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Learn Those Songs

By Don Thomson, Associate Director

As you can tell, the show music has been selected, but the show itself is a work in progress. I appreciate your patience as it is patched together. Each week at rehearsal, when I hear the songs sung, another idea comes to mind and I try to integrate it into the scheme of things. I am very impressed with the way you have adapted to the 50's style music. This is not our usual style of music. I am sure that the audience will enjoy and identify the songs we will sing, and that is the important thing.

Although I believe that the songs are coming along very well, one song is going to take some individual attention. You can guess that it is the "Beach Boys Medley". This is a difficult piece and one that is different in style than the rest of the songs we are singing. I believe that we are going to have a very difficult time learning this song and singing it together without some very serious individual rehearsal time. We must get off the music within the next couple of weeks so that Ken can work with us on singing it together and in the style it commands. We can only do this by getting off the music! If we are not off the music in a couple of weeks, I am afraid that Ken may give up on us. Let's not let him down. At rehearsal, put your music down. Force yourself off the music. Make some mistakes, make note of them, and correct it the next time hrough. This piece is a major part of our show and we must do it well.

This is going to be a fun show. Bob Swenson has procured a great quartet this year, and I know we are going to present a very memorable show. Keep up the good work. Be patient with the development of the show. You will know more about it in just a few weeks.

Don Thomson

Learning Tapes

I have provided many of you audio learning tape with 8 songs: "When I'm Sixty-Four", "In the Still of the Night", "New Ashmolian Marching Society", "Bring Him Home", "All I Have To Do Is Dream", "Beach Boys Medley", "Bright Was The Night" and "Bad Buncha Boys". Thanks to John Schlender for providing some tapes we could recycle and to those men who brought tapes. I only had to purchase a few additional tapes.

The chapter paid $0.40 per song per person for the copyright fee to SPEBSQSA, Inc. for in the "Still of the Night", "Bright Was The Night" and "Bad Buncha Boys".

We paid a copyright fee of $42 to Harry Fox Agency for each of the other songs and we can make up to 2,500 copies of each!!! For the "Beach Boys Medley" of 5 songs we are required by copyright laws to license each song. So we licensed 9 songs through this Agency.

So you are not surprised, when you play the tapes you will hear that, for some unknown reason, a slight blip or jolt occurs in the middle of these recordings. Also, approximately a 5 second break has been placed between each song, in case you use a tape deck that requires about 3 seconds or so between songs for use with the replay function.

For the song ("When I'm Sixty-Four"), we recorded the singing by the Manhattan Music Machine. We have learned in our meetings that the quartet will be singing verses 1 and 2, and then remember when the chorus picks up the singing after that. Two of the songs I believe we will be singing in Clay Center on Feb. 2 - "Bring Him Home" and "New Ashmolian Marching Society".

So I hope your enjoy singing along with the tapes to learn these songs. Most of the members of the chapter know the other songs we will be singing or the chorus is singing a very small section of the songs not on the tape. I think it is a little difficult to understand the some of the words on our recording of the "Beach Boy Medley" but with the sheet music in front of you, you should be able to do it.

If there are a few of you who still wish to receive a tape, please let me, Don Thomson or Bob Ridley know.

Harvey