11/3/09

Today has been a productive, and interesting, day. D times 4, or Dx4, gathered at my house to review arrangements and rehearse. We are an accapella quartet with an interest, and emphasis, on doo wop music. We are all in our late 40's or early 50's, so this is music we have all heard, and sung, all of our lives.

We decided on the name Dx4 because all of our names start with Ds. I’m David and there’s Daniel, Darrell and Dwight. I don’t think all four of us have ever actually performed together before but I have sung with each of the others in other quartets, or groups, at different times and different places. Daniel and I even sang with a quartet that sang the national anthem at some local sporting events. Darrell and I were in a men’s small chorus which sang in local churches and Dwight and I met singing karaoke at a local club, we harmonized so well together some people thought we had rehearsed before we got there. We are all from different backgrounds, but we think, and we hope, that we can come together and sing well together.
So today we started our actual rehearsal. Each of us brought our favorite songs, some arranged for four part harmony, some not, but between the four of us we can take care of that. We started off a little rocky, but once we got going it was really difficult to stop.

When we first talked about singing together we were talking about singing just for fun, maybe an occasional church or baseball game, nothing big. Then last month Daniel came back from a trip to Disneyland and told us about the quartet wandering around California Adventure. That really piqued my interest, an accapella quartet walking around the streets of California Adventure singing doo wop songs. It got me thinking that maybe there is enough interest is such a group to be worth trying to perform a few places and maybe even put out a CD. Now, I have no delusions of grandeur. None of us do. Still, it would be fun to hear our music, our voices, being played on somebody’s CD player, and maybe even have an opportunity or two to perform somewhere.
So with that in mind we started rehearsals today. We aren’t quite ready to book a studio, but it sure was a rush when Darrell started the bass line to "Blue Moon" and we all came in on our different parts. My dog seemed to like it, she didn’t howl or bark, so I took that as a good sign.

Before next week we will each rehearse on our own and try to bring at least one piece of music, each, arranged for four part harmony.