// BLOG
Getting Down to Details
By Lustre • August 9, 2010 • One comment
We had another opportunity to have Leslie Wodday in for a coaching session this evening. Leslie is a Queen of Harmony with Signature Sound in 2000, and is currently gunning for the crown again in MAXX Factor. She knows her stuff, and when we coach with her, we count on her to bring it on!
Tonight was a particularly detail oriented session, more so than we’ve done before, it seems. Here’s an idea of how our session went.
Leslie smiles and says: OK, so start at the beginning of the song and let’s see what we’ve got.
Lustre sings: I know in my—-
Leslie smiles and says: Nope. You need more “Ah” in the word “I”. GIve it more space and tallness.
Lustre sings: I know in—-
Leslie smiles and says: Nope, didn’t get it. Try again
Lustre sings: I know in—-
Leslie smiles and says: ok, that’s better, but now you need to go from “ah” to “ee” at the same time in the word “I”.
Lustre sings: I know in my—-
Leslie smiles and says: Good! Now do it again, and keep going.
Lustre sings: I know in my h—-
Leslie smiles and says: You got the “I” together, but then you didn’t do “my” together. Try again.
Lustre sings: I know in my h—-
Leslie smiles and says: Good! Now again, and keep going.
Lustre sings: I know in my heart I have—-
Leslie smiles and says: Ok, good! Now, you need to hold the nice tall “ah” vowel of “heart”, but don’t forget to put the nice “rt” on “heart” and be sure to turn to “rt” together. Try again.
And then we did this for three more hours! Word by word, syllable by syllable, vowel by vowel, we worked on every little tiny piece of the song. Three hours of stops and starts, of repeating a phrase over and over until we got it right, and then once or twice more just to lock it in. It was an intense session, with a lot of hard work, a little frustration, and a lot of satisfaction.
This is the hard, detailed work that we need right now – and we’re so happy to have had Leslie come over to help us do it. Thanks, Leslie!
Coaching with Leslie Wodday
By Lustre • June 28, 2010 • One comment
We had the great pleasure of being coached by Leslie Wodday, our good friend, and lead of the wonderful quartet MAXX Factor. Leslie has coached us before, and we always learn so much from her. Tonight, we worked on a new song, and Leslie helped us “interpret” it. Which phrase should be soft, which should be loud? Which chords should linger, which should move quickly? Which word in that phrase deserves the emphasis? How can we sing the same words later in the song but add some extra meaning with just the timing of the delivery? All of these artistic choices go into making a song into a masterpiece.
Leslie is a pro at this kind of stuff. After all, she is a Queen of Harmony. This means that she competed and won the Sweet Adelines International quartet contest and forever gets to wear the crown to prove it. That was with Signature Sound, in 2000. Now she is singing lead in MAXX Factor, and they are definitely on the move toward their own crowns sometime very soon. Leslie knows barbershop singing inside and backwards. We are really lucky to live really close to her, and to have her as a coach.
Thanks, Leslie, for stopping by tonight. We can’t wait to see you again soon!
Welcome to our new member, Kate!
By Lustre • June 21, 2010 • One comment
Lustre is pleased to announce our new member, Kate Morrical, singing the tenor part. Kate is a member of the Capital Accord Chorus, and also is a dual member with Lori D, Lori C and Jenny in the Harbor City Music Company Show Chorus. We are very excited to have Kate singing with us!
Kate is working feverishly to learn our repertoire, and we are learning some new tunes together. We’ve got some coaching dates lined up, and have our first couple of performances on the books. We are working hard to get up to speed so that we can get out and about and entertain you!
We’re looking forward to seeing all our friends the Baltimore area around town at performances and barbershop events.
Welcome Kate!
And So It Goes…
By Lustre • May 19, 2010 • No comments
The only thing you can count on is change, or so “they” say. Who “they” are is unclear but “they” may be right. After 5 years of music, laughter, many successes, and so very many memories, things are changing for Lustre. We have learned so much as this foursome, it is hard to imagine Lustre with any different voices, but that is where we are headed.
Our friend and tenor, Laura, has decided to pursue career opportunities that will take her overseas. It is with all our love and excitement for what life has in store for her, we wish her good luck.
This change, though difficult, does not spell the conclusion of the quartet Lustre. It merely means that we count Laura as a Lustre alumnus who you may even see performing with Lustre from time to time. If you ever see Laura, Lori, Lori and Jenny in a room together, see if you can coax Laura into singing “And So it Goes” (or any other piece of our rep, for that matter) with us for old time’s sake!
Regional Reflections
By Lustre • May 9, 2010 • One comment
All in all, we had a wonderful and unexpected Regional 2010 experience. It didn’t turn out quite as we had all hoped, because after intense preparation throughout the year, we arrived on contest stage only to find our vocal chords were taking the day off without our permission. It was a challenging experience to sing through the onset of laryngitis, and despite it all we earned a region 19 fourth place medal.
Rregional contest 2010 helped us confirm and reinforce the reasons we are a quartet.
○ We sing because we love it.
○ We sing because we love to share music with others.
○ We sing because we want to improve, and relish in the blend of voices and the euphoria produced by generating overtones.
Saturday night at regional continues to be our favorite quartet day of the year. This year, we were unable to sing as a quartet, but nevertheless visited lots of our regional friends. Lustre Lead Lori was a great sport as we invited or coerced other leads to sing with the rest of Lustre. We roamed the halls into the wee hours, visiting all of the hospitality rooms we could find still open. If we didn’t visit yours, it is because you went to bed before we got there! 
Thank you to all of our Regional friends and family for their support at this year’s convention and throughout the year!