Stick out your tongue and sing?

Feelings of happiness, playfulness and joy is how I left chorus last Monday night!

Women’s barbershop is competitive, so we have top coaches come in throughout the year. The coaches are typically directors that have scored over 1200 points in international competition. You know, often times when we have a coach, I feel I have learned so much about how to sing a song, either with more emotion or emphasis to some portion of a song. It is a good feeling, that I, like my fellow riser mates, know that we can still learn and improve. The coaching provided through Sweet Adelines International and our Region 12 Pacific Shores is excellent!

After a week or two, the song’s interpretation can change when another coach comes in and put’s their spin on it and feelings of frustration in me arise. In my head, I say let’s just learn it correctly the first time! Lol. Why, lol??  Well because, I know that each song is a work in progress, stepping each time in the direction of greatness for the competition stage. I must be flexible!

The most recent coaching with Mo Field, Master Director of the Stockholm City Voices (Stockholm, Sweden – yes, Sweden!), however, was refreshing, invigorating and left me with renewed energy. Mo Field is the Master Director from the Stockholm City Voices. Stockholm City Voices chorus rehearse in Stockholm, Sweden and have won many medals and consistently score high in regional and international competition. What sets them apart from the competition is their number of members. The majority of the chorus’s competing on the international stage are large chorus of 80 members and up. Stockholm City Voices has 38 voices. Harmony Fusion Chorus has about 36-40 members so this resonates with me that SCV can score so high, with so few ladies. If they can do it, we can, too.

A brilliant decision was made by our director to give us coaching, not specifically on a song, but on vocal coaching. We have had coaching of this nature during our other coaching sessions on how to breath properly, pronounce words, improve tuning. Mo’s ideas were definitely unique! Teaching us to stick out our tongue, blow raspberries and sing left me feeling a bit silly at first, but then the results! Relaxed tongue and cheeks, produced a wonderful, rich sound leaving my vocal chords much more rested. She explained some techniques in Swedish, leaving us to guess the universal meaning (ok, I am not apparently very good at charades, because I thought she was teaching us to expel a baby from our loins). Thank goodness she had a full grasp of English and re-explained the technique in English – phew! no babies needed! The technique was a representation of bringing air into the body as if through, let’s say the nether region. The Swedish, as Mo explained, are not shy. Well, we giggled and laughed but went through the thought process, allowing the muscles to help us breath. The results were very impressive. I am so thankful, for women like Mo and our director, who share their thoughts and techniques to help make me a better singer. I have been practicing Mo’s simple techniques, and am improving my sound on all of the chorus’s songs.

Mo Field’s coaching was energizing, fun and very educational. Her techniques left me a feeling that I could take away the tools and apply them not only to the craft but to my own personal goals. I can hardly wait for tonight’s Harmony Fusion chorus rehearsal!