Back to Rehearsals!

Last night I got to go to a rehearsal with the High Point Harmonizers for the first time in a couple of months. It was great to get back with the guys and do some live singing. I'd been trying to keep up with the songs by singing with learning tracks, but it's just not the same.

It was great to see Fred, Our President, looking so good. He had cardiac bypass surgery a couple of weeks or so before I had to go on hiatus from the chorus, so he wasn't looking all that healthy right then. He's clearly doing much better now - back to singing and everything.

I missed some of the guys who didn't make it to this rehearsal. Bob The Bass was out of town to see a baseball game in NYC, which I knew because we saw him in Milford a few days ago. He was driving his white Mustang convertible, and on his way to get a beer. Crazy old fart, but he's a good singer.

Gary was at rehearsal, still walking with a cane. Glad to see him out and around, but sorry about the cane still being necessary.

We had three basses, three leads (four after Sharkey showed up), two tenors, and one lonely baritone last night. What with one thing and another, we didn't sound really great some of the time. Apparently, the guys who were missing are the ones who keep us on key. We drifted somewhat a couple of times. Maybe more times than that.

Still, it was a good rehearsal. We started working on the Armed Forces Medley, and got the Army and the Navy gone over, but couldn't make much progress with the Coast Guard. Didn't even make a run at the Marine Corps or the Air Force, but we'll get to them, I'm sure.

Regardless, it was good to be back.

A Little More History

Just because I said I would: I joined the symphony chorale in Shreveport, LA when I lived there, but only got to one rehearsal before I needed to move to Dallas. Not much experience there.

A bunch of years later, I joined the University Chorale in Joplin, MO. I had been thinking about how much I missed singing with a chorus, and discovered this group at Missouri Southern State University. It was mostly a good experience and I enjoyed learning the tunes that we performed, but...  The director of the chorus really wanted to be a minister of music in some nice, large church. As a result, there was a bit more of church about the atmosphere at rehearsals than I expected. Then, when we were ready to go on stage for our performance, he had us stop and pray. That was just too much for me. I have no objections to him practicing his religion, but really wasn't interested in participating. I decided to drop out of the chorale.

While wondering what I was going to do for singing, it occurred to me that there might be a barbershop chorus in Joplin. I had long been aware that there is a national organization dedicated to barbershop, so I did a Google search and found the Tristatesmen, right there in Joplin. I had found a new music home.