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BHCC Member Induction Program
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Introduction
Our induction program aims to help new starters become full members of the chorus of the Barbershop Harmony Club of Canberra, the Canberra Chordsmen. This document explains the level of commitment in time, money and effort required to become and remain a full member of the Chorus.
Do
I need to be able to read
music?
Being able to read music is a great help but it is not essential. Learning CDs and tapes are provided with the sheet music. Members are expected use these to learn their parts at home, with weekly group practice being devoted mainly to sectional singing (all members of a particular part singing together) and chorus singing (all parts singing together).
Do
I need to have a great voice or to have singing
experience?
Of course, a great voice is an asset, but most of our members have ordinary singing voices and just enjoy singing. When you gather ordinary voices into a chorus or quartet, the whole becomes greater that the sum of the parts. No singing experience is necessary. We will teach you how to sing.
Is
barbershop
singing expensive?
There is no charge until you pass a vocal audition and are offered membership. Quarterly subscriptions then become payable and are currently $50 which includes membership of the Australian Association of the Men Barbershop Singers (AAMBS). Student rates are half that of ordinary members. When you become a member of the club, you will need to spend about $50 on chorus shirts. You will also need a pair of black trousers and black shoes. So, it means about $50 one-off and $200 annually.
Vocal
range assessment
The first step is for our music team to assess your voice and determine which of the four parts that make up our style of singing will best suit you. The assessment takes only a few minutes while you sing some notes for us to assess your vocal range.
A low resonant voice would usually indicate the BASS part for you.
A mid to high range would suggest the LEAD or melody part
If you read music or have a natural ear for it you may be assessed as a BARITONE or TENOR
From there, you are introduced to a “buddy”. The “buddy” will sing the same part and is essentially the person who will help you become a member of the Chorus.
Vocal
audition
Once you have been assigned to a voice part, you will need to demonstrate that you are able to learn and sing songs in the barbershop style. This is known as the Vocal Audition and is essentially an “entrance test” for club membership. To prepare for the Vocal Audition you will be given some standard Barbershop songs to learn from Polecat Song Book with appropriate teach tapes or CDs.
After 4-6 weeks you will be expected to have learned at least 2 songs in your voice part and be able to sing them without reference to the sheet music. The Vocal Audition is done with you recording into a hand held tape recorder while the Chorus is singing normally. A member of the music team will assess the tape to determine if you will be suitable for Chorus membership.
There are three possible outcomes from the audition.
1. You have passed.
2. You did not pass and need to work on specific areas before a further audition.
3. It is unlikely that you can perform to the minimum level we require.
You will be given a private written assessment on the outcome of this audition, endorsed by the Musical Director.
Admission
to the
club
When you have passed the Vocal Audition, you will be offered membership of the club. If you choose to join, you will be liable for the membership subscription due at that point. This is determined on a pro-rata of the quarterly dues. When it is paid, you will be placed on the club and AAMBS membership registers.
Admission
to the
chorus
Club membership entitles you to rehearse with the chorus. When you acquire the club uniform and are competent in enough of the chorus’ repertoire, you will be entitled to perform with the chorus.
Rehearsal
nights
Our
rehearsal
nights are Thursdays at the Woden Senior Citizens Club, corner of
Melrose Drive and Corinna tStreet, Woden.
Warming up
Rehearsals start with a short period of exercises to focus the singer’s mental readiness and to physically prepare him for the musical task ahead. These exercises are usually varied each week and cover many aspects of good vocal production, such as posture, breath management, vowel matching, pitch accuracy, etc.
Club
uniform
When you are accepted as a Chorus member you will need to purchase some uniform. We have two styles of uniform, one is casual and the other is “finery”. Casual uniform is used for out-door occasions such as fetes, school fund-raisers etc. The finery uniform is reserved for formal events such as local public appearances, National Conventions and Eisteddfod etc.
Casual uniform
1. Black trousers
2. Black shoes & socks
3. Black belt
4. Grey Polo shirt with embroidered BHCC logo
Finery uniform
1–3 are the same as for casual uniform.
4.
5. Patterned waistcoat & gold bow tie both provided by the BHCC
For details of where to purchase these items, please approach any of the chorus members.
Voice
parts
Tenor : The highest voice part, and usually ranges from B below middle C up to C above middle C. A classic tenor does not always qualify as a barbershop tenor unless the heavy tenor quality can be kept under control. Most notes are sung with a falsetto voice. This adds brightness to the musical performance.
Lead : Usually sings the melody line and requires a voice range between C below middle C and G above. The ability to sing falsetto in the upper range is also necessary.
Baritone: Although the range is similar to that of the lead, this part sometimes sings above the lead, matching that voice, and at other times below, supporting the bass. This is a challenging part and some musical knowledge is an advantage.
Bass: The lowest voice part with a range of two Fs below middle C to middle C. Sings below the Baritone and requires a deep resonant voice. Regarded as the “engine room” of the voice parts.
Evaluation
process
All members of the chorus need to be competent in the current repertoire. To sing at public performances, each member must be evaluated and “passed” for each song.
The evaluation process is very similar to the vocal audition in that you sing into a hand held tape recorder whilst the Chorus sings around you. No referral to the sheet music is allowed so that all notes and words must be memorized.
A member of the music team evaluates the tapes before the next week’s rehearsal and posts the results on the Evaluation Record Sheet. The evaluation Record lists the current repertoire, showing each song that a member has been evaluated for and whether he has passed. A short critique is made available for all those being assessed so that trouble spots can be corrected. A green cell indicates a pass and a yellow means that you need to re-evaluate this song. The number of green cells is indicative of the amount of effort a member has made to learn his part.
Sheet
music
Sheet music, teach tapes and CDs are held by the BHCC Librarian. Copies are issued for learning purposes and you should keep an indexed pack of sheet music that can be quickly accessed on rehearsal nights. Remember, all music remains the property of the club. Notations on the score must be made in pencil and the music must be returned to the Librarian if you leave. Do not photocopy sheet music – that is illegal.
Visitor
packs
Visitor Packs are available for anyone who visits from Barbershop Choruses interstate or from abroad or for anyone who just wants to see and hear what we do. The idea is that the pack contains the current repertoire for them to follow on the night. These packs are handed back to the Librarian on completion of the visit.
Quartets
The club encourages quartet singing because it reinforces the need to be competent in your part and singing well enough to develop an ear for tuning, balance and matching. Quartets may be “official”, in that they are recognised by the club and registered with AAMBS or they may be informal. In either case, they are not permitted to perform in public without the approval of the Musical Director. The music team is available to help in the coaching of quartets. By the way, if a quartet is singing, it is considered bad manners to interrupt or add your own voice unless requested to do so. This is called “fifth wheeling”.
For
the technically minded
Barbershop
arrangements are sung as series of chords and it is rare for a solo to
last for
more than one measure. Barbershop
chords
are constructed by stacking thirds.
A
third is the musical interval between DOH and ME in the familiar
DOH/RAY/ME/FAH
etc scale. The
intervals
The most important chord, however is the 1-3-5-flatted7 or Dominant 7th which characterizes the Barbershop sound. When you hear this chord, you expect a major chord to follow it to resolve the sequence, though occasionally a minor chord will do the job nicely. The Dominant 7th, often referred to as the Barbershop 7th is used quite liberally in good arrangements. A third of the chords in songs for barbershop competition must be Barbershop 7ths.
Tuning
up
Barbershop is always sung unaccompanied or “a capella”. We almost always sing a tune-up chord before the start of each song. This tune-up chord is usually the major chord in the key in which the music is written. First, the pitch is blown on a pitch pipe to give the DOH (root) of the scale. Everyone sings the same note (usually an Ooh sound). The Lead Section stays on that note while the other parts then “split”: the Bass section sings the same note but down an octave, the Baritone sings the 5th interval of the scale above the Bass, and the Tenor sings the 3rd above the Lead. This produces the major chord structure of “root-third-fifth”, with Leads and Basses doubling on the root.
Notes sung by each part in the tune-up are not necessarily that part’s first note of the song. The reason we tune is to give a sense of pitch, and establish the “tonal centre”, the major chord being the easiest to tune to whereas the first chord in the song is often difficult to sing in isolation.
Conclusion
The smiling faces you will see around you at practice and, often, in performance, are evidence that singing great harmonies well is a thoroughly pleasurable experience. We welcome you to share that pleasure and, more often than not, give it to those for whom we perform.
Acknowledgments
Banana Blenders Website
SPEBSQSA Publications
Former Induction Program
Sydney Harmony – Basics Of Barbershop booklet
Produced by Chris Drury
President BHCC 2005
March 2005