OF FUTILITY AND HOPE

        It makes me sad that doing everything is impossible. The mid-life crisis seems a taller order than ever to actually live out, mostly because of work. While, as I mentioned, my wife’s MBA program is taking time I would love to use to pursue some of this, the greater barrier is that work is stressful and exhausting right now. I come home feeling completely beaten. Add to that I want to be as attentive a husband and father as possible when I get home. With all of that and health goals and church callings, when exactly was I expecting to squeeze in writing a song, let alone an a cappella group, even after she graduates?
        Considering this now, I’m totally spent, and all of the goals that make up the mid-life crisis look ridiculous, as though I was expecting to suddenly explode into ten people, all with a lot more energy than I feel I will ever have again. I remember feeling the truth of an old saying the first time I heard it: “If you chase two rabbits, both will get away.” I’m chasing like 5-6 rabbits, some of them particularly fast. Should I really take them one at a time? Should my mid-life crisis become my whole life’s bucket list?
        The problem with that seemingly reasonable counteroffer is the urgency I implied when I discussed the soup metaphor. What I had intended was that this would all just be a prerequisite, a threshold to cross, before entering into new level of living. I only meant for this to lay the foundation.
        In the midst of all this, Christmas came. In my stocking amid a great many things, I found a leather bound journal, which my wife explained was exclusively for story ideas. Well, for whatever I wanted to write in it, really, but that’s what she had in mind. A writer’s notebook. Of every Christmas gift, this has meant the most to me, because it says that she wants and expects me to follow my own dreams. What is overwhelming to consider is much different when considered through the lens of a supportive and understanding spouse.
        Hanging on until her graduation in March. In the meantime, some miscellaneous aca-updates:
        1. I just had the opportunity to sing the low bass line in “Homeless” for this year’s performance of The Forgotten Carols in Las Vegas, starring Michael McLean and Jordan Bluth. At least two Vocal Point alumni were in the same group. Sure, I know they do that with a backup track to make sure we sound the way they want us too, but it felt good. I’m not sure what it could mean, but it seems like it was not only a fun chance to sing a cappella on stage, but a neat little a cappella networking opportunity, too.
        2. Trinity and I are sharing a Christmas gift this year, the Adobe Creative Suite 5.5 Master Collection, which includes some fairly sophisticated sound editing and mastering software. It will arrive mid-January and I’m psyched to see what comes of it, if only I have enough computer to run it. And musician buddy Milas just recommended an Android app called PocketBand that he would like to use for collaborative recording (says he had me in mind when he saw it), so I downloaded the free version to give it a test drive. I hope these developments turn out to be useful and significant.
        3. Pennsylvania buddy Chris and his family have caught the acabug. We’ve been discussing lots of things for some time now, and I sent his son, Max, a copy of Mouthdrumming, by Wes Carroll. I see there’s a video on Facebook of Hultsatonix, which would be his three sons singing an a cappella Christmas message to their grandmother, with tribute to Pentatonix, winners of the Sing-Off this year. Haven’t checked it out yet, but I’m happy to think I’ve been a successful acavangelist.

GETTING TO SOUP – WHAT IS THAT SUPPOSED TO MEAN?

        Funny story – well, not like funny haha, but…

        Anyway, so I’ve mentioned how listening to Mouth Off was part of what kicked me in the tush and said, seriously, when are you going to do some of this? Well, it was also on Mouth Off that I heard about “Soup to Nuts,” Bill Hare’s a cappella production “summer camp,” which Dave Brown attended and featured on the show (whence comes my favorite hip-hop a cappella track on my iPod, “Royalty”). The multi-day seminar title is an expression meaning the very beginning to the very end and everything in between, referring to multi-course meals that begin with soup and end with nuts.

        I found it ironic that as I sat listening to and envying Dave, although it’s called “Soup to Nuts,” I still don’t feel I meet the prerequisites. Though I don’t necessarily dream of attending the course, I do wish I could qualify. And that includes everything, not just a cappella. I have this vision of myself as a Renaissance Man living this fantastical life, and I have such a long way to go before even reaching the beginning of that.

        So that’s what Getting to Soup is all about. The adventure that leads to the adventure. The prequel. The Hobbit. It also works well with the expression, “Is it soup, yet?” to which the obvious answer is, “No, not yet, but I’ll let you know.” And also, I really like soup. I just had soup for lunch, a very homestyle chicken noodle from the cafeteria that could have been really good, but for the noodles having been boiled almost to disintegration. But I ate every drop, because like I say, I love soup that much, plus that was two dollars.

THE EXTENT OF MY COLLEGIATE A CAPPELLA EXPERIENCE

The a cappella world (or “acaworld” – get used to that prefix) is largely, though not entirely, driven by collegiate groups. “The Sing-Off,” if you remember, had three or four of them. Many of the successful professional groups, especially the newer ones, grew from collegiate a cappella graduates (or “aca-alums”) who really wanted to keep going.

I went to BYU. I was not a member of Vocal Point, which was founded the year I returned to BYU from my mission. I didn’t even try out. And why not? Because I had this belief that Vocal Point and pretty much anything else vocal at BYU were dominated by a super-exclusive clique of highly trained singers, all members of the Men’s Chorus or Concert Choir, and all I had ever joined was the no-tryout-required University Chorale one semester of my freshman year. I may have been wrong. Looking back, that vague unease was a lousy reason to just not even try out and give it a chance.

However, one day, I got a phone call from a stranger who had heard from someone whose name I didn’t recognize that I sang bass. They were looking to start a quartet. I joined. We met, I think, weekly in the founder’s 7 square-foot dorm room in Helaman Halls. The other three members all knew each other and had a habit of talking amongst themselves as people who know each other are wont to do.

I remember one practice in particular where the three of them were discussing how to end our Calypso version of “Cupid,” since Sam Cooke ends it in a fade out. I broke in with my suggestion. They actually took the suggestions, but their approval was kind of backhanded somehow… they were either surprised I was there or surprised I had somehow managed to make contribution, musically stunted as I was, I don’t know what. It felt like the latter. In any case, I felt even more an outsider than ever, and I never went back. I decided then it was no use joining any a cappella groups / quartets again, concluding the Brethren was only so awesome because we were all best friends first and singers almost as an afterthought. Almost, but not quite – we did work hard, after all. But as far as I was concerned, if it wasn’t those four people, it wasn’t going to happen.

That's called being a wussy little baby, and it led to 20 years of not being in anything but the occasional musical. I don't endorse those excuses anymore.

GOOD INTENTIONS: DRILLS AND EXERCISES

        As you can tell from the prolonged silence, the mid-life crisis never really got off the ground, which is good, because it would have been sidelined anyway in favor of my wife’s MBA. She’s doing this in an accelerated one year program while continuing to teach four fashion courses. She keeps talking about a second job, but she has no time now. That’s spilled over into my life, because I’ve taken on a lot to allow her the time for her classes (both kinds).

        Not that there aren’t components of the original idea alive and well. Physical improvement – lost 55 pounds and now maintaining target weight at or around 190. The new goal is to gain 10 pounds of muscle with total target weight of 195. That’s lead to quite a lot of cooking on my part, so that’s two goals. Singing and performance – I’m in a redux of the Elkhorn Springs Stake Broadway revue “W Go Together,” which I was in three years ago, but this time taking a much larger role. Not just Rapunzel’s Prince from “Into the Woods” as before, but this time Bert from “Mary Poppins” and a brother in “Joseph…” for two numbers. I’m also singing and dancing (yes, dancing) in large group numbers from “Beauty and the Beast” and “Grease.”

        By the way, the mid-life crisis made it onto Mouth Off! The 5.29.11 show featured a letter from yours truly asking for advice of how to revive your musicality and build skills enough on your own to eventually get back into a cappella. Dave Brown acknowledged remembering me from the brethren, whom he idolized as a youngster (J), then Christopher Diaz (THE Christopher Diaz) responded to the letter with the following:

Listen to a cappella music (and listen and listen) and sign with it. Find the hardest parts and try to sing along and get the notions into your head.

• Look at other charts – ask arrangers to send you a .pdf of their stuff (they’ll send it if they know you aren’t going to steal it) and look at good arranging like Kirby Shaw and see what it looks like.
• Just start recording stuff. Get Audacity installed (done!) and plug in a cheap mike and go.
• Go on YouTube and watch groups you like and see what they do.
• Read the amazing arranging articles on Casa.org.

        (I’ll have to add that last to my RSS blog feed.)

        Dave then added that it’s worth it, if only just to make you do it, to get out there and sing with a group. Perform, put some pressure on, and develop your musical ear.

        I floated the idea of a barbershop quartet past Rob Rovere, who I happened to see at church last night, even though he’s in the Cedar Springs Ward now. His response was an enthusiastic “WHEN?” So there’s that. Two numbers I would especially love to do (which fit the genre) are “The Chordbuster’s March” and “Magic Kingdom in the Sky.” It would be amazing if I could find written arrangements without having to pick them out from the recordings.

        In addition to implementing Christopher and Dave’s genius advice, I did already have a few drills lined up for myself, regarding which I am slacking due to the current overwhelm of working the physical goals, supporting my wife, being in this stake play, and an unusually time-intensive calling as Elders Quorum secretary, all new since my last post. But I don’t know; maybe that’s all still just excuses. Anyway, here are the drills.

        The guitar drills: Switch from C to D to G and back (and forth) over and over – learn to strum while hitting only the strings you want. Practice assigning a right finger to a string, thumb takes the top two, and drill on fingerpicking with the same chords (aka: friend-who-plays-guitar and overall spiritual hero, Milas Howe, came over and gave me homework)

        The vocal percussion drills: Do, Ka, Do-Ka, Do, Ka-Do, Do-Ka etc, to a metronome, on my own, and/or while listening to the radio (aka: Wes Carroll’s “Mouthrdrumming” lesson one. It was $15, not $20, on AcaTunes, as previously posted).

        Finally, I’m feeling some urgency to act first and foremost on another unbegun good intention, namely regarding mine and my family’s spiritual health. More on that later.