Every organization that works closely with each other develop a rhythm and process for how they function. The Mormon Tabernacle Choir is no different. We have inside jokes that make us laugh but would not make any sense to anyone else. Most of these are things Mack says during rehearsal that are funny. I call them Mackisms. He says some wonderful things that are both descriptive and hilarious although he is all business. I'm so grateful for him and what I learn from him week after week. He's an amazing musician. We are so blessed to be under his baton every week. I'm his number one fan.
A week or so ago I was working on t-shirts and I thought how hilarious it would be to put some of those inside jokes on clothing. I shared some on the choir facebook page and it was fun to get responses.
It made me laugh as well and during some downtime, I designed some more on my phone. I'm sharing them here and while no one reading this will probably understand them all, I know in the future I will probably read this and laugh. So, yeah, I'm putting this here for future self to make myself laugh. Your welcome future me.
From,
Present me.
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| Mack Wilberg works closely with Elder David Warner who writes lyrics. His gift for language is amazing and we have to learn some very clever phrases from him. I learned just how talented he was when we were performing the Easter Concert in 2017. Lyrics were being changed often throughout the process and his ability to convey depth of meaning and change lyrics so easily was very impressive. Anyway, ask any choir member and they can tell you, David Warner lyrics are tricky, beautiful and sometimes hard and they never go away. Such talent. |
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| I think this could be said of any choir with tenors, right? Hahaha. Just kidding tenors. I love you. I want to actually be one of you but alas, I sing too low. |
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| We are often told to Sparkle. Sparkle is a term that means, looking alive and engaged in the music we sing. To be camera ready. We need to do this regardless of how we feel as we are conveying a message and the message is important. |
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| Sometimes we give tickets to people who cancel but for no good reason or don't use the tickets at all. This makes me angry because it is a waste of those tickets. We could have given them to people who would have used them. So I made my own policy. If I give you tickets and you don't use them, you don't get them, ever again. Sorry, but if I give you tickets, I expect you to use them or to be sure they are used. |
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| I will definintely sing for Conference tickets. Wait, I already do. |
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| Mack used to joke around that Altos sometimes sang in a "husky" voice that didn't match the style of what everyone else was doing. So he would say, "You sound like a truck driver... NOTHING AGAINST TRUCK DRIVERS." Hahaha. It was funny and it has stuck as something we remember. |
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| "Tap!" We are always encouraged to "tap" during rehearsal because it helps us all keep tempo with the orchestra and with each other. So, it is not odd to see the entire choir tapping on their chests during rehearsal. It makes a huge difference for sure. One thing I think would be helpful is to reinforce the fabric where we tap because I'm sure the material is wearing thin. LOL. |
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| During our in-service training, we were taught to try and sing higher on the pitch by imagining we were singing with a walnut in our mouth and having the sound go above the walnut to the roof of the mouth. Brother Burbidge, a bass and professor of music and voice at BYU taught the principle. I will always remember this because hey, it includes food and music. LOL. |
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| We are often told not to sing in a certain place in our voices. It is the part that is low (back of the throat with a swallowed sound) and makes us sound flat. It is loud too. Yet, it is a place a lot of people like to sing. How do I know this? Because they told me. LOL. Mack is right though. With a choir, there are so many issues involved unless people work to sing with the same placement and matching everyone else in the choir. I made this shirt for those guys that like that place in their voice. LOL. |
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| We had Patrice Tipoki, a guest soloist on Music and the Spoken Word. She is a musical theater performer and when Mack was reading her biography to the choir, he mispronounced the name of the Wicked Witch of the West, Elphaba from the hit musical, Wicked. We laughed as it was funny. Mack followed up with, "Well, I'm not really a fan of Musical Theater." which, to be honest, is a completely acceptable reason. |
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| Mack often says this when we are singing flat. He wants a unified sound from every section of the choir and sometimes, we (the men) are too husky. When he says this, it makes us laugh but he is right. When we correct it, we sound so much better unified. |
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| One of the enemies of choral singing includes having voices "stick out" or singing louder than everyone else. Mack will often say, "Don't be a hero." He's right. One voice sticking out is like using a marker on a white wall. It messes everything up. |
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| Because we are live, on television, we are often told to "sparkle" and to be ready at all times. Mack said this once and it made me laugh because he couldn't remember the quote directly so we helped him. I guess he is not a fan of classic movies either. |
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| We are constantly told to sing higher on the pitch to match the orchestra. I made this as a plea of my own in hopes that we could find a happy medium. |
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| Barry Anderson, our tour manager, has this monologue he gives when we are on tour about people who take too long in the food line. People chatting and asking too many questions which hold up the line for the rest of us to eat and wastes time. The monologue is hilarious and you can see a piece of it in the Dream Tour video from the Motab tour of 2015 to the East Coast. |
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| We are sometimes told to be felt and not heard by Mack. This means, don't overpower the most important part of the piece and only support what is needed. So, basses are often being told to be felt so the melody can be heard. |
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| This t-shirt was made by, Tyler Hill, a choir brother in response to my Facebook post with the t-shirts. This is reference to Lloyd Newell who says this phrase before every broadcast at around 9:27 am. It gets a laugh by the audience EVERY SINGLE TIME. lol. This was clever. I would wear this shirt. |
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Mack said this during rehearsal and I thought it was hilarious. He told the basses not to sing "in the bargain basement" and to make a full, beautiful, supporting sound rather than just a loud, boisterous, heavy, FLAT sound.
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Choir is a great place for unity, cooperation and laughter and I know that in the future I will look back at these and just laugh and laugh and laugh. Of course, no one will know what I'm laughing about but at least I can entertain myself for a while. LOL.
