Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, & let perpetual light shine upon them. May the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen. Happy All Souls Day 2012.
Greetings. salutations & a great big HOLA from under1music studios here in the beautiful South Bay of Southern California. As you might have seen from our last post, we've been a little busy lately preparing for the upcoming Guadalupana Event/Mass at East Los Angeles College Stadium on December 2nd, 2012 with Archbishop Jose Gomez presiding. Please pray for all who volunteer, participate & plan this annual event, that all go well & also that it doesn't rain on us.
Yesterday, All Saints Day, a holy day of obligation for us Catholics, put us 7 o'clock at night, in Hacienda Heights, CA at St. John Vianny's Church. We had a pretty busy day that sort of ended up there in that city visiting relatives. We hadn't gone to Mass so we quickly found that St. John Vianny had it's last Mass of the day in Spanish, so off we went. Before entering the make shift church (their regular church was burnt down by vandalism awhile back, so their temporary church is a well built, tent revival style structure). Anyways, we went to use the restrooms & upon passing by the church we happened to catch the choir rehearsing songs & already, I could see the look in my wife's eyes as she mumbled under her breath, "this is what I was dreading". Now in previous posts I've written about volunteer choirs, especially the ones who play the Spanish Masses, but mainly about their "leadership" a.k.a. directors & how they choose to or in many cases not to help their choir members reach their potential & yet again, in Hacienda Heights for crying out loud, we've managed to bump into another repeated vent-able topic.
To make this l-o-n-g story as short as possible, in a nut shell this is my observance of what I saw & couldn't believe was happening. 1st of all, & to me most noticeable right out of the bag, their pianist. I told myself, he should be working at a Shakey's Pizza Parlor playing an upright, providing the silent movie soundtrack to a Charlie Chaplin film. Without talking about it, my daughter kinda heard the same thing & suggested a job with the Disneyland Dixieland Band. O well, like father, like daughter. My wife simply said he was too over the top for the music they chose. 2nd, the actual choir director, I believe his name is Jose. He was wearing a wireless headset mic, I said to myself, oh wow, he's gonna direct from the sound booth or something,...wrong. Next to him I notice a snare drum on a stand, 1 cymbal, wind chimes & a stick bag. Again, I said to myself, oh cool, they've got a percussionist who's gonna add a little rhythm,....wrong.
Mass began. (Sidebar: there were 2 altar  boys bearing lit candles & 1 altar "girl" with long hair. Well, no one really noticed, except my daughter, one of the altar boys was fiddling with his candle & somehow the altar "girl's" hair caught on fire. Like I said, if it wasn't for my daughter 1st noticing & speaking out, it would've been worse. Thank God the altar "girl" was fine. A little smelly, but fine. I have 2 words for something like that "altar boys?". Thank you Iris.) As I said Mass began & the entrance hymn they chose was Litany of the Saints, no music. You would think that the director would place as cantor the better singer, yeah, so did we. What we didn't know was by the sounds of the rest of the choir, the director's pick WAS probably the best. Overall, the song came off pretty weak for an entrance but the son's content was more important as the rest of the congregation were singing along. Getting back to Jose, soon came the Gloria. Without looking up, I asked my wife, "who is off key?" She turned & said, "the director". I said, "Wha??" Sure enough, the more he tried, whether it was unison or harmony, he just couldn't find the key. Oh sure, some spots he got lucky, but they were too far & in between. Then I heard the rat, tat, tat of the snare. The pinging of the cymbal & the occasional sound of the chimes. The patterns did not match. The playing was pretty much at random like saying: I'll hit this 5 times then the snare 17 times the bell twice & just mix it up. Again without looking up I asked my wife, "who's playing percussion?" she turned & said, "the director". I said "Wha??" OH NO HE DID ENT! Words of advice to Mr. Jose the Spanish Choir Director at St. John Vianny Church in Hacienda Heights, California: Lose the wireless headset, stop the loud singing, give up the drumming (find a real drummer), focus more on the choir sounding like,....a choir. Surround yourself with competent, seasoned musicians, not overpowering ones. Again, most parishioners are just happy to have a joyful noise, & sometimes it is noise, at Mass. But we as musicians should take pride in what we are assigned to do, especially making it presentable to our Lord. We've seen too many volunteers choirs that simply need good leadership & speaking from experience, it's hard work, but in the end, everyone benefits. So until we post again, please keep caeli & their music apostolate in your prayers, especially for our upcoming Guadalupana event. Thanx a mil!

We know, we know, where have we been, right? Easy answer: busy. In fact so busy that we're thinking of changing our name legally to "busy". And if you probably ask around our household or friends, the word they would use probably would be, "lazy". We beg to differ, but either or, we just haven't made time to add any new blog material ,....until,....
Salutations & greetings from under1music studios located somewhere in the almost always sunny South Bay area of California. Yep it's been awhile since our last blog but you know the old saying "better late, than never". Although the phrase "better never late" might tend to please a lot of people most of the time. Nevertheless we here and ready to open today's topic.
As some of you might know, last year in December we released our latest CD entitled "La Guadalupana Reina y Madre de las Americas" (Our Lady of Guadalupe Queen & Mother of the Americas). Sales, especially around the Christmas holidays were good & it's one of those CD's that is seasonal meaning every Oct., Nov., Dec., Jan. sometimes restocking is quite in demand. Not to mention (but we are) our bilingual Christmas CD entitled "Merry Christmas / Feliz Navidad" we produced 2 years ago also might need to be restocked for sales. We self promote our recordings via St. Joseph Bookstore located at St. Peter & St. Paul Church in Wilmington, CA. The internet via our websites www.caeli.com & www.judyrocha.com. And of course, word of mouth.
Another form of promotion to help in this case is performing "LIVE" at different venues and/or events (including ALL smaller, lesser gigs, even things like wedding ceremonies, prayer services, retreats, coffee shops, etc., whatever it takes). Just recently, we've been asked by Monsignor John Moretta of Resurrection Church in Los Angeles, CA to perform songs from our lasted recording prior to a huge Guadalupana Celebration & Mass held every year at the East Los Angeles College Stadium. Now, he's asked us in the past to perform, & we have, directing a choir, performing along side the great Mariachi Voz de America & all was super & dandy, however this time around we know is going to be a whole lot different. Not only has he offered us the chance to perform but gave us permission to promote our "La Guadalupana" CD. Both on radio stations & in a plethora of LA based church announcements prior to event. Also by rendering a booth at the actual event, selling not only our CD's but maybe T-shirts as well. Sure, aside from what we have going on at under1music studio, local gigs & just plain everyday life, now we need to set aside time for a little R&R, (Rest & Relaxation, we wish) Recruiting & Rehearsals. You see when caeli records in the studio, primarily it's just us 2, my wife Judy & me, Roger. On occasion we ask our musician friends to join in & lend their talents to the different tracks (guitar, bass, etc.), but the bulk of the production rests on "caeli's" shoulders. So this means, looking up old friends (as well as new ones) to see if they would be willing to sacrifice time, travel & effort to help plan, practice & perform at a one time, nonpaying, outdoor, huge venue (in front of 10,000 peeps or more) gig in honor of our Lady of Guadalupe. We're talking 5/6 piece rhythm section (guitars, bass, keyboards, drums, percussion) brass section plus backup singers. Yep, a lot of work & sacrifice but at the same time, worth it just to get our songs of hope, faith & love in the Name of Jesus & His mother, the blessed virgin Mary out where many others can hear & hopefully be inspired & touched. Oh did we mention, there are talks of the Spanish Network Univision possibly taping the event for a televised program the following weekend? Who said God doesn't work in mysterious ways? Please, pray for us as we tackle this latest venture that God has placed in our hands & through the intercession of our Lady of Guadalupe, all we seek shall come to be in the name of her Son. Until next time, be good & stay close to God.

Sometime early on last year, I (Roger) saw an Audiologist (basically an ear doctor). After going through all of the procedures, the doctor finally determined that I had nerve damage in my left ear. What started out as loss of about 70% of my hearing, along with a ringing and hissing sound turned out to be more that just tinnitus. Now I guess you could say that in my younger years, sitting behind a trap set (drum set for those of you who attend or went to Banning High), waling relentlessly, pounding away to hard rock 'n' roll tunes might have had something to do with my hearing loss. Back then, I would beg to differ, but now,...I am so totally regretful. But, I thank God for my wife Judy, who is not only a talented singer, pianist, music arranger and cook, but also because she has one of the most sensitive hearing capabilities I have ever witnessed in my lifetime. Why she's so musically conscience, that if you strike a chord, she could tell you what key it is without looking at the finger positioning. Now, forget America's Got Talent, it's more like Judy Rocha's Got Talent! She has been a wonderful help especially in the studio when it comes down to mixing the tunes we've recorded. She'll catch all the levels and basically figure out what needs to be balanced, adjusted, refined and/or corrected.
The point I'm getting to if you haven't guessed yet, is vocalization and pitch control (staying in tune while you're singing for those of you who attend or went to Banning High). The last post I wrote touched on the tuning of instruments and how important it is that you do so for every performance whether it be at rehearsals with the band, performances in public (especially then) or merely just practicing on your own. STAY IN TUNE PEOPLE! Now, even more importantly, this same reasoning applies to VOCALS. With my hearing deficiency, I have good days and plenty of bad ones as well. For instance, if we're performing at Mass and I have the lead vocal on the 1st song. I start to sing and out of the corner of my eye, I can see my lovely wife Judy leaning over and loudly whispering: "YOU'RE OFF!" I pretty much back away from the mic and give up singing until I feel or should I say, until get the OK from Judy that my control is back. I do not, I repeat, I do not have a problem with someone telling me "Hey, your off key!". I will do whatever I can to correct the situation either immediately, or taking some time, or just shutting up completely. Again, I have no problem with that! Anything to save the overall performance for the band's sake.
However (finally arriving at this week's topic), there are more than just a hand full I'm talking hundreds, maybe thousands or so) of quote unquote bad singers out there, who are like those American Idol contestants that simply won't take no for an answer. Who think they know more that the judges. Who just haven't had anyone ever tell them: "you know, maybe you should look seriously into some vocal coaching for yourself". On occasion, as church choir directors, you come across of these types. Usually 10 times out of 10 the choir is volunteer and you don't want to discourage anyone by saying don't come back, you're making the rest of us sound really sucky. You need to find a medium, while maybe working with them on a one to one basis before or after rehearsals. Telling them if they really want to take seriously what they do that maybe some vocal coaching classes at a local community college could help. Or as we have done in the past, place them as far away as possible from any overhead microphone there might be. Should they ever come up to you and ask if they could sing "solo" at sometime, you respond with a big smile on your face and say: "You? Solo, sure, like all by yourself,....maybe at home,...in your shower?". I know that they are there singing along, praising God, doing what they presume is the best job that they can, with all of their hearts, but in actuality, it can bring down any performance not to mention the morale of the other members in the choir. So directors, do what you think is best, handle your situations, take them personally not lightly. Be the example and teacher, help those who need help and may not see or realize it. If they take offence, so be it, but it's all part of the bigger picture and they need to understand, comprehend, but most of all accept and in good spirits make the proper choices and/or sacrifices. Now, if the whole choir is singing in unison and off key? That my friends, is just plain unclaimed recognisability (for those of you who attend or went to Banning High, look it up). Until next time, God Bless!

Greetings & Happy quiet, hopefully back to normal 7th of July ('cos if the 4th was anything like it was at our residence, I'm talkin' war zone; peaceful quiet is good). For those of you who don't know who I am, this is Roger Rocha, CEO (Chief Executive Officer) & co-founder of under1music records recording artists, caeli along side Judy Rocha, CEEO (that would be Chief Everything Else Officer) & also co-founder of the aforementioned musical band. If you're here, it's probably because you were at the website & clicked on cmBLOG. We started this blog basically so other Catholic musicians could have a place to share their ideas, thoughts, stories,...but mainly to vent about anything that they've seen or experienced while visiting other parish choirs/bands, good or bad. Don't get me wrong, as I've said in the past, we're not perfect only God is, there is always somebody better & make sure, if you don't do anything else (here comes the segue to this week's topic) TUNE YOUR INSTRUMENTS. 

Guitar, bass, woodwinds, horns, violins any instrument that needs to be tuned before and sometimes during a performance is a must people! C'mon, if you can afford a double java chiller frappuccino with whipped cream, twice to 3 times a week, you can put aside some moola for a tuner. Even if you can't afford it, go to the piano, find middle "C" & start from there. Then at least if you hit a wrong chord or if you don't quite reach that right note, well...never mind, just tune it up please. Especially you string players (guitar, bass, cellos, etc.) when you are dealing with brand new strings, "all ears on deck". If your fellow musician is out of tune, let him know because remember, you're working together as one unit to please our Lord & the rest of the congregation. Electronic keyboards, along with acoustic pianos, can de-tune as well, although it is rare. So you're pretty much safe with your electronic keyboard being the go to for the right sound/key. Acoustic pianos, be careful. Depending on use should be tuned or at least checked every 2 years or 6000 miles, whichever comes first. Plain & simple, the expression many of you might have seen on bumper stickers or t shirts "Tune It or Die!" doesn't mean tune your instrument or if you don't you will physically die. It merely means, tune your instrument or your performance will die plus bring down the rest of your musical colleges in the process. Do us all a favor, always be aware of your instrument & those you work with, just tune 'em up. Vocals in tune? We'll save that for another day. Praise the Lord from the earth, may your music be a sweet, sweet well tuned sound in His ear. God bless you!

Today, members of "caeli" performed at a wedding reception, those being Jorge Fajardo and us, Roger & Judy Rocha. Earlier, Judy provided the liturgical music appropriate for the Mass and was also asked to perform a couple of Spanish songs at the reception for the Bride & Groom's 1st dance, eventually she agreed. The 2 songs we did were a cover by IL DIVO entitled "Hasta Mi Final" (Until the End) and also another tune which Judy in the "early years" had recorded with her band "Judy and her Latin Souls", that song is called "Pasaran los Anos" (As the Years Pass). The stage was pretty crowded with a DJ and all of his equipment, a 6 piece Mariachi band,...with all of their equipment, us,....with all of our modified equipment (scheduled to play the 2 songs at precisely 7PM) and...a 15 piece "banda", yep you guessed it,....with all of their equipment. All in all, a little mayhem-ish, but went rather smoothly if we do say so ourselves. Our performance consisted of Judy: Lead Vocal/Keyboard, Roger: Acoustic/Electric Classical Guitar and Jorge: Conga and light percussion. When we were finished, the Bride, the Groom and the peeps attending,...all happy campers.
Later that evening, our percussionist Jorge lent us a CD of a young singer/songwriter from up north who for privacy purposes will be referred to as WB. Mind you, Jorge forewarned us that the lyric content, music and arranging were not bad, but WB's singing ability was. So during the ride home we popped the CD in the the car player and yep, there were a total of 13 songs and every single one, WB's lead vocal, was just wrong. The music, arrangements, even the back up vocals were done quite well. A side bar on back up vocals: We've come across, especially in Spanish church choirs and praise bands, that they tend to have anywhere from 4 to 14 girl back up singers, all of them singing in unison either too sharp or too flat. No harmonies whatsoever. It's kinda like that "running your nails across a chalkboard" feeling, you know. C'mon you lazy choir directors, take some time to teach them to reach them notes! Or at least bring in a qualified volunteer vocal coach!
Getting back to WB, we can't for the life in us, believe that no one caught the bad, NO, horrendous singing enough to say: "Hey! There's definitely something rotten in Denmark!" The producer (which probably wouldn't work seeing how it was most likely WB himself), the engineer, (was he running late for another gig?), nor fellow band mates and or back up singers (who probably were paid to perform and stay silent). Oh, and did we mention?, "this is recorded material! Etched in stone! On sale! In public! Forever!" Okay, we get it, you have some original songs with great spiritual messages, rhythms, etc., but p-l-e-a-s-e, let someone else do the honors of taking your composition to a higher level of productivity, especially if you lack strength in that field. According to our pal Jorge, who has actually played as back up for WB, says: "he's a real nice person, you know, down to earth". For as down to earth and nice WB might seem, he really needs to open his mind to other possibilities. Open his eyes to see what is wrong with the picture he is painting. Open his ears and really listen to the mistake he himself is producing, whether or not he accepts the fact that he cannot carry a tune. But mainly, open his heart as we're sure he has when he writes these song of praise and adoration for God and say to God, "Lord, I always want to do my best for You and if it means sharing the microphone, NO, completely giving up the microphone to someone who can interpret my gift to You with so much more beauty, grace and know how, then let it be."

Look, at first glance, this blogger space might seem mean spirited, harsh, or simply put, a way to get back at all of the ways people have used or should we say , misused music in the realm of "religious" or "sacred" music. caeli has been performing religious music since 1998 after a dear and loving priest friend (Fr. G. Peter Irving III) approached us to see if we'd be interested in playing and singing at Mass after discovering that we were long time musicians playing in a "secular" mode. For us, being musicians obviously the music ( arranging, chord progression, beat, etc.) is key however; the real power is in the "message". We can't begin to tell you how many people have come to us after hearing us perform and said: "that song, the one you guys sang during communion or meditation, it really touched my heart". Whoop, there it is! It's kinda like when Jesus cured the 10 lepers, and only the one came back to acknowledge what had just happened and to thank Him. No, we're not Jesus and don't pretend to play Him on TV either, but for us, that one person who's life we've touched simply by playing a song truly means a lot to us. Who knows, that individual just might have been drawn even that much closer to our Lord through those same lyrics we belted out as a tune. Who'd a thunk, that a song, performed well, with a little class or arranging could do so much good and still be considered a work of mercy.
Which brings us to the point of starting this blog. How many times have you heard a church choir and/or several quote unquote musicians totally butcher a song that leaves that sour taste on your tongue while screaming (to yourself, quietly) "what part of music 101 did you not get?!!" Unfortunately, for us, too many times. People, it all can be fixed! Well, maybe, as a very good music producer/engineer/friend once said: " I can fix a lot of things, but I can't fix suck". C'mon, tune the guitars. Change the keys. Stay in time. Lose your hard headed director for one who actually knows what he or she is doing. True, the majority of choirs are volunteers, but still, try your best to seek out what sounds best for the choir, whether it be musicianship or vocals. Allow criticism and use it as a positive tool and not a let down. Reason being, there are so many stubborn choir directors as well as members that simply won't take no for an answer. They think they know what they're doing when they can't even follow the original melody of the song. Even if they are flat out told! Once we put together a big project for a Guadalupana celebration which entailed a huge 80 piece volunteer choir to perform on the Feast Day of Our Lady of Guadalupe, starting in the wee hours of the morning, later afternoon and then that evening, all with songs of praise and for the Masses. We had given a special invitation to the existing Spanish singing choir the opportunity to join us, their reply was pretty bold when they said (noses slightly turned up) "Nope, we're fine just the way we are. After all, we don't consider ourselves 'professionals', what we do, we do from the heart". Oh, excuse us, and we don't do it from the heart? We then turned around and said "We're not trying to out do anyone here, we're all in the same boat, working under the same God and seriously, we are not auto mechanics, but let us work on changing the brakes of your car. We promise, even though we don't know what we're doing, we will do it with all of our hearts" Accept that answer from your auto repair guy and see how well that goes. Needless to say, the project was a great success. The choir we conducted dwindled down from almost 90 people to about 60. They sounded great. Musicianship was limited to volunteer professionals (meaning every other Tom, Dick or Harry who thought they could play a guitar or tambourine was not allowed to join the choir band). The Pastor and the peeps were happy. (Thanks to all of those who gave up time for the intense rehearsals, yous guys were fantastic!)
So you see, we're not trying to be mean nor mightier than thou, 'cos the reality is folks, "there's always somebody better" and you always, always want to sound the very best you can to first and foremost: please our Lord and secondly, make it a nice, pleasurable sounding choir that in turn, guides the rest of the congregation to sing along or simply head out to tackle the rest of the week with a song of encouragement, hope or simply God's love in their hearts.