our story

 

A Brief (really! you shoulda seen the long one...) History of Chordiology

At a late 1980’s Huron Valley Harmonizer chorus rehearsal, Dave Spizarny, bass, Rob Pettigrew, baritone, and Kelly Brummett, tenor/lead/baritone/bass, asked Paul Ellinger, a barely legal kid who had almost never sung a note out of the shower, to get together on a Friday night to ring a few chords.  After singing "Shine On Me" around fifty times, we were hooked, and Chordiology was born. 


During Chordiology’s early years, we laughed more than we sang.  Kelly told jokes and laughed louder than everyone else at the punch lines.  Paul made us laugh with his kinetic energy; you never knew what he’d do next.  Spiz made us laugh with pure sarcasm, and Rob made us laugh commenting on everything everyone did and said.  It was a fun time for the quartet. 


During Chordiology’s early middle years, we laughed more than we sang.  We performed at several Barbershop and Sweet Adeline shows, and we developed different themes for shows, like pretending that we were rehearsing instead of performing or doing an entire show based on “things I always wanted to do on stage” – and don’t ask, because this show is coming out of retirement.  Then we went to contest, and reality hit. We were successful entertainers, but we didn’t sing very well.  We switched directions, concentrating less on comedy and more on singing.  Rob left the quartet to spend more time with his new family, Kelly switched to baritone, and Ed Pendleton joined as tenor.  Ed’s humor and personality fit like a glove, so it was a fun time for the quartet. 


During Chordiology’s later middle years, we continued to laugh more than we sang.  But the quartet changed again, as Ed dropped out.  Kelly invited Macomb tenor Cliff Dake to a rehearsal, to see if our personalities and voices matched. Fortunately for Chordiology, Cliff was a match made in heaven.  Cliff laughed as hard as anyone at Kelly’s jokes, at Kelly and Paul’s bickering, and at Spiz’s cynical comments.  After about 30 seconds of discussion, during which Kelly and Paul bickered and Spiz made some sarcastic comment, we voted him in. And while our contest scores didn’t improve, we continued to have fun, laughing as much as singing at almost every rehearsal.  It was a fun time for the quartet.


Around 2002, tragedy struck, as Kelly became seriously ill.  Almost to the end, we laughed and sang, until the sadness and Kelly’s pain were too much to overcome, so we cried instead.  And then Kelly left us.


By this time, Rob was back with the quartet, giving us the current Chordiology.  Years of voice lessons, Harmony Quartet College, a variety of barbershop coaches, Tim’s learning tracks, a “truth machine” (a multi track recorder), and Audacity, a freeware recording program, have helped us improve our singing accuracy.  Somehow and somewhere, we learned to move while we sang, which apparently is the secret to this “energy” thing that coaches have harassed us about for years. 


We began focusing on increasing our repertoire and doing more shows, and got ourselves out of the four-songs-for-competition routine. We made it a point to bring some of the fun of our rehearsals out onto the stage with us. In 2007, it had been a few years since we'd gone to a competition so we decided to go back just to see what those scary JUDGES thought about what we were doing. Much to our complete surprise, we took first place!


In the years since, we've been fortunate enough to have a busy performance schedule, and have sung all over the Midwest, doing shows at festivals, barbershop chapter shows, major corporate and athletic events, and many other performances. We feel honored, lucky, and thrilled to have been given this opportunity!


However, despite trying different rehearsal techniques and singing dozens of shows a year, we have yet to stop laughing long enough to have a serious rehearsal. 


So the next time you see a Chordiologist, come over and chat.  But don’t come over unless you’re ready to be singing after a minute or two of small talk.  A song, a tag, or a song AND a tag, it doesn’t matter.  We love to kick a guy or two out of the quartet and sing with other people.  It gives some of us a chance to sing, and it gives others of us a chance hear a new joke, chat with other barbershoppers, or to just stand and reflect on this marvelous activity we call barbershop singing.


We hope you enjoy Chordiology’s singing and sense of humor.  We sure do.



Members of the Quartet

If you must know, here’s what the Chordiologists do when they aren’t singing in Chordiology.

Dave Spizarny (Spiz) lives with his wife in the independent nation of Ann Arbor.  He’s a radiologist at Henry Ford Hospital, so he spends a lot of time in his car, listening to satellite radio and books on CD.  He loves history and politics, which according to Spiz, comes from the Latin poly, which means many, and tics, which are blood sucking arachnids.
 
Rob Pettigrew works for the University of Michigan as an Academic Technology Specialist, helping faculty use media and technology to improve teaching and learning. For more than ten years, Rob has directed the Huron Valley Harmonizers, a barbershop chorus in the Ann Arbor/Ypsilanti area. He lives in Ann Arbor, despite growing up a Buckeye fan. His therapy sessions to resolve this irreconcilable conflict continue to this day.
 
Paul Ellinger owns the Paulmark Agency, which sells personal and commercial insurance.  Paul sang with elmoTHUMM, a high-energy, a cappella rock group for over 10 years, but his roots have always been firmly placed in barbershop.   He is a highly sought-after coach, speaker, and emcee.  He is the creator of the Supercharging Your Chapter! outreach and also the creator of Wavebox Singing. Paul lives with his wife Amy and loves being a dad to his two boys Parker and Jackson.
 
Cliff Dake lives with his wife in Novi, Michigan.  Cliff is a retired salesman, having spent decades selling the equipment that the auto companies use to make cars. He's the proud grandfather of four awesome grandkids.  When he’s not singing or playing with his grandkids, he’s riding his snowmobile or tractor or ATV or Harley.  Cliff doesn’t hear well anymore.