The Art of Barbershop - Step by Step

I’m not content with just hearing the words and music in a barbershop performance.  I want you to “Show Me What You are Saying”.  OK, so I don’t live in Missouri, but close enough.  Show Me!!! 

This can be a ballad or an up-tune, it doesn’t matter.
I was working with a men’s chorus recently and really had to stress this point, so I thought it was worth addressing here.  So often barbershop performers are told to “smile”, or “raise your eyebrows” and that somehow constitutes and exciting visual performance.   I do not agree.  Sometimes you are singing something that has no real deep meaning or is just silly and fun and you might get away with the overall “excited” or “happy” look throughout.  However, most of the time, a song has an actual message.  Even if it is not profound, it is still a message that needs to be portrayed in order for the audience to really experience a song.

Let’s talk specifics…..
The chorus that I was working with is getting ready to compete at the men’s international contest in Indianapolis and is taking the popular up-tune Runnin’ Wild.  The intro of the song goes like this:

“Once I loved a hard hearted gal.  That hard hearted, mean tempered, two timing, man hating, back biting, brow beating gal brought me down; down to the ground.   I cursed that evil woman, stood up and turned around.  That gal won’t make a fool of me now, no not now.  Cuz now my heart’s (this poor shattered, torn tattered heart) – got a brand new start”

You cannot achieve a true performance of this song with just a general “excited” look on your face.  Think about those words….you’re saying some pretty spirited stuff about this gal.  Then, you admit that she basically brought you to your knees.   Then in a fit of anger and resignation you cursed her, stood up, and turned around to start a new life.  (Admitting briefly that your heart is torn and tattered)

Can you follow me on this?   Can you envision the difference between a generally “excited” look and someone that can portray this moment’s ups and downs more completely?

Let’s get even more specific…..

“Once I loved a hard hearted gal.”  (General excited energy, you’re getting ready to tell the story of what happened here)

“That hard hearted, mean tempered, “(This can have an angrier look to it)

“Two timing, man hating,” (this can be more desperate.  Descending into the pit of all that she was – portrayed almost unbelieving that she could be that way)

“Back biting, brow beating gal “ ( back biting is pretty bitter,  brow beating is more resigned like “oh for the love of God will she ever quit nagging at me””)

“Brought me down;”   (this descends to exhausted)

“Down to the ground.”   (Then resigned)

“I cursed that evil woman,” (OK, now he’s getting his spirit back)
“Stood up and turned around.” (He’s seeing that there is life after her)

 “That gal won’t make a fool of me now, no not now.”  (Now he’s standing up for himself – standing a little taller)

“Cuz now my heart’s” (this poor shattered, torn tattered heart)– (Admitting that his heart was broken)

“Got a brand new start” (standing up, brushing off his going out clothes and ready to hit the town with his buddies)  

So now he is ….  You guessed it….. “Runnin Wild – Lost Control”!!!!

It runs a gambit of emotions and it’s only the intro to the song.  It says all that and more, and not just because I say so, but because the WORDS demand it.

Other phrases -
“Runnin Wild – Lost Control” – the guys are getting wild

“Now I’m free, reckless too” - Finally FREE, even to the point of being reckless

“Don’t love nobody, not worth while” – Dismissive

There is a whole section in the middle of the song that talks about being the villain, and playing the villain’s part.   The music makes a definite style change to represent this “mood change”, so visually you have to change as well or the work that the composer and arranger did was mute.    Look evil, mysterious, and ominous.

At one point it says – “See me laugh…in an evil way”   This can be played with an ironic smile and joyful move during “laugh” and then it comes back to being evil.   A quick show of two entirely different emotions.

My point is that most songs have a lot to say.  The lyricist went to the trouble to write the words the way that they felt told the most compelling story.  It seems tragic (especially the loss of points) when the words and their meaning are lost when the song is performed with one general happy/sad/excited/lonely feel.   Even really sad love songs typically have a section that should be performed more wistful or as if you are remembering the good times.

Don’t sell your barbershop chorus or barbershop quartet short by not exploring all of the meaning of all of the words in every song that you sing.  It makes for a much more energetic, compelling, and interesting performance for your audience. And, it is so much more fun and compelling for you as a performer as well.

I’m sure that I am not the first barbershop choreography coach to tell you that it is important to not lock your knees while you are on the risers.  However, since it is a very important concept, I think that it is worth repeating.

Why does it matter?  Let me count the ways…

If you lock your knees very solidly, whether it is due to nerves or any other reason, you can end up fainting. The science behind that is pretty simple.  If you lock your knees, you are restricting the blood flow. You are remaining motionless so your feet and leg muscles aren’t helping at all. Combine this with a stressful situation (barbershop contest, a chorus performance, or just thinking too hard while rehearsing) and your legs are preventing a nice fresh flow of oxygenated blood to the control center where it is needed to keep you in the upright position.  In short, the blood is not getting to your brain and that’s makes your brain very unhappy.

Less severe than that reaction, and one more connected with barbershop performance mode is just the fact that if your knees are locked, you aren’t moving.  Brilliant! You say?  I know it sounds obvious, but if you are not moving, it is highly unlikely that you are emoting in any significant way.  Whether it be a ringing barbershop contest uptune, or an emotionally charged barbershop ballad, it makes the music less enjoyable for both you and your audience.  If you don’t feel a song in your body, there will be little chance that you will express a song’s intent on your face.  It is all connected.

What to do you about it… well, if you have a habit of locking your knees, you need to make a conscious effort to break that habit.  Even if it means telling yourself, mentally, to move every time you start singing barbershop (or any other type of music, but for the sake of this example, we’ll talk barbershop).  If it is difficult to remember, ask a neighbor on the chorus risers to help you out.  They don’t have to talk and annoy those around you, just ask them to put their hand on your back or elbow to be a reminder to you to start moving.

Just bend your knees, or shift your weight from one foot to another.  It is that simple, to start off with.

Of course, your choreography, presentation or visual team will ask more of you, but trust me when I tell you that they will be thrilled that you have started moving at all.

Once you conquer the impulse to stand stock still all of the time, then you can work towards other levels of comfortable, natural, body movement when you are singing those good old barbershop chords.

Try it, you’ll like it.

My first instinct this morning was to write a funny, bogus post only to proclaim “April Fools” at the end.  Then I decided that this site hasn’t been around long enough to build the kind of credibility it takes to pull something like that off.  I didn’t want a new visitor to stop by, read a few lines of a post and decide that I wasn’t in my right mind.

So instead, I’ve decided to debunk a barbershop myth that I hear quite often when coaching barbershop quartets and choruses.

Barbershop Myth #1:  “It doesn’t really matter how I perform in rehearsal, it only matters how I perform on stage.  I’ll “turn it on” when I’m in front of an audience”

There are two fundamentally wrong things about this particular statement.  First, there is the truth behind the idea that “practice makes permanent”.  We all know that the contest and performance stage bring a lot of unknowns to every performance.  When nerves play into the mix and there are the distractions of bright lights, or the amplification sounds strange, these distractions can throw a wrench into your plans.  In order to perform your very best when these things occur, you need to have practiced exactly what you want to put on stage.  Almost as if you could perform on auto-pilot.  This applies to both the physical and the musical parts of the performance.  I know there are many people, myself included, that can come off of the contest stage and not remember most of the performance.  So how did I do my plan?  My body literally has muscle memory of how I want to perform because I practice it that way every time.  As mentioned in a prior post, you can relax in between songs, or when your director or coach is giving you instructions.  Then when it is time to sing, you should be “on” all of the time.  It is the only way to assure that you will be ready no matter what distractions are thrown at you.

The second part of the statement about turning it on for an audience is almost more laughable than the first.  Ask anyone who has ever been contestant #1 how it feels to perform to a mostly empty audience.  Especially during the chorus contest when most of the people are waiting in the traffic pattern to perform with their chorus.  The judges don’t care that there isn’t a deafening applause when the curtain goes up, so neither can you.  I can speak from the experience of being in very large chorus that we have had performances that we were hired for where we outnumbered the audience.  It’s a little awkward, but you still have to hit them with all that you’ve got.  How about some other scenarios, the quartet gig where you “stroll” around and are basically singing to no one, or the one where you perform at a nursing home and some of your audience members fall asleep.  You can’t count on an audience to help you perform.  That is not what they are there for.  They are there to be entertained by you, even if they are not as large, energetic, or interested as you would like for them to be.

And that’s no joke!

I recently had a choreographer of a mid-size barbershop chorus ask me this question:

“How can I get my “C” level chorus

to move at an “A” level?”

Well, the short answer to that question is:  You can’t.

Now, let me explain….

You won’t be able to move at an “A” level until you can sing at an “A” level.  Now obviously, in barbershop contests, you can get “B” or “B+” scores in the other categories and get an “A” score in showmanship or presentation, but to me, the overall effect is that it has to go together.

There are lots of steps that you can use to start building your visual package, but you can move like Cirque du Soliel and it won’t really matter if you are not singing barbershop harmony well. The visual is only really scored in one category; the singing is scored in all of them.  And those that think that the music performance does not play a role in the showmanship/presentation categories are sorely mistaken.

Just know that if you tailor a simple plan that enhances the music and does not interfere with your work on the vocal product you will have much better results than if you try to dance “Richtones” level but cannot support it musically.

Stay tuned for more tips and techniques to help you continue to build the visual.  I will just take you on the Sweet Adelines International and Barbershop Harmony Society honor systems that you are already addressing the musical product.

Best of Luck!