My “Over-the-Top” Experience: Singing with Chordiology to “Pop” the Question

After dating my friend Dawn for over two years, thoughts and discussion started turning towards marriage. Dawn and I had met at a dance and started dating in 2007. We’ve enjoyed each other’s company very much, and have a lot of interests and activities in common. We both enjoy dancing, playing music together, singing together, doing bird-watching, canoeing, camping, and just about any outdoor activities.

To make the marriage proposal memorable, I knew what I needed to do. I needed to sing to her, since singing barbershop is a big part of my life, and she likes it when I sing. But, I wasn’t confident I had a good enough solo voice to sing to her by myself out in public. I do realize it’s really the thought that counts. Even if I would do a terrible job singing, she would still love it if I did my best and was sincere. However, I knew I would feel more comfortable singing four-part harmony in a quartet, where I wouldn’t have to be the lone, solo voice. So, what better quartet singers to prop me up than Chordiology, the 2007 District Quartet Champions? I approached Rob with the idea back in February, and he was very enthusiastic about it. When he asked Paul and Cliff if they would join us, they also responded enthusiastically, being the great guys that they are.

The choice of a song to use was a no-brainer. It would be one of Dawn’s favorite songs, “Till There Was You”, by Meredith Willson, from the play, “The Music Man”. On one of our first dates, when we were driving home, we started singing together in the car. One song that popped into my head that I started singing was “Till There Was You”. Dawn mentioned that it was one of her favorite songs, and that her Dad used to sing that song all the time. She hadn’t heard it in years, probably since back when he sang it at home. Many of the lyrics have special meaning as well. “There were birds in the sky, but I never saw them winging…” Dawn introduced me to the hobby of bird-watching. “And there was music….” Dawn has encouraged me to dust off that old guitar and play music with her (she plays fiddle). And of course, there are the lyrics that mention her name, “….sweet fragrant meadows, of Dawn and dew….” So, it would be the perfect song to use.

I called the music director at the Barbershop Harmony Society to ask his advice about which of the many arrangements to use. He suggested the arrangement which has a learning CD available, and he said, gosh, there’s a great Bass line at the end, where the Bass has a solo pickup, “Till there was youooooooooooo……..” That sounded good to me. So, I ordered the sheet music and learning tracks for four.

First, we each learned the song on our own, and the plan was to record our voice against the other perfect learning tracks using Audacity. I ran into some technical difficulties with this. Audacity would not record my voice in synchronization with the learning tracks. This turned out to be a disk drive problem, where Audacity could not write the recorded track to disk fast enough on my old computer. I eventually fixed this problem, and was able to get my recorded track sent out to everyone.

At our first rehearsal, I was a bit nervous, hoping I wouldn’t embarrass myself singing with guys of this caliber. I was thinking I would come in all business, and get the rehearsal done quickly so as to not waste these guys’ time. I quickly learned that this is not the Chordiology way. Rather than diving into the rehearsal, Dave grilled some bratwursts for us, and we sat around on the patio socializing for a while, in no particular hurry. I soon became aware that these guys really wanted to do this, and they were enjoying the experience of it, and that being social is an important part of it. All of the guys made me feel at ease, and offered a lot of encouragement.

When we started rehearsing, Dave gave me some really valuable feedback to improve my singing. He told me to not punch the Bass line and to not sing so loudly, but to blend in more with the rest of the quartet. He also told me my singing was too “breathy”, and that was why I was running out of air all of the time. When I made some corrections to this, I was amazed at how I could hold notes and phrases out much longer without running out of air.

The first rehearsal went pretty well, considering it was the first time we were all in the same room singing it together for the first time. There were some spots that sounded really nice, and there were some areas that needed work yet, but that was to be expected.

I suggested having one more rehearsal before the big day.

Another thing I learned about Chordiology, is how extremely busy and scheduled up their lives are. In addition to having full-time jobs and families to spend time with, they have a lot of rehearsals and gigs scheduled on their calendars. It was difficult to find a day to do the actual proposal, which would work for Chordiology and also for Dawn’s busy schedule. It was also difficult to find days we could all agree upon to rehearse the song. To their credit, all the guys made a super-extra effort to make it to another practice. Dave was again very gracious to offer his home for the rehearsal, and to act as a coach, even though he wouldn’t even be singing at the actual event. Paul also made an extra special effort to come to another rehearsal, even though his wife Amy was watching the kids for two other days that week when he would be singing. I also learned that Cliff was committed to singing at the event, even though he and his wife later received an invitation to a friend’s wedding that same evening. His wife went to the wedding by herself, and he met up with her later. These guys are amazing, as far as what they will do for a fellow barbershopper.

Well, at the second rehearsal, there were some good things. As Dave said, the song is “ringing all over the place”. That was good. However, there were still some sections of the song that weren’t going so well. That’s when it occurred to me, that this was a really difficult arrangement with intricate harmonies, and that maybe I was expecting too much for it to sound perfect in every way. I thought, “It will be what it will be”.

The Big Day……

The Big Day was Friday, August 14th.

Cliff sent me an e-mail the day before, saying he was all set, but just needed to know, what song were we singing? He explained that since he recently got bumped on the head, he couldn’t remember certain things. He said, “We all meet at Jim’s right? Who’s Jim?”

These guys love to joke around and have a good time. It helped to keep me loose and not to get nervous about this.

On the big day, Cliff and Paul, Rob and I met at my house about an hour before we needed to leave for the restaurant where the proposing would take place. We all got dressed up in our tuxedo’s. We had a chance to run the song a bunch of times after we warmed up our voices. I was stunned and floored at how good it sounded. These guys had really stepped up to the plate, and had obviously done a ton of work to polish up the song. Everything sounded fantastic, and I was beside myself with excitement! As Cliff said, people in the restaurant are going to go nuts and erupt in applause after we do this. I guess Chordiology has a way of pulling everything together at the last moment. Paul was telling me how they often change things right before they are about to go on-stage.

In addition to rehearsing the song a bunch of times, we also polished up the choreography. I would go down on my knee during the last “Till there was you” Bass pickup line, and Paul would hand me the open ringbox so I wouldn’t have to fumble around for it. We had also modified the tag a bit. Instead of doing it as written, we planned to change the words from “Until there was you” to “Please say-ay I do” as I was on my knees holding out the ring. Chordiology really understands how to be entertaining.

I had arranged for one of Dawn’s girlfriends, Cyndy, to get Dawn out to the restaurant. We selected Gratzi’s restaurant, in downtown Ann Arbor. Cyndy did a great job of getting Dawn there on time, without suspecting anything. Dawn simply thought that this was a girl’s night out. The manager at Gratzi’s also did a super job with this. He and all of the wait-staff were in on what was going to happen. They seated Dawn and Cyndy at a table for two up in the balcony, with Dawn’s back to the stairs, so she wouldn’t see us coming up the stairs.

We proceeded up the stairs, all dressed up sharply in our tuxedo’s, and surprised the heck out of her. We then proceeded to sing the song. I was naturally a little nervous, but as soon as I heard the first chord lock and ring, I calmed down and knew this was going to sound great. You could see that Dawn was thrilled we were singing her favorite song.

I’m happy to report that Dawn said “Yes!” Everyone around us did indeed erupt in applause, and the waitress brought us a bottle of champagne. The wait-staff pushed some tables together, and we all sat down and enjoyed a great evening with good friends and good food and drink. During the meal, we sang several more songs, and received applause after each one, particularly after we really rang the last chord on “Sweet and Lovely”.

So, this whole event went better than I had hoped for in my wildest dreams. Dawn said “Yes”, and I experienced the thrill of singing with Chordiology.

Thanks, guys, for making this a wonderful and memorable occasion!