VARDA HARDY is an award winning writer and director who is dedicated to and passionate about creating meaningful and engaging films. She has had successful festival runs with several short films and has received multiple awards, including the Crystal Heart Award for her film “Window” and the Grand Jury and Audience Award for “Ode to Los Angeles”. Varda’s work was featured in SHOOT magazine’s prestigious New Director’s Showcase following a global search for cutting edge directors and she co-chairs the Women In Film PSA Program for whom she directs and produces Public Service Announcements.
BIG VOICE is Varda’s newest film project, a feature documentary about a visionary high school choir director and his determined students. Continue reading →
I saw this video on You Tube and was not only blown away by this young lady’s nerve going out on stage but also by her talent at yodeling! The quick switch from chest voice to head voice has always amazed me and the practice and skill that’s involved in mastering it is commendable. Taylor Ware is featured in this video. At age 11 she competed on NBC’s America’s Got Talent and was selected by the viewers on July 13, 2006 to advance to the final competition (which aired on August 16, 2006). According to Ware, she taught herself to yodel from an audiotape and instruction book when she was seven years old.
WATCH THE VIDEO:
What Is Yodeling?
Yodeling is a form of vocalization that involves singing an extended note which rapidly and repeatedly changes in pitch from the vocal or chest register (or “chest voice”) to the falsetto (or “head register”) making a high-low-high-low sound. The English word yodel is derived from a German word jodeln meaning “to utter the syllable jo”.
The Texas Music Educators Association’s 2012 convention is coming to San Antonio. Join music educators, performers, exhibitors, and us(!) for three packed days of professional development and scintillating performances!
What to Expect:
Informative and educational workshops for and from educators from elementary to college levels, who instruct band, orchestra, and vocal students.
Concertsby superb musicians, including the famed Vienna Boys Choir
Two exhibit halls packed with booths that represent all aspects of the music education industry – such as, for example, our own choral folders.
Closing performances by All-State ensembles that are made up of the finest high school musicians from across the state of Texas
Come enjoy great music, the company of your peers, and a unique opportunity for significant professional development!
Where exactly will it be held?
TMEA 2012 takes place from February 8th to the 11th, at the Henry B, Gonzales Convention Center in San Antonio Texas:
Who’ll be there?
Well, to start: We will!
Come see MUSICFOLDER.com at our booth in the exhibit hall, where we’ll be displaying the world’s best music folders, such as the famous Black Folder, our Choralex Compact singer’s folder, the Ringbinder, and our Band and Orchestra folder. If you’ve ever been curious about our folders, now’s your chance to put one in your hand, and see the “oh wow” light weight and superb construction that we’re famous for.
Featured Clinicians:
Band Division: Dr. Charles T. Menghini of VanderCook College of Music.
Orchestra Division: Kirt Mosier, who teaches for Lee’s Summit R-7 School District in Missouri and is the director of orchestras at Lee’s Summit West HS.
Vocal Division: Patrick Freer, Associate Professor of Choral Music Education at Georgia State University, and conductor of the GSU Men’s Chorus.
Elementary Division: Brent Gault, of the Jacobs School of Music, and Dr. Artie Almeida, the music specialist at Bear Lake Elementary school in Orlando Florida.
College Division: Dr. John Benham of Nortwhestern College, and Steve Morrison, Associate Professor and Chair of Music Education at the University of Washington.
All-State Band Conductors:
Tim Weiss, Oberlin Conservatory
Scott Teeple, University of Wisconsin at Madison
Sharon Lavery, University of Southern California
Wycliffe Gordon.
All-State Orchestra Conductors:
Carl St. Clair, Pacific Symphony
Sharon Paul, University of Oregon
Matt Oltman, Chanticleer
Performing Groups:
Band Division:
Coppell MS North
Westbrook MS
Queen City HS
Waxahachie HS
Orchestra Division:
Plano Senior High Full Orchestra
Beckendorff JH Full Orchestra
Sartartia MS String Orchestra
Vocal Division:
Artie Henry MS Varsity Treble Choir
Filemon B. Vela MS A Cappella Treble Choir
West Ridge MS Varsity Treble Choir
Blalack MS Varsity Men’s Choir
Andrews HS A Cappella Women
Canyon HS Chorale (Treble Choir)
Pflugerville HS Varsity Women
Marcus HS Varsity Treble Choir
Cypress Falls HS Varisty Men’s Choir
Allen HS Chorale (Mixed)
Flower Mound HS Jaguar Chorale
Trinity HS A Cappella Choir
Texas Tech University Choir
Elementary Division
Hubenak Elementary Choir
Jenkins Elementary Orff Ensemble
Leon Heights Honor Choir
Lewisville 5th Grade Honor Choir
Parker Elementary Advanced Chorus
Pink Elementary Honor Choir
Schultz Shining Star Drum Ensemble
The President’s Concert Features the Legendary Vienna Boys Choir!
The famed Vienna Boys Choir is believe to have started more than 500 years ago. Today, it gives approximately 300 concerts and performances each year for nearly half a million people.
Tickets are only $10. Don’t miss out on the change to see this legendary group!
Don’t forget to come see us!
As we mentioned above, MUSICFOLDER.com will be in attendance. Come visit our booth to get to know the world’s finest music folders and the company that makes them. We look forward to seeing you there!
Attending? We’d love to hear from you
If you’re attending the TMEA 2012 Conference and workshop, let us know – whether in the comments below, on Facebook, on Twitter, or via email. We’re looking for people who’d like to share their experiences at the TMEA with our fans, readers, and subscribers.
In 2009, famous composer and conductor Eric Whitacre was sent a link to a video of a young vocalist singing the soprano part to Sleep, a song that he’d written in 2000. He immediately realized that if 100 people were all to record their own parts by singing along to the original recording, he would be able to assemble those individual recordings into a single recorded piece – a virtual choir.
Origins of the First Virtual Choir:
The first 100-person attempt was successful but had consisted of people singing along to a recording. The next step was to conduct a real choir. A video with Eric conducting over a backing track he’d recorded on piano was offered to people around the world. The response was immediate and significant, and it resulted in this landmark video:
The virtual choir performance was an overwhelming success. It was well-received around the world, and received a large amount of press. People were inspired by how individuals who’d never met each other, nor the man conducting them, would be capable of creating something so intimate together.
The Second Virtual Choir:
The second virtual choir was even more impressive. It’s goal was to bring together 900 people. All told, 2,051 videos were submitted from 58 countries. Whitacre had composed an original piece and once again, distributed videos of him conducting for singers to follow. He’d also benefited from the first choir. He’d received a great deal of publicity, and even been invited to deliver a talk on TED.com Far more people had wanted to participate this time. And so, when the second virtual choir performance was released, it was much grander in scope:
Whitacre’s choir was presented in a much more complex visual fashion that illustrated just how distributed it was – but also, how its participants were all connnected.
“Oh Danny Boy, the pipes the pipes are calling
From glen to glen and down the mountainside”
- an English Lawyer, who never visited Ireland
Ask nearly anyone in North America to name an Irish song, and their first answer will be “Danny Boy,” the beloved traditional ballad that evokes Ireland’s rolling hills, and which, along with cries of “Erin Go Bragh!” can be heard from nearly any pub in North America on St. Patrick’s Day. Together with the shamrock and leprechaun, it’s one of the most “Irish” things that many of us are familiar with. But it’s in fact less than 100 years old, more iconic in North America than in Ireland, is one of hundreds of songs set to the same tune, and was written by a man that never saw Ireland!
Where does “Danny Boy” Originate?
The tune as we know it originates here: county Londonderry in Northern Ireland
“The Londonderry Air” is an air from County Londonerry that’s become anthemic to Northern Ireland. It’s played as the victory anthem of Northern Ireland at the Commonwealth Games, and has been known in its current incarnation since 1855, when it was published in the book The Ancient Music of Ireland after being collected and submitted by a woman named Jane Ross – of Londonderry.
It’s unknown precisely where Ms. Ross had encountered the tune, and what its true name was, since her only commentary on it was that it was “very old.” Some 40 years later it was speculated that it had been collected from an Irish fiddler named Blind Jimmy McCurry. But even he himself wasn’t the tune’s original composer, as nearly 50 years later in 1979 a song was identified from a collection of “Ancient Irish Music” that had been published in 1796 which was extremely similar. And if it was published as “ancient” in 1796, then it surely was ancient indeed!
This older version was not in 4/4 time, as are “the Londonderry Air” and “Oh Danny Boy,” but in the more traditional 3/3 time signature of Irish folk music. This song was entitled “Aislean an Oigfear” – in modern English, “The Young Man’s Dream” – and it had traditional Irish lyrics, as well as English ones that had been written in the 1800′s.
Who Wrote the Lyrics to “Danny Boy?”
This man, Fred Weatherly, wrote "Danny Boy" - as well as thousands of other songs. He was also a respected lawyer and broadcaster.
While there are countless variations on the lyrics to “Oh Danny Boy,” (some thousands!) the popular lyrics as we’re familiary with them were penned by an English laywer named Frederick Weatherly, a man believed to have composed some 3,000 songs, and who was a significant celebrity in his day. He also, by all accounts, never in fact set foot in Ireland.
Weatherly himself only discovered the tune when his own sister sent him a copy from North America, where she had heard the Jane Ross version, which was unlike most traditional, Irish music played in Colorado during the gold rush. Weatherly’s lyrics had been written previously for another tune but upon discovering that they fit well with “the Londonderry Air” he modified them and published “Danny Boy” as we know it in 1913, with the first known recording occurring some two years later. After that, “Danny Boy” steadily grew in popularity, especially among Irish diaspora of North America. It’s been said that second-and-third-generation Irish were far more familiar with this so-called “folk song” than with Irish immigrants themselves (though with the age of the Internet it’s likely that it’s well-known around the world, and certainly to Irish nationals). And so, “Danny Boy” is a “traditional Irish folk song” that is in fact “traditional” to North Americans of Irish descent.
The Most Commonly Recognized Lyrics to Oh Danny Boy:
Oh Danny boy, the pipes, the pipes are calling
From glen to glen, and down the mountain side
The summer’s gone, and all the roses falling
‘Tis you, ’tis you must go and I must bide.
But come ye back when summer’s in the meadow
Or when the valley’s hushed and white with snow
‘Tis I’ll be here in sunshine or in shadow
Oh Danny boy, oh Danny boy, I love you so.
And if you come, when all the flowers are dying
And I am dead, as dead I well may be
You’ll come and find the place where I am lying
And kneel and say an “Ave” there for me.
And I shall hear, tho’ soft you tread above me
And all my grave will warmer, sweeter be
For you will bend and tell me that you love me
And I shall sleep in peace until you come to me.
I’ll simply sleep in peace until you come to me.
And I shall rest in peace until you come to me.
Oh, Danny Boy, Oh, Danny Boy, I love you so.
Some popular performances of “Danny Boy”
A popular and lovely arragement, from “Last Night at the Proms” in Belfast
The Celtic Women’s performance of “Danny Boy” is one of the highest rated on Youtube
Eva Cassidy’s recorded version remains one of the most popular versions, especially in North America
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yn8T1c-sXXI
as performed by Shane McGowan and the Popes
Just for fun!
Do you love Danny Boy?
If you’ve performed Danny Boy, please let us know! We’d love to hear your experiences. If you have a favorite performance of it that you’d like to bring to our attention, we’d love to know about it. And of course, if you’re planning to sing it, whether solo or with a chorus, might we suggest you employ one of the world’s best music folders?
References
Danny Boy. (2011, October 10). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 00:11, October 19, 2011, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Danny_Boy&oldid=454830524
Each year, the BCMEA conference helps music educators grow professionally, allows top students to join in performances, and presents leaders in music education as well as scintillating performances.
The BCMEA Conference presents Forte 2011, from October 20th-22nd, at the River Rock Casino in Vancouver, BC, for three packed days of music education, networking, and performances.
Grow as an educator!
Dr. Ramona Wis, renowned educator, author, conductor and singer, is Forte 2011's keynote speaker!
Learn from, and grow with, top minds in music education, with featured clinicians that include keynote speaker Dr. Ramona Wis, whose book “The Conductor as Leader: Principles of Leadership Applied to Life on the Podium” is rapidly becoming a music teachers’ and conductors’ leadership classic – as well as to people interested in leadership outside the music profession.
For a list of detailed clinician biographies, click here.
Participate in – or simply experience – musical performances, with top student-musicians!
The BCMEA Honour Ensembles Program is an opportunity for BC student-musicians to come together and perform challenging repertoire in a high-calibre performance setting. The experiences, musicianship development, and new friendships built through this program will last for years. Each participating student-musician brings a wealth of knowledge back to his/her respective school to share with peers. We are proud to provide this program knowing how beneficial it can be to music education across British Columbia.
You can find more about the Honour Ensembles Program by clicking here for detailed information about the program and here for information about Honour Ensemble open rehearsals and performances – as well as information about the esteemed individuals who’ll be running the show(s).
Where is it taking place?
The Conference:
All conference events are being held in one location: the same location that’s returned from last year by popular demand, Vancouver’s River Rock Casino. It’s extremely conveniently situated, with ready access to Vancouver’s excellent transit system, and to the Honour Ensemble Venue Itself. It’s also a great place to stay for conference attendees.
With its seating capacity that can accommodate more than 600 ticket holders comfortably, Fraserview Church will be where conference delegates and and family members of student-musicians enjoy the evening concerts. It’s just a brief ride from the River Rock Casino, so attending an open rehearsal is an easy matter as well.
MUSICFOLDER.com will be in attendance this year – and we’ll have some of the world’s best music folders along with us. Come see us at our display booth!
Stay informed on BCMEA Forte updates and developments via Twitter:
The 2011 BCMEA Conferece Twitter hashtag is #forte2011, and the official BCMEA Twitter account is @bcmea. Follow them on Twitter to stay informed and updated. You may also view the latest #forte2011 Tweets in the embedded widget below:
The 9th World Symposium on Choral Music (WSCM9) has drawn to a close. What a journey it was – literally! Recent volcanic eruptions in Chile disrupted air travel to Puerto Madryn. Those who were still fortunate enough to make it to WSCM9 had to endure an 18+ hour bus ride. But fortunately, long-distance bus travel in Argentina isn’t too different from business-class air travel, and while it took longer to get there, we were well looked after while we did. MUSICFOLDER.com enjoyed meeting choral community members – and, of course, spreading the word about the world’s best choral folders!
The program was significantly changed due to the transportation challenges – but it didn’t dampen the attendees’ passion for choral music.
A brief outline of the WSCM
The World Symposium on Choral Music has been taking place for more than two decades! It’s the responsibility of the CIC Foundation, a non-profit founded in 1997 in support of the Choral International Competition. This year, the CIC Foundation worked closely with the Municipality of Puerto Madryn. It was the first time that the WSCM had come to Latin America! But Peurto Madryn has been working with the CIC Foundation for years, producing choral events . This helps promote Argentina and Puerto Madryn as a cultural tourism destination – and it helps promote choral music.
Did you see us there?
Our president Ian Bullen manned the MUSICFOLDER.com booth, where he was privileged to meet many choral community members, catch up with others, and even got to be introduced to fine Argentinian Yerba Mate!
The "prez" Ian Bullen, manning our booth and spreading the word about the world's best choral folderrs!
Hope to see you next time!
We’ll be in attendance at the next world symposium in 2014 in Seoul Korea. And as much as we like having stories to tell, lets hope that Mother Nature stays cooperative this time! Thanks again to all the organizers, performers, and staff who refused to let serious transportation issues prevent this from being anything but a wonderful experience once we got there!
Suppose the gentleman in this photo is humming. If so, he's performing the world's simplest vocal warm up.
We’re about to discuss why humming is good for your voice. But first, let’s try it right now.
Say “Hmmm?” outloud to yourself. As though you’re wondering why it is that you’re being asked to do this.
You just did a little vocal warm-up. If you were to burst into song (please feel free to at any time), you’d be a little more prepared – and less likely to strain your voice. Just like athletes should warm their muscles up before competing, vocalists should warm their vocal cords up.
You probably also felt the sound “move upward” through your body – towards the top of the head. We’ll talk about that in a moment.
The “humming” warmup is one of the simplest that singers can use. It’s an effective pitch warmup, and once you’ve been taught where to pace your voice, you can easily use it any time to refine your pitching.
Why could you possibly need to be taught how to hum?
Just like nearly everything else, there’s a “right way” to hum for vocal warmups – and wrong ways. Many people misplace their vocal positioning to low when they hum. They let their voices “resonate” from out of their throats. This can cause undue tension – and its simply not the best way to sing for true resonance!
This is why you should try out “Hmmm?” (be sure to make it sound like a question!). As your pitch gets higher, you’ll feel the vibrations of the “hmm” move upwards. They’ll pass the nose, the eyes, and move towards the top of the head. This resonance is very similar to and echo – and the different pitches reverberate inside our skulls differently!
Now think it over and say “Hmmm…”
Let your pitch move downwards. Feel the vibrating sensations of sound move down toward the chest. You just did a super-simple vocal warmup!
Why is humming such popular vocal warmup?
It’s easy. You can hum, right?
It’s focused on pitch. When you’re humming, you’re not worrying about enunciation or phrasing. You aren’t realy able to do either of those. All you can do is hear and practice your pitch, without distraction.
Practice, and make perfect!
Here are two very simply vocal warmups:
“Doh Re Mi Fa Sol Fa Mi Re Doh”
A very popular progression, this can help you focus on your pitch and build a warm and resonant voice.
“Doh Mi Sol Mi Doh”
This progression makes is great pitching practice! It forces you to focus on your accuracy.
This 3-note scale makes for a great warmup. And by gradually moving upwards in pitch, we’re able to completely warm up the voice in the entire range that we’ll need.
Don’t hurt your voice! Warm it up first!
Regardless of where you’re singing, a quick vocal warup can really help prevent vocal damage. And humming lets us do it discreetly!
To get the most out of your vocal performances, in addition to proper warmups, you might wish to consider a music folder for singers. A proper singer’s music folder is ergonomic and lightweight. It’s engineered specifically for singers. You can buy high-quality music folders for singers online at MUSICFOLDER.com, and customize them with a variety of great options.
Care to follow a video-guided warmup?
Check out this vocal warmup video from expert village:
MUSICFOLDER.com has been very privileged this year! As with many other years, we’ve been lucky enough to enjoy many choral festivals where we participate in the choral community we love – and spread the word the world’s best choral folders. Among these festivals has been Festival 500 – Sharing the Voices.
Festival 500, Sharing the Voices, is a renowned international choral music festival that takes place each year in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada – the oldest city in North America. The popular festival and the academic symposium that accompanies it brings together singers, conductors, choral enthusiasts, and music scholars from cultures and countries around the globe. They come to share their voices for the enrichment of everyone who attends.
Their five components to Festival 500. These include the Phenomenon of Singing International Symposium, which is presented jointly by Festival 500 and Memorial university, the Labrador Festival in Happy Valley Goose Bay, the Western Region Festival in Cornerbrook, two Rural Outreach concerts, and the St. John’s Festival.
Music luminaries who have attended include the legendary Bobby Mcferrin. And attendees often can’t say enough about how much they enjoyed attending – just check out Festival 500′s own page of Facebook Testimonials!
MUSICFOLDER .Com was among those lucky attendees. At Festival 500 we were fortunate to meet with current customers, make new ones, attend fantastic vocal performances, and partake in delicious food!
Did you see us there?
If we were lucky enough to meet you at Festival 500, we would love to hear about it. And we would love to hear about your experiences there. Please feel free to comment, or to contact us on Facebook about your Festival 500 experiences. It was an absolute pleasure to meet you all!
When shopping for music folders, it can be daunting to be faced with the prospect of identifying and selecting high-quality folders. The best folders are lightweight yet robust, made from the best materials, and perfectly suited to their purposes. In this case, choral performances. Here are 5 key features of top-quality music folders like ours:
1. Customizability:
Great music folders aren’t just tailored to their purpose – they can be tailored to your specific needs.
Key music folder custom options include:
Folder numbering in embossed foil in a variety of colors
Text imprinting in a variety of locations on the music folder
Custom logo imprinting
A clear interior pocket for convenient viewing
Double cords for more strength
Ring Adaptors in order to accomnodate hole-punched music
2. High-Quality Paperboard and Laminate
Simply put, a better music folder is made of better materials at its core. It’s better suited to performances and better equipped to deal wear.
The best paperboard and laminate is:
Stiff and dense, but still very light!
Able to withstand the abuse a folder gets in backpacks and bags
Deeply textured to feel comfortable in all conditions
Lesser paperboard and laminate might be:
So thin that folders crease and warp
Not deeply textured enough to allow perspiration to dissipate effectively – this means they get slippery
Better quality paperboard and laminate have several key advantages make them better-suited to choral performances – and more capable of delivering them for some time!
3. Music Folder Handstraps
Better quality folders have better straps that are easier to hold and don’t wear out.
A top quality music folder handstrap usually has all the following characteristics:
Made of durable and non-absorbent soft fabric
Locked to the music folder with larger rivets that are double headed, which lock into the paperboard on both sides and prevent weak points
A lesser handstrap might be:
Made of plastic, which is harder, susceptible to creasing and breaking, and far less pleasant to hold!
Sealed with rivets on only one side, which often causes a weak point at the rivet post, leading to tearing
A high-quality handstrap doesn’t simply last longer itself and preseve the folder – it makes for much more comfortable performances.
4. The Hinge and Cord
Top hinges and cords are better for music scores.
High quality music folder hinges and cords display the following:
The hinges have rounded edges in order not to scratch, cut, or catch on clothing
The cords are correctly tensioned, so they don’t cut into scored
The cord lengths work with both US letter and A4 paper
By contrast, lower-quality hinges and cords can be identified by these characteristics:
The hinges have sharp corners, where metal can scratch or catch in sweaters or clothing
The elasticized cords are strung as tight as possible in order to skimp on material, which leads to cords that break and music scores that get cut and torn
5. The presence of a strap at the base – and how it’s attached
This mark of quality is one of the ones that sets MUSICFOLDER.com music folders apart in particular.
Top music folder hand straps:
Are attached with a button, which will not loosen and rattle like snaps
Employ a true key-hole cutout to attach the button, which spreads load evenly around the circumference of the button base
have an outside attachment that evenly places force on the button
are attached at an angle that minimizes strain on fasteners
Poorer quality hand straps:
Are fastened with snaps, which loosen and wear out
are attached using only a slit in the strap, which continues to open and ultimately fray through and tear
if they aren’t fastened with snaps, they’re often fastened with buttons that are to large for the opening – and the act of forcing them through causes wear
use inside attachments that pull up and twist the button
Find these 5 key features and you’ll find a high-quality music folder
Why settle for less? Better quality music folders make for better quality performances – and they keep doing so for years to come. Any additional expense related to purchasing a top-quality folder is quickly won back, and with interest, as the folder lasts for years and starts benefiting the performer immediately.
If you’re looking for high quality music folders, of course, you’ve surely come to the right place. MUSICFOLDER.com offers the world’s best music folders worldwide, via our US, Canadian, and International sites. Browse our music folders today, and customize and order them online, or find a distributor to get a folder immediately and support local business
Questions?
If you have any questions about what makes for superior music folders, questions about our line of music folders, or any other questions, comments, or concerns, please comment below or contact us directly. You can also find us on Facebook and Twitter!
