To: All Far Western District Barbershoppers

FWDNotes

Notes of interest from the Far Western District of the Barbershop Harmony Society.

In This Issue High School Quartet Contest Spring Prelims and NCENN Contests and Convention Spring Prelims Friday Classes Harmony College West 2006 High School Quartet Contest The High School Quartet Contest is held each year as part of the Spring Prelims Convention. It will be held at 1:30pm on Saturday, March 18, at the John Ascquaga's Nugget in Sparks, Nevada. Quartets may sign up at the High School Quartet Contest website. ========== Spring Prelims and NCENN Contests and Convention If you aren't registered for the District Spring/NCENN Convention you still have until Feb 14 to get in at the lower price for the convention and the headquarters hotel. Not only will we have some terrific contests, but there will be two tracks of classes all day on Friday. In fact, if you show up Thursday, you can be part of the Jump Start Barbershop Quartet Contest and then be ready for the events Friday morning which include craft and sing-a-long classes. Go to Reno/Sparks registration form for the convention registration form. If you are planning to compete at the convention, go the the FWD website home page and click on the links on the left side near the top. All competitors must also have a full registration for the convention, so now is the time to sign up. This time the Mic Tester Chorus will meet late Friday afternoon for an hour of fun with Jim Turnmire and then for a half hour refresher on Saturday morning where new arrivals are still welcome. See the Events Schedule for all the details. ========== Spring Prelims Friday Classes On Friday we will have two series of classes which will include: What are we Trying to Preserve. Not only is this video by Dave Stevens informative, it is so fun you may want to see it twice. Tag Singing with Jim Crowley, the master of Gnarly Tags. Music Premier Sing-a-long with Ken Potter. Ken will lead you through several of the songs recently published by the Society in the Music Premier Series. How to Match Vowels with Ray Rhymer. Barbershop singing is all about ensemble singing and matching vowels is what brings it all together. Vocal Coaching with Bill Pierson. Bill will show you how to use your vocal apparatus to produce the sound you are looking for. Mic Tester Chorus with Jim Turnmire. This year Jim will spend an hour on Friday getting you tuned up to be the Mic testers for the NCENN Chorus Contest on Saturday. There will be a 30 minute warm-up on Saturday too. Creative Harmony with the AHSOW team including Bob Coant, AHSOW President. Come learn how barbershop harmony was sung in the early days and then have the option of trying it yourself. The detailed class schedule is online at Spring 2006 Events. ========== Harmony College West 2006 We have a terrific line-up of classes at Harmony College West this year in Redlands, CA, July 21-23. We'll have great dorms this year and a cool auditorium for the Saturday Night Show. The big news is that the Westminster Chorus will be performing Saturday night for us. See your Spring edition of Westunes for the details or visit the FWD website in a couple of weeks. Some of the details are late breaking news and it takes some time to get it all online. Planned classes: Vocal Production: Royce Ferguson - 4 hours - 2 sections Individual Voice Coaching: Jim DeBusman - 2 hours - 4 sections (Limit 6 students per section) Beginning Sight Reading: Phil Ordaz - 4 hours - 1 section Intermediate Sight Reading: Phil Ordaz - 4 hours - 1 section Discovery Singing/Woodshedding: Steve Shannon - 4 hours - 1 Section How To Have The Chapter You Really Want: Steve Shannon - 2 hours - 1 Section Quartet Singing To Entertain Your Audience: Steve Shannon - 2 hours - 1 Section Singing Rhythm Songs Successfully: John Rae-Grant - 2 hours - 1 Section Quartet Rehearsal Techniques: John Rae-Grant - 2 hours - 1 Section Leadership in Your Quartet Or Chorus: John Rae-Grant - 2 hours - 1 Section Teamwork Within A Quartet Or Chorus: John Rae-Grant - 2 hours - 1 Section Quartet Rehearsal Techniques: John Rae-Grant - 2 hours - 1 Section So You Want To Coach A Quartet: Lloyd Steinkamp - 8 hours - 1 Section Arranging: Dave Briner: 8 hours: 1 Section (Limit - 10 Students) Professional Show Production For Amateurs: Dave Maddox - 8 hours - 1 Section ==========