Singing for Fun Ladies Barbershop

Singing for Fun – Ladies Barbershop Last updated: 24 November 2012

What is Barbershop? Barbershop harmony is one of only a few forms of music that is native to the United States. In the 1800s this particular style of music, with its close harmonies, became so popular that Vaudeville began incorporating at least one or two barbershop quartets in their shows. With the coming of radio, and the introduction of recorded music, individual singers became more popular and barbershop music and the quartets almost died out.

However, in 1938, a small group of singers in Tulsa, Oklahoma missed singing in this style, so they formed a small group they called the Society for the Preservation and Encouragement of Barbershop Quartet Singing in America (SPEBSQSA). With a name like that people began to think that it was already a big organisation and worth joining, and before long it became just that.

In 1945, not to be outdone, a group of women organised a Ladies Barbershop movement called the Sweet Adelines, Inc., and in 1991 changed their name to Sweet Adelines International.

The mission of these two groups is to preserve and promote this unique style of singing throughout the world. Today there are international conventions and competitions for both men’s and ladies’ groups, with thousands attending annually and singing their hearts out!.

Britain has it’s own organisations – Men: the British Association of Barbershop Singers (BABS) and Ladies: the Ladies Association of British Barbershop Singers (LABBS).

Barbershop Basics The unique Barbershop style of singing is characterised by: - being totally unaccompanied, or a capella; - every melody note is sung in 4-part harmony; - each of the four voice parts has it’s own role: (see also Barbershop Voice Parts.doc) - the Lead sings the melody; - the Tenor harmonises above the melody; - the Bass sings the lowest harmonising notes; - the Bari completes the chord, moving above and below the lead as required.

The melody is not usually sung by the Tenor, Bari or Bass, except for an infrequent note or two, or in certain musical arrangements featuring those voice parts. Ideally, all three harmony parts support the Lead to ensure that the melody is easily recognized and that the group produces a unit sound in which the melody line stands out a little more than the others.

Slower barbershop songs, especially ballads, often avoid a continuous beat so that the song can be sung with expression, giving meaning to the lyrics intended by the composer.

The normal vocal ranges of these individual voice parts are: The Barbershop Sound Certain techniques are taught to singers in order to create the Barbershop ‘sound', the primary ones being:

- Expanded sound: This is where the harmonies sung are so well tuned, that overtone frequencies are created which add to the overall depth of sound. When the singers produce this expanded sound they are said to be ‘ringing’ the chords.

- Voice projection: Singers are taught to sing with open voices plus resonance, so that they contribute to the overall sound being aimed for:

- Expression: Barbershoppers norrmally sing songs with meaning – whether happy, sad, fast or slow. And in order to convey that meaning the singers are taught to express the song in a way that the audience not only hear the words clearly but understand the meaning and feel the emotion intended by the composer.

- Voice quality: Individual voice quality is not normally important, as it is the overall blend of the Chorus which is important. No individual person’s voice should be discernable. However, a new singer’s voice can sometimes be of a type that cuts through, preventing the emergence of a uniform sound for that Chorus. Anyone with this type of coice is normally encouraged to listen to the group while singing, and gradually change their singing voice to blend in with the others.

Much more important is the ability to sing in tune. Although some people do not have this ability, we find that most people can sing in tune even though they may not realise it.

The Barbershop Style It would not be right for me to miss out one particular aspect that makes the Barbershop style stand out – the performance of the song. Not only do we sing the songs as if we mean what we are singing about, we show it in our faces and in our body language. Sometimes we even use simple choreography to help illustrate the song. So we don’t just sing the songs, we perform them! When an audience goes to see a group of Barbershop singers they don’t just get a good sound, they get entertainment as well.

You will have gathered by now that all songs are learned – no paperwork whatsoever is used when performing a song, and the singers are encouraged to ‘ put the music down’ as soon as possible when learning a new song..

Songs and Tags Most songs will take a while to learn, so at normal rehearsals we just learn a section of a song at a time. At the next rehearsal we go over what has been learned so far then start on the next bit. The amount we can learn depends on the capabilities of the group, and how much was remembered from the previous rehearsal.

Almost without exception, every song arranged in the Barbershop style has a very short piece added on to the end, called a Tag. This is comparable to a Coda in other music styles. Tags usually sum up the meaning of the song, privide a memorable finish, and are great fun to sing on their own!

Tags are also excellent for beginners to learn, being short, and they vary from very easy to ‘challenging’. Most tags can be learned at one rehearsal and are very satisfying to sing together. Additionally they are often used to practice the voice techniques being taught at the time.

There are many books and websites available containing hundreds of just tags! Teaching Methods Traditionally, certainly in recent years, Barbershop harmony parts have been taught using some or all of these three methods:

- The Chorus Director teach the parts from the front. However, teaching a whole song this way can be a bit slow, so normally the CD would teach and easy tag. But once a full song has been mostly learned by other methods the CD will correct and re-teach any lines and note sequences that a voice part may be having difficulty with.

- Teach tapes. This is where tape recordings (or these days MP3 files) are made of each voice part where the part being learned is predominant and the other three quietly. As this style of singing is unaccompanied, singers can then practice their own part while the other three are heard quietly in the background. The song is sung on the track as it will be sung in performance.

- Teach tracks are usually available from the club’s website, or sometimes given out on disc.

- Section Leaders. In some clubs Section Leaders learn the song first, and then teach it to their own section during in a chorus rehearsal. Of course, this means having four separate rooms available otherwise chaos could ensue.

Normally all teach tracks are made under the supervision of the Chorus Director, to ensure uniformity of performance, expression etc.

Admin things

- This particular Barbershop ‘club’ is an Activity Group of the Odiham District U3A.

- The Chorus Director is usually the Group Leader, and is responsible to the Treasurer for the fees collected plus any admin requirements

- All singers in this local Barbershop group must be members of U3A for various reasons but most importantly for insurance purposes. Member’s attendance will be recorded at each rehearsal.

- Normally fees for this particular Group are asked for at each rehearsal. We ask members to pay a charge (currently £2.00) per attendance to cover costs, hire of the rehearsal hall etc, and of course we would welcome any and all payments in advance.