The barbershop style originated as an informal, recreational form of singing. Guys hanging around at a tavern, at the park, or even - you guessed it - at the barbershop would harmonize to popular songs of the day. Just as it might be natural today for kids taking a song off the radio to start beat-boxing, back then the music fell quite naturally into four-part harmonies. And so, the Barbershop Quartet was born! You can find many free samples of the music here
There's still a lot of harmony going around. You can find some good links here, as well as some general information about singing four part barbershop-style harmony.
I currently sing lead with the Bright Knights, a quartet that formed almost accidentally, for the purpose of singing two songs at a barbershop fan's wedding. In the following years, we've entertained crowds at civic clubs, Musics in the Park, and various other events. If you are interested in booking us for your event, please contact us here.
I used to sing with a quartet called Registered Harmony. That's us there, after winning the 10,000 Lakes
Division Novice Championship. That sounds very impressive. Rather than destroy your illusions of
our grandeur, I will simply point out how handsome we all look. Though we loved singing together,
changing work schedules made it impossible to continue. on a regular basis.
Here we are with Governor Jim Doyle of Wisconsin. We sang at the Governor's fishing opener on
May 3rd of this year.
It was a pleasure and an honor (although some of the speeches got predictably mundane).
Some people make wisecracks about barbershop music, but I've had more people tell me
how much they like these performances than any other gig I have. Of course maybe that
reflects on my other music. Anyway, the Governor seemed to enjoy it.
We began singing together in 2004, though all of us have been singing barbershop longer than that. When we decided to register as an official Barbershop Harmony Society quartet, and found that all the names we had come up with were already taken. So we registered our harmony as 'Registered Harmony.' We are all members of the Indianhead Barbershop Chorus.
For the third time in 5 years, we won the most improved chorus award at the division contest up in Nicollet, MN. We like to think it's not a reflection on having a long way to go, but a reflection on the good time and hard work that go into our singing.
On October 9th, 2010, we put on our 53th annual show. Lots of new guys joined us, as well as a few who'd been gone for a long time. Come find out more! For information email me or go to the chorus link below.
The Indianhead Chorus is a chapter of the Barbershop Harmony Society, with members from the 'Indianhead' region of northwestern Wisconsin, mainly Polk and Burnett Counties. (One member is from Barron Co, a couple from St. Croix Co., and there's even few guys from across the river in Minnesota.)
Back in the mid fifties, a handful of men got together to sing some old-time harmonies. They liked it so well, they recruited some others, and fifty years later we're going strong. Of course that was before my time, but a few of the charter members are still around, and singing out strong.
We've got about forty members now, and we're all there because we love it. I've done a lot of choral singing, and I've never had so much fun. Sure, it's not the Mormon Tabernacle Choir - they should be so lucky. (Although barbershoppers have shared their stage.)
Here we are singing in the 'triangle' park
in Luck, Wisconsin, in honor of the 100th anniversary of the town's
incorporation. The chorus sings for a variety of functions around Polk & Burnett
Counties.
We perform for county fairs, community arts programs, church services, and sundry
other events.
Each October, we put on our annual Harvest of Harmony .
The show goes up at the Unity High School outside of Balsam Lake, WI. The 2008 fall
show was a sell-out!
Don't miss the 2009 show, set for the second Saturday of October.
The Barbershop Harmony Society organizes a
series of competitions each year. The Chorus generally competes at the Division level, and
does all right there. In 2005, however, the judges advanced us to the District contest in La Crosse, WI.
This was quite an honor, as we'd not made it that far in over 25 years. We didn't do as well at
District as we would have liked, but we didn't come away discouraged.
One of my favorite things about the chorus is that we work hard, and have a great time doing it. If you find yourself of a similar
mind, come join us!"
Here's what the Society has to say about itself.
Founded in 1938 in Tulsa, Okla., the Barbershop Harmony Society is the largest all-male singing organization in the world. There are eight official foreign affiliates of the Society, but barbershop harmony is sung in more than 40 countries including Japan, Russia and China.
The Barbershop Harmony Society (BHS) works toward promoting choral music in general, and this style in particular. The Society sponsors youth camps around the nation, where kids get great vocal coaching, along with exposure to the barbershop style. BHS members have the opportunity to attend schools and weekend workshops develop their music (and leadership) skills. Every year, choruses and quartets participate in BHS competitions, on the local, regional and international levels. They publish a large catalogue of sheet music.
For more information, and to find out about barbershoppers near you, check out the Barberhshop Harmony Society or the two leading women's barbershop organizations, the Sweet Adelines and Hamony Inc. It's addictive. In a good way.
"Hey, Kaptain Karl," you ask, "you're a hip and happening kind of guy, right? Why would you want to put on the straw hat and the striped vest and sing your Grandpa's songs?" This question alone shows that a) you are woefully uninformed; and b) you don't know me as well as you think.
First off, barbershop singing has come a long way from the days of the straw hat and vest. In fact, that was never much more than a caricature. Singing barberhsop well takes a good ear and confident voice, and at the same time will help a singer develop a good ear and a confident voice. Second, I've been singing barbershop since before I could tell you which end of a guitar was up.
So, why Barbershop? The short answer is: I like it. The long answer follows.
I like harmony. It satisfies something deep in me when voices come together and blend into full-bodied, strong, inescapable harmonies that slip into your head and seem to make you larger inside than out. For me this comes only with the signature sound of barbershop harmony. You can keep your suspended 6ths and your major sevenths. Give me a just-intoned Dominant seventh, and keep the rest.
That's a lot of jargon, but it's a large part of what sets the Barbershp style apart. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, popular music was built on a more complex harmonic structure that is usual today. The upshot is that by their nature, those songs lend them well to certain vocal harmonies. For instance, it is one of the few styles where a harmony consistantly appears above the melody.
The hallmark of the Barbershop style is the 'expanded sound.' It's also been called the 'ring,' or the 'buzz.' Whatever you call it, when the four parts sing together in a certain way, the voices interact to produce 'overtones' - a sort of phantom note hovering above the rest. Watching someone unfamiliar with barbershop hear this for the first time is a treat. Their eyes widen, they cock their head to listen, they grin.
You'll find a lot of vocal harmony on my Kaptain Karl recordings. Listen to the end of "Stu?" for example. Or "Dry Heat." On Great Uncle Helmer's Old Man Will Travel, you can hear it on "Inkwell," or "Hold Me Only in the Dark," or "Behind the Curtain." It's hard to even tell which vocal has the melody and which the harmony, or are they both?"
I began singing barbershop at the tender age of 12. Perhaps that is what makes those ringing chords open up a little door in my soul and lets me taste the mystery of some other place.
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