Hey everybody,
Some really wonderful things happening in both choirs today! I was really pleased with how quickly you were picking up "Heilig" in Concert Choir. That will be a lot of fun when we put it together with the Alma College choir. Praises also to Steven Whitson and Kendal Campbell for nice auditions on the "Standing on Holy Ground" solo! Everybody who has sung it so far has sounded good.
Lambuth Singers....Languir me fais....wow....you really captured what I was looking for in terms of phrase shaping and text inflection! Let's retain that and continue to work on making that automatic. Really nice! Ain'a That Good News is starting to shape up nicely too...let's keep working on placement of final consonants. And we also need to continue to work on focusing the energy where it belongs...on making the group the best it can be.
I came out of rehearsal feeling energized and hope you did too. My right shoulder is killing me, though, so I'll quit typing and put on an ice pack. See you tomorrow!
RCB
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Hey Dr. B, it's Adrienne. Just thought I'd check out the site - it looks good. Thanks for your posts. I hope your shoulder's feeling better. I think I may be losing my voice, but maybe it'll get better as the day progresses.
Anyway, here's my LJ link. I post a bunch of random things, so...consider yourself forewarned. :oD
http://www.livejournal.com/users/adriennessence.
Hey Dr. B, it's Elise.
The site looks really cool. I liked the idea. Thanks.
Hi Dr. B!
I think this is a really good idea...I went and checked out the UAB Blog as well, did you see that they might go to NYC to sing at Carnegie next year?? I suggested that we go with them, and all sing "Irish Blessing" together! That would be fun! Anyway...I will see you in voice tommorow!
Christie
Hey Dr. B,
I just got your emails reminding us about the blog postings and about our test tomorrow in singers. That really helps me with you sending emails to remind me of things that are going on and now that this blog is up and running I will always have a reminder of what's going on in the music "community" at Lambuth. I really appreciate you allowing solo voices to share our individual talents in our performance pieces and also appreciate your comments about mine and everyone elses audition on "Standing on Holy Ground." I really love the arrangement of that song. I also appreciate your willingness to help me with answers to my questions conserning my new job as music director at Grace United Methodist. I feel that I have grown sooooo much as an individual and as a musician since the two years I have been here at Lambuth after transferring from Dyersburg State. Thank you so much for all that you do, Dr. Bernhardt, and to the entire music staff for all that they do to help you lead such a close community of learning musicians.
~Steven Whitson~
Since we have this blog to use, and only a few people have used it, I thought it was about time I actually wrote about what’s really been on my mind.
I’d like to preface what I’m about to write with this: I mean no disrespect to Dr. Bernhardt. Dr. Bernhardt, you try hard with all of us every day, and we appreciate you. However, there are some things that are going on that need to be addressed, as you are probably unable to see them being on the inside.
About tonight. I have a very heavy load this semester, and I have to admit that I wasn’t thrilled about being gone from 3:30 to 10:00 today. Once I thought about it though, I realize that it’s important to do every once in awhile, and I thought that it would be worth it. After our performance tonight, I felt like I was in elementary school. When the other choir sang, I thought that they were so far above us that it was almost beyond description. Did we really give up those hours to drive to Germantown to be humiliated? I’m not saying that we all sang horribly, please don’t misunderstand me. What I am saying is that their choir has a sound and a rhythm that we know nothing about, and I think it’s because we don’t take what we’re doing seriously. If any of us really got as excited about our music the way Dr. Bernhardt does, we would have probably left the other choir speechless instead of finding ourselves that way.
Dr. Bernhardt, I don’t know if you realize this, but most of us who aren’t in Lambuth Singers are growing to dislike what the Lambuth Singers as a group is becoming. I think it’s safe to say on behalf of the rest of us that your focus seems to be strongly in their favor on any given day of the week. I can understand that you may appreciate their time and dedication because you see them more, and they’re a smaller group, but the rest of us also give our time and dedication, and as a result we get 2 or 3 songs in a concert, and 7 or 8 Lambuth Singers songs to sit through. That isn’t really fair to those of us who love to sing as much as any other choir member. I know that last semester I felt uncomfortable having to stand up there with the rest of the choir while the Singers were performing, and tonight I actually heard that one of the members of the other choir asked one of our Concert Choir members when we were going to get to sing. I am not in Concert Choir because I have a music scholarship, and I am not in Concert Choir to be a backup singer. I am in Concert Choir because I love to sing, and I’ve never been so dissatisfied.
That being said, I’d like to raise the issue of the bus trips. I can certainly understand enthusiasm about singing, and it should be expected simply because of who we are. HOWEVER...that does not give people the right to be loud and obnoxious at the expense of people who are trying to relax or do other things. There is a difference in singing a song softly and putting forth some effort to make it sound well, and the mindless slaughtering of songs just to piss other people off or call attention to yourself. We know that you exist, but we don’t need you being disrespectful to everyone else on the bus as a reminder of that. As a matter of fact, whereas I could probably look past it last year, I was somehow under the illusion that it wouldn’t happen anymore this year...I wonder what gave me that idea. I guess I was assuming that we were in college and that we were above that. Then again, you know what they say about assuming things.
In closing, I’d just like to say that I’m not out to attack anybody. What I am trying to do is bring to light the fact that there are Concert Choir members who are just as dedicated and focused as any other choir member, and that if you (Dr. Bernhardt) aren’t careful, you will slowly lose us until all you have left is people who are getting paid to sing.
It really bugs me that there are so many people in the choir that don't FEEL the music, y'know? I have such a passion for music but I'm not necessarily good at it. I can honestly say that when I sing, I'm kinda in a "zone", if you will. I couldn't imagine goofing off with singing in a choir or on stage because singing is such a release, such a way of showing what's inside of me that I couldn't get up there and give a totally crappy performance.
And I know that not everyone is like that, music, for them, is just another way to get a scholarship. Which, if I weren't also in the choir, would be cool. I just can't imagine people slacking off to the degree where the institution suffers, and I don't really want to imagine that. I feel SO much for music, for the advancement of the Lambuth choral experience, for what Dr. B is trying to say when he directs that it's almost a personal insult to me when they do that kind of stuff. I mean, if you were a writer, and you took great pride in your writing, and then some snot-nosed little brat comes along and uses the pages of your book to wipe their behinds... how would that make you feel?
We had a saying, back in high school "Our choir was good before you, and it will be good after you." And I totally embrace that. If someone doesn't feel the music, doesn't feel the drive of what the institution is trying to accomplish, then they need to leave the choir and not impede everyone else's experience.
We have the potential to be the very best that Lambuth has ever seen, with all the beautiful voices that make up our choir, but we are wasting it. We're wasting it goofing off all the time and not taking things seriously. Not taking what Dr. B says to heart, not doing what we're supposed to do, not FEELING the music. And I understand that this is college, not some Nazi-centric high school that strives to beat everyone else in every category, but we are PAYING to come here, or in some cases, PAID to sing with this choir. Why waste the money? If you're not going to take the experience seriously, then you need to leave and find your passion elsewhere, because it obviously is NOT music.
And man, Dr. B is SUCH a good resource that we have! We are wasting his experience, his knowlege, his PASSION when we don't take this choir as seriously as we should. It's just like having the world's greatest chef living in the same apartment as us, and blowing him off by getting Mccy D's all the time. I know I sound like a teacher's pet, but it's the truth. He really is awesome and is seriously telling us the way to succeede, but he can't really beat the knowledge into us, nor can he force us to use it.
I really think we have performed better, before. But, on the other side of the argument, there is no success without it's ups and downs. In almost everyone's opinion, this was a down. But we'll get back up and be better for it, because after hearing Alma we know that we can do better. We can definitely strive for greatness after being in the presence of someone good.
wow thats a huge downer......
dr.b send me a link to the other page if you could
P_Freak440@hotmail.com
thanx
canada
Okay, here is my deal. First of all, Dr. B. I think that going without folders is a really good idea. I feel like I know my music, but if it's there in front of me, I have a tendency to be drawn to looking at it instead of you, therefore losing some of the effectiveness of my singing. If it turns out that it doesn't work for us, then at least we can say we tried something different.
As for those of you annoyed with the way our performance went last night, let me just say this. I heard really great things from every single one of their members about how we did. They were impressed with the differences in our groups and they even made comments as to how they wish they could get tone like we have. We are an incredible group of singers and saying we got humiliated is the most rediculous thing I have ever heard in my life. This blog was put here for input that would be helpful to the choir in general, and some of the things that were said were blatenly mean and extremely disrespectful to everyone who has been working to make the choirs at Lambuth something our school can be proud of.
In regards to the bus ride...it is a small space, and it would be VERY different if those of us who were singing were asked to quiet down or even stop in a way that was respectful, but we were yelled at. I don't take to yelling very well at all, therefore I felt no need to comply. Maybe that makes me a jerk, but so be it. By no means was the singing in the back done to annoy anyone, and yes, we are in college, therefore we were enjoying ourselves the way college people do. I moved away from my mother and father to avoid curfews and being repremanded, as did everyone else, and my parents did a fine job being parents, therefore I would appriciate it if other people would quit trying to fill a non-existant void.
Lastly, I would just like to say that I am proud of every single member of our choir. I think we don't give ourselves enough credit for some of the things we accomplish. The Alma choir was impressed with us and rightly so. We were impressed with them and rightly so. Every choir is different. We respected the things about them that we couldnt seem to do and vice versa. We are a fantastic group with a fantastic director and fantastic staff support. I have never been prouder to be a student at Lambuth then I was last night.
Crissy
I completely agree with Crissy...I think we did a wonderful job last night and we have absolutely no reason to be humiliated about it! I talked to Dr. B about a lot of the differences between the choirs and I think he is planning to post them on here so I won't...but I did write about them in my livejournal if anyone cares to read them...the link should be with my name. Anyway, I'm proud to be a member of the choirs at Lambuth, I think that we work hard and accomplish amazing things! We have no reason to feel down on ourselves about last night.
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