Onion Skinning

In our barbershop chorus, The Kentuckians, our Director keeps challenging us to keep our pitch up and stay on key by imagining the addition of “onion skin” layers of higher frequency sound, particularly when holding notes of long duration.  Without acute consciousness of this kind, the pitch will invariably drop in unaccompanied vocalization – no band, no keyboard, no orchestra to help maintain the proper key. 

It’s kind of a metaphor for life:  Without acute consciousness in execution – and with no supporting band or orchestra – our performance tends to sag.  So it would do us a world of good to do some “onion skinning” toward higher levels of performance in our everyday pursuits – certainly in the ones that count the most.

The question of the day is: What can we do to get the “Better of Ourselves” engaged to the fullest extent to get the fullest return? 

This narrative follows the progression of an international championship barbershop quartet, Forefront, featured in The HARMONIZER magazine, May/June 2017. 

Organized in 2009, this quartet went through multiple “onion skin” layers of development – both collectively and individually – on their way toward finally winning the Gold in Nashville in 2016. 

Early in the game, a couple of the guys were “dealing with some personal issues.”  One admits he “had a lot more diva” in him early on. 

NOTE: “Personal issues” often involve insecurity, intolerance, a “diva” mentality / attitude, “Tribal” tendencies, and lounging in a “comfort zone” apart from positive engagement with significant others.

When the “diva” mentality/attitude began getting in the way and wasn’t working anymore, there remained enough more “winning” to be had and more than enough “losing” to avoid that things began to change.  “I quit smoking and all that stuff to come back and say, ‘Let’s give this a shot.’”

One more thing about “Personal Issues”:  So often I have seen major “Difference Makers” who had incredible “personal issues” cope by burying themselves in their work to a point that work became their salvation.  Sometimes that’s merely running away from dealing with the vicissitudes of life, and it’s not necessarily recommended for everyone.  But it can help take the “edge” off some very sharp corners of life, especially where noble enterprise is involved. 

Several changes in Forefront personnel were made along the way.  Life happens, and it’s extremely difficult to find four guys from anywhere who are compatible in voice, social associativeness and a sense of Mission, never mind sustainably accessible for a major lifeline commitment. 

It also turned out that there was much more to “learning the trade” of Champions than they had imagined ... or had accepted for themselves, “being as ‘untouchably good’ as they were”.  But they committed together to take on the mantle of ownership for becoming the absolute best they could possibly become. 

“It doesn’t matter how old you are, how experienced you are,

you don’t know everything.”

Remember: These were not novices.  They had “been around the block” of a cappella music with years of experience plus a significant amount of formal training under their belts.

However, to make it to the next level, they needed some serious coaching from top vocal coaches.  Coaching emphases included technical accuracy, expression and expressiveness, stage presence and presentation, persistence toward consistency, and affirmation (they needed all the positive reinforcement they could get for the difficult stuff that didn’t come easy, for breaking unproductive habits, and for encouragement through the interminable repetitions to exhaustion.)

“We believed we could win

because she [Coach Jean] believed we could win.”

The winning formula turned out to be: First, BE COMMITTED, then work like you’ve never worked before and become EXCEPTIONALLY GOOD, and, along the way, submit to being SUPREMELY COACHABLE! 

“I found them to be supremely ‘coachable,’

being flexible and agile, willing to try new ideas,

and having the savvy to grasp and master subtle musical points.”

Coach David

But there were still significant personal benchmark hurdles to be overcome; the closer to perfection, the more difficult the bars are to be cleared.  [“Onion Skinning”!]   

“It felt more like a psychiatrist session than anything. 

I made excuses and fought him and didn’t want to give in.

He pushed me as a performer into areas that I had never gone before,

and I hated it.  He didn’t give up. 

Eventually, though, I accepted the fact that, to do the things we wanted to do,

I had to get [through being] uncomfortable.”
Aaron

Here’s a Boulder-Sized Challenge for us: Becoming “vulnerable”, while, at the same time, becoming strong enough – good enough – that vulnerability is not only a non-issue but a slingshot accelerator to higher orbit performance. 

“What’s nice now is that when we make mistakes,

we acknowledge them, we work to fix them,

but we don’t let them get to us.”

Aaron

That’s higher orbit “onion skinning”! 

So practice “Onion Skinning”.  BE COMMITTED, become EXCEPTIONALLY GOOD, accept VULNERABILITY and become SUPREME COACHABLE to help navigate rough water, keep you from going under, and accelerate your move to higher orbit functionality.  Quartermaster    

Quote of the Week

“A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.”  Antoine de Saint-Exupery