Mt. Baker Toppers Annual Retreat 2008

This last weekend I had the opportunity to spend about 2 days with the Mt. Baker Toppers chorus that I sing with. I believe this our 4th annual retreat and every year it has been held at The Firs Chalet near Artist Point. We have a coach come up with us and we have broken out sessions of singing for both days. This year, our coach was John Rae-Grant who has a lot of singing background as well as team-building/organization background.

It was a great weekend and there were a few points that really stuck with me:

1.) There is no amount of bad singing that is good.
This basically means that any flaw in your voice or bad habit that you leave uncorrected impacts the overall sound. Don't let something "you've done all your life" hinder the advancement of the group just because it's not a "huge deal".

2.) Yesterday's excellence is the new suck.
When we get better, we don't go back. Don't be satisfied with sub-par starts, flatting, scooping when you have heard better.

3.) Give back double the amount of energy your director is giving you.
This really makes a huge impact. More than I realized. By increasing body energy and focus, your sound gets much better and the group as a whole has more life and enthusiasm in its sound.

4.) Sing all the sounds of all the words.
This concept has been talked about for a long time in the Toppers, but it's not always applied consistently. My quartet, U4eeuh, got some coaching from John after the chorus was done for the day and he basically got us to enunciate more and it cleaned up a LOT of sync problems. Amazing difference!

What I learned most was that there is ALWAYS something more to learn about singing and it's really rewarding when I put the time in to do it. A little patience is usually required too, but it pays off!

"Where Is Love"

This is the old formation of my quartet, U4eeuh. I thought I would post a video of me singing since I haven't done that yet. Enjoy! It's one of my favorite songs we did.

OC Times

These guys are an amazing barbershop/acappella quartet from California. I got to meet 3 of them last year at the mid-winter convention and they were very humble and great. Their website is www.octimesquartet.com if you want to check them out there.

This is one of my favorite songs they do...specifically the ending of it (called a 'tag'). This group is really bringing youth into the choruses around the country and are a real inspiration for me and my quartet, u4eeuh (www.u4eeuh.com)

Singing is HEALTHY

Some great reading material how singing actually increases your health and makes you feel better by releasing endorphins: Healthy Singing

The information regarding sound therapy is especially interesting...who knew that different vowel sounds correspond to different areas of your body that are affected? Craaaazy.

"Color" lyrics

Another thing I wrote 6 months ago or so....


There once lived a young girl
who lived in a young world, but she
didn't know
that it was

A time or two, she thought things through
but it seemed like it all wasn't real

That the world, and its lot
seemed to fall, more than not
from beige to grey

One day she fell down and never thought
to look around for help from me
A color so bleak, meek, yet attentive from me

Every feeling and its hue are controlled by you,
and all I want to say, is that there's more to me
than beige and grey

"Her Music" lyrics

These are the lyrics to a song I wrote called, "Her Music".


Her eyes pass by,
A unknown gaze
Spanned the space to hold that thought
And write in me, that feeling
Round and round it goes
Round and round it goes
Her music plays

Her voice, so soft
Its fragrance like a lullaby
Cools my pulse, quickens my need
to close my eyes in this sapphire dream
My dream
Round and round it goes
Round and round it goes
Her music...
Her music...
Her music plays

Only a fool sings along
Only a fool sings along
I'm just a fool that sings along
I'm just a fool that sings along

You can hear it by downloading the mp3 HERE