The ABCs of SNC: W is also for...

Straight No Chaser's Musical Director, Tenor 2, musical arranger, vocal percussionist and rare blogger - Walter Chase!

Photo credit: Sara N.

You can follow (or unfollow) Walter on Twitter at @SNCWalt. Watch for the occasional #SNCFunFacts and #WaltFunFacts.  Walter also loves movies and tweets his reviews with the hashtag #movieWalt.  During Oscar season, he watches all of the nominees and then gives us his picks. (Hint: He's really good. Office Oscar pool, anyone?) 

Follow @SportsWalt to see his tweets about sports. Walter is the only Mets / IU basketball / Eagles / Devils fan alive (that he knows of), and he's currently working on his goal of visiting every ballpark in America.

Behind the dugout at Oakland Coliseum 

AT&T Park in San Francisco 

Let's go, Mets!


Under the letter G we talked about "Grinching," where SNC collaborates as a group in the studio to arrange a song. But each of the SNC arrangers also works independently, especially when they're at home on a break from touring.  If an arranger wants to hear how a song is going to sound before sending the sheet music to the other guys to learn, he will make a demo by recording himself singing all of the parts, tweaking the phrases and harmonies over and over until he's got it just right.

The Chasers first learned about this technique a year ago, when Walt blogged for us about "The Airtight."  "Walter Chase and the Airtight" are what he calls his arrangement demos - a recording of him singing the solo with his "backup band" (The Airtight), which can be anywhere between 5 and 38 Walts. 

So far, the only released recording by "Walter Chase and the Airtight" is the fantastic SNC FanChat theme song (with guest bass Charlie), but we keep asking! lol Maybe someday Walter will upload just a few to SoundCloud like Ryan does. Remember when I said that we would talk more about that soon? Ryan labels his demos as "Green Studios" and he has a few of them up on his SoundCloud main page.  Tyler's group is "The Pitches" and Dan's is "The Airdime." 

Walter is responsible for arranging SNC's prayerful Fix You. You might notice him directing from the middle of the horseshoe.
Video: NittanyWolverine

Normally when Walt solos he trades off on part of a song, like in Hi-De-Ho, Get Ready and Joy to the World, but in Buddy Holly he gets the whoooooole thing! Here's a video with a front row seat! #glasses
Video: djohnson64050

Keep a close eye on Walt in the SNC group photos because he's usually up to something - a fact that not everybody appreciates as much as the Chasers do! lol


We were proud to have Walter's article, "So, You Wanna Be in an A Cappella Group..." in the Fall 2011 issue of the SNC Quarter Notes!  There's so much great stuff in that piece about how he got started in a cappella, and practical advice on how you can, too!

Photo credit: Julie F.

Photo credit: SaJaFo Photography
Seriously, what are the odds of catching this amazing shot???

 

Photo credit: Tara K.