you will be given materials
to help you sell an average of 2 Singing Valentines
each.
Doing this will assure a successful
SINGING VALENTINE’S EVENT. Yes I’m calling it an EVENT because the people who receive
this gift of love remember the EVENT forever. Click on the link below to see the article
published in CummingHome.com today.
he chapter seems to off to a
good start! Our First meeting
in 2014 came off as a fun and productive time!
After taking a couple weeks off over the
holidays most every one came out in 20 degree
weather on the 7th of Jan to get their harmony
hunger satisfied. Also fellowship was in abundance!
We got started on some new music, with
our new musical director (no more interim) and
reviewed several other songs as well as doing
some pick-up quartet singing and tag teaching/
learning. Jerry Wood also gave a brief testimonial
about his enjoyment since belonging to the NGBS.
I especially had a good time as my December activities was curtailed due to family health
problems. Oh yes, I also won the 50/50 :-) Funny
how winning the 50/50 can enhance your
enjoyment!
http://cumminghome.com/north-georgia-barbershopsingers-singing-valentines%E2%80%8B/
North Georgia Barbershop Singers “Singing
Valentines”
--By Staff Writer on -SINGING VALENTINES will be delivered
locally and personally by a Barbershop Quartet. If you think your spouse or loved one
deserves a very special Valentine this year, this
will really surprise and impress a lot longer
than a box of candy or flowers from the
grocery store.
Cumming Playhouse
Performance,
a Financial Success.
Just call 770-609-9853 to schedule four
talented Barbershop singers to surprise and
delight at the work place, your home, a restaurant or another location of your choosing.
These men will sing two love songs in perfect
Barbershop harmony; leave a beautiful rose
and a personalized Valentine card from you.
The NORTH GEORGIA BARBERSHOP
SINGERS offer this very affordable and special
gift from you on Friday, Feb. 14th.
O
ur chapter received a handsome payment recently for our presentation of
our Christmas Show on the 19th of December, in the popular Cumming Playhouse.
We truly had a full house in attendance,
with folks trying to obtain tickets right up
to the opening of the first song.
Thank you, Chet Burdick for your
expert chairmanship, and a big thank you
to every performer in the production.
Only a limited number of Singing Valentines
are available so call 770-609-9853 between
9AM and 8PM, to get the details and insure
your Singing Valentine will be delivered.
8
R-E-S-P-E-C-T
Penned by Tom (noise Abatement Engineer) Riggle
R
emember that song from 1967 as done by Aretha Franklin? I have been
thinking about that song recently and thought that the beginning of a new
year would be a good time for us to re-focus and remind ourselves of a couple
basic points about our decorum during rehearsals. Most of you have heard
this before but the newer members may not have considered this. Some of us
longer-term members could also use a reminder.
Jerry Wood has been a BHS member for 31 years and recently made the comment that, in all his
years of experience, in several choruses, he finds that our chapter has the best blend of having fun and
learning new songs while striving to sing better. That’s quite a compliment! We need to maintain that balance.
Now, Steve Dorn has just been made our official Director with no qualifiers before or after that title. So, I make this timely suggestion that we all take a look at ourselves and ask that we conduct ourselves
with respect for the Director and our fellow chorus members. I know we all like Steve and what he is doing for us. But, as Jack Martin told us once, when the singing stops, that is not a signal for you to start
talking. Have some respect for the Director, or whoever is standing up front. Most often that would be
Steve, Rich, Jerry Wood, Chuck or Dan. The person standing before the chorus has the floor. That is the
time to listen and learn.
Steve has been very patient with us but he,
appointed
and we, have had to endure too much chatter beas Full Time Musical
tween songs. There should be little or no joking or
laughing or one on one discussion between songs.
Director of the NGBS
It is also not your place to try to make corrections
in the singing of other’s during rehearsal time.
That is the director’s job. Save it for break time or
before and after rehearsal or a sectional session.
You need to realize that when you talk between songs, it’s not just you that will miss what
the director is saying. It’s also the person you are
talking to, and anyone else within earshot. You
might think you are having a private and productive conversation by talking with your neighbor
about the music between songs. You are not, because of the unintended impact you are having on
others while the man with the floor is talking!
We are off to a great start for 2014 and I
look forward to every Tuesday night. This is a
wonderful chapter with good balance so let’s
maintain that and proceed with R-E-S-P-E-C-T.
Steve Dorn
“Damn-it, this is my Happy
Face!”
9
singing with folks who know whereof
they sing. The kind of hours that send
you to bed with goosebumps that won’t
go away until maybe two days later,
when you’re flyin’ home…
Oh, yeah: there’s golf on Thursday and Friday mornings, if ya just
gotta “spoil a good walk.” Sing a song
on every tee. But ya gotta sign-up
ahead of time, to be sure we’ve got
enough tee times…
You can find details on the BQPA/
P i o n e e r s
w e b
s i t e :
www.bqpa.com. Check out the “Events”
page. (If you get there on Wednesday,
there’s even a spaghetti and meatball
dinner, with quartets – see the details
on the website…) Specifically, we’ll be
at the Embassy Suites, 4400 South
Rural Road, Tempe, AZ 85282. Their
phone number is 480-897-7444, and
t h e i r
w e b s i t e
a d d r e s s
is www.embassysuitestempe.com. (If
you’re reserving a room, make sure you
tell ’em you’re with the barbershoppers,
or that you’ll be attending the BQPA
gathering, so you get the festival room
rate – VERY attractive.)
Hope to see you there! Look me
up, and sing a tag or a song with me!
BQPA/Pioneers Spring
Festival – Tempe, AZ –
April 9 - 12, 2014
This is to let you
know that the
next festival organized by the
Barbershop
Quartet Preservation Association / Pioneers is
scheduled
for
th
April 9 through
the
12th,
in
T e mpe ,
Ar izona.
Why should you
be interested?
Because our gettogethers are nothing more or less than
three or four days of do-it-yerself quarteting, in the old style. While we do
have a “luck-of-the-draw” quartet contest on the Friday evening, almost all of
the remaining time is occupied by informal quarteting. No assignments, no requirements. You sing what you know:
old arrangements, old songs.
Find
three other parts and belt one! (Or finesse one, if you prefer ballads.) Find
three other singers and teach ‘em a
tag!
Or get together with someone
who’ll teach a tag to you! Woodshedders are welcome, but that’s not all we
do; we sing old songs, tags, familiar arrangements from the 40s through the
90s – you name it. In quartets, that
form and melt away, and re-form, on
and on.
From morning ‘til the wee
hours…
It ain’t just sour old folks getting
together to mumble to each other about
“the olden days.” We all SING. And I
myself have had a number of really,
really intense hours at our festivals,
Barily yours,
T o m
N o b le ,
BQPA/Pioneers
Pr e s ide n t
School closer in Cumming, Ga !
10
The Chinese Seventh
By Jerry (Engineer of Music) Frank
A
while back, I
asked someone
or anyone to explain the Chinese Seventh to me. In the
vacuum of response, I have decided to
search out a possible source of this chord
and the strange moniker. Let’s assume that
the Chinese part of the name is because it
denotes something foreign and unusual
that doesn’t really belong where it is found so it
must be titled such that we recognize the strangeness.
Since the key of C is simplest to type and
since something true in C is true in any other major key, let me use it to start my search. As with all
keys, the Major chord is the place to start. This
would be C,E,G, and in barbershop C again but an
octave higher. To get any other chord, we mangle
the Major chord in some way by flatting (dropping
down a half tone) or augmenting (raising by a half
tone) one or more of these fine notes of this stellar
chord. As the music world would have it, each of
these chords would then have a name. To simplify,
I’m going to ignore all the various twisting and
turning of tones except the seventh chords.
If we flat the higher octave C, we arrive at
C,E,G,B which is named the “C Major 7th” which
is the neat barbershop seventh chord having the
root, third, fifth and seventh notes of the C scale.
If we again flat the seventh (B), we arrive at the
Dominant 7th of C,E,G,Bb. If we also flat the third
(E to an Eb), we find that we have the C Minor
7th (C,Eb,G,Bb). While we are fiddling about with
the third, we could also augment this note (E to F)
and arrive at the “C Dominant 7 Suspended
4th” (C,F,G,Bb). Don’t blame me. I didn’t name it.
Check with a music major. I’m just an engineer.
Moving right along, we can leave the third alone
and mess with the fifth. If we flat the fifth we have
a “Dominant 7th flatted fifth” logically enough.
That is C,E,Gb,Bb just so you can mark where we
are. We can instead augment the fifth to give us
the “Dominant 7th Augmented 5th” (C,E,G#,Bb)(no
big surprise here).
Other variations are achieved by flatting
the 3rd and the 5th
and double flatting
the 7th to give the
“Diminished 7th” of C,Eb,Gb,A. By
scrunching the Minor 7th noted above by
flatting the 5th we get the “Minor
7th Flatted 5th”chord. You work it out. I’m
bushed.
Ok I have just run out of the
officially named 7th chords of the C scale but there
is another seventh chord that can be written in the
key of C without the use of accidentals (which I
was earlier told was not possible) that is called the
G dominant 7th chord. The notes are G,D,B,F
which is a bit strange since there isn’t any C in it.
What is that chord doing in a music piece written
in the key of C? Well, we didn’t cheat and use
accidentals so it is definitely written in all white
keys. It is also a seventh chord if you take G as
root, B as 3rd,D, as 5th and of course F is the
seventh. This is certainly strange but not strange
enough to be called a Chinese seventh. To make it
truly strange and unique enough to be called
Chinese you have to put the root (G) above the
seventh (F) leaving the fifth (D) as the lowest note
and the third tucked between the fifth and the
seventh. Now it is truly the Chinese seventh.
So by observation, a Chinese seventh must
be written in the key signature without the use of
accidentals, the root of the Chinese seventh will be
the fifth of the key signature and the sequence of
the chord must be in the order of lowest to highest:
5th,3rd,7th,root.
If anyone can come up with a Chinese
seventh that violates these observations, please
refute my logic and give me a better definition.
Remember, according to the many rules of
music; if something is true in one major key, it
will be true in any major key. All you have to do is
remember all the rules when you are plotting out
the chords. Good luck with that.
As I review this article, I am reminded of
an old adage which goes something like this: If
you can’t dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them
with (something else).
11
Lake Lanier Chapter Board
of Directors and Appointees
Officers 2014
President
Membership VP
Secretary
Treasury
Music & Perf VP
Program VP
PR & Publicity
Member at Large
Member at Large
Asst Director
Dan Sullivan
Fred Kanel
Tom Riggle
Chet Burdick
Andy Doetsch
Jerry Wood
Duane Hunter
Neill Harris
Bill Liles
Rich Pilch
Appointee
Musical Director
Steve Dorn
Asst Music Dir
Rich Pilch
Consultant to Music
Dir on Music Issues
Jack Martin
Bulletin Editor
Jack Martin
Webmaster
Andy Doetsch
Music Librarian
Terry Gillim
Social Director
Terry Gillim
Chorus Manager
Dan Sullivan
Historian
Bob Biccum
Uniform Chairman
Rich Pilch
50/50 Dude
Chuck Berny
Section Leaders
Tenor
Bob Hitch
Lead
Tom Riggle
Bari
Andy Doetsch
Bass
Chuck Berny
County Liaison Rep
Dawson County
Rich Pilch
Forsyth County
Duane Hunter
Hall County
Tom Riggle
Lumpkin County
TBD
Linda Berny
( Chuck’s Wife)
Involved in Car
Accident
Future Events
L
inda, Sorry to hear
of your misfortune,
being involved in
a pretty serious car
accident. Hope your
recovery is very soon.
NGBS
Flight Humor
The flight Captain said
that, in light of his bad
landing, he had a hard time
looking the passengers in
the eye, thinking that
someone would have a
smart comment. Finally
everyone had gotten off
except for a little old lady
walking with a cane. She
said, "Sir do you mind if
I ask you a question?"
"Why, no, Ma'am," said
the pilot. What is it?" The
little old lady said, "Did
we land, or were we shot
down?"
Feb 14
Lake Lanier Chapter Singing
Valentine Program.
Mar 14-16
International Quartet Prelims and
Dixie Chorus Contest.
Nashville, Tennessee.
CA
MUS
PRS
SNG
B
Thompson, Geesa
Fisk, Miller
Lietke, Nau
Conover, Ward
Late News
ill Balser’s wife, Rona
remains in rehab from breaking
her leg 4 weeks ago. Bill tells me
Rona’s progress is slow. Please
keep Bill and Rona in your prayers.
I
have learned that Dick Lord of
the Roswell Firehouse Brigade
is home recovering from gall bladder removal. Wishing you a quick
recovery, Richard.
NGBS
Lake Lanier Chapter Quartets
Happy Birthday
January
2
Chet Burdick
12
Jerry Taylor
31
Andy Doetsch
February
11
Bill Liles
Bob
Jerry Tom Duane
Fred
Terry Tom
Rich
Fred A J Chuck
Fred
know when
it will strike,
.
Y oubutnever
there comes a moment when
you know that you just aren't going to
do anything productive for the rest of
the day.
Bob
12
Andy Rick
Fred
That’s What I Call a Pal
several years in the Jacksonville Florida, Big
Orange Barbershop Chapter. Sam was very active
and managed to make his mark there. Sam left the
“Big Orange” group some time ago to move to the
North Georgia area. Sam settled in Cleveland GA.
Sam was active in the Blairsville GA
chapter for a while and then moved his membership to the Stone Mountain Chorus, prior to joining the NGBS. Sam has been with the NGBS for
about 4 years now.
As you might expect Sam made a lot of
friends in the Big “O” chapter in earlier years as
evidenced by those singers in the picture. Yes,
eight (8) of Sam’s singing buddies from the Big
“O” drove up from Jacksonville to visit Sam in
late December. As you can see from the smiles,
everyone had a good time.
Picture provided by Nancy Frankhouser via Bob Hitch
As
most of us know, San Frankhouser spent
Jan-Feb, 2014
Sunday
Monday
Sun
Mon
Tuesday Wednesday Thursday
Tue
1
Wed
2
New Years
Day
5
6
7
Thu
Friday
3
Fri
Saturday
4
Lunch at
Ippolitos
8
9
1o
11
Chapter
Meeting
7:00 PM
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
Ground
Hog Day
13
Sat