History, but not very much

I started singing in public when I was about 10 years old, so I'm highly accustomed to performing. Dad was a minister and Mom thought I should be singing in church because I had such a nice soprano voice. She was willing to sing with me, which was the only way I was going to go along with her idea. Before long, I had a nice alto voice. Then one day I woke up with a nice bass voice, at least some of the time. After my voice settled down, I was still a bass.

I really had wanted to be a bass for years. Dad was in a quartet with three other guys when I was around six years old, and he was the baritone. The bass was a big guy who was called Bud. His voice sounded so good to me. I wanted to be a big bass like Bud. Happily, that's what I turned out to be.

When I was in college, I was in the choir. This was just the hometown junior college, as they were called in those days, and there was no audition required. What they did require was that the director assess your vocal part, as it was an eight voice choir. I didn't know there even was such a thing as a first soprano, second soprano, first alto, etc. As a result, when they told me that I was going to be a second bass, I wasn't sure whether I was in the choir or on the baseball team. (Insert rimshot here.)

Choirs I have known

Having grown up in a minister's family for a part of my childhood, I naturally sang in the church choir, and that was my first experience with choral singing. I liked it. I liked to sing anyway, even in the congregation where not everyone agreed with what notes to sing. Singing in the choir was much better, as almost everybody hit the notes what appeared on the page. I really liked that.

Next time, I'll finish with history and get on with more about barbershop singing.