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You’ve heard about barbershop quartet singing, I’m sure. You know that it’s four part harmony sung by old guys in the 50s with hats and canes and handlebar mustaches, but do you know what it really looks like today, and do you know how valuable it is as a part of the choral classroom experience? If you do, that’s awesome, but if you don’t, I’m here to try and explain a little bit about why I believe barbershop harmony to be one of the best things you could add to your curriculum next year for students of any and all ages.
Barbershop music is a style of music featuring homophonic harmonies, often using justly tuned dominant 7th chords and other simple harmonic choices. Past that, the 2 defining characteristics of barbershop quartet singing to me, which differentiate it from every other style of music, is that at (1) the melody is in the 2nd highest voice, and (2), at any given moment in an arrangement, you will hear a completely voiced “ringable” and “simple” chord, almost without exception.
How can an educator use this information and this style to improve the quality of their ensemble and its singers? Step 1, and the most important part, is to teach them a “tag”. A barbershop tag is defined as “a dramatic variation put in the last section of the song. It is roughly analogous to a coda in classical music. Tags are characterized by heightening the dramatic tension of the song, frequently including a hanger or sustained note against which the other singers carry the rhythm.” Every barbershopper knows loads of tags, and will almost always say yes to the opportunity to sing one because they know how incredible it feels to stand in a clump and ring some chords. Barbershoptags.com has an endless amount of tags with ranging difficulties which you as an educator can teach to your students. Most of the really common ones tend to have somewhere around 6 or so notes, so they are theoretically really easy to sing, but the excitement comes from singing the first chord all together and then realizing that it might take a little bit to tune, to unify on the vowel, and to blend, but when it gets there, there’s just no feeling like it, and you’ll want to wait a while before moving onto the next chord. Barbershoppers will often sing a tag upwards of 3, 4, or 5 times in a row just because it feels so good and they get so much out of it.
(Keep in mind that all of this talk of quartets can be easily transferred to an entire chorus, and is done so almost everywhere around the United States in the form of chapters of the Barbershop Harmony Society, as well as in schools and among musical friends) There are four parts in every barbershop quartet: Tenor, lead, baritone, and bass, from highest to lowest. For a TTBB ensemble, what is nice about this voicing is that it allows the Leads (tenor 2’s, normally) to feel comfortable singing a melody in their chest range without having to worry about moving too much into a scary high territory which they’d normally use falsetto for. The Tenors (tenor 1’s normally) have the easier job of floating above the melody, often in falsetto, but can be done in full voice if it’s low enough and if the tenors are excited enough. The basses (bass 2’s) are often on roots and fifths of chords, really holding down every single chord and giving them a good chance to really resonate and ring, and it tends to sit between halfway up the 2nd octave and halfway up the 3rd octave, which is perfect for choral basses. The baritones (bass 1’s) have the fun part of having to fill in lots of the “dirty notes” of the chords, which tend to lie around the top of the 3rd octave and a little bit into the fourth, which is really where bass 1’s have a chance to shine in their falsetto/mix range if the arrangement calls for it. All of this can be transferred easily to SSAA and SATB ensembles, and there are countless arrangements for barbershop quartets and choruses of any configuration.
The even more special thing about barbershop music is that every chord rings. What does that mean? It means that every chord is voiced all the way through in either 4 different notes to make a 6th or 7th chord, or in 3 different notes with appropriate doubling, such that they all have the chance to line up acoustically from the onset and produce overtones and other acoustic phenomena which may only occur occasionally in even the most sought-after classical choral piece. Included in this production of “ring” is the tuning of particular notes in particular ways. This is excellent practice for anyone trying to better develop their ear, because everyone must tune to each other in that one moment, and not think about anything before or after, so getting better at barbershop singing means getting better at being a precise singer, and getting better at listening and reacting as quickly as possible.
In short, one of my favorite feelings in the world is sitting on a major chord, on any of the notes, and just cherishing the value in what it means to sing that chord, and what it feels like to be on that note contributing to the sound, and in no style do I feel that more than when I sing barbershop. Teach your students a tag, make them have a good time, encourage them to get in quartets and ring some chords, it’ll make them never want to sing out of tune again. I’m thrilled for the future of barbershop singing all around the world, and I hope to see it more in the classroom soon, but for now I will leave you with one of my favorite tags, called “Lover Come Back”. (The last four measures of this recording: Lover Come Back)
*Opinions expressed on The CCCC Blog are reflections of the individual author, and may not represent all members of The CCCC Community.
Great article!