The Art of Barbershop - Step by Step

1) Stick to your guns when teaching a new plan to the chorus. Don’t give up because it doesn’t happen 100% right after you teach it.

2) Be willing to CHALLENGE your chorus to grow visually. What wowed on the barbershop stage even 5 years ago doesn’t necessarily wow them now.

3) Teach your chorus about hand positions. I.E. Jazz Hands – Blade Hands, etc. – It DOES matter. “Just get your hand up there” Does not work.

4) Be prepared to teach to different types of learners. In every barbershop chorus there are people who operate from the right brain and the left.  Speak with clear directions, have demonstrators on hand, AND provide written instructions. This gives lots of different types of people the chance to learn in a way that is comfortable for them.

5) Get a CD made of each song that has a choreo plan. Put the song on there 3-4 times in a row. When running early choreography review sessions, play the song through 4 times while providing demonstration for each run through. THEN answer questions. Then run it 4 times again. The repetition does a world of good.

6) Have specific times for questions. If you just leave it as an open forum at all times, you’ll spend too much time talking and not enough time practicing your choreography.

7) Even when YOU are tired or have had a bad day, if you are one of the visual leaders in your chorus, it is up to YOU to provide a good example.

8) Even when you are frustrated, always think of something positive to say. Sometimes, as a person that feels the visual commitment to the barbershop style of music so naturally, we forget that some people really are trying even if it may not seem that they are doing enough. BE POSITIVE.

9) It is OK to steal from other groups that you have seen. Other barbershop groups, other performance arts, etc. Just modify something that you like to fit your group. Watch videos of everything from school plays to Cirque Du Soleil and see if there are concepts that will transfer to the barbershop stage. ** Although if you are taking from another barbershop group, I highly advise that you don’t just use and entire routine. A) It is rude, and B) They will have designed it to work for their performers and it might not be a good fit for yours.

10) Last but not least, SMILE…..enjoy this wonderful opportunity to teach others how to expressively perform this amazing art form we call barbershop.

I have been doing quite a bit of chorus coaching lately and have found myself repeating a couple of concepts over and over so I thought that I would just share them here.

Basically, as an audience member, I am GREEDY. When you are performing a song, if you don’t go above and beyond to express the story to me from every angle, you lose me. I don’t think that I am all that different from most barbershop audience members. Some are like me and are watching very intently to see the expression and emotion that are being portrayed, while others don’t necessarily know what they are looking for, but they definitely know when they don’t see/feel it.

We’ve all been there… you look out into the audience and you can see the people that are engaged in the performance and the ones that are NOT. I wish there were some kind of scientific research that had been done so that I could quote the answer to a question that I often ask…
“Do you know how long it takes to get an audience member back once you’ve lost them?”

I don’t know the EXACT answer, but I do know that whatever it is, it is TOO LONG.

So where does “Deliver +1” come in? This is my basic statement of how to work on emotional involvement and grow it into a full blown production each time that you perform barbershop music and barbershop choreography. Every time that you try to put your best effort into a rehearsal, “Deliver +1”. That way you don’t have to feel like you are being asked to duplicate and triplicate your effort level. Just think to yourself, every time that you perform, to add “+1” to what you did the last time that you performed that song. By the time that song is ready to be performed for an audience, you will have added, and added, and added emotional impact.

The final product will be worth the effort and your GREEDY audience members will thank you AND remember you.

I have always been a very emotional person.  It is sort of a joke amongst my friends that it takes very little to bring me to tears in either a happy or a sad moment in time.  I’m a firm believer in wearing your heart on your sleeve, so I am not apologizing for this piece of my character.  I am just bringing it up to discuss the topic of portraying emotions while singing.

My mom used to remind me to “cry pretty”.  Remember to cover my mouth and not scrunch up my face to terribly much when in a situation where you are crying in front of a large group of people.   Now, in private I suppose that I can cry however, I darn well please, but when performing or participating in part of a performance I need to not make a scene.  At least that’s how I see it.

How does this apply to barbershop chroreography?  Recently, my chorus began signing the song “There Goes My Heart”.   We always try to find the lighter aspects of ballads and the most positive emotions that can be portrayed in an effort to not make a song too heavy.  However, with phrases like “There goes my happiness, it couldn’t be. There goes somebody else, in place of me” there are only so many ways to try to spin that emotion.  By the end of this song, there is total devastation and isolation.  “There goes my heart….. and here am I”  So we are faced with our only option - try to portray these emotions without singing too heavy and creating a visual that is too disturbing or ugly.  (If I can use that word).

I’ve been working with the chorus to bring the emotions out and to the next level, but I am finding that many are scrunching up their faces and truly looking unpleasant.   I am also concerned about what all of this face scrunching and mouth twisting is doing to the musical product that they are creating.

Therefore, I offer this advice.   Spend time in front of the mirror.  It is completely possible to display despair, loneliness, and devastation while maintaining a raised eyebrow and lifted cheekbone to keep the ping in your sound.   Work in front of the mirror and choose selected phrases of the song to sing and see what exactly it is that you are doing with your face and body.   Keep the eyebrow lifted, remembering that it is OK to furrow it a bit to portray and emotion now and then.  It is OK to show some teeth without appearing to be smiling.   Choose words that work for you.  If “devastation” is too strong, think “despair” and so on.

Also, remember that your body plays as much a part of the emotional portrayal as your face.  Use your shoulders, your chest, a tilt of the head, or a quick look down and back up to make the true emotion of what the song is saying come to life.   Say the words of the song out loud as if it were a spoken piece of poetry and see what your body does.  

What if you were performing this poem at an open mic night at a club? Would you stand there with your feet glued to the ground and not move your hands, arms, shoulders, or head?  I’m going to assume that the answer to that question is “no”.   Once you see some of your natural movement, work to incorporate that into your musical message.  Don’t be afraid to experiment.  Once you find something that works for you, something that you think is powerful, remember it.  Use that movement every time you are at that place in the song.  It is best to rehearse these types of emotions and have a plan in place.  This way you can tell a compelling story without having to remember to move once the performance zone hits you.   Your audience will not know that you have “planned” that tilt of the head or lift of the hand; they will just see the emotional message portrayed by your entire body.

So… recite the song – watch how you move in the mirror – incorporate the movement and facial expression into your musical product.   And don’t forget to “cry pretty”.
 

**THIS IS A RE-POST OF AN ARTICLE LAST WRITTEN LAST APRIL - HOWEVER, IF YOU ARE PLANNING ON COMPETING IN SPRING REGIONALS OR PRELIMS, THESE ARE THINGS YOU NEED TO BE IN THE PROCESS OF WORKING SO I THOUGHT IT WOULD BE GOOD TO RE-POST THESE TIPS - BEST OF LUCK!** 

The months of March, April, and May mean only one thing in the Sweet Adelines International organization.  Regional Competition.  It’s a time of year when all of the hard work that you have put into learning music, practicing choreography, passing your songs to compete, and finding costumes, etc. finally have a chance to pay off.

First, let me send my best wishes to all of you that have already or are preparing to walk across the competition stage either in your barbershop quartet or barbershop chorus.  No matter what the actual outcome of the contest, you should all consider yourselves a winner for being brave enough just to compete.  It is a rare opportunity offered to all of us that most people don’t get in their adult life, a chance to compete to be the very best at something.  Plus, these Sweet Adelines Regional Competition’s are a stepping stone for you to possibly compete to be the very best in the world at something.  How many of your friends and co-workers get that opportunity?  It’s unique, and a thrill that can be tough to explain to those who do not participate. 

If you’ve been working your way towards this chance to compete, what are some of the key steps that you have taken?  I’ll list the ones that I think are vital, but I would love to hear what you and your quartet or chorus do to prepare for contest.

- Song Selection –

This can be the most important part of the whole journey.  Typically, you are looking for an Uptune and a Ballad that are considered “contest material” that follow all of the rules for chord and song structure to satisfy your music judge.  Keep in mind that the rules only tell you to sing two songs, so you could sing two uptunes or two ballads if you like.  I personally don’t recommend it, only because it doesn’t always show off the range of what you are capable of singing to the judging panel, but if you can sing the snot out of two ballads and think that is the best for you, then go for it.  A lot of people will work a swing song in to replace one or the other of those choices to show some versatility as well.  The most important thing is to find songs that adequately represent the personality of your chorus or quartet, while playing to the strengths of what you do best.  If you know that your bass section struggles with higher notes, don’t pick a song that is voiced high for them. No matter how great the song may be, if it doesn’t work for one part, then it doesn’t work for the group as a whole.  People often wonder why you hear the same songs over and over and year after year at contest.  That is because they are songs that are well written to show off all of the marvelous aspects of our barbershop art form, and tend to score well for that reason.  Why try to reinvent the wheel when there is something that already works?  Don’t always pick the song that is “cool” or “popular” right now; pick what is right for you.  So many people pick a song that they just heard the new Queens of Harmony perform at contest that sounded so great.  Well, guess what…. we can’t all sing like that.  It sounded great for them because it worked for those four people with extraordinary skills, so their song or their interpretation of a song might not be the best vehicle for you and your group.  Just be smart about it from the start and I promise you that it won’t be such a struggle to learn and polish the music that you choose.

- Learning the music –

A chorus will probably provide the opportunity to hear your music team sing the song, have section rehearsals, and then probably provide some type of learning resource.  (CD/tape/mp3 or something of that nature)  Take your time to learn the notes and words with great accuracy.  You will spend lots of time doing all of the finesse, polish work, dynamics, and visual plan, so you want to make sure that you know the song accurately to build all of the other layers onto.  A quartet may not have those resources, so you have to be more creative.  While you don’t want to try and recreate what they did exactly, it doesn’t hurt if you can find a recording of a song just to get familiar with it if you aren’t already.  There are all kinds of resources available for CD’s, whether it is directly from a quartet or chorus, or from the various compilation recordings from International Contests.  If someone in your group is a better sight reader or piano player than others, have them make a tape for all four parts.  If you really learn better with a learning tape, there are more and more resources to purchase learning CD’s these days.  Two that I would recommend are http://www.kimkraut.com/ and http://www.timtracks.com/.  Kim is member of the Sweet Adelines International Faculty, the Kansas City Chorus, and the quartet PRIMO!.  She is also the director of the St. Joseph Show Chorus and a former opera singer with a degree in Voice. Tim Waurick is a young man with extraordinary talent that currently sings tenor with the 6th place International Medalists in the Barbershop Harmony Society, Vocal Spectrum, and sings with the International Championship Chorus the Ambassadors of Harmony in St. Louis, MO.  He is also studying for a degree in Music Education.  Both are extremely talented and can offer you superior services for learning CDs. **** UPDATE - Three months after this post was published, Tim’s quartet, Vocal Spectrum, went to their 2nd Barbershop Harmony Society contest and came home with GOLD medals.  He is now an International Champion Quartet Tenor - Way to go, Tim!****

- Story Time –

You have your two songs, and know your notes and words…now what?  Take the time to find out who you are when you are singing these two songs.  Is your uptune a funny, tongue in cheek message, or are you actually angry or sad?  Is your ballad a happy memory of past love or a sad story of love lost?  You can decide.  Even if people always sing a certain song a certain way, you can decide that you want to tell the story differently.  Just remember that if you are going to go against what people are used to, you had better REALLY sell what you are trying to say.  A technique used by a chorus and several quartets that I work closely with is to actually write a story.  Tell a story with a real message that has specific keywords you are trying to portray.  One place in the song is “matter of fact”, but then it moves into “pensive” and then to “despair”.  Maybe then you see the end of the tunnel of despair and end with “hope”.  I think you can see where I’m going with this.  Be specific, making sure that all members of your chorus or quartet are on the same page, telling the exact same message at every moment of the song.  Most of all, you have to buy into it.  Don’t settle for it unless it really means something to you.  It will pay off in your Expression and Showmanship categories.  Really.

- Visual Planning –

Now that you know who you are and what you want to say, put a visual plan to it.  It can be very specific “we all move together” choreography, or you can put moves in that just look like natural movement, but are actually well crafted to send a specific visual image.  Work to accent the rises and falls in the story and vocal line.  Don’t try to do too much just for the sake of moving, and have it get in the way of the musical product.  Find a plan, implement it, tweak it, decide on the final product, and then do it that way, exactly, every time that you perform the song from that time out.  The more that it becomes second nature, the more likely you are to perform it that way on the contest stage.  And, if you are doing the moves easily, it will give a more polished and professional look to the judges.

- Coaching –

Depending where you are located, find all of the coaching resources that you can.  If there aren’t any big name coaches in your area, take advantage of the opportunities at your regional music schools.  You can also call on a director, choreographer, or section leader from a chorus that you respect in your region that you think could help you.   Try to get a few different people that have different areas of expertise.  Find one that is great with music and sound and one that can work expression and showmanship.  (of course for Expression, Showmanship or Presentation, you can always contact me at sheri@barbershopstep.com – how convenient)  Each coach will have a unique way of expressing their thoughts and it helps to have different ideas to consider and use.  My personal recommendation is to quit coaching at least two to three weeks out before contest.  You can always have someone encouraging and helping you really keep everything together, but quit making major changes and adjustments.  This is so that you can really drill the exact plan that you want to put on contest stage.  If you make a major change to choreography, interpretation, or music right before contest, it might sound cool when you do it, but it is highly likely that all members will not have it “saved” well enough to not forget in the excitement of the contest stage.  When contest is near, be consistent; sing the set from top to bottom over and over without stopping in between the two songs of your set.  Make your comments and minor adjustments and then sing it through again.  You would be amazed at how many people don’t think about how it feels to sing the songs back to back until it is too late.  It takes a tremendous amount of stamina to do what we do.  The ability to maintain breath support, energy, and vocal production through a contest set does not happen over night.  You have to practice it that way.

- Perform –

Try to find a way to perform for a live audience as much as possible.  If your chorus has a Friends and Family night before contest that is a great way to sing for an audience.  If they don’t, try to invite people to stop by and watch, or book a performance (even if it is for free) where you can sing for a live audience.  It makes such a difference in how you perform.

- Enjoy –

Once the contest weekend starts, don’t spend the entire time rehearsing with your chorus or quartet.  It is what it is at that point.  Enjoy the contest, cheer on your peers, sing in the hallways, meet new people and enjoy this fantastic art form we call barbershop. 

You’ve done your homework and you are ready.  Go for it!
 

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!

OK, it’s confession time….”My name is Sheri, and I use my hands way too much in an “I’m directing” sort of way when I sing with my barbershop quartet.”  There.  I said it.

At the start of barbershopstep.com I said that I might talk about some of my own personal barbershop experiences from time to time, so here’s my story.  My new quartet was being coached this last Sunday by Jim Bagby (Baritone, Rural Route 4, 1986 Champs), and one of the things that I was told was that I was trying to guide my quartet to stay with me by using my hands.  His suggestion was to stick my hands in my pockets and use the natural inflections of my voice as the guide to the other three members of my quartet. Let me just say that this is a lot harder to do than it sounds.  I was able to accomplish what he was asking of me, and my quartet tuned into my sound better.  At that point, they had no choice.

So, lesson learned, right?  Well, not so much.

The very next evening we were auditioning for two of the three Sweet Adeline International choruses that we represent.  My husband was so kind as to make a video tape of our performance for my chorus.  Low and behold, despite the fact that I was actually making a conscious effort to keep my hands under control, the old adage of “old habits die hard” reared its ugly head.  I could see the times that I was making the effort to either hold my hands still, or even do some other things to add to the story telling process, but there was WAY too much arm waiving going on.  I will even admit that it was distracting from the message that I was trying to portray.

So, long story short.  “Watch the hand waiving kiddo!”

In barbershop singing, the ebb and flow that must take place in the phrase that you are singing must happen with your own vocal energy.  Not by pushing and pulling with your arms to try and “make” it happen.

I’m trying not to be too hard on myself since this quartet has only had five rehearsals together so far, but I don’t like to make excuses.  So, I guess I’ll be spending more time with my hands in my pockets until can work my hands in a more relaxed manner.

You should try it sometime.  If you do, come back and tell me what you think.

Note to self….never teach new choreography on a night when you know that next week’s schedule does not allow time for a review.  It’s a waste of time….two weeks later, no one remembers.

Most choruses spend 20-30 minutes at the beginning of every rehearsal doing vocal warm-ups, but there aren’t very many that make the most of the warm up time in a visual/physical way.  There are several ways to accomplish this concept, and hopefully one or all of them will be something that your chorus will find effective.

Simple Emotions –
This is the easiest way to incorporate visuals with warm-ups.  Select a warm-up that you like to do.  Say it is “ma-may-me-mo-moo” in chords. Then have the chorus sing that same line while conveying different emotions.  I.e. Angry, sad, happy, exited, etc. Typically you can hear the changes in energy and emotion as you change each concept.  Be alert that some darker emotions like angry or especially sad, will actually pull on the pitch itself.  Now is a good time to address that issue.  Sad (or slow) does not equal flat.

Eight Count Exercises –
Most of us have seen how cheerleaders always have a little dance routine no matter what song is being played.  You think “do they really know a whole dance to every song that is going to be played at the game?”  No.  They accomplish this by creating several short routines based on an eight count beat.  Once that know those, then they can use those “routines” with almost any song that could be played that has a 4 count meter to it.   Take the time to create a routine with several 8-counts worth of steps.  Once you’ve done that and have the steps taught, then you try to “dance” those steps with any typical chorus or regional song.  The same eight count steps can, for instance, be danced to “Darkness on the Delta” that can be danced to “Runnin Wild”.  **NOTE** start after the introduction, those are usually done so ad lib that this doesn’t work**   Then once you are dancing to one song, try to move to another.  This concept gives you the ability to get the legs and arms moving without complex choreography being involved and keeps you from warming up just planted on the risers.

Just Dance! –
Before or after embarking in your vocal warm-ups, (I prefer before just to get the hearts pumping) put on some fun music in a CD Player and have everyone move around.  The front row can step away from the risers to allow for riser members to step down to the floor if they would like.  Everyone needs to engage their whole body.  The idea is to get them moving individually and not doing “choreography”, but some members need a little guidance, so it is OK for the warm-up leader to continue to lead with easy, fun moves that others can emulate if they are more comfortable that way.  You can use any fun dance song whether it is disco, 50’s rock-n-roll, or country western.  You pick the beat that you think your chorus will respond to the best.

Hopefully one or all of these techniques will help you get started with a physical warm-up plan.  This is one time can say “just dance”, and it will get your rehearsal started with a fun, upbeat energy.

Good Luck!