Copyrighting Your Work

In the past few months I copyrighted quite a number of my arrangements, 55 to be exact! Today, you can do this on the Internet by visiting http://www.copyright.gov/, and creating an account for yourself. Before you begin, prepare all of your music so you'll be ready to submit it at the end of the application process. I'll describe this further below.

You can copyright only the arrangement, declaring very clearly you take no credit for the melody or the lyrics. Through the process, the application forms make this all very clear. Be sure you are taking credit for original work on your end, not a recasting of someone else's work. If you adapt another person's work and change 20%, 30% or even 80% of it, it's really not original.

You'll need nothing more than PDF files of the sheet music. Be sure to include a copyright notice on the first page of every song before making your PDF files. Basically you sign up with copyright.gov and tell them what you want to copyright. If you have a number of songs, you can copyright a "book" for one low fee. You list all the songs in the book, and once the whole set is defined, make a payment using a credit card for the $35 handling fee, and upload each song at the end. Leave yourself plenty of time for this task, and don't worry too much about the sometimes cryptic questions. Humans receive and process all your information on the other end, and they're really quite good at figuring it all out.

Then what?

You wait. When you think you've waited enough, wait some more. There's a lot that has to go on on the Government side, and there is also a long queue of requests. So be patient and do not doubt. If something is screwy with your application, they will contact you and straighten it out. This is not like buying stuff at Amazon.com. In a few weeks or more, you'll receive confirmation by regular mail with your official copyright numbers for your stuff. It's not exactly suitable for framing, but it's pretty cool.

So what next?

More arranging and getting more of my stuff "out there". I am actively marketing my stuff to various choirs. This year, I expect to hear one of my new arrangements sung by the Society of Orpheus and Bacchus, and I am very excited about that! I sent it off speculatively to the new music director, Paul Leo, last spring, and he liked it a lot. We had a little discussion about arranging. He was looking ahead to his new role and wondering how he would rise to the occasion. As Orpheus, he is expected to introduce new, original material and keep the group moving forward creatively. Every director wants to contribute one or more new pieces of work, and they want them to become favorites for years to come.

Tools and Tricks

As I told Paul, I heard Deke Sharon is developing a book on a cappella arranging. I see there's another well reviewed book, "The Collegiate A Cappella Arranging Manual" by Anna Callahan. The Barbershop Harmony Society also publishes an incredible 450 page "Barbershop Arranging Manual" on the topic. References like these need to be within reach while you work.

But one of my main tools, as I told the new SOB director, is my MP3 player. First I hunt around for songs of interest to me. I suggest casting a wide net in the early stage. I buy a slew of versions of any interesting songs, and I load up my MP3 player with them. You can use your smart phone as I do (Palm Pre) or iPod or iPod Touch. It's great to have something pretty rugged, because the next step is to set aside a time to listen and for me that means while working out at the gym.

The goal is to play the list over and over, day in and day out, for 30-60 minutes a day while your mind has nothing else to do but let it sink in. When I was a student of Thich Nhat Hanh, I learned something called "deep listening", and this practice comes in handy here. You let the songs inhabit your mindspace, bounce around inside your subconscious, and eventually your ideas about how you "hear" each song begin to coalesce. Eventually, you can conceive your treatment of one of these songs from start to finish. This is not the same as knowing every note and rest; it is most likely a very broad brush conception with some parts in greater focus than others. But at some moment on the treadmill it will hit you as a complete concept after which you will find the momentum to direct 100% of your attention to realizing the concept with black dots, stems, rests and all sorts of other bits of ink on paper.

Arranging 101?

In the past couple of weeks, I had a lot of new work to look at and had the chance to reflect on what I've learned about voice arranging together with a couple of other arrangers who have been doing this for years and years. Here are some of the key points we touched on, a sort of Arranging 101.

Hobo Nickel of a Barbershopper

It's not about the talent of the arranger

Your whole job is to create an experience for an audience. They need to be thrilled, overjoyed, psyched up, get goose bumps, laugh, cry.... If you want to dazzle them with your musical prowess, they may be impressed, but not moved. This is not what you want. If you impress them intellectually, they will say, "Well that was interesting," and you'll be lucky if that's the worst thing they say. But when you've touched them emotionally, they will never forget you.

Don't over complicate things

When you have developed a new piece of work, always make several passes over it to reduce complexity and bring out the core idea single-mindedly. The core of what you are trying to express should always be your main focus. A song has one point, one message and it must be relentless to drive that home.

Chords with lots of voice splits hitting the 6, 9, 11 and 13 will sound really cool on the piano, but often don't have the same effect when sung. Use discretion to simplify and abbreviate. What are the essential colors you want and how can you get that with the least divisi? I've said this before, when you thin the ranks with a lot of splits, there is often a weakening of the overall effect and a muddiness can result. Use fewer arrows, and put more wood behind each.

Beware of over-ornamenting. If the baritones are singing a different figure every time through the verse, the overall orchestration better be be significantly different each time. Variations that change without great effect don't get noticed. In fact, if they are too subtle, your singers won't even remember them.

Use ornaments and cliches always, but with discretion. Let them stand out so as to have a powerful effect. Just as with singing loudly - the audience won't even notice your forte unless you've given them real pianissimo. Ornaments must pop out of an un-ornamented background.

Ring the chords

Barbershop arrangers follow rules to get their chords to "ring". Pay attention to these rules and use the technique to your advantage. There's nothing better than the magic of overtones creating phantom voices that expand your sound. A chord with root, fifth, octave and mediant above (1-5-8-10) will produce a phantom note another octave above the 8 being sung. It's magical.

Last week, Blue of a Kind was rehearsing an old Barbershop number, "Kentucky Babe". It's a classic arrangement originally performed by The Chordettes, and arranged by my great hero and sometime mentor, the late Walter Latzko. We were working on "singing on the breath", producing a well supported pianissimo and matching our vowels with one another. As we did, another voice was suddenly in the air. You would swear that one of the guys was pretending to be a soprano. We fooled around holding some of the chords and dropping out one or two of the sections to hear the phantom voice disappear. This is a wonderful effect, and it has the power to touch the audience emotionally. Use it.

Lead the voices

Vocal orchestrations should be singable. Each line can offer a sort of sub-melody, and go somewhere - create tensions and resolve them, leading from point A to point B. Some arrangements have voices plugging holes in chord progressions and can present big challenges for singers. The lack of fluidity will be evident. Yes, sometimes you want this, but by and large, this is not what you're looking for.

I always feel each voice part should be singing their own little song. Make a duet between the melody and another voice part. Then make another duet with the melody and still another voice part. Now put all three together. Then work with that, iron out the difficulties and see where it leads you. The bass should touch often on the root and the fifth, but also let it walk from here to there the way bass players in bands and orchestras do, creating another duet, and counterpoint against the melody. If a line seems too angular, spend some time making the dots connect here and there, smoothing it out, and see what happens.

Each part does not have to be too complicated, but when you put them together the interweaving can be quite delightful. This is what you're going for.

Save the best for last

Keep your best and coolest doo-dads for the last verse, for the conclusion. Barbershoppers always have these mind-blowing tags to accomplish the coup de grâce. The conclusion is the summation, the defining moment when you and the audience must be on the same page, and you've driven your arrow straight through their heart. Competitive barbershopping can take this to an extreme where they show off how long the tenor can hold a note without turning blue. Audiences love that! Here's my pal Danny Fong doing a cool song with a classic example of what I'm talking about:

How does he do that? And doesn't it do something to you?

Reserve your best ornaments, rhythmic figures whatever for the summation. Don't tip your hand too early in a piece. If you have a great ornament that appears repeatedly, create a reduced variant to use in verse 1 and 2, and then pull out the stops in verse 3. Put that key change before the final verse and push your listeners over the edge. Drive your point home and don't be afraid to go all out.

Practice, practice, practice!

I have a friend, one of my mentors and also a favorite voice arranger, who recently described his learning process doing voice orchestration. He likens it to the Elliot Wave principal used to predict market movements. Stocks tend to follow a pattern of 5 distinct phases: Up 1, down 2; up 3, down 4; and then up 5 before reversing the trend. As my friend points out, learning processes follow a similar progression. Here's how he described it:

"You start out and develop an increasingly more complicated skill set, but then have to step back and find you've gone off on too many tangents. You then take what you have and simplify by cutting out what doesn't seem to work. You find that you've cut out some chaff, but still aren't anywhere near an ability to really create something great, so you start to experiment once again. This also produces extraneous stuff which has to be 'dumbed down', but by now, after you do that, you've reached a point where you can tie everything together and add what else you need while sanding the edges. In the process, you develop your own style, much of which is 'borrowed' from the work of others that you have learned from along the way, but hopefully full of some stuff that is your very own."

You can't go through this process without trial and error, without repetition, evaluation and reevaluation, and giving it time to develop. Basically, it's practice, practice, practice!

Note: This blog is published on The A Cappella Cookbook. Click the link to visit the source of all this madness and fun.

"To the Sky" is coming!

We're still pushing to bring home 23 cuts on the "To the Sky" CD. Like many things in life, if one thought about the enormity of this task, one would never begin. I don't mean just the recording work. Think back with me to 2004 or 2005 for a minute....

The Blue Dream Begins

In 2004, I was still dreaming of singing in an a cappella group where I could contribute my directing skills and hear some of my arrangements sung. The dream was fuzzy and back then, my life was a mess. It was a dream I'd had for many years, but one of those "Yeah, like that's going to happen!" kind of dreams. I had a few arrangements I'd worked to completion, but no idea how I would go about forming a group or building an actual repertoire. I had been singing with Polymnia Choral Society for a couple years, and the tenors I knew were interested in starting something. But you gotta have 4 parts, and that means basses! The idea needed more momentum - I needed to believe it was possible and I needed basses!

In 2005 Saki, a friend from Polymnia Choral Society, asked me at one of the rehearsal breaks if we could get a bunch of guys to sing some a cappella stuff, and it was like a spark that hit dry tinder. Saki knew the basses and had some pull with them. Yes, he could deliver 6-8 men in "the basement". So it happened. We mounted a couple songs and made them work. People heard us and they liked it. They wanted business cards and bookings. And we had two songs....

How Much Work Is it?

So like I said at the outset, it's a huge amount of work. You start meeting every week and learning stuff. Some guys drop out, others join; things change. You try to figure out how to get 40 minutes of music memorized across 15-20 people and figure out how you're going to look like something of a show.

I went for what I call the "just add water" approach: take 18 guys who need about 18 songs. Get them from ignorance to knowledge as fast as possible - from not knowing how to entertain to being entertaining - from no repertoire to a set list - in less than no time. How do you do that? I decided to fill things out quickly with sea chanties. Why? Because the ensemble needs to learn the chorus once while one soloist has to memorize the 9 verses and then you got a song. It's manly and people will sit through it. Do that a few times over, spice it up with a few spirituals, gospel and rock/pop tunes and you got a repertoire.

Then arrange like your pants are on fire and see what holds up in rehearsal. Spice up the repertoire as fast as you can with anything that sticks. Take it one month at a time. Find a few good arrangements that suit your group at the retail outlets and work them in.

Reaching Out, Going Beyond

Then go beyond. I decided to make contact with some ringer arrangers and develop relationships to foster new work or revive lost work.

First, I made contact with Walter Latzko the arranger for The Chordettes. It was a couple years ago, and my guys needed good, secular Christmas music. I had fallen in love with Mr. Latzko's work (you know him from "Mr. Sandman" and "Lollipop, Lollipop") many years ago as a child watching The Chordettes on "The Arthur Godfrey Show". I asked him to arrange "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas" which became his 979th arrangement (completed in about 2 days flat!). Later, he and I reworked it to suit my group of amateurs to an excellent result.

Then, through the Whiffenpoof Songbook project and the SOB Songbook Restoration Project, I reconnected with some incredible vocal arrangers from the last half of the 20th Century whose work had largely been mothballed or retired. These guys have been incredibly generous of their time reviewing my work, but also sharing new stuff or arrangements in their attics. A few have arranged or collaborated with me on new works.

Pants On Fire

Meanwhile, with my pants afire, I worked developing pieces I heard performed by some of my favorites artists like "Eddie From Ohio", Jim Kweskin, Geoff Muldaur, Ray Charles, Son House and The Sensational Nightingales.

After a few years of this, the repertoire becomes seriously spiced up! Over 4 years, we have laid some serious pipe. We are singing some incredible music. You will hear this on the "To the Sky" CD.

There may not be 23 cuts on the final CD. But once we boil it down, I promise you you will get a solid sense of Blue of a Kind. You'll hear the roots of this entire story on the CD, and you'll hear where we are going.

To the Sky, Alice!

There are so many hours of work put in by the guys to make this CD complete; so many dreams dreamt over many years. Visions developed, ideas realized and crystallized in long hours of drill and practice, rehearsal and performance, review and reevaluation and finally, standup time in the studio. "To the Sky" will echo the expressions of men on decks of sailing ships, men who worked railroad track, men who loved women and succeeded or loved them and lost, men who longed for freedom or for salvation, men who yearned to be with their God or with their girlfriend Under the Boardwalk. It will tell a lot of stories.

But one story it will tell is that of us becoming Blue. This is the Blue foundation - the beginning of our story, years in the making. Years.

Bob

The Blue of a Kind CD

The boys have been working hard. We have "tracked" mostly everything and we have feathered our nest. There are some important notes on what we intend to release.

Here is the probable lineup:

Recorded at Chillhouse studios, November - December 2008:
Under the Boardwalk
Words and Music by Artie Resnik and Kenny Young
Arranged by Mark Brymer

• [Steve Francis' solo makes this a total knockout]

You Don't Know Me
Words and Music by Cindy Walker and Eddy Arnold
Arranged by Bob Eggers

• [This really rocks and was requested of me by Saki Okura, one of our founders. I sang it with him on duet one time and it was a memorable moment. Let us say, Saki has a gift.]

Trouble Soon Be Over
Words and Music by Blind Willie Johnson
Arranged by Bob Eggers

• [Based on Geoff Muldaur's treatment of the same tune. This is a folk/blues songs from the 20's by Blind Willie Johnson that defies description. Songs from that era did not abide by the rules of pop song. It's a honey. I asked Geoff about "stealing" his treatment, and he said, "Go to town!" Ron Serisky's solo really does the number.]

This World Is Not My Home
Words and Music by Albert E. Brumley, Jr.
Additional lyric by Woody Guthrie

• [Another Steve Francis solo that drops jaws, I arranged this after hearing Geoff Muldaur sing it at Club Passim in Cambridge, MA. Geoff later told me, "Wow, that's a really difficult song!"]

Mobile Bay
Traditional Sea Chantey
Arranged by Marshall Bartholomew

• [It's a gem. Marshall Bartholomew's pumping chantey lives on. Bob Griffin's solo makes it special.]

Pirates Chorus
Words and Music by G. C. S. Southworth (Songs of Yale, 1870)

• [This song was mined from "Songs of Yale" published in 1870. I doubt it has ever been recorded in either the 20th or the 21st centuries. Blue of a Kind uses it for their marching song when entering the performance hall. This is a particularly moving rendition of a song that dates back to just after the Civil War.]

It's Gonna Rain, Again
Words and Music by Charles Johnson
Arranged by Bob Eggers

• [The Sensational Nightingales. Need I say more? Tug Yourgrau, Karl Geller and Mike Margolis send this one off into the stratosphere.]

To the Sky
Southern Folk Song
Arranged by Bob Eggers

• [No one has heard this song, but when they do, OMG! Evans brought me this from his voice teacher. I arranged it in like a day and wait until you hear Evans Travis nail it.]

MacNamara's Band
Words and Music by O'Connor/Stamford
Arranged by Lewis Girdler

• [My dear friend, Lewis Girdler arranged this piece for the Yale Whiffenpoofs. I sang the solo with the Whiffs in 1972-1973, and my dear pal, George Caruby sang Uncle Julius with me at Saunders Theater in Cambridge, MA for my musical hero, Leonard Bernstein sitting in the front row. As I recall, Lenny and his companion got up and danced while George and I sang. Pinch me! Dan Franklin and Br. Richard Cook give this tune a run for the money.]

South Australia
Traditional Sea Chantey
Arranged by Bob Eggers

• [I transcribed the entire "Songs of Yale", copyright 1953 assembled by the great Marshall Bartholomew. In the process, I learned something about arranging sea chanties. Check this one out. I sing the solo. It's a chantey men used to ask to be sung to them on their deathbeds. Stay with me...]

Away to Rio
Tradition Sea Chantey
Arranged by Marshall Bartholomew

• [No one does it better than Marshall Bartholomew. Extra verse penned by Evans Travis. I love a man who understands "holy stoning".]

'Linin' Track
Traditional Work Chantey
Arranged by Bob Eggers

• [Chanties were not only sung at sea. This is a chantey sung while aligning railroad track, a particularly grueling task. I got this song and the treament from the great Jug Band master, Jim Kweskin. Also from Club Passim. The place really rocks!]

Rolling Down To Old Maui
Traditional Sea Chantey
Arranged by Bob Eggers

• [What can anyone say about the greatest forecastle chantey of all time? (A forecastle chantey was a non-work song sung only for pleasure by the work crews, for the benefit of all.) If you have not heard this song, you will be stuck on it forever once you have. Wayne Leslie solos on this and his unbelievable bass tone must be heard to be believed. Karl Geller and I layer atop Wayne for a duet and later, a trio.]

Roll Jordan, Roll
Spiritual
Arranged by Marshall Bartholomew

• [Just listen and smoothe your short hairs down. Solos by Tug Yourgrau, Phil Kukura and Steve Francis.]

Loch Lomond
Traditional Scottish Folk Song
Arranged by Bob Eggers

• [Most of this arrangement was mined from an old songbook, but I crafted a front end and a back end and it's totally different, so it's mine! Irish tenor, Br. Richard Cook shows you how it should be sung.]

John the Revelator
Words and Music by Son House
Arranged by Blue of a Kind

• [We developed this arrangement ad hoc. Son House was our inspiration. We listened, sang, crafted, re-listened, performed.... This one can really get ya. Solos by Evans Travis, Tug Yourgrau, Mike Margolis]

Nkosi Sikelel i'Afrika (South African National Anthem)
Words and Music by Enoch Sontonga and Samuel Mqhayi
Adapted for men by Bob Eggers

• [Tug Yourgrau grew up in South Africa. He also composed the music for a Broadway show name "The Song of Jacob Zulu", which featured "Ladysmith Black Mambazo". Lucky for us, Tug sings with Blue of a Kind. He introduced me to this song and the SATB arrangement. I rearranged it for men. Singing this song used to land a man in jail in South Africa. This version will keep you free.]

Walk Humbly, Son
Words and Music by Michael R. Clem
Arranged by Bob Eggers

• [Eddie From Ohio. They are from Virginia. Go figure! This is another group I heard at Club Passim. I must buy some more tickets soon. Michael Clem writes the funny stuff they do, but this song also reveals a deep spiritual awareness.]

Sentimental Journey
Words by Bud Green
Music by Les Brown and Ben Homer
Arranged by Walter Latzko

• [Walter Latzko. The Chordettes. These 4 girls showed up in NYC and got hired at CBS to sing every week on the Arthur Godfrey show. I watched them as a kid. Each week they were dressed in stunning dresses and sang sultry mens' Barbershop songs like angels. Boys like me, and men twice my age swooned. Later, they went on to become pop and film stars. Walter Latzko was with them all the way, and married one of the dolls. Mr. Latzko has arranged a piece just for Blue of a Kind, but not this one. This is one he did for the Chordettes.]

Live/bonus tracks:
Kentucky Babe (live at Fitch Home, October 16, 2008)
Words by Richard Henry Buck
Music by Adam Geibel
Arranged by Walter Latzko

• [Walter Latzko, again. Also arranged for the Chordettes. You're going to love this performance.]

Morning Prayer (live at Fitch Home, October 16, 2008)
Words by Evans Travis
Music Peter I. Tchaikovsky
Arrangement by Bob Eggers

• [Umpteen years ago, I got snagged by a kid's video from Russia, because the soundtrack was the complete "Children's Album" by Tchaikovsky. Written for his piano pupils, it's a masterpiece no matter how you slice it. I just had to sing "Morning Prayer", a true song without words. I arranged it for men many years ago but could not come up with lyrics. Once I met Evans in Blue of a Kind, he asked me to let him at it. Hope you like it.]

To the Sky (live at Fitch Home, October 16, 2008)
Southern Folk Song
Arranged by Bob Eggers

• [Evans Travis and the boys raise some goosebumps in a live performance in Melrose, MA.]

Trouble Soon Be Over (live at MMTV, Dec. 14, 2008)
Words and Music by Blind Willie Johnson
Arranged by Bob Eggers

• [Ron Serisky rocks the house on local MMTV. Look for a YouTuber version of the same.]

The case of (That Slippery) Slide Trombone, continued

"Missing" Link is found and tells all!

Robert Frederick "Missing" Link wrote me back and has relieved me of my position that he is the "missing link" in the case of (That Slippery) Slide Trombone. I hate to see this theory blown, but oh, what fun!

First, Robert made clear he was merely an honorary Whiff. He actually graduated in 1942 but was made an honorary member of the 1947 Whiffenpoofs. I'm sure there's another story there and I won't venture any guesses beyond saying the guys at Yale during the War years didn't pass and become forgotten at the usual rate of 4 years apiece. Robert may never have sung with the Whiffs or he may have done a ton of pick-up singing to fill the ranks - this I don't know yet. He says he probably got the song in his head hearing the '42 Whiffs sing it.

But Robert was the man whose hand wrote the pages of music I described. First he wrote me that he had little if anything to do with Slide Trombone, certainly had not arranged it. He said he might have written it down in 1946 among a group of songs he called "Song Fest" that he and a bunch of guys probably sang together at least once, maybe many times. He said songs like that were floating around being sung and shared. He suggested perhaps the "Silver Dollar Quartet" was the inspiration the arrangement of Slide Trombone.

Well, that seemed like a dead end, but I thought I'd see if my mysterious song cycle happened to be this "Song Fest", so I wrote him back, naming all the songs I mentioned below. Well, he said, if I looked at the piece "Slow Motion Time", "There should be a picture of feet sticking out from a sombrero" on the last page. Indeed, when I brought up the scan and scrolled to the last page, there was his little hombre in the sombrero.

Oh, how I laughed to know something about the source of these charts.

What can be known about anything?

Many years ago, I read "The Perfect Storm" and the author said the thrill of writing that book was creating a story about an event that was not witnessed and about which nothing could be known. But in the process of researching narratives of others in that storm, some kind of knowledge clearly emerged.

Sometimes, you can't know anything about certain things, but every once in a while you can get a glimpse. I just read "Shadow Divers" about one of my schoolmates named John Chatterton who was diving a deep wreck off New Jersey, a vessel that from his first dive, he thought might be a submarine. On one of his first dives, he found a dish and in 200 feet of cold, turbid water and he turned the dish over to find a swastika on the underside. For some long minutes, John was the only person in the world who knew the wreck he was diving was a German U-boat from the big War. A sudden glimpse, and it made him laugh.

So I laughed!

A link was made way into the past, concerning documents I had seen in 1971 and gave me pause. Other SOB compadres have also observed and wondered about these same charts. My thoughts about the genesis and life of these songs, of this manuscript, including where these particular songs went in published records have been shared by everyone who has seen them. And now, for a few moments I know something! They are "Song Fest", recorded in 1946 by Robert "Missing" Link.

And they're definitely part of that whole "oral tradition" thing. As Robert wrote to me, "Sometimes songs arrange themselves in an evolutionary way." He doesn't really know how he knew all the pieces, note for note. Really quite a bit of knowledge there. His explanation: "I osmosed them somehow when I was there."

So who arranged (That Slippery) Slide Trombone? Maybe "WBB" is short for "we'll never know".

Still on the trail,
Bob