{"id":1010,"date":"2018-06-19T14:11:08","date_gmt":"2018-06-19T21:11:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ukuleletonya.com\/blog\/?p=1010"},"modified":"2018-06-19T15:06:31","modified_gmt":"2018-06-19T22:06:31","slug":"singing-harmony-heres-a-great-tip-but-you-need-a-2008-4runner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/ukuleletonya.com\/blog\/2018\/06\/singing-harmony-heres-a-great-tip-but-you-need-a-2008-4runner","title":{"rendered":"Singing harmony? Here’s a great tip (but you need a 2008 4Runner)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Harmony\u2014egads, he wants me to sing harmony in a song! Is it too late to cancel this trip to Hawai\u2019i?<\/p>\n

Back when I started in the Luongo Ukulele Ensemble<\/a>, I had no idea what to do when Peter Luongo asked the women to seat ourselves in either a soprano or alto section. I failed singing in 7th<\/sup> grade Girls Chorus (but I did a great job helping mimeograph the songsheets) and I grew accustomed to seeing family members\u2019 eyebrows raise (and not in musical appreciation) when I\u2019d sing along to the radio (remember radios?).<\/p>\n

Soprano? Alto? Who knew? Lyrics come easily to me, but the singing\u2026well, not so much. So where would I sit?<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you don\u2019t know what you are but you like to sing melodies rather than harmonies, sit in the soprano section,\u201d was Peter\u2019s advice.<\/p>\n

Got it! I scootched my music stand over into the midst of a group of smiling ladies. I\u2019m a soprano, whaddya know?<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s where I\u2019ve happily remained for the past 22 months. I like the LUE sopranos. They\u2019re a friendly bunch (well, okay, the altos are nice, too, and they laugh\u2014a lot!) and the best part is that we get to sing the melody of every song. Since I\u2019m a singer who\u2019s growing in ability (thank you, Jessica Agg<\/a> for the great FaceTime vocal lessons throughout the year), I\u2019ve embraced the melodies and can (usually) hit the right pitch. Except on that high part of \u201cCalifornia Dreaming,\u201d but I digress\u2026<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Sopranos all three of us; we like melody.<\/p><\/div>\n

Until this weekend. We\u2019re getting ready for 10 performances on Oahu as part of LUE\u2019s participation in the Sakumas\u2019 Ukulele Festival Hawai’i<\/a> and we get to play and sing a nice selection of Hawaiian songs in addition to our regular repertoire.<\/p>\n

Those of you who know me, know I really cherish Hawaiian music. I’m certain I have the biggest collection of Hawaiian CDs (remember CDs?) in all of Butte County. I know the melodies and I can sing many of the songs in passable Hawaiian (if you don\u2019t listen too closely).<\/p>\n

So, when Peter chose \u201cWahine Ilikea\u201d and \u201cKoke\u2019e\u201d as two of our songs, I was delighted. Heck, I even know a hula to go with Wahine Ilikea. And the melodies? They\u2019re ingrained in my heart, my memory and my vocal chords. Piece of cake (haupia, to be precise)!<\/p>\n

Then he dropped the bomb.<\/p>\n

\u201cSopranos: You\u2019re going to sing harmony on the chorus of Wahine Ilikea,\u201d Peter smiled at us. \u201cBut it\u2019s an easy harmony\u2014just one note throughout the chorus\u2014a G.\u201d<\/p>\n

What? One note? My favorite song, which has a melody rising and dipping in island delight, is turning into a single note? Just one G, with every precious Hawaiian word sung at that pitch throughout the chorus?<\/p>\n

Did I say \u201cegads?\u201d already? (And are there enough question marks in this blog post already???)<\/p>\n

I struggled with it throughout last weekend\u2019s rehearsal (11 hours on Saturday, but who\u2019s counting?), holding my ukulele up to my ear and plucking that illustrious single G note so I could hold the pitch throughout the chorus.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a pedal tone,\u201d Peter explained. \u201cIt\u2019ll sound great with the other parts.\u201d<\/p>\n

And, I have to admit it does (I had the chance to stand in front during one run-through and listen to all the vocal and played parts ). Peter knows what he\u2019s doing. But I don\u2019t. Holding on to that G has been my vocal practice nemesis since the weekend.<\/p>\n

Until this morning. And here\u2019s my tip for you other sopranos trying to do this: Get yourself a 2008 Toyota 4Runner. Put the key in and turn on the ignition. Do NOT buckle your seatbelt.<\/p>\n

Now listen.<\/p>\n

Yep, that warning chime telling you to “Buckle up, dummy,” is a perfect G pitch. And it just repeats itself over and over. And I sing along with that single note in the Wahine Ilikea chorus. All the way to work.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a great practice tip. Perhaps a little unsafe, but that G is right there, steady and unwavering. I sing along happily. And, when I\u2019m at the office, trying to remember that G pitch as I practice quietly at my desk (aren\u2019t you glad you don\u2019t work here, too?), I only have to recall the seatbelt warning chime and I\u2019m right in tune once again.<\/p>\n

I can do this.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Harmony\u2014egads, he wants me to sing harmony in a song! Is it too late to cancel this trip to Hawai\u2019i? Back when I started in the Luongo Ukulele Ensemble, I had no idea what to do when Peter Luongo asked the women to seat ourselves in either a soprano or alto section. I failed singing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":1007,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[10,5,23,1,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1010","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hawaii_travels","category-learning","category-lue-luongo-ukulele-ensemble","category-personal","category-ukulele-festivals"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ukuleletonya.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/UT_-G-singing.png?fit=960%2C640","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Wqkt-gi","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/ukuleletonya.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1010","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/ukuleletonya.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/ukuleletonya.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ukuleletonya.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ukuleletonya.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1010"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/ukuleletonya.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1010\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1014,"href":"http:\/\/ukuleletonya.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1010\/revisions\/1014"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ukuleletonya.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1007"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/ukuleletonya.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1010"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ukuleletonya.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1010"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ukuleletonya.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1010"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}