The ACA-Weekend

What a trip! The Los Angeles A Cappella Festival (LA-AF) was a huge success. John and I had so much fun, learned some crucial things, networked like crazy, ate some amazing Thai food, heard some inspiring groups and attended some very beneficial classes.

LA-AF was held on the campus of UCLA. My first time there. It is beautiful! It's very hilly, though, so I think it's safe to say that there were just as many, if not more, steps on the campus as Asains. Who knew?

(hmmm ... my washer is making very strange noises ...)

(I think I may have Adult A.D.--hey, what's that over there?)

Back on track.  My first class was with Julia Hoffman, the president of the Contemporary A Cappella Society of America (CASA). She is a licensed psychologist, so she taught the "Group Dynamics" class. Now most of the attendees and singing groups were from colleges, just like they were at SoJam, so it was nice to see that we had moved past a bunch of their group issues (i.e. inappropriate inter-group relationships, "I Want All the Solos," being a distraction in rehearsal, etc., ad nauseum.). My takeaways from the class had more to do with group motivation than conflict resolution.

Then I had an improv class with Moira Smiley that was very "organic and evocative," which, apparently is the highest compliment an a cappella singer can receive. She gave us some great exercises for groups to do in rehearsal that get us out of our comfort zones and develops all kinds of different sounds the voice can make. Really fun.

We networked a bunch at lunch. Said 'hi' to all the aca-big dogs, and some of them had either heard of us from the Mouth Off Show or remembered us from SoJam. Very Cool! We also reconnected with some of our fellow Contemporary A Cappella League (CAL) people and groups. It's nice to know that others are in the same boat as we!

Went to a class called, "Solo Like a Rock Star," taught by George Hoffman, husband to Julia, and in the all-male aca-rock band, Hookslide, based in L.A.  Again, some great advice and reminders.

Next was a class facilitated by Amy Engelhardt, of The Bobs.  This was basically a master class for any group that wanted to sing. I REALLY wish all of CV could have been there for that! The groups got some good stage time and some practical advice as well as encouragement.

My last class was with Mister Tim, who excels in marketing for aca-groups, and performs in a few himself. So Valuable in learning more about how to better market an aca-group, getting and keeping fans, posters, business cards, venues, equipment, etc. We WILL be putting these into practice. ASAP.

John also attended a class about competitions, of particular interest to us now that we'll be competing in just a little over a month! He also went to a class talking about the best sound equipment. That was taught by a guy who does sound for m-pact and SONOS, with his next group being Nota! Yeah, he knew his stuff. John ate it up. I was clueless when he was describing it to me.

The concert that night featured a UCLA group, Bruins Harmony, that did very well.

THEN CAME SONOS.

SONOS is the new sound of a cappella. Go hear their stuff. It's not all covers like most groups do. It's not jazz. It's not rock. It's a sound unique to them, which is very cool. Now they do "cheat" by using pedals to put some really cool effects on their voices, but they use them well. Seeing them perform was my highlight of the weekend.

m-pact closed the concert, and they were great, too. The "Jingle Bells" that CV sings is their arrangement.

But John and I had to leave before it was over to catch the midnight flight out of L.A. to arrive in Dallas by a little after 5:00 a.m. to drive to Tyler to get to Glenwood to change clothes, freshen up and be at praise team practice by 8:00 a.m.

I am fully aware of the lack of sanity on our part. But it was SO worth it!

We missed the rest of CV terribly! The weekend was amazing, but it would have been 10x better had we all been there together! I really hope we can all go next year!

Dude. That just happened.

Just so excited

Here's why:

• It's Thursday, my very favorite day. A day without a car, allowing me to be home ALL DAY!
• Clearly Vocal is going to Denver!!! We were officially invited to compete in the Rocky Mountain Harmony Sweepstakes coming up on March 13. We need groupies! Click here for tickets. You can also find a link from our CV website. They sell out every year! Here's the link to the competition info.
  
• Tomorrow, John and I are flying out to Los Angeles to represent Clearly Vocal at the Los Angeles A Cappella Festival on Saturday! We look forward to reconnecting with people that we met at SoJam and keeping our name out there! Don't worry Glenwood peeps; we'll be back for church Sunday morning. We're taking the midnight flight out of LA, so go easy on us if we look a little bleary-eyed!
• I'm making good progress on getting rid of the Christmas around my hips using the Lose It! app. FYI, Christmas weighed about 10 pounds this year! Ouch!

Hope each of you has a good Thursday, too!

Thoughts and Updates

Not thinking particularly linearly today.

Peder Karlsson is amazing. He's the baritone from The Real Group, and we (Clearly Vocal) had an hour and a half webcam workshop with him this morning. We got out of our comfort zone. He gave us some great exercises that will apply to our entire repertoire. He said we were good! He was very impressed with the technical side of the workshop; said it was the best audio/visual he had ever seen/heard when doing one of these webcam workshops! Big thanks to John who set it all up and to Andy Luster who helped with that. We "found the floor and ceiling" in dynamics and nasal vs. covered sounds. Sang our most beautiful, quiet song loud and ugly and learned that some of that technique can and should be carried over into the softer version! We felt the groove and he wouldn't let us continue a song until we all felt it together. We sang our original song, Pulse, and he liked it! He doesn't like competitions or American contemporary a cappella staging. Good. Neither do we! He said to be who we are, sing what we want and how we want to sing it, and we will feel the most rewarded. What a great morning.

The weather is absolutely amazing today. Have been so ready for this for what seems like a long time.

Cut back on the running, sort of. Instead of 6 or so miles 3x per week, went to 3 miles M-F. Found Thursday to be the hardest day this week. Not used to running every day. Wanted to be able to be done running by the time the kids woke up. Not willing to get up before 6! The stars have been amazing these past couple of clear mornings. And the God whose hands created the stars did not spare his son for me? I scarce can take it in!

Bison will be 8 tomorrow. He's so fat.

Group Therapy played at KE Cellars for a great crowd last night! Sang Carrie Underwood's "Before He Cheats" for the first time. One of the country songs we've worked up to be ready to go back out to Ben Wheeler tomorrow night. It was a little too fun to sing. :)

So yeah, we play out at Moore's Store tomorrow night from 7-10, $5 cover, for those who are coming. Clearly Vocal will do a 30 min set beginning at 8. Very much looking forward to putting into practice what we learned with Peder today!

The Rocky Mountain Harmony Sweepstakes selection committee meets tomorrow morning to decide which groups will be competing in Denver in March. We sent in our audition, so hopefully we'll know something in the next few days. I'm only a little nervous!

Clearly Vocal is also doing singing telegrams for Valentine's again this year! You can actually order and pay for them online! Head on over to our website for more details.

OH. Have you seen our new website? If you haven't you've GOT to go see it. It's way cool, if I do say so myself.

We're heavily planning for this year's ladies retreat! It's a silent retreat and my Aunt Karla (Dr. Karla Hale Gerdes, Ph.D.) is going to be our guest speaker! It's the weekend after tax weekend, for you planners, and info will be posted at church soon!

We still have three children, I think. Johnathan, Kalleigh, and ... um ... right, Jonas. We are blessed to have wonderful babysitters to take care of them while we're out singing. We also try to schedule our gigs on bath nights. It's been a while since I've given my children baths. I have a night with all three of them to myself while John has a dinner meeting to run, so I think we'll try to do something fun. I don't know, make a memory or something. Ideas?

Johnathan has been playing Upwards basketball. The first game was ... oh my. The second game was much better! He's a great defensive playing, even while on offense. ;) And I most certainly did not promise him a toy from the dollar store for every basket he scored. (We got a toy!) Game tomorrow at 9! Go Zips!

I feel I'm on the verge of something big. Maybe nothing. Maybe something. I'll keep you posted. Ever get those feelings?

No, not THAT big. I'm not pregnant, and I don't plan on being so any time soon. Probably ever.

Good afternoon world. If you've had a day half as amazing as mine, you've had a great day!

Jonas's "S" words

I think it's pretty common for toddlers to have trouble with their "S" sound at the beginning of words, but Jonas has taken this to a level I've never experienced. He's putting the beginning "S" sounds at the end of the words! I've already mentioned "oosh," for shoes in my recent "Jonas Words" post, but my other two favorites are "poose" (spoon) and "weese" (swing). Illyse boy. :)

Christmas and 2009 Wrap-Up

Christmas was so special this year. We started off in Searcy where we stayed with Mom and got to see John's mother as well. Santa, a.k.a. Craig Jones, also visited the house and delivered presents to everyone!

Christmas morning marked the one-year anniversary of Papaw Curtis's death, so we went out to his grave and sang some of his favorite songs. We didn't stay long, since it was about 29 degrees, but I think he would understand that!

Mom cooked and cooked while we were there, so naturally, we ate and ate! Christmas only comes once a year, right? ;)

We headed to Dallas next where we did Christmas with the Kell family. Monday night was especially meaningful as we lit the traditional lantern and welcomed Keleigh and Westin into the family.

Karla cooked and cooked while we were there, so naturally, we ate and ate! Christmas only comes once a year, right? Wait ... did I just say that? Okay, maybe twice. :)

I am really enjoying these days at home since all of the festivities. We're doing a fair amount of playing and resting, and not much else!

2009 has been so good in many ways. Here's a photo journey through the year:

January -- Kalleigh

February -- Ladies Retreat

March -- The nasty hole in our yard that was a lot bigger deal than we thought!

April -- Easter

May -- Meeting nephew Westin!

June -- Father's Day

July -- The addition of Benson to the family

August -- School days!

September -- Family Vacation to Galveston

October -- 1/2 Marathon

November -- Clearly Vocal "discovered" at SoJam

December -- The year of the flooded roads! What should've taken 5 1/2 hours to get to Searcy took 7 1/2!

What to expect in 2010? Lots of singing, for sure! Clearly Vocal just entered the Rocky Mountain Harmony Sweepstakes in Denver, March 13! Johnathan will have his Kindergarten graduation, the kids will turn 2, 4 & 6, and John and I will celebrate our 10 year anniversary!

And I will do my very best NOT to get pregnant.

Many blessings to you all for 2010!

Recognized Again on the Mouth Off Show!!

Clearly Vocal was awarded Runner-Up for "Where Did They Come From?" (a.k.a. best a cappella newbies) on this week's Mouth Off Show! We're in the segment beginning around 34:20. You might notice that the other runner-up was Voices of Lee. Then you might also notice that the winners were Sonos and Nota, and they both have label contracts! Just to be named among those groups is such an honor!! Thanks, Dave and Christopher!

Are YOU watching?

The Sing Off: a special 4-episode reality show on NBC similar to Idol. The difference? It's all a cappella! Not your "typical old-school boring a cappella," which is what so many people think when they hear that term, but exciting, new, and all different styles of vocal singing. Oh, the amazing power of the human voice! What a gift!

Here's a clip about the groups competing:



Here are some things that make this competition so special to Clearly Vocal:

• We know Courtney Jensen, the beatboxer in the all-female group, Noteworty!  She was at SoJam, taught a class, and said she loved hearing us sing! And she's the nicest person in the world.
  
• We saw Voices of Lee live in Nashville a year and a half ago when we went to go hear The Real Group. They were some of the college winners at that a cappella competition who opened for TRG.
  
• We know Deke Sharon, the main guy who is working with the groups and doing the arranging for the new songs. He arranged the opening act, "Under Pressure!" Deke is the president of the Contemporary A Cappella League, of which CV is a member. Deke went out of his way to compliment us in front of everyone in one of his SoJam classes! We sing several of his arrangements. He sings with the vocal band, The House Jacks.
• The intro and transition music you hear throughout the show is performed by The House Jacks! They also performed at SoJam and are working with each Sing Off group on their performances.
  

My biggest concern about the show is that I'm afraid groups are getting voted off because of bad mixing. Several of the judges' comments had to do with not being able to hear the soloist. That's a soundman error! I wondered if the mix we were hearing through the tv was better than what they were hearing live, sitting right in front of them. I could hear the solos just fine.

Yes, of course, Clearly Vocal is dreaming of The Sing Off, 2010. We'd have to learn to bust a move out there, though! That could be a stretch for (some of) us! ;)

Tonight is night two of The Sing Off! I'm so excited! This is a great thing for contemporary a cappella singing!

What do YOU think?

Since then ...

... we've been doing a lot of singing! From restaurants, to school choir concerts; outdoors, indoors; full shows and guest appearanes, for young people and old people; we've been doing a lot of singing!

We kicked off our December singing at the Bullard Middle School/High School Choir concert. Their director is Cindi Galletly, a friend of ours who sings on the praise team. She asked Clearly Vocal to make a special appearance at "halftime." That was fun, but I think it was more fun to watch Cindi direct her choirs! I really appreciated the mutual respect that Cindi and her choirs had for each other.

And we did awesome. And here's what they sky looked like that night:

Our all-female singing group from church, The Blessing, sang up in Hawkins, TX for their annual Christmas in the Park. It was the absolute worst singing conditions I had ever sung in. Outdoors, 39 degrees, a cold wind bouncing off the lake, using someone else's sound equipment, monitor levels incredibly high, and a train that ran past every few minutes, blowing its horn. Imagine trying to give pitches 1/2 step higher than the second note in the train's own little chord. Wow. HOWEVER, it was worth it, and I'd do it again in a heartbeat. Those ladies are troopers!

Clearly Vocal then trekked out to downtown Ben Wheeler to carol for a couple of hours. They have this guy out there who I think is trying to single-handedly grow Ben Wheeler from the ground up. He told me that he wants to turn Ben Wheeler into a Mountain View, AR, kind of a place, and then snickered, assuming I had never heard of the place. He was totally taken aback when I told him that I have been to Mt. View almost every year of my life since I was 12! Then I was taken aback when he told me that he had never actually been there! Ha! I think they're up to ... maybe five or six stores? Including the restaurant, Moore's Store. You'll be hearing more about Moore's in future posts.

Anyway, we bundled up and sang outside for a couple of hours. Chelsea also came with us and took some pics! Aren't we cute? :)

The very next day, we performed our full Christmas show for the Meadow Lake holiday party. Meadow Lake is the newest retirement community being built in town. Looks really nice ... family? ;)

Tonight, The Group Therapy Band will be gigging at KE Cellars from 6-9!

When we're not singing, we do see our children from time to time.

See? Here they are reading books. Wait, that's only two of them ...

There's the other one! He's wearing an outfit that was John's! Thanks, Momo!

Here's this one, singing at the top of her lungs. (Never take pictures while driving.)

And here's this one. Trying to tell me something, Jonas?

And here's what happens when you try to organize all of Grammie's recipes:

You get some AMAZING boiled custard and leave the rest of the recipes to be organized another day!

Thanksgiving

I'm a little behind, but alive and well! Here is the Thanksgiving post.

Kalleigh had her little Thanksgiving feast at school. Each class sang a song for the parents, but I couldn't get a good picture of them with just my iPhone. (Remember, I dropped my camera on concrete while in Galveston. Yeah, been without a camera since September. Bleh.) So, here's Kalleigh enjoying her feast in her Indi- ... uh, Native American head gear. :)

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving break. The kids and I got all the Christmas decorations up on Monday and Tuesday while John was at work.

Ahhh, my tree. In front of the window that faces the street. The determining factor in the choosing of this house!

 

Johnathan put up the kids' tree all by himself! All he needed help with was the bow on top!

JohnaClaus. :) If you can't tell, his mustache/beard (that he made by himself) is held to his face by tape. Because as you know, tape is the answer to so many problems.

Wednesday was full of baking desserts and bread for the next day. Thursday morning we drove to Bonham to stay at Jay and Tracy's beautiful bed and breakfast, Granny Lou's.

We enjoyed a yummy traditional Hodges meal with Martha, Jay, Tracy, Kevin, Laurie, Brenna and our five. We were lucky to catch Jayson and his wife Ashley before they had to go. They're expecting their first in May!

Uncle Kevin takes on the kids in Monopoly.

We came on home that night. I nearly took a six point buck home on the front of our car, but thanks to good breaks, we "missed out on that opportunity!"

Friday, we played the Wii, snacked all day and avoided the crowds! We also did some work. John worked hard on a video editing project for a friend and we did all the filing that had been piling up.

Saturday, we drove over to Ft. Worth to Kevin & Laurie's house to be with the Hodges crew again. This time, Martha's sister Marilyn also joined us. John and Kevin played with the kids in their beautiful backyard while lunch was cooking.

Laurie had asked us to bring the Wii, since they were thinking about getting one for Christmas. I think their decision was finalized! Tracy tore us all up bowling, but Johnathan proved hard to beat!

Thanks Jay and Laurie for hosting Hodges Thanksgiving! We had a great time!

Jonas words

I love when the child starts speaking enough words that he can actually communicate what he wants. It's just so pitiful when all they do is cry and scream and you play this hysterical guessing game until the child calms down either because you successfully guessed what the problem was or because he got distracted by something else so that he forgot what he was upset about in the first place.

"Words, a letter and a letter on a string, will hold forever humanity spellbound." --Anders Edenroth, The Real Group.

So Jonas is beginning to string letters together to form words and a couple of words together here and there to make "sentences." It's so precious to a mother, and I don't want to forget his little language. Here are my favorties right now:

Mbvoo = balloon
Bah-boo = dog (originally Bison, but now he calls all dogs bah-boo)
Bah-bah, Daddy
Hah deh! = Hi there!
Ooo-wee! = Shewee! (as in poopy diaper)
Ot = hot
At = hat
Oots = oops
Hah-oh = hello
Ra-ra = Dora (the Explorer)
Ah-ro = Mario
Deh! = There! (when he accomplishes something)
Oosh = shoes

Again, these are just my favorites in his list of words he can say, or uh, communicate. :)

Sweet Kalleigh "reading" to her baby brother.

Love those kids!

SoJam

Not this past weekend, but the one before that, Clearly Vocal went to SoJam.

"SoJam is a weekend-long a cappella extravaganza brought to you by The Contemporary A Cappella Society (CASA).  Held in North Carolina and now in its 7th year, the festival is jam-packed with Concerts, Competitions, Master Classes and hands-on workshops led by some of the biggest names in the vocal music universe! SoJam has quickly established itself as one of the most exciting a cappella gatherings in the world." --SoJam.com

We had no idea what to expect, but whatever we thought, it exceeded our expectations! Things I took away from SoJam:

We are not the only group out there singing contemporary a cappella music.
We hold our own in comparison to the other semi-pro groups.
We are very professional in some ways and relatively amateur in others.
Some of the nicest people are gay.
We need a CD, but only if it's done well.
I can do vocal percussion if necessary.
I can blow raspberries on pitch, and therefore "sing" bass if necessary.
We had the tightest harmonies of any group there.
Apparently, we need to be much more organic and evocative.
Contemporary a cappella is almost completely missing from the state of Texas.
We do not have the same style as everybody else, and we're good with that.
My big toe can be pretty articulate if I would breathe deeply enough to listen to it.
I need to be arranging and writing original stuff.
Eclipse and The House Jacks are now two of my favorite a cappella groups, but I will never abandon The Real Group.

We had so much fun together as a group. We ate, sang, joked and laughed a lot!

AND we got mentioned on the Mouth Off Show! How exciting!

"Mouth Off is the weekly podcast show that brings the world of contemporary a cappella right to your ears.  From news to reviews to personal views, Dave Brown and Christopher Diaz dish it out every week with characteristic sarcasm and wit." --mouthoffshow.com

"They were just so spot on! Their pitch was so good!" --Dave Brown
"Not only are they the nicest people in the whole universe, they can really, really sing!" --Christopher Diaz


Click here to listen to their entire wrap up, or just go to 17:50 and listen for about 1 1/2 min to our little time in the spotlight!

We made a lot of new friends and there was a ton of good networking that took place. SoJam was SoGood for Clearly Vocal!

Keepers

Oooh, sorry! That took way too long to post the good set of pics! It's been a little crazy, but such is life.

Anyway, there were so many good ones, thanks to Chelsea, but these are my favorites:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tune in next time when I'll do a full recap of Clearly Vocal's weekend at SoJam!

Rejects

I love when Deborah posts her picture rejects, so I'm going to do the same thing. You just never know what you're going to get when taking pictures of kids!

You will put your arm down if I have to tickle your armpit to do it!

Apparently Jonas was the only one who was "Sure." The other two are checking.

Mom! Isn't this a cool thing I can do with my leg?

Johnathan's not sure if squishing Jonas is the best idea. Kalleigh has no problem with it.

We'll call this, "mid-sentence."

"Mid-blink."

"Lah-Doh!" (Water. He's looking at a pond.)

Kalleigh, plotting against her brothers while Johnathan realizes, "That's cold!"

Are we done yet?

I'll post the "real ones" in a few days. Clearly Vocal is going to SoJam tomorrow for the weekend! See you Monday!