What  I Learned About Barbershop

I wasn't sure what I was getting into when I joined the Joplin barbershop chorus. I was hoping that I'd get to sing some of that barbershop harmony, of course, but didn't know how this was going to work.

When I walked in, I was greeted by several of the members, as normally happens when a new guy shows up. When it was time for rehearsal to begin, they put me right up on the risers with the chorus with a guest folder in my hands and I sang along as best I could. So the lesson was that anyone can walk right in and start singing with the chorus - at least with many of the choruses.

There are chapters of the Society (The Society for the Preservation and Encouragement of Barber Shop Quartet Singing in America, Inc. - really) that only admit new members after they pass an audition. These are mostly the top ranked choruses, as far as I know, and you could understand that they wouldn't want to have anyone join in that would threaten their ability to excel in competition. Other choruses don't care at all about competition, but are more social groups. And then there are chapters that do compete, but still allow anyone to join who wants to be a member. Some people just like a challenge, I guess.

Education is available - sometimes mandatory

Right from that first evening, my education began. Now, I'd been singing as a performer for a lot of years, but this group needed for me to know a lot more about singing than anybody else had ever required. What was presented wasn't in highly technical language, either, but the director and vocal coach told us what they wanted and how to produce it. I will say that knowing a bit about music theory - like being able to read music and knowing what sharps and flats are - was handy, but it wasn't really necessary.

I found that every rehearsal provided me an opportunity to learn more about music in general, vocal production, and singing in harmony.

Barbershoppers are kind of particular about how you produce a singing voice, or rather what kind of sound comes out of you. The good thing is that they will help you learn how to produce the appropriate kind of sound for barbershop harmony.

Then there were lessons on how to stand. You can't just slump and slouch on the risers! If you did, you wouldn't be able to breathe properly or produce a good vocal quality.

There's more, but it's getting late. The important thing is that these lessons come at a pretty slow pace. It's not all dumped on you at one time. Little by little, you become a better singer who knows more about what he's doing. That's not a bad thing.

Back to Rehearsals!

Last night I got to go to a rehearsal with the High Point Harmonizers for the first time in a couple of months. It was great to get back with the guys and do some live singing. I'd been trying to keep up with the songs by singing with learning tracks, but it's just not the same.

It was great to see Fred, Our President, looking so good. He had cardiac bypass surgery a couple of weeks or so before I had to go on hiatus from the chorus, so he wasn't looking all that healthy right then. He's clearly doing much better now - back to singing and everything.

I missed some of the guys who didn't make it to this rehearsal. Bob The Bass was out of town to see a baseball game in NYC, which I knew because we saw him in Milford a few days ago. He was driving his white Mustang convertible, and on his way to get a beer. Crazy old fart, but he's a good singer.

Gary was at rehearsal, still walking with a cane. Glad to see him out and around, but sorry about the cane still being necessary.

We had three basses, three leads (four after Sharkey showed up), two tenors, and one lonely baritone last night. What with one thing and another, we didn't sound really great some of the time. Apparently, the guys who were missing are the ones who keep us on key. We drifted somewhat a couple of times. Maybe more times than that.

Still, it was a good rehearsal. We started working on the Armed Forces Medley, and got the Army and the Navy gone over, but couldn't make much progress with the Coast Guard. Didn't even make a run at the Marine Corps or the Air Force, but we'll get to them, I'm sure.

Regardless, it was good to be back.

A Little More History

Just because I said I would: I joined the symphony chorale in Shreveport, LA when I lived there, but only got to one rehearsal before I needed to move to Dallas. Not much experience there.

A bunch of years later, I joined the University Chorale in Joplin, MO. I had been thinking about how much I missed singing with a chorus, and discovered this group at Missouri Southern State University. It was mostly a good experience and I enjoyed learning the tunes that we performed, but...  The director of the chorus really wanted to be a minister of music in some nice, large church. As a result, there was a bit more of church about the atmosphere at rehearsals than I expected. Then, when we were ready to go on stage for our performance, he had us stop and pray. That was just too much for me. I have no objections to him practicing his religion, but really wasn't interested in participating. I decided to drop out of the chorale.

While wondering what I was going to do for singing, it occurred to me that there might be a barbershop chorus in Joplin. I had long been aware that there is a national organization dedicated to barbershop, so I did a Google search and found the Tristatesmen, right there in Joplin. I had found a new music home.

Singing To The Vets

Last Sunday, members of the High Point Harmonizers sang a few songs for some veterans of the US armed forces. The occasion was a veterans' appreciation day put on by the Sussex Elks Lodge, and we were in the lodge hall for the afternoon.

Earlier in the day, there was a ceremony at High Point State Park - the highest elevation in New Jersey at some 1800 feet - honoring the service of the men and women of our armed forces. Then they came back to the lodge hall for a short observance. It started with the Pledge of Allegiance and then we sang the Star Spangled Banner, which was received well.

After a short address from one of the Elks, we sang God Bless America, which was responded to with a good round of applause. Then we all ate dinner, which was quite good considering the number of people to be fed out of a small kitchen.

After we ate, we gave the crowd one more song. This time, it was On The Sunny Side Of The Street - a considerably different kind of song from what we had done earlier. That seemed to catch some of our audience by surprise. Sunny Side includes some choreography, which is totally absent from the patriotic songs, of course. We had a good time singing the song and our audience seemed to enjoy the performance. Everybody wins!

Last Night's Rehearsal

We had kind of a small turnout for rehearsal last night, but it was a good group. Especially as it included Tom McHugh for the first time since his hip surgery. He has apparently been going stir crazy because he's been unable to get out and around. They won't let him drive, yet.

Even though we were few, we had at least two guys on each vocal part, so we were making pretty good sounds. Well, we were until June, our director, announced that we were going to work on Sweetheart Tree. What? I kind of knew that I had music for that tune, but hadn't done more than give it a quick once-over. Well, I did more than that last night and will be working on it this week so I'll do better with it next week.

What we were making good sounds on was the Armed Forces Medley. We got through the songs for the Coast Guard, Marine Corps, and Air Force, as well as the Stars and Stripes excerpt that ends the medley.

So it was a good rehearsal. It would only have been better if we all actually knew our parts for the medley and the song. Maybe next week.