About Barbershop

The Barbershop style

Barbershop harmony is a style of unaccompanied vocal music characterized by consonant four-part chords for every melody note in a predominantly homophonic texture. The melody is consistently sung by the lead, with the tenor harmonizing above the melody, the bass singing the lowest harmonizing notes, and the baritone completing the chord. The melody is not sung by the tenor except for an infrequent note or two to avoid awkward voice leading, in tags or codas, or when some appropriate embellishing effect can be created. Occasional brief passages may be sung by fewer than four voice parts.

Barbershop music features songs with understandable lyrics and easily singable melodies, whose tones clearly define a tonal center and imply major and minor chords and barbershop (dominant and secondary dominant) seventh chords that resolve primarily around the circle of fifths, while making frequent use of other resolutions. Barbershop music also features a balanced and symmetrical form, and a standard meter. The basic song and its harmonization are embellished by the arranger to provide appropriate support of the song's theme and to close the song effectively.

Barbershop singers adjust pitches to achieve perfectly tuned chords in just intonation while remaining true to the established tonal center. Artistic singing in the barbershop style exhibits a fullness or expansion of sound, precise intonation, a high degree of vocal skill, and a high level of unity and consistency within the ensemble. Ideally, these elements are natural, unmanufactured, and free from apparent effort.

The presentation of barbershop music uses appropriate musical and visual methods to convey the theme of the song and provide the audience with an emotionally satisfying and entertaining experience. The musical and visual delivery is from the heart, believable, and sensitive to the song and its arrangement throughout. The most stylistic presentation artistically melds together the musical and visual aspects to create and sustain the illusions suggested by the music.

To give you a brief idea of how barbershop competitions are judged, the following is condensed from 80 page contest judging handbook.

We have three Judging categories:

1. Singing
2. Music
3. Presentation

These are all judged separately by three or more Judges. There is an area where all three categories overlap, this is called the 'common ground' and is best described by the diagram below.

Each category is of equal importance and is awarded a 100-point band per judge per song. In a tie situation only first place is split, this is split by the chorus/quartet with the highest number of points in singing, if points are still the same then refer to the music category, then presentation.

Common Ground

Where there is the overlap in categories it allows a trained judge to talk about other areas of the performance that bothered him/her for example: If a singing judge considers that an 'over the top' presentation has affected the quality, of singing, he/she may award a lower score dependant on how much it affected him/her. This then allows the presentation judge to take the lead when the performer goes through their evaluation.

The Common Ground consists of:

1. In Barbershop style?
2. Ringing, in tune sound?
3. In good quality?
4. Suitable to the performer?
5. From the heart?

A judge's score sheet will look similar to this for each category:

Singing

E		D		C-	C	B-	B	A-	A
1	10	20	30	40	50	60	70	80	90
Not in tune		Rarely in Tune		Sometimes in tune		Frequently in tune		Consistently in tune
Offensive vocal quality		Improper vocal quality		Satisfactory vocal quality		Pleasing vocal quality		Excellent vocal quality
Not a unit		Rarely a unit		Sometimes a unit		Frequently a unit		Consistent a unit
Insignificant expansion		Rare expansion		Some expansion		Frequent expansion		Consistent expansion
No artistry		Rare artistry		Some artistry		Frequent artistry		Consistent artistry

Other things the Singing category is looking/judging for:

1. In tune? - melodic #/b, harmonic #/b
2. Vocal quality? - support, free, resonant, vibrato / tremolo, bright / strident / nasal / raucous swallowed throaty, oversung.
3. Unity? - single voices, timbre match, word sound match, balance, attack and release, synchronisation, flow, pronunciation, enunciation.
4. Expansion? - degree of, quality of, R,3,5,7
5. Artistry? - musical, technical, tone colour use.

Presentation

E		D		C-	C	B-	B	A-	A
1	10	20	30	40	50	60	70	80	90
Not believable		Rarely believable		Sometimes believable		Frequently believable		Consistently believable
No vocal expression		Rare vocal expression		Some vocal expression		Frequent vocal expression		Vocal artistry
No visual expression		Rare visual expression		Some visual expression		Frequent visual expression		Visual artistry
Not a unit		Rarely a unit		Sometimes a unit		Frequently a unit		Consistent a unit
Never in command		Rarely in command		Somewhat in command		Strongly in command		Totally in command

Other things the Presentation category is looking/judging for:

1. Appearance - attire, focus/energy, facial/body
2. Dynamics - volume, fullness, inflection, colour, vitality
3. Motion - flow, tempo, rhythm, pace, timing, gestures
4. Comedy (if applic.) - humorous concept, believable characters, character development, action/reaction/timing, punch line(s)

Music

E		D		C-	C	B-	B	A-	A
1	10	20	30	40	50	60	70	80	90
Not consonant		Rarely consonant		Sometimes consonant		Primarily consonant		Consistently consonant
Indiscernible theme		Ambiguous theme		Inconsistent theme		Effective theme		Continuous theme
Inadequate embellishment		Weak embellishment		Adequate embellishment		Tasteful embellishment		Artistic embellishment
Meaningless delivery		Awkward delivery		Mechanical delivery		Sensitive delivery		Artistic delivery
Unskilful execution		Poor execution		Ordinary execution		Good execution		Excellent execution

Other things the Music category is looking/judging for:

1. Melody - stylistic, distinguishable, tonal centre, alteration(s)
2. Lyrics - stylistic, quality, phrasing
3. Harmony - stylistic, barbershop sevenths, major/minor triads, voicing, progressions
4. Range and Tessitura - stylistic, good quality, balance
5. Tempo, Rhythm, Meter - stylistic, forward motion, rubato/ad-lib
6. Construction and Form - stylistic, overall concept/contour, unity and contrast, added material
7. Embellishments - stylistic, appropriateness, degree

The judges marks will be a direct reflection of your performance, if you reflect a 100 point performance they will reward 100 points. You must, however, earn those points.